Publications
111 results found
Whyte J, Nikolić D, 2024, Augmented and virtual reality and creativity in the built environment, Routledge Companion to Creativity and the Built Environment, Publisher: Routledge, Pages: 376-385
Whyte J, Comi A, Mosca L, 2023, Simultaneously here and there: situating online organizing in our embodied material practices, Organization Theory, Vol: 4, ISSN: 2631-7877
Online organizing is situated in offline practices. Recent theorizing has examined how online and offline practices co-evolve over time, but given limited attention to how they co-exist in time. Yet, without being ‘here’ in an embodied material practice, we cannot experience being ‘there’ online. Understanding the co-existence of online and offline practices is important as organizing becomes actively negotiated in the moments of being simultaneously here offline and there online. In this article, we pull the field of view back from the computer screen to theorize the simultaneity of online organizing with multiple offline practices in which participants are embodied and engage materially. We articulate how, in the case of the video conference, the shared experience of presence, proximity and participation in online organizing is constituted in relation to multiple – but mostly unshared – offline practices. We argue that this interconnection with multiple offline practices can blur boundaries, divert purposes and lead to glitches and breakdowns in online organizing. We make two contributions. First, we recast online organizing as embedded in multiple, mostly unshared, offline practices. Second, we develop understanding of the co-existence of online and offline in time, and its implications for interacting and organizing online. We conclude by suggesting new directions for research on organizing across simultaneously co-existing online and offline practices.
Zhou S, Mosca L, Whyte J, 2023, How the reliability of external competences shapes the modularization strategies of industrialized construction firms, Construction Management and Economics, Vol: 41, Pages: 608-619, ISSN: 0144-6193
Firms modularize as they move into industrialized construction. Prior research highlights the importance of their modularization strategies, arguing that firms can either build the competence for modularization internally or can source them externally. To understand what shapes a firm’s choice to use external competences in its modularization strategy, we studied three leading construction firms. In this multiple case study, Alpha, Beta and Gamma are leaders in Asian markets, using reinforced concrete solutions in high-rise industrialized construction. Where external competences are available, our analyses show the work firms do to make them reliable and that their choice to use external competences is shaped by their reliability. Alpha modularized in a context with little available external competences, so it built new competences in-house; Beta chose to use the externally available manufacturing and assembly competences, using standards, remote monitoring and control of product architectures to make them reliable for their use in modularization; Gamma had available competences in the external context and initially sought to use them, but reliability concerns led to it modularizing by acquiring the firms to bring these competences in-house. Our contribution is to show how ensuring the reliability of external competences shapes modularization strategies. Further, we have identified actions that firms can adopt to make external competences reliable through: (1) use of international standards, (2) quality control procedures, (3) control of product architectures, and 4) acquisition of external competences. We provide implications for practitioners and policy makers seeking to transition to industrialized construction; and discuss new areas for research.
Whyte J, Farghaly K, Zhou S, 2023, The digital revolution and complex project organizing: Towards Project Management 4.0?, Research Handbook on Complex Project Organizing, Pages: 383-392, ISBN: 9781800880276
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- Citations: 1
Whyte J, Naderpajouh N, Clegg S, et al., 2022, Project leadership: A research agenda for a changing world, Project Leadership and Society, Vol: 3
Project leadership increasingly occurs in the context of ecological risks, whether from a viral pandemic or an anthropogenically changing climate. It requires adaptability to change, especially as projects grow in complexity, becoming seen as interventions into wider systems. In this paper, we take a socialized perspective, synthesising recent work and proposing a new research agenda in three inter-related areas that need to be addressed by project leadership: 1) changing technologies, unpacking the values that technologies represent to achieve desirable outcomes; 2) organizational complexity, engaging multiple actors and addressing emerging complexity and uncertainty and 3), ecological concerns, addressing the demands for projects to intervene positively to create sustainable, resilient and just futures. Our contribution is to theorize what socialized leadership means for these crucial issues emerging in project studies and set out directions for further research on positive forms of project leadership in a changing world.
