Buildings have a significant impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions. Smart buildings a... more Buildings have a significant impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions. Smart buildings are deemed to play a crucial role in improving the energy performance of buildings and cities. Managing a smart building requires the modelling of data concerning smart systems and components. While there is a significant amount of research on optimising building energy using the smart building concept, there is a dearth of studies investigating the modelling and management of smart systems’ data, which is the starting point for establishing the necessary digital environment for representing a smart building. This study aimed to develop and test a solution for modelling and managing smart building information using an industry foundation classes (IFCs)-based BIM process. A conceptual model expressed in the SysML language was proposed to define a smart building. Five BIM approaches were identified as potential ‘prototypes’ for representing and exchanging smart building information. The fid...
This paper draws attention to project trade-offs significance in project management and criticall... more This paper draws attention to project trade-offs significance in project management and critically reviews the current state of the knowledge on the elements to be considered and the methods to resolve trade-off decisions. Traditionally the elements to be considered in trade-offs are mainly limited to time and cost and to some extent quality or risk or the well-known Project Triangle. The trade-off methods are also dominantly developed based on mathematical models familiar in Operations Research. The limitations of traditional approaches in identifying trade-off elements; the constraints of the common methods of trade-off resolution; and the necessity of