When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework

Determining the risk and uncertainty of rework in construction has received limited attention due to a paucity of information about its frequency and causes. Errors made during construction, which may require rework, can go undetected, manifesting as an engineering failure during an asset's ope...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Love, Peter, Matthews, Jane
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: ELSEVIER 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210101281
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90135
_version_ 1848765334676307968
author Love, Peter
Matthews, Jane
author_facet Love, Peter
Matthews, Jane
author_sort Love, Peter
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Determining the risk and uncertainty of rework in construction has received limited attention due to a paucity of information about its frequency and causes. Errors made during construction, which may require rework, can go undetected, manifesting as an engineering failure during an asset's operation and thus jeopardise system safety. Therefore, this paper addresses the following research question: How can practitioners make better decisions to mitigate the risk and uncertainty of rework during the construction of infrastructure assets and ensure system safety? Using a mega-transport infrastructure asset as a case setting, we adopt an interpretative line of inquiry and examine people's experiences with managing the risk and uncertainty of rework under the auspices of a sense-making lens. Our analysis revealed that heuristics were being used informally to determine rework risks and uncertainties due to the absence of information, resulting in them becoming curiosities as the same mistakes were repeated and learning stymied. We suggest that developing an adaptive-box tool comprising heuristics can provide the much-need theoretical foundation to effectively manage the risk and uncertainty of rework. Such heuristics would be adaptable to different situations as they are fitted to the environment through evolution and/or learning by amending them successively in small steps.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:33:36Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-90135
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:33:36Z
publishDate 2022
publisher ELSEVIER
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-901352023-02-15T07:44:33Z When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework Love, Peter Matthews, Jane Science & Technology Technology Construction & Building Technology Engineering, Civil Engineering Adaptive toolbox Construction Heuristics Rework Risk Safety Uncertainty ERROR MANAGEMENT CONSTRUCTION HEURISTICS PROJECTS QUALITY IMPACT COSTS Determining the risk and uncertainty of rework in construction has received limited attention due to a paucity of information about its frequency and causes. Errors made during construction, which may require rework, can go undetected, manifesting as an engineering failure during an asset's operation and thus jeopardise system safety. Therefore, this paper addresses the following research question: How can practitioners make better decisions to mitigate the risk and uncertainty of rework during the construction of infrastructure assets and ensure system safety? Using a mega-transport infrastructure asset as a case setting, we adopt an interpretative line of inquiry and examine people's experiences with managing the risk and uncertainty of rework under the auspices of a sense-making lens. Our analysis revealed that heuristics were being used informally to determine rework risks and uncertainties due to the absence of information, resulting in them becoming curiosities as the same mistakes were repeated and learning stymied. We suggest that developing an adaptive-box tool comprising heuristics can provide the much-need theoretical foundation to effectively manage the risk and uncertainty of rework. Such heuristics would be adaptable to different situations as they are fitted to the environment through evolution and/or learning by amending them successively in small steps. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90135 10.1016/j.dibe.2022.100084 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210101281 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ELSEVIER fulltext
spellingShingle Science & Technology
Technology
Construction & Building Technology
Engineering, Civil
Engineering
Adaptive toolbox
Construction
Heuristics
Rework
Risk
Safety
Uncertainty
ERROR MANAGEMENT
CONSTRUCTION
HEURISTICS
PROJECTS
QUALITY
IMPACT
COSTS
Love, Peter
Matthews, Jane
When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework
title When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework
title_full When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework
title_fullStr When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework
title_full_unstemmed When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework
title_short When ‘less is more’: The rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework
title_sort when ‘less is more’: the rationale for an adaptive toolbox to manage the risk and uncertainty of rework
topic Science & Technology
Technology
Construction & Building Technology
Engineering, Civil
Engineering
Adaptive toolbox
Construction
Heuristics
Rework
Risk
Safety
Uncertainty
ERROR MANAGEMENT
CONSTRUCTION
HEURISTICS
PROJECTS
QUALITY
IMPACT
COSTS
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210101281
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90135