19
and utilization. Additionally, the construction industry has the potential to benefit from systematic management of knowledge especially for capturing and reusing tacit
knowledge. Construction projects usually involve many disciplines and require integration of knowledge from civil, mechanical, electrical, and other engineering
domains. According to the studied literature, many problems reported by different researchers associated with knowledge movement during design phase. Furthermore,
considering increasing advancement of mechanical and electrical technologies, realized that considering mechanical and electrical knowledge during design phase is
essential.
As a result, it has been realized that live capture of mechanical and electrical knowledge in collaborative project environment is crucial to knowledge loss
phenomena. Considering the abovementioned story, this study attempted to facilitate knowledge capture during conceptual design stage by providing a linkage between
concept design process and the required mechanicalelectrical knowledge.
1.8 Organization of Thesis
This study is organized in five chapters whose details are explained below: Chapter 1: Firstly, there is a journey through the background of the
study. Then the problem, research question and research objectives are
20
expressed. Finally, methodology to solve the stated problem and also other criteria and requirement for validating data and results are explained.
Chapter 2: This chapter explains the structure of studied literature toward gathering sufficient information, existing knowledge associated with the
subject of this research and performed researches in relation with knowledge flow and design process.
Chapter 3: In this chapter selected research methodology and its relevant components are explained in detail. The approach adopted in this research to
solve the stated problem is based on Yin 2003 case study methodology. Chapter 4: In this chapter, the procedure of data collection through
observation in a case study is explained. As a result, at the end of this chapter the first objective of this study and therefore the first sub research question is
answered. Furthermore, the process of validating the obtained results by using simulation using SimVision is explained.
Chapter 5: This chapter is for validating the extended model for conceptual design process of building projects. According to the simulation
results we confirm that the proposed knowledge-based framework mitigates cost and time overrun for building projects.
Chapter 6: This chapter concludes all the findings related to the proposed knowledge capture technique and activity-knowledge based
framework for conceptual design stage of building project. Moreover, limitation of this study, knowledge contribution and future studies are explained.
21
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Many researchers such as Paulson 1976, Jin Levitt 1996, Ibrahim 2005, Ibrahim and Paulson 2005, Nissen 2006, Ibrahim 2008 have found problems in
the construction industry, which are related to the knowledge flow of a building project life cycle. They also explained that this problem could arise from tacit
dominant part of projects. Some of these notions are mentioned below.
Rounce 1998 found out that design-caused wastes from the point of view of time form the largest category. Macmillan et al. 2001 believed that the rapid and
dynamic information and knowledge transfer between designers during the conceptual phase of building projects could result in disorganized behavior within the
team. Martinez 1998 stated that when an organization lacks a heightened degree of knowledge share, knowledge leaks consequently cause: repeated mistakes,
dependence on a few key individuals, duplicated work, lack of sharing of good ideas, and slow introduction of new products or market solutions. Saeema Ahmed 2005
stated that engineering firms are facing pressures to increase the quality of their product to have even shorter lead-time and reduced cost.