Whyte J, Mottee L, 2022, Projects as interventions, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT, Vol: 40, Pages: 934-940, ISSN: 0263-7863
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- Citations: 3
Chen L, Whyte J, 2022, Understanding design change propagation in complex engineering systems using a digital twin and design structure matrix, ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION AND ARCHITECTURAL MANAGEMENT, Vol: 29, Pages: 2950-2975, ISSN: 0969-9988
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- Citations: 7
Whyte J, Davies A, Sexton C, 2022, Systems integration in infrastructure projects: seven lessons from Crossrail, PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS-MANAGEMENT PROCUREMENT AND LAW, Vol: 175, Pages: 103-109, ISSN: 1751-4304
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- Citations: 1
Whyte J, Comi A, Mosca L, 2022, Making futures that matter: Future making, online working and organizing remotely, Organization Theory
Hall DM, Lessing J, Whyte J, 2022, New Business Models for Industrialized Construction, Structural Integrity, Pages: 297-314
The past few years have seen new entrants into the construction sector backed with unprecedented levels of funding from venture capital funds or other large investment firms. These entrants seek to leverage industry 4.0 principles for the digitalization and industrialization of construction. In addition to new technologies, these firms also bring new business models that depart from the project-based tendering system found in traditional construction. The first new business model is vertical integration. These firms are structured as integrated hierarchical firms, keeping control of product architecture and processes in-house. These firms control production by developing their own off-site factories. The second new business model is digital systems integration. These firms leverage an integrated cloud-based product configurator to enable mass customization. Using principles of capital-light industry 4.0 supply chains, digital system integrators can manufacture parts from periphery supply chain partners suppliers, including new sectors such as automotive, aerospace, manufacturing or industrial. The third new business model is the transformation of an existing project-based business toward industrialized construction through the creation of a spinoff factories. The chapter includes examples of the three business models and concludes with a discussion of how new business models may be catalysts for potential disruption of the established construction sector.
Jones K, Mosca L, Whyte J, et al., 2021, Addressing specialization and fragmentation: Product platform development in construction consultancy firms, Construction Management and Economics
Mijic A, Whyte J, Myers R, et al., 2021, Reply to a discussion of 'a research agenda on systems approaches to infrastructure' by david elms, Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems: decision making and problem solving, Vol: 38, Pages: 295-297, ISSN: 0263-0257
Whyte J, Davies A, 2021, Reframing systems integration: a process perspective on projects, Project Management Journal, Vol: 52, Pages: 237-249, ISSN: 8756-9728
The delivery of large-scale technical systems is achieved through project organizing. The concept of systems integration, with its distinct focus on the systems that projects deliver, is theoretically important as projects become more complex and face significant uncertainty. We reframe systems integration in interorganizational projects as a flexible and adaptive process of making constituent parts of systems work together. This process involves boundary-spanning structures and activities to address emergent complexity and uncertainty (that are both technological and organizational in nature). We discuss implications and highlight areas for further research on projects.
Mijic A, Whyte J, Fisk D, et al., 2021, The Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation – 2030 vision and 10-year celebration
The 2030 vision of the Centre is to bring Systems Engineering and Innovation to Civil Infrastructure by changing how cross-sector infrastructure challenges are addressedin an integrated way using principles of systems engineering to maximise resilience, safety and sustainability in an increasingly complex world.We want to better understand the environmental and societal impacts of infrastructure interventions under uncertainty. This requires a change in current approaches to infrastructure systems engineering: starting from the natural environmentand its resources, encompassing societaluse of infrastructure and the supporting infrastructure assets and services.We argue for modelling that brings natural as well as built environments within the system boundaries to better understand infrastructure and to better assess sustainability. We seethe work as relevant to both the academic community and to a wide range of industry and policy applications that are working on infrastructure transition pathways towards fair, safe and sustainable society.This vision was developed through discussions between academics in preparation for the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation (CSEI) 10 years celebration. These rich discussions about the future of the Centre were inspired by developing themes for a celebration event, through which we have summarised the first 10 years of the Centre’s work and our vision for the future and identified six emerging research areas.
Mosca L, Jones K, Whyte J, et al., 2021, Platform Development in Mature Project-Based Industries, 37th EGOS Colloquium 2021, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) (Virtual)
Zhou A, Mosca L, Whyte J, 2021, Project-Based Firms and platforms: Cases of Digitally-Enabled Product Platforms, 37th EGOS Colloquium 2021, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) (Virtual)
Jones K, Mosca L, Whyte J, et al., 2021, The Role of Industry – University Collaboration in Construction, Publisher: Transforming Construction Network Plus, Digest Series
Zhou A, Mosca L, Whyte J, 2021, Open platform and value appropriation: cases from digitally-enabled product platforms, 28TH IPDMC Innovation and Product Development Management Conference 2021
Ernstsen SN, Whyte J, Thuesen C, et al., 2021, How Innovation Champions Frame the Future: Three Visions for Digital Transformation of Construction, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol: 147, ISSN: 0733-9364
Digital technologies are expected to create transformational change in the construction sector. Previous studies have either anticipated the impact of individual technologies or outlined a number of nontechnology-focused future scenarios. There is comparatively little work on how innovation champions frame the future by combining a range of digital technologies and trends (such as big data, the internet of things, and automation) to transform construction. Drawing on an interview-based study with UK construction professionals, this paper presents three emergent visions for digital transformation of the sector. These visions are efficient construction, user-data-driven built environment, and value-driven computational design. Arising in practitioner narratives, these visions all emphasize different technologies and are partially influenced, intertwined, and interconnected with technology, business, and policy discourses in the sector. Furthermore, the visions represent different trajectories for implementing digital technologies in the construction sector. This paper contributes to work on construction foresight and innovation discourses by articulating the multiplicity of visions for digital transformation of construction. This has implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers responsible for the digital transformation of construction toward possible, profitable, and desirable futures.
