Boakye Danquah, C; Acheampong, A and Adjei-Kumi, T (2022) Level of awareness of formwork design in the Ghanaian construction industry; enabling future technology application. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 20(4), pp. 1015-1039. ISSN 1726-0531
Abstract
Purpose: In the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI), the option for stakeholders to adopt formwork design as a building construction requirement is uncommon place. This is due to the low level of awareness and practice of formwork design. As a result of this, there have been formwork accidents, cost and time overruns in construction. This paper aims to solicit the view of stakeholders on the awareness of formwork design practices in the GCI. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopted the interpretivism research philosophy and inductive reasoning. Through a semi-structured interview guide, data was collected. The data (interview) recorded was transcribed using the Amberscript web application. This study used thematic analysis in analyzing the data collected using Nvivo 10 software. Findings: The data collected from the 22 professionals indicated that the respondents were unaware of the concept of formwork design and its practice, neither could they speak to the existence of any specific regulation nor code of practice. However, the respondents established that there was a need to design formwork and stated some benefits of it. Originality/value: From the literature, little research has been done on formwork design and its context in the GCI is yet to be explored. This research attempts to fill this gap. The findings indicate that to practice formwork design, there must be education and training of human resources for formwork design, there must be a code of practice to guide the design process and legal backing through policies and regulations to mandate the design.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | architecture; construction innovation; design innovation; engineering; formwork; Ghanaian construction industry |
| Index terms: | construction innovation, regulation, thematic analysis, human resource, methodology, philosophy, building construction, interpretivism, design process, mandate, interview, reasoning, education and training, option, construction industry, formwork, time overrun, low level, design practice |
| Subjects: | design methods, data collection methods, design process, methods and analysis, research methods, theoretical framing, management, political science, philosophical studies, industry analysis, decision analysis, measurement and scaling, building construction, professional education, cognitive psychology, project controls |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Construction Technology, Governance, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Time Control, Education, Design Practice, Human Resources |
| 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