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Professor David Edwards - Birmingham City University. Birmingham, , UNITED KINGDOM

Professor David Edwards

Professor of Plant and Machinery Management, School of Engineering and Built Environment | Birmingham City University

Birmingham, UNITED KINGDOM

Professor David Edwards is an expert in the fields of construction management, plant and machinery management, and digital technologies.

Biography

David has accrued considerable leadership and management experience in the roles of teaching, award management and development, quality enhancement, student liaison and the national student survey (NSS), academic administration and research at a number of higher education institutes in this country and abroad.

He is currently a Professor of Plant and Equipment Management at Birmingham City University, Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. David has also led on the development of extensive multidisciplinary collaborations between and within faculties, having worked across a wide variety of scientific fields, namely: business studies; finance; construction management; human resource management; computing; civil engineering; quarry management; mechanical engineering; and humanities – this modus operandi has augmented his personal philosophy and belief that the whole is greater than the sum of individual parts.

David is well respected by his peers and acts as a referee for under-/post-graduate awards and PhDs at various national and international higher education institutes. In an industrial/ governmental context, he has formed comprehensive networks, teaching awards and partnered many prestigious organisations such as the UK Ministry of Defence, US Department of Defense, the UK Home Office and British Nuclear Fuels.

Prior to a career in academia, David managed his own business for 10 years and worked as a sub-contractor for some of the UK's largest construction and civil engineering companies. This pragmatic experience and industry focus, has enabled David to develop a professional industrial vocabulary and subsequently accrue extensive 'international' industrial collaborative linkages with both industry and government bodies.

Similarly, his inherently entrepreneurial spirit (first acquired whilst in industry) has also secured a proven track record of invention, for applying innovative processes, embracing entrepreneurship and producing high impact teaching and research outputs. These attributes have helped to secure industrial financial support and provide opportunities for students to become employed at some of the world's leading organisations – employability is high on David's agenda.

Social

Areas of Expertise (6)

Business Management

Health and Safety

Plant and Machinery Management

Construction Management

Digital Technologies

PEdagogical Research in Higher Education

Education (1)

The University of Wolverhampton: B.Sc., Construction Management and Plant Management 2002

Affiliations (2)

  • Fellow of the Institute of Quarrying
  • British Academy of Management

Selected Media Appearances (1)

University manufacturing innovation with Excelsior

Express & Star  online

2018-09-04

Digital design and construction experts Professor David Edwards and Erika Pärn in Birmingham City University’s School of the Built Environment have teamed up with Excelsior to streamline the digitalisation of the construction sector’s supply chain...

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Selected Articles (5)

Research note: Machinery, manumission, and economic machinations


Journal of Business Research

2017 Edwards, D.J. and Parn, Erika and Love, Peter E.D. and El-Gohary, Hatem (2016) Research note: Machinery, manumission, and economic machinations. Journal of Business Research.

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Rework Causation: Emergent Theoretical Insights and Implications for Research


Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

2016 Rework is a chronic problem in construction and engineering projects. A wide variety of studies examining the nature of rework have been undertaken since the seminal research of Burati in the early 1990s, which examined quality deviations. Initial studies focused on identifying the causal factors and costs of rework to quantify the severity of the problem. From these studies, it was recognized that rework causes were interdependent; so techniques such as cognitive mapping (CM) and system dynamics (SD) were subsequently introduced to model the complexity and dynamic of this phenomena. Although such results provided the essential building blocks to better understand and provide the much-needed stimulus for theory development, rework remains a pervasive issue. A number of factors have contributed to the causal ambiguity that presently prevails, which includes the epistemological underpinning used to construct the nature of causes and the subsequent use of tools and techniques that are used for analysis. Evidence of this is presented in recent studies that have failed to acknowledge the interdependency of rework causes as research regressed to identifying those causes of a singular nature. Consequently, such research continues to stymie progress toward reducing and containing rework, and a moratorium on such approaches is suggested. With this in mind, insights into the extant rework literature and causation philosophy are examined and recommendations to improve the understanding necessary to establish a theory for rework causality are proposed.

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Analysis of interrelationships among excavator productivity modifying factors


International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management

2016 Purpose - Excavator productivity calculations embrace myriad variables, which in turn, can be modelled in several ways. A key productivity variable is operator competence (Oc) because this can impact on so many of the other variables. Earlier research has studied excavator productivity, but little has attempted to simultaneously model productivity variables in relation to Oc. The purpose of this paper is to address the void in extant literature.

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Exploring the Inherent Estimating Risks in Quantity Surveying (QS) Consultancy Services Pricin


Mindanao Journal of Science and Technology

2015 Owusu- Manu, De-Graft and Edwards, D.J. and Badu, Edward and Adesi, Michael (2015) Exploring the Inherent Estimating Risks in Quantity Surveying (QS) Consultancy Services Pricing. Mindanao Journal of Science and Technology

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TQM and Modern Marketing in Developing Countries - Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks


International Journal of Business and Social Science

2014 This paper aims to identify and review the related literature on quality, quality management, TQM, productivity and modern marketing in developing countries with a focus on Pakistan. It starts by reviewing the different theories of quality, quality management, TQM and productivity to develop a better understanding of their influence and potential for management activities in developing nations. Then it provides a very brief illustration of modern marketing in developing countries. The overall aim is to identify the variables that might influence quality, quality management, TQM and productivity in such nations.

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