Dissertations (Business & Law)

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Browsing Dissertations (Business & Law) by Subject "3D printing"

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    Exploring the Adoption of 3D Printing for Reducing Capital and Operational Costs of Façades in Office Buildings
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2019-04) ALZAROONI, MARYAM ANWAR
    The construction sector is one of the most important sectors worldwide today. Everyday lives of humans revolve around the use of infrastructure and buildings that are created by construction companies hence their importance in society today. For a long time, people have taken for granted the technologies or innovations that they use today and hardly try to dig into the people or companies behind the innovations. For several years, people have described the construction industry as conservative because of its reluctance and delay in adopting new technology. In fact, others largely view the construction industry as regressive in light of other industries such as automobile and manufacturing. What people fail to take into consideration is the complexity of the construction process that has driven away several personnel who initially had the interest of working in the sector. However, the construction industry is warming up to 3D printing technology that could have numerous benefits to the sector. The main purpose of this qualitative research is to explore 3D printing components and understand how they can impact the capital and operational cost of a façade of an office building. This research relies on both primary and secondary data sources. Various literatures serve as the secondary sources of data while primary data is collected through interviews with participants with knowledge of 3D printing and who have previously used or who currently use 3D printing technology in the construction sector. The reviews and the research findings indicate that 3D printing components lead to a reduction in the capital and operational cost. A major limitation of this study is that it mainly focused on participants with knowledge on 3D printing or who have worked with or are currently using 3D printing technology in the construction sector within Dubai. Also, the study focused on a limited number of participants. Thus, future studies should focus on collecting data from more participants to ensure validity and accuracy of results.
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    The influence of the critical diffusion factors of 3D printing technology on the success of UAE construction Projects
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2018-06) FARIED, MANSOUR EBRAHIM DAOUD
    3D printing applications in the construction industry have gained the interest of field specialists, especially in UAE. This is particularly because of the fact that the UAE Government has recently announced its target that at least twenty-five percent (25%) of the new buildings in Dubai should be utilizing the 3D printing technology by the year 2030. This research is aiming to identify the 3D printing technology’s critical diffusion factors influencing the success of the UAE’s construction projects. Through a critical review of the relevant literature, the study developed a framework based on the innovation diffusion theory developed by E.Rogers (Rogers, 2005); to identify critical factors leading to technology acceptance and, therefore, measuring the impact of those identified factors on the successful application of the technology in the UAE’s construction projects. The literature findings have been examined via a quantitative approach through a designed questionnaire and a subsequent data analysis via SPSS statistics software. The literature review identified thirty four factors classified under the five major attributes of technology diffusion following the innovation diffusion theory namely the relative advantage, the compatibility, the trail-ability, the complexity and the observability. All those thirty-four factors were found to be with an evident association with the level of successful implementation and success of the 3D printed project. The study suggests that the integration of all of these factors together will have a stronger level of influence and will lead to higher levels of application success. The study also suggests the classification of the relative advantage, compatibility and complexity as primary factors, and to classify the trial-ability & observability as secondary factors due to difference found in the level of influence that they have on the success of the project. The study faced a limitation on the availability of specific literature related to the 3D printing in construction in general, and in the UAE market in particular. Similar technologies and similar markets have, however, been taken as reference in areas for which precise information was not available. Finally, the study suggested a list of recommendations to be adopted by market stakeholders based on the research findings to facilitate the achievement of the government target.