Simpson K, Childs P, Whyte J, 2021, Sensitivity analysis of heating a typical UK dwelling and implications for retrofit design, International Hybrid Conference on Carbon Neutral Cities - Energy Efficiency and Renewables in the Digital Era (CISBAT), Publisher: IOP PUBLISHING LTD, Pages: 1-6, ISSN: 1742-6588
The aim of this research is to quantify the impact of heating set point on space heating energy demand for a typical UK dwelling. Retrofit includes fabric energy efficiency improvements. Energy performance certificates (EPCs) inform the householder of typical savings per measure, but this has previously been found to inaccurately estimate space heating energy demand, leading to errors in 'typical savings' presented to householders. The most sensitive inputs have been found to be temperature set point, followed by fabric efficiency. The BREDEM methodology assumes a temperature of 21°C for nine hours a day, rather than ~16°C and ~20°C found in research. The methods used to inform this study are local sensitivity analysis of the domestic energy model, based on a typical dwelling example with calibrated inputs. This is done using an open calibrated Python model, based on BREDEM. The impact of heating patterns on space heating energy demand are modelled pre retrofit; according to differing heating set points, following wall and loft fabric upgrade and full fabric upgrade. The BREDEM heating set point assumptions lead to space heating energy demand predicted ~50-100 kWh/m2/yr higher than real heating set points. Implications for retrofit design and EPCs are discussed.
Whyte J, Mijic A, Myers RJ, et al., 2020, A research agenda on systems approaches to infrastructure, Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems, Vol: 37, Pages: 214-233, ISSN: 1029-0249
At a time of system shocks, significant underlying challenges are revealed in current approaches to delivering infrastructure, including that infrastructure users in many societies feel distant from nature. We set out a research agenda on systems approaches to infrastructure, drawing on ten years of interdisciplinary work on operating infrastructure, infrastructure interventions and lifecycles. Research insights and directions on complexity, systems integration, data-driven systems engineering, infrastructure life-cycles, and the transition towards zero pollution are summarised. This work identifies a need to better understand the natural and societal impacts of infrastructure interventions under uncertainty. We argue for a change in current approaches to infrastructure: starting from the natural environment and its resources, encompassing societal use of infrastructure and the supporting infrastructure assets and services. To support such proposed new systems approaches to infrastructure, researchers need to develop novel modelling methods, forms of model integration, and multi-criteria indicators.
Soman R, Molina Solana M, Whyte J, 2020, Linked-Data based Constraint-Checking (LDCC) to support look-ahead planning in construction, Automation in Construction, Vol: 120, ISSN: 0926-5805
In the construction sector, complex constraints are not usually modeled in conventional scheduling and 4D building information modeling software, as they are highly dynamic and span multiple domains. The lack of embedded constraint relationships in such software means that, as Automated Data Collection (ADC) technologies become used, it cannot automatically deduce the effect of deviations to schedule. This paper presents a novel method, using semantic web technologies, to model and validate complex scheduling constraints. It presents a Linked-Data based Constraint-Checking (LDCC) approach, using the Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL). A prototype web application is developed using this approach and evaluated using an OpenBIM dataset. Results demonstrate the potential of LDCC to check for constraint violation in distributed construction data. This novel method (LDCC) and its first prototype is a contribution that can be extended in future research in linked-data, BIM based rule-checking, lean construction and ADC.
