Comparing Construction Projects: Technical and Business Innovations

This report compares two construction projects, one by Parkwood Homes and the other by Timber Building Systems. The comparison focuses on technical innovations used during construction time, business and managerial innovations, off-site constructions, risk management, and project success measurement. Both firms have implemented unique strategies to ensure safety, efficiency, and client satisfaction, with Parkwood Homes using signage and hazard identification, and Timber Building Systems employing pre-fabrication techniques. The report concludes that both projects were successful in meeting client needs and staying within budget.

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CASE STUDIES ANALYSIS
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Table of Contents

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Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the selected case studies........................................................................................3
Technical innovations................................................................................................................4
Managerial innovations..............................................................................................................7
Off-site construction...................................................................................................................8
How risks were managed during construction...........................................................................8
A measure of the success of the projects...................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
Reference..................................................................................................................................11
Introduction
The modern construction firms have developed technologies and innovations which has
transformed the construction industry greatly (Agency, 2015, p. 273). In this report, various

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construction projects will be compared on their technical innovations that were used during
the construction time, business and managerial innovations in the projects, off-site
constructions, how the various risks were managed during the construction process and how
the project success is measured.
The projects that will be compared and contrasted are; Park wood homes and Timber
Building Systems – manufactured timber panels and cladding- Penrith which has been
involved in many projects such as; Mayer Timber office construction project, Corporate
office in Penrith, Toorak Road South Yarra
Parkwood homes is a construction firm located in Somerby New South Wales, Australia. The
firm is involved in the design and construction of buildings within their premises before they
are transported to the respective clients while Timber Building system is a revolutionary and
unique post-tensioned pre-manufacture building system which is destined for the student
accommodation, multi-level residential apartments, commercial office facilities, hotels and
senior housing facilities (Aitchison, 2016, p. 639)
Overview of the selected case studies.
Parkwood homes
Parkwood homes is a construction firm located in Somerby New South Wales, Australia. The
firm is involved in the design and construction of buildings within their premises before they
are transported to the respective clients. Parkwood is well known to offers a wide range of
solutions ranging from a single residential building unit to complex commercial buildings.
The materials which are used by Parkwood Homes range from the external walls to the
interior design. The construction period of this buildings usually takes a shorter time as
compared to the usual buildings that are normally constructed.
Timber Building Systems – manufactured timber panels and cladding- Penrith

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Timber Building system is a revolutionary and unique post-tensioned pre-manufacture
building system which is destined for the student accommodation, multi-level residential
apartments, commercial office facilities, hotels and senior housing facilities.
The company has been involved in the construction of many timber homes such as; Mayer
Timber office construction project, corporate office in Penrith, Toorak Road, and South Yarra
Toorak Road and South Yarra
This project was involving the construction of two luxury apartment on top of a shopping
arcade along Toorak Road and South Yarra. The project was constructed in three days.
Corporate office Penrith
The project was involving the construction of the commercial building in Penrith Australia,
and the entire project was constructed in three days. The building is constructed entirely with
timber which is integrated into the pre-cast warehouse.
Mayer Timber NSW office
This is a Commercial building located in Sydney Australia, and it was constructed mainly to
test the innovation on modern timber based fabricated building systems.
Technical innovations
Parkwood Homes have adopted high technologies in changing the construction techniques
and the period taken in construction. The Company has modern and current technologies in
building complex houses in their premises before they are transported to their respective
clients. The company has come up with the technology whereby the client can see how the
building will look like when completed before placing orders. The buildings which are
constructed by Parkwood Construction Company has to be approved by the client the client
orders. The technologies which are used by Parkwood homes enable them to construct
buildings which match with the terrain of the site despite the fact that in most cases they
construct the buildings miles away from the actual site .The technology which they have

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adopted made it possible to make the designing and construction of the buildings to
consistent with the site where the building is to be constructed (Aitchison, 2016, p. 593).
The other innovative technology which has been put in place by Parkwood Home is regarding
the assembly of the construction materials which have been transported to the construction
site. The company employs high-end technologies in assembling of the materials that have
transported to the site. The technology helps in reducing the costs and time which are usually
associated with the construction of homes.
Some of the technologies that have been employed in the assembly of the construction
materials at include the use of loaders and cranes. Parkwood Homes have various cranes
which are usually used in loading the large pre-fabricated structures on to the transporting
trucks. Once the pre-fabricated structures have arrived at the site, they are usually offloaded
by the cranes and then bolted into the slab.
Fig 1: Cranes used to offload Source: www.parkwoodhomes.com
Timber Building Systems – manufactured timber panels and cladding- Penrith has employed
a number of technical innovations to ensure that they meet the expectations of their clients.
For instance the use of timber as the primary structural materials. In the Mayer Timber NSW
Office which is located in Sydney Australia, they used the timber as the primary material.

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The perfect use of timber as the primary structural material created room for the interior
designers and architects to develop to design double volume and large span spaces.
The construction firm usually uses lightweight materials to ensure that the projects are
constructed within a short period of time, for instance, the Mayer Timber NSW Office
constructed in two days from 9th and 11th Sep2015, with the use of light weigh timber
accounting for 85% of the materials used.
Timber Building Systems – manufactured timber panels and cladding- Penrith as adopted an
innovative technology whereby the buildings which they usually design has the flexibility to
allow the incorporation of structures into the existing structure without any challenge. For
instance, the corporate office which was constructed by Timber Building Systems –
manufactured timber panels and cladding- Penrith allows the introduction of new structures
and therefore giving enough room for the expansion of the structures (Bárbara Rangel, 2012,
p. 192).
The Timber Building Systems – manufactured timber panels and cladding- Penrith have also
adopted various technical innovations that allow faster construction of their buildings for
instance in the construction of Mayer Timber NSW office powerful machines were used to
assemble the various components of the building which facilitated faster construction of the
building. The figure below shows some of the equipment that was used during construction.

