Bajjou, M S and Chafi, A (2022) Exploring the critical waste factors affecting construction projects. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 29(6), pp. 2268-2299. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Purpose: Waste is typically encountered during the building's life cycle, from the design phase, through the construction phase, to modification and demolition. Most of these construction wastes are unnoticed or unattended by project managers, which lead to serious environmental problems. Effective waste reduction strategies will require a thorough and detailed understanding of the causes of construction waste. Hence, this paper aims to explore critical waste factors (CWFs) affecting the performance of construction projects. Design/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review was carried out to determine these factors based on previous studies, from which a questionnaire was developed. Series of statistical analyses such as reliability analysis, Spearman Correlation, Kruskal–Wallis and factor analysis were performed on a total of 330 valid responses to identify latent factors responsible for wastes occurrence. Findings: This study reveals 31 CWFs through evaluation of prior relevant studies carried out in several countries and then adjusted and validated through semistructured interviews. The significant differences in views within various groups of respondents with different organizational characteristics are highlighted. The results of factor analysis showed that there are six principal components extracted with 66.3% of variance explained (material-related factors; subcontractors and workers; planning, communication and coordination; people involvement and financial issues; people development strategies; and external factors). Originality/value: This study differs from other studies in the literature by gathering all relevant waste factors including those related to nonphysical waste such as time, budget, workers and equipment. Furthermore, this paper will be of great interest to both practitioners and researchers since it brings various recommendations concerning the prevention/reduction of waste through lean construction for more sustainable construction projects.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction waste; environmental performance; factor analysis; lean construction; sustainable construction; waste reduction |
| Index terms: | construction phase, prevention, construction waste, coordination, organizational characteristic, factor analysis, design phase, sustainable construction project, life cycle, waste reduction strategy, statistical analysis, environmental performance, variance, reliability analysis, project manager, waste reduction, subcontractor, construction project, methodology, questionnaire, practitioner, strategy, literature review, interview, lean construction, sustainable construction |
| Subjects: | financial risk, sustainable construction, production management, research methods, management, sustainability assessment, statistical analysis, measurement and scaling, sociology, building construction, value management, practitioner, reliability engineering, waste management, profession, data collection methods, project delivery, data analysis and analytics, professional practice, data science |
| Topics: | Site Management, Organizational Design, Design Practice, Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Project Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here