Simpson K, Whyte J, Childs P, 2020, Data-centric innovation in retrofit: A bibliometric review of dwelling retrofit across North Western Europe, Energy and Buildings, Vol: 229, Pages: 1-9, ISSN: 0378-7788
Data-centric innovation can inform the development of effective retrofit strategies through novel methods of collecting, analysing and sharing data. This bibliometric review uses a text-mining tool to identify research trends in dwelling retrofit research across North Western Europe. The review identifies a major focus on energy efficiency, with sub-themes on: 1) energy performance, 2) heat, power and control technologies, 3) indoor environment quality and 4) retrofit practice. In dwelling retrofit, there is now an established research tradition of using data-centric methods in monitoring and modelling energy performance to inform and learn from energy efficiency interventions. Building on the state-of-the-art, our analyses suggest opportunities for data-centric methods to consider the indoor environment quality and material impacts resulting from energy performance improvements. This information can then be openly communicated across the supply chain. Thus the paper discusses the retrofit themes and data-centric methods within North Western Europe, for an emerging trajectory of data-centric retrofit research and practice.
Shi F, K Soman R, Han J, et al., 2020, Addressing adjacency constraints in rectangular floor plans using Monte-Carlo Tree Search, Automation in Construction, Vol: 115, ISSN: 0926-5805
Manually laying out the floor plan for buildings with highly-dense adjacency constraints at the early design stage is a labour-intensive problem. In recent decades, computer-based conventional search algorithms and evolutionary methods have been successfully developed to automatically generate various types of floor plans. However, there is relatively limited work focusing on problems with highly-dense adjacency constraints common in large scale floor plans such as hospitals and schools. This paper proposes an algorithm to generate the early-stage design of floor plans with highly-dense adjacency and non-adjacency constraints using reinforcement learning based on off-policy Monte-Carlo Tree Search. The results show the advantages of the proposed algorithm for the targeted problem of highly-dense adjacency constrained floor plan generation, which is more time-efficient, more lightweight to implement, and having a larger capacity than other approaches such as Evolution strategy and traditional on-policy search.
Whyte J, Nussbaum T, 2020, Transition and temporalities: spanning temporal boundaries as projects end and operations begin, Project Management Journal, ISSN: 1938-9507
Hsu P-Y, Aurisicchio M, Angeloudis P, et al., 2020, Understanding and visualizing schedule deviations in construction projects using fault tree analysis, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol: 27, Pages: 2501-2522, ISSN: 0969-9988
Delays in construction projects are both disruptive and expensive. Thus, potential causes of schedule deviation need to be identified and mitigated. In previous research, delay factors were predominantly identified through surveys administered to stakeholders in construction projects. Such delay factors are typically considered individually and presented at the same level without explicitly examining their sequence of occurrence and inter-relationships. In reality, owing to the complex structure of construction projects and long execution time, non-conformance to schedule occurs by a chain of cascading events. An understanding of these linkages is important not only for minimising the delays but also for revealing the liability of stakeholders. To explicitly illustrate the cause–effect and logical relationship between delay factors and further identify the primary factors which possess the highest significance toward the overall project schedule delay, the fault tree analysis (FTA) method, a widely implemented approach to root cause problems in safety-critical systems, has been systematically and rigorously executed.
K Soman R, Whyte J, 2020, Codification challenges for data science in construction, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol: 146, Pages: 04020072-1-04020072-18, ISSN: 0733-9364
New forms of data science, including machine learning and data analytics, are enabled by machine-readable informationbut are not widely deployed in construction. Aqualitative study of information flow in three projects usingBuilding Information Modelling (BIM) in the late designand construction phaseis used to identify the challenges of codification whichlimit the application of data science.Despite substantial efforts to codify information with ‘Common Data Environment(CDE)’ platforms to structure and transfer digital information within and between teams, participants work across multiple media in both structured and unstructured ways. Challenges of codification identified in this paper relate to software usage (interoperability, translation, modelling, and file-based sharing), information sharing (unstructured information, document control, workarounds, process change,and multiple CDEs), and construction process information(loss of constraints and low level of detail). This paper contributes to the current understanding of data science in construction by articulating the codification challenges and their implications for data quality dimensions,such as accuracy, completeness, accessibility, consistency, timeliness, and provenance.It concludes with practical implications for developingand using machine-readable information and directions for research to extract insight from data and support future automation.
Mosca L, Jones K, Davies A, et al., 2020, Platform Thinking for Construction, Publisher: Transforming Construction Network Plus, Digest Series
Simpson C, Whyte J, Childs P, 2020, Residential retrofit: A review of themes, data-centric methods and future directions to accelerate net zero, CIBSE Technical Symposium
Chen L, Whyte J, 2020, Analysing Interdependencies of Complex Engineering Systems Using a Digital Twin-Driven Design Structure Matrix, Construction Research Congress (CRC) on Construction Research and Innovation to Transform Society, Publisher: AMER SOC CIVIL ENGINEERS, Pages: 417-426
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- Citations: 5
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