WCS - 2021Proceedings of The 9th World Construction Symposium 2021http://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/165112024-03-28T21:20:57Z2024-03-28T21:20:57ZComparison of skills between Sri Lankan and foreign construction labourManoharan, KDissanayake, PPathirana, CDeegahawature, DSilva, Rhttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/166322022-06-21T09:19:21Z2021-07-01T00:00:00ZComparison of skills between Sri Lankan and foreign construction labour
Manoharan, K; Dissanayake, P; Pathirana, C; Deegahawature, D; Silva, R
Construction significantly influences a country’s economy. The labour efforts are the lifeblood of construction operations. The construction industry has been facing many challenges due to skill shortages in many countries. This study aimed to compare the work-related skills of Sri Lankan labour against foreign labour forces. A qualitative study methodology was adopted through literature reviews and expert interviews to identify the labour skills which influence the productivity of construction operations. The interviews were conducted in two categories. The first category focused on identifying significant labour skills, the second category was conducted to compare the labour skills between Sri Lankan and foreign labour. Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Saudi Arabian, Malaysian and Korean labour forces were considered in the pair-wise comparison process. Statement categories and codes were developed to perform this qualitative comparison. The overall results show the need of developing cognitive and self-management skills of Sri Lankan labourers, where the transferable skills are not much important. The study pointed up the importance of developing technical skills of Sri Lankan labour in concreting, bar bending, plastering, tiling, welding, electrical work and equipment handling, to reach the levels of leading foreign labour forces. Labourers’ commitment, punctuality, participation, self-motivation and problem solving were the significant self-management skills in this regard. Kappa statistics resulted in the inter-rater reliability of these findings at a substantial level. The study outcomes can be helpful for the skills development authorities to take actions for filling the skills gap, and also for some foreign construction sectors in similar scenarios
2021-07-01T00:00:00ZComparison between the terms constructability and buildability : a systematic literature reviewWimalaratne, PLIKulathunga, UGajendran, Thttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/166312022-12-06T04:52:32Z2021-07-01T00:00:00ZComparison between the terms constructability and buildability : a systematic literature review
Wimalaratne, PLI; Kulathunga, U; Gajendran, T
Buildability deals with the optimal integration of construction expertise at various project stages to achieve the overall project goals. Incorporation of buildability improves the construction project performance in terms of its cost, quality, productivity, safety, and results early completion. Thus, having a sound understanding of buildability concept is paramount for finding solutions for transforming current practices towards successful project deliveries. The numerous past studies reviewing the concept of buildability in the past have highlighted the interchangeability of the terms “constructability” and “buildability”. However, in some studies, these two terms contradict rather than considered similar. Moreover, the application of the concept of buildability is widely discussed during the design phase while some studies recommend it to be applied in the construction phase. Thus, there is no clear consensus on the clarity of the key constructs of these terms or when to apply buildability. This paper aims to systematically review the application of the concepts “buildability” and “constructability” in the construction sector and compare the definitions to understand the key constructs and best phase of the construction project for its applicability. A structured literature review covering indexed publications from 2011-2021 was carried out to identify the existing literature. Following a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) technique, a total of 38 out of 162 research contributions have been considered for an in-depth analysis. The choice of interpretations, comments, statements, perspectives, and definitions used in 38 studies were examined. The study identified the key constructs of two terms and recommends applying buildability throughout the lifecycle of the project.
2021-07-01T00:00:00ZWaste heat generation and potential recovery systems used in Sri Lankan hotelsLakshan, NRamachandra, TMadushika, UGDhttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/166262022-06-21T08:42:46Z2021-07-01T00:00:00ZWaste heat generation and potential recovery systems used in Sri Lankan hotels
Lakshan, N; Ramachandra, T; Madushika, UGD
The waste heat recovery concept can be used as a solution to optimise energy consumption while reducing the waste heat in energy generation systems. However, its application in Sri Lankan hotels is still in the infancy stage even though the hotel sector accounts for high energy consumption. Therefore, this research aimed to assess the amount of waste heat generated from the different sources in hotel buildings and thereby identify the most appropriate waste heat recovery systems to the hotel buildings in Sri Lanka through a comparative case study analysis of three similar natured hotel buildings. The required data to perform waste heat calculation were extracted through document reviews and site visits. This study identified the three main waste heat generating sources in hotel buildings: HVAC condenser out, boiler exhaust, and kitchen exhaust. The analysis shows that the condenser out of the HVAC system is the highest waste heat generating source which accounts for an average of 41,823GJ per year while boiler exhaust and kitchen exhaust generate the waste heat of an average of 11,000GJ and 8GJ per year. It is further found that the quality of waste heat generated from the boiler exhaust is higher than the condenser out of the HVAC system and kitchen exhaust. Hence, this study concludes that the boiler has the highest potential of using the waste heat recovery system than the condenser out of the HVAC.
2021-07-01T00:00:00ZUse of augmented reality for efficient building maintenance in Sri LankaRajapaksha, MRNSridarran, PRathnayake, RMDIMhttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/166252022-10-12T03:13:55Z2021-07-01T00:00:00ZUse of augmented reality for efficient building maintenance in Sri Lanka
Rajapaksha, MRN; Sridarran, P; Rathnayake, RMDIM
With the advent of technological advancements in the field of building maintenance, attempts have been taken to address the issues confronted by building maintenance technicians in the global context. Augmented Reality (AR) is one such concept which combines real environment with virtual content in 3D space that is experimented and proven to be effective in making the building maintenance activities more efficient by eliminating the causes for such difficulties faced by the technicians. In Sri Lanka, there is very limited use of such technologies in building maintenance practices and it is reasonable to mention that use of AR is minimum in this field. A gap is identified as there is no considerable literature exploring applications of Augmented Reality to ease building maintenance activities in Sri Lanka. Therefore, an effort is made to investigate into this area through a qualitative approach by taking a case into study and conducting interviews among technicians followed by an expert interview. The research highlights the use of AR in making the building maintenance practices in terms of data and instruction visualization leading to more efficient and effective outcomes while discussing on the benefits such as making maintenance tasks efficient, cost and time savings and high customer satisfaction as well as possible barriers for implementation of a similar program such as developing a Building Information Model to an existing building, inconvenience in making technicians adopted into a new system in the context of Sri Lanka.
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