Articles & Documents « Kentuckiana Construction Users Council

Articles & Documents

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General Information

Job Rewards (by Herman Trend Alert, 10/02/13): A recent report just released by Ceridian confirms the belief when it comes to driving engagement, one size does not fit all of the generations. Moreover, it offers some valuable advice to leaders who want to engage and retain their top talent by focusing on job rewards, performance feedback, and job motivation. Log in as a member to read full article.

Engineering and Skilled Jobs Try to Keep Up with the Oil and Gas Boom (by David Butcher, IMT Career Journal, 08/12/13): The U.S. oil and gas industry, rejuvenated by the shale gas boom, is making a deep economic impact not only in the country but around the world. The rapid expansion of activity and business has required oil and gas companies to seek qualified talent to fill a wide range of positions, particularly in engineering roles. However, even as more jobs are created, employers say they face a shortage of talent… Log in as a member to read full article.

How Game Theory Can Help Businesses Improve Negotiations (by David Sims, Industry Market Trends, 08/13/13): Game theory is usually thought of in connection with such negotiation concepts as the “winner’s curse,” where winning a bid based on incomplete information usually means a buyer overpaid, or “prisoner’s dilemma,” where a business must decide if it can trust that a negotiating partner will voluntarily cooperate when it might have a better reason not to… Log in as a member to read full article.

Industry Reports

OSHA Unveils Top 10 Safety Violations for 2013 (by National Safety Council, 10/01/13): Once again, Fall Protection tops the list of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s most-cited workplace safety violations. The presentation of the Top 10 was given before a crowded group of spectators today on the Expo floor at the 2013 National Safety Council Congress & Expo…Log in as a member to read full article.

The Great Construction Industry Myth (by Ted Garrison, The Report on Strategic Thinking #2013-9, 9/24/13): The conventional wisdom within the construction industry for the past century has been the belief in the myth that to obtain the best results for the owner, the design and construction aspects of the industry should be separated and contractors should be selected through a competitive bidding process based on plans and specifications, referred to as construction documents…Log in as a member to read full article.

Hoist and Rigging Safety (by Peter Cooke, Columbus McKinnon Corp in manufacturing.net, 03/19/2012): The National Safety Council estimates the cost of one lost time accident at about $27,000 with punitive damages and lost production time ranging into the millions of dollars. Most hoist-related accidents that occurred in North America could have easily been prevented by simply ensuring that users were properly trained on the operation, safe rigging, inspection and maintenance procedures of the hoist…Log in as a member to read full article.

CICE Publications

Workers Compensation Crisis: There is a growing crisis in workers’ compensation insurance. In recent years soaring medical costs, widespread abuse of benefits and rapidly escalagin insurance premiums have affected the competitiveness of large sectors of American business. Many construction companies are among those firms that have been particularly hard hit…Log in as a member to read full article.

Training Problems in Open Shop Construction: Current construction industry training efforts are inadequate to meet the needs of the industry. Training that is being done has been largely concentrated in the union sector where training funds are supplied through charges on labor hours which in turn are passed on by contractors to the ultimate user or client…Log in as a member to read full article.

The Business Stake in Effective Project Systems: Over the past fifteen years, most American manufacturers have transformed their approach to the engineering and management of their capital projects. Virtually all major firms have reduced the size and scope of workperformed by engineering organizations. Many companies are drifting because they are uncertain about the appropriate size and role of their in-house capital projects organization…Log in as a member to read full article.

CURT Reports

Construction Owners’ Safety Blueprint: Construction always seems to make the “Ten Most Dangerous Jobs” list compiled annually by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of
Labor Statistics. An occupation “earns” this distinction based on its rate of fatalities per 100,000 workers…Log in as a member to read full article.

Workplace Attitudes Survey: The CURT Survey on Workplace Attitude was initiated by the CURT Workforce Development and Industrial Relations Committee as part of the CURT Tripartite Initiative. The Tripartite Initiative is an ongoing, owner-led discussion among labor, contractors, and owners, designed to address and resolve issues of importance to the construction industry…Log in as a member to read full article.

Building Comprehensive Labor Market Information: This document focuses on how the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) leveraged proven, innovative forecasting technology that collects, aggregates, and produces craft labor data used by industry for project planning and the development of targeted labor supply solutions; and how this technology can be used by government for labor market policy and program development…Log in as a member to read full article.

White Papers

CURT’s Path Toward LEAN Project Delivery: The paths of CURT and LEAN crossed in 2001 and 2002 when the LEAN Construction Institute (LCI) made presentations at CURT’s National Conference. LCI’s presentations described what LCI was doing to define a new way to deliver projects and how these successes connect to gains already seen in the manufacturing sector…Log in as a member to read full article.

Optimizing the Construction Process: This paper envisions a substantially changed project environment, where projects are undertaken by deeply collaborative, multidisciplinary teams that contribute to project fruition, and where better, faster, more capable projects —optimized projects—are the norm rather than the exception…Log in as a member to read full article.

Guidelines on the Use of Reverse Auction Technology: Reverse Auction is a recently developed Internet-based method for bidding on construction or project services. The primary benefit of this new e-commerce tool is that it may speed up the inquiry process, making it more efficient than traditional bidding that often includes lengthy, time-consuming negotiations…Log in as a member to read full article.