Institutional-Repository, University of Moratuwa
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Recent Submissions
item: Conference-Full-text
IoT-based real-time monitoring systems to enhance workers' safety in high-rise construction projects in Sri Lanka
(Department of Building Economics, 2025) Jayasundara, SS; Eranga, BAI; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Jayasena, HS; Wimalaratne, PLI; Tennakoon, GA
High-rise construction projects are high-risk ventures and key drivers of economic growth, yet they face severe safety challenges in rapidly urbanizing regions. Despite advancements in IoT-based monitoring systems enabling real-time hazard detection and proactive safety measures, their adoption in developing countries remains limited due to economic, technical, and socio-cultural barriers. This study investigates how IoT technologies can enhance worker safety in Sri Lankan high-rise construction through a qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews with 17 industry experts (safety officers, project managers, and IoT engineers). Findings reveal pervasive hazards, including falls, scaffold collapses, and electrical risks, which are exacerbated by gaps between formal safety protocols and their on-the-ground implementation. IoT solutions, including wearable sensors, building information modelling (BIM) integration, and drones, show transformative potential, with estimates suggesting a 30% reduction in accidents upon global adoption. However, worker resistance, high costs, and inadequate policy frameworks hinder Sri Lanka's adoption. Experts rated the nation’s IoT readiness at a low 2–3 out of 10, indicating considerable scope for advancement. Key challenges identified include public concerns over surveillance, poor durability of devices in harsh monsoon conditions and language barriers. The study advocates for multi-stakeholder collaboration, policy incentives, and phased IoT integration to bridge the gap between international best practices and local realities. By addressing these barriers, IoT can shift Sri Lanka’s construction safety paradigm from a reactive approach (post-accident responses) to a proactive one (preventive risk mitigation).
item: Conference-Full-text
IoT implementation for energy management within residential buildings in Sri Lanka: drivers and barriers
(Department of Building Economics, 2025) Piraveena,T; Sivanraj, S; Dharmadasa, KHK; Kulatunga, U; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Jayasena, HS; Wimalaratne, PLI; Tennakoon, GA
Effective energy management is essential to address the growing energy demand and sustainability challenges in Sri Lanka. The Internet of Things (IoT) offers promising solutions by enabling real-time monitoring, automation, and data-driven decision-making to enhance energy efficiency. While IoT adoption has advanced in many developed countries, its application within Sri Lanka’s residential building sector remains limited. Existing literature lacks a focused examination of the contextual drivers and barriers influencing IoT adoption in this domain. This study aims to bridge this gap by identifying and analysing the key factors affecting IoT implementation for energy management in Sri Lankan households. Adopting a qualitative research approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen industry experts, each possessing over ten years of experience in construction and at least five years in energy management with IoT knowledge. The findings highlight eleven key drivers, including cost efficiency, ease of control, and government support, and ten significant barriers, such as high initial costs, data privacy concerns, and low-quality devices. The study contributes to the academic literature by offering an understanding of IoT adoption in residential building for energy management. Future research should focus on addressing specific technical integration challenges, exploring infrastructure limitations and the integration of renewable energy sources.
item: Conference-Full-text
Lean integrated business model for construction: a systematic review on current practices and future directions
(Department of Building Economics, 2025) Lawanga, PWAH; Sandanayake, YG; Ranadewa, KATO; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Jayasena, HS; Wimalaratne, PLI; Tennakoon, GA
The construction industry plays a critical role in economic and social development but continues to face challenges such as inefficiencies, cost and time overruns, and client dissatisfaction. Lean Construction has emerged as a promising philosophy aimed at minimising waste and maximising value in construction processes. However, widespread adoption remains hindered by barriers such as resistance to change and resource limitations. Integrating Lean Construction principles into Business Models (BM)s referred to as Construction Business Models (CBMs) presents a strategic opportunity to enhance productivity and optimise value creation. Hence there is research gap in construction industry this paper aims to analys the literature on Lean Construction, BMs, and their integration within the construction industry to bridge this research gap. To address this, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted, examining publications from databases such as Scopus and Taylor & Francis. Using targeted search terms, 75 documents were initially retrieved, and after filtering, 61 publications were selected for comprehensive analysis. This study explores the integration of Lean Construction within BMs to optimise value in construction projects, offering insights into strategic frameworks that can overcome current inefficiencies. By examining Lean Business Models (LBMs) and their application in construction, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how lean principles can drive sustainable business innovation and operational efficiency within the industry.
item: Conference-Full-text
Lean integrated circular economy in the Sri Lankan construction industry: a qualitative Delphi study
(Department of Building Economics, 2025) Vijayakumar, H; Ranadewa, KATO; Weerakoon, P; Parameswaran, A; Jayanetti JKDDT; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Jayasena, HS; Wimalaratne, PLI; Tennakoon, GA
The construction industry is known for its significant environmental impact and waste generation. To address this issue, the concept of Circular Economy (CE) has emerged, aiming to minimise waste and maximise resource utilisation. However, there are several barriers which impede the implementation of the CE concept in the construction industry. Therefore, this research aims to incorporate the lean concept to overcome the barriers of CE implementation in the construction industry. Therefore, this research develops a framework for a lean-enabled CE in the construction industry. The qualitative approach is used for this paper, and the Delphi technique was adopted. Purposive sampling was used to select the experts for the study, and data were analysed through manual content analysis. The findings revealed 10 benefits from CE and 12 benefits from Lean were identified, along with 8 benefits of CE and Lean integration. Furthermore, 19 barriers were identified towards this integration, and 12 strategies were identified to overcome these barriers. This study also provides a comprehensive mapping between CE and Lean implementation benefits, their integration benefits and barriers, and strategies. In addition, integrating lean and CE for the construction industry can lead to many significant benefits, such as cost savings, improved environmental performance, and enhanced stakeholder engagement.
item: Conference-Full-text
Lean thinking for green building: barriers for lean integrated sustainable construction
(Department of Building Economics, 2025) Madhushani, SJL; Ranadewa, KATO; Seneviratne, LDIP; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Jayasena, HS; Wimalaratne, PLI; Tennakoon, GA
Green building has become a central focus in modern construction discourse, representing a practical and measurable approach to achieving sustainable construction in response to the thriving need for the construction industry to adopt sustainable construction practices, particularly in response to the persistent challenges that characterise the sector, such as excessive material waste, high energy consumption, environmental degradation, inefficient resource utilisation, and the generation of significant carbon emissions. Despite the well-known benefits of sustainable construction, most countries are still widely familiar with the traditional construction, due to the bottlenecks that hindered the widespread adoption of sustainable construction. Subsequently, lean thinking has been identified as a foremost solution for the effective implementation of sustainable construction, owing to the close conceptual alignment between the two approaches, as well as the extensive benefits offered by lean principles in reducing waste, enhancing efficiency, and promoting value-driven processes. However, the implementation of lean integrated sustainable construction is obstructed by numerous barriers. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the barriers to lean integrated sustainable construction. The study employed a quantitative research approach using a questionnaire survey, through which a total of 120 responses were gathered via snowball sampling. Findings revealed a total of 32 highly significant barriers to lean integrated sustainable construction, from a total of 94 barriers identified through the literature review and data collection. Out of these, the most significant barriers include employees' resistance to lean, resistance to change, lack of incentives and motivation, shortage of manpower, and an unfriendly organisational culture, which collectively highlight a deep-rooted human-centricity in lean thinking. The study provides empirical insights for practitioners, including the identification of relevant barriers and the highlighting of their significance, enabling enhanced practices and informed decision-making, thereby contributing to address a gap in the literature.