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Fig 2: equipment used for the construction of Mayer Timber office Source: www.tbsaus.com
Managerial innovations
Various managerial innovations have were adopted during the construction of the projects.
For instance, in the construction of Homes by Parkwood Homes, there was flexible
communication lines between the client, the workers on the actual site and those who were at
the fabrication premises. The use of modern software in the design such as the use of
Building Information Modelling allowed the client and the construction team to corporate
during the construction (Davies, 2015, p. 69). Whereby the client is was involved in the
design of the building.
On the other hand, various parties who were involved in the construction of homes by
Parkwood construction company were allocated the work as per their area of expertise
through that it facilitated specialisation and division of labour thus enhancing the
management of the projects (Emmitt, 2014, p. 62).
Decision making is a very vital part of managing construction works. In the construction of
Mayer Timber NSW Office there, the decisions were made depending on the needs of the
client where the construction manager who was in charge of the construction insisted on the
usage of timber as the main construction materials. With the use of timber as the main

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construction material, it was possible to construct the structure within the given timeframe by
the client (Iwansson, 2013, p. 548).
Off-site construction
The construction of the buildings by Parkwood Company involved the construction of the
structures in their premises, and later they were transported to respective sites where the
clients want them to be assembled. The great of the construction of the buildings took place
off-site and through which they were later transported by heavy trucks to the sites to be
assembled. The figure below the transportation some homes by the trucks.
Fig 3: transportation of fabricated buildings Source: www.parkwoodhomes.com
On the other hand in the construction of corporate office in Penrith and Toorak Road South
Yarra, most the elements of the building were assembled on site whereby lightweight timber
was used to facilitate faster construction process.
How risks were managed during construction
Construction industry for a long time now has been one of the most dangerous industries to
work in the selected case Studies of the possible risks managed by ensuring that all the
workers who were taking part in construction observed all the safety measures.

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In the case of Corporate office in Penrith and Toorak Road, South Yarra projects all the
workers who were involved in the factory fabrication of the various structures of the building
were wearing all the safety gears on such as gloves, helmets, eye protectors and other safety
equipment (Smith, 2011, p. 118).
The contractors who were involved in the construction of the Corporate office in Penrith and
Toorak Road South Yarra implemented many safety strategies to mitigate the risk to their
workers. There was an assessment of the construction site to identify any possible hazard and
then various strategies were put in place to ensure that the risks were managed to reduce the
possibility of the accident which might lead to serious injuries or even loss of life. Most of
this element of his buildings were pre-fricated and then moved to the site. There were
measures which were put in place during the transportation of the structures to ensure the
safety of the public was guaranteed (Vitor Abrantes, 2016, p. 641).
On the other side, Parkwood homes used different prevention strategies to ensure that the
risks which were to occur during construction process were completely controlled. Some of
the strategies that were put in place include the use of signage to notify the workers present
on site of the possible hazards. For instance, the signage for falling objects was put in the
construction site to warm the workers present of the possible falling objects during the
offloading of the pre-fabricated materials and during the assembly of the building.
The rates within the site that were seen to be hazardous were also identified, and the workers
on site were made aware of them in order to be cautious as they were carrying out their
activities (Xi, 2018, p. 256).
A measure of the success of the projects
The success of the projects of Timber Building Systems manufactured timber panels and
cladding- Penrith was determined by determining the efficiency of the buildings that were
constructed. The success of the project was also determined by evaluating if the project was

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completed on the given time of which all the three projects constructed by Timber Building
Systems manufactured timber panels and cladding- Penrith was completed before the given
timeline.
On the other hand the success of the projects that were established by finding out whether the
project was constructed within the given budget and if all the needs of the client were met. By
evaluating the above projects which were constructed by Parkwood succeed because all the
needs of the client were met and at the same time the client was satisfied with the building.
The buildings were constructed within the specified budget.
Conclusion
In this report, various construction projects will be compared on their technical innovations
that were used during the construction time, business and managerial innovations in the
projects, off-site constructions, how the various risks were managed during the construction
process and how the project success is measured. Parkwood homes is a construction firm
located in Somerby New South Wales, Australia. The firm is involved in the design and
construction of buildings within their premises before they are transported to the respective
clients while Timber Building system is a revolutionary and unique post-tensioned pre-
manufacture building system which is destined for the student accommodation, multi-level
residential apartments, commercial office facilities, hotels and senior housing facilities.
Reference

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Agency, E. P., 2015. Prefabricated building: a survey of some European systems. Project.
4th ed. Chicago: European Productivity Agency.
Aitchison, M., 2016. Prefab Housing and the Future of Building: Product to Process. 6th ed.
London: Lund Humphries.
Bárbara Rangel, 2012. Prefabricated Buildings. 4th ed. Texas: U.S. International Trade
Commission,
Davies, C., 2015. The Prefabricated Home. 3rd ed. Sydney: Reaktion Books.
Emmitt, S., 2014. Barry's Advanced Construction of Buildings. 5th ed. Paris: John Wiley &
Sons,
Iwansson, P., 2013. Faults and Failures of Prefabricated Housing: Case Studies from Three
Countries. 2nd ed. London: Lund University, Lund Centre for Habitat Studies,
Smith, R. E., 2011. Prefab Architecture: A Guide to Modular Design and Construction. 1st
ed. 5th: John Wiley & Sons.
Vitor Abrantes, 2016. The Pre-Fabrication of Building Facades. 5th ed. Auckland: Springer.
Xi, J., 2018. Small-Scale Public Transportable and Pre-Fabricated Buildings: Evaluating
their Functional Performance. 3rd ed. London: Taylor & Francis,

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