Purpose: Construction organizations must maintain a productive workforce without sacrificing their health and safety. The global construction sector loses billions of dollars yearly to poor health and safety practices. This study aims to investigate benefits derivable from using wearable technologies to improve construction health and safety. The study also reports the challenges associated with adopting wearable technologies.Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a quantitative design, administering close-ended questions to professionals in the Nigerian construction industry. The research data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Findings: The study found that the critical areas construction organizations can benefit from using WSDs include slips and trips, sensing environmental concerns, collision avoidance, falling from a high level and electrocution. However, key barriers preventing the organizations from adopting wearable technologies are related to cost, technology and human factors.Practical implications: The time and cost lost to H&S incidents in the Nigerian construction sector can be reduced by implementing the report of this study.Originality/value: Studies on WSDs have continued to increase in developed countries, but Nigeria is yet to experience a leap in the research area. This study provides insights into the Nigerian reality to provide directions for practice and theory.

Purpose: Despite the significance of the construction industry to the nation's economic growth, there is empirical evidence that the sector is lagging behind other industries in terms of productivity growth. The need for improvements inspired the industry's stakeholders to consider using emerging technologies that support the enhancement. This research aims to report augmented reality applications essential for contractors' productivity improvement.Design/methodology/approach: This study systematically reviewed academic journals. The selection of journal articles entailed searching Scopus and Web of Science databases. Relevant articles for reviews were identified and screened. Content analysis was used to classify key applications into six categories. The research results were limited to journal articles published between 2010 and 2021.Findings: Augmented reality can improve construction productivity through its applications in assembly, training and education, monitoring and controlling, interdisciplinary function, health and safety and design information.Originality/value: The research provides a direction for contractors on key augmented reality applications they can leverage to improve their organisations' productivity.

Purpose: Labour productivity in construction has fallen behind other industries in most of the world and has declined continuously for decades. Although several scholarly research projects have been conducted to salvage the prevalent low labour productivity in construction, contractors in the construction industry have continued to grapple with the devastating impact of low productivity. The purpose of this study is to determine key areas of focus necessary to promote productivity growth in construction.Design/methodology/approach: Bibliometric and scientometric assessments were conducted to map the existing construction labour productivity (CLP) studies and establish key focus areas in the research domain. The keywords “Construction Productivity” OR “Construction Labour Productivity” OR “Construction Labor Productivity” OR “Construction Worker Productivity”.Findings: Emerging trends in the CLP research field are reported. The study also determined the most productive authors and collaboration among authors, most productive journals, most active regions and publications with the highest impact in CLP research.Research limitations/implications: Documents published in the Scopus database were considered for analysis because of the wider coverage of the database. Journal and conference articles written in English language represent the inclusion criteria, while articles in press, review, book chapters, editorial, erratum, note, short survey and data paper were excluded from analysis. The study is also limited to documents published from 2012 to 2021.Practical implications: The study brought to the awareness of the industry practitioners and other construction stakeholders, the key knowledge areas that are critical to promoting productivity growth in construction.Originality/value: Except bibliometric analysis, previous research studies have used different approaches to investigate productivity in construction. The study presented future research directions through the emerging knowledge areas identified in the study.

Purpose: The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for people of all ages underscores the vital role of public healthcare facilities (PHFs) in delivering essential healthcare services. However, these facilities often suffer from inadequate maintenance, exacerbated by the insufficient implementation of maintenance strategies. Recognizing the importance of PHFs in enhancing healthcare services, this paper investigates the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in the maintenance strategies of PHFs in South Africa.Design/methodology/approach: Through semi-structured interviews with nineteen purposively selected maintenance personnel from the Limpopo Department of Health (DoH), this study identified and analyzed the CSFs to enhance maintenance operations in PHFs. Thematic content analysis was employed to derive key insights from the collected data.Findings: The study's findings highlight adequate maintenance planning and effective leadership as the two overarching CSFs in the maintenance of PHFs. These factors play a pivotal role in addressing challenges that hinder the current maintenance team from meeting maintenance requirements to the satisfaction of both staff and patients within PHFs.Originality/value: The study offers valuable insights for policymakers to improve the effectiveness of maintenance operations in PHFs. By addressing the identified CSFs, policymakers can enhance maintenance operations in PHFs, positively impacting healthcare service delivery and the well-being of both staff and patients.

Social infrastructure projects (SIPs) play a critical role in fostering social and economic development in the public sector. However, SIPs often face significant challenges, partly due to a lack of research on critical success factors (CSFs) specific to these projects. Despite the importance of SIPs, scant research focuses upon enhancing SIPs’ performance. Consequently, a CSF framework is developed for improving the delivery of SIPs in South Africa. Through a quantitative survey of 124 construction professionals, the study identified key factors essential for successful SIPs delivery. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, revealing a significant consensus among infrastructure stakeholders on CSFs needed for successful SIP delivery. Constituent elements of the framework integrate CSFs related to clients, contractors, projects and project management factors; external factors were excluded from the framework due to a lack of supporting evidence. The study offers a practical understanding for infrastructure stakeholders in South Africa to: overcome the challenges that hinder SIPs’ performance; and enhance the SIP delivery processes. Cumulatively, these palpable deliverables contribute to the nation’s social and economic development objectives. While the research is focused on South Africa, the CSFs framework could inform SIP delivery strategies in similar socio-economic and institutional contexts globally. The study reveals that SIP success depends on the identified factors and offers a structured framework for improving project outcomes. The framework highlights CSFs, including effective monitoring and timely decision-making for clients; subcontractor coordination and quality assurance for contractors; economic stability and advanced technology for projects; and team collaboration and expertise utilisation for project management. This systematic approach could enhance effective planning, execution and evaluation of SIPs, leading to more efficient delivery. However, the study’s focus on the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces limits the generalisability of the findings to other regions with different socio-economic and environmental conditions. Therefore, future research could explore the applicability of this framework in diverse social, political, and geographical contexts.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds the potential to revolutionise the construction industry, by enhancing productivity and addressing the challenges posed by a skills shortage. Historically resistant to technological innovation, the construction sector lags behind other industries that have embraced innovative technologies to boost productivity. This study investigates AI technologies that can be used to improve construction productivity, as well as the barriers impeding the widespread adoption of AI in the construction sector. The research adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic review of scholarly journal articles and conference papers sourced from the Scopus database was conducted, employing relevant screening criteria to select the most pertinent sources aligned with the research objectives. Although AI applications in building construction are still emerging, AI technologies have been successfully deployed in various aspects of building construction. These include floor slab construction, steelwork, safety and risk management, materials management, and labour handling in multi-story buildings. The adoption of AI in the construction sector faces several challenges, including technical complexities, managerial and organisational barriers, economic justifications, and a shortage of AI-proficient talent. Drawing insights from this study, construction stakeholders can make informed decisions regarding AI investments and their specific areas of application within building construction.