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The construction industry contributes a significant amount to a nation's Gross Domestic Product and National Income. The industry products are enormously important to other organisational sectors, and provide a considerable amount of employment to the nation's populace. However, the industry is significantly under-achieving in terms of clients' and stakeholders' satisfaction. In addition, the resources in the industry are currently under-utilised. It is affirmed that resources' wastes management in the industry is far behind that obtainable in other organisational sectors. Thus, there is a need for re-assessment of the way in which the industry generates its products towards utilising the scarce and costly resources efficiently. It is noteworthy that a project could be completed, within the estimated cost, time frame and quality expected, and even satisfying the clients' and stakeholders' implied needs, with lots of resource wastefulness during the construction production process. Despite the lean construction techniques being effective in reducing resources utilisation wastefulness; currently there are difficulties in achieving the approach objectives adequately. Thus, to maximise resources utilisation and avoiding inefficiency, it is paramount to critically evaluate, identify, and establish the several wastage occurrences, occurring either consciously or unconsciously during the project construction process. This research responded to the need for the construction industry to review the use of resources during production process, and to minimise the "gap" between the construction industry and the other sectors in efficient resources utilisation. To establish a valid and reliable best practice operational framework, towards utilising construction resources optimally, this research study was triangulated. Both structured and unstructured questionnaires and in-depth interview research surveys were exploited for its data collection. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 13, (SPSS 13), software was used to analyse the data obtained through the questionnaire research survey, while NVivo, (version 8) statistics software was explored to analyse the information collected through the in-depth interview research survey. This research was grouped into three main studies. The first study evaluated the issues associated with site managers' efficient performance, and causes of site managers' inefficiency in performances established were identified. In this respect, the factors that will enhance site managers to optimally utilise resources were established. Secondly, the scenarios of budgeting for resources' wastes were investigated, and factors that will reduce their effects on optimal resources utilisation were established. Lastly, the causes and modalities of averting resources wastefulness during the production process were investigated and ascertained. The success factor of these studies is the evaluation of the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions, (KAP), of construction participants on resources utilisation. Based on these three main research studies and their sub studies, an operational framework for optimal utilisation of construction resources during the production process was developed, validated and established. This research study was conducted within the UK construction Industry. The implementation of the research findings and inferences will not only enhance optimal resources utilisation in the UK construction industry. In respect that the UK construction industry is vast in innovations, research development and construction reengineering, the established framework is significant for global construction industry adoption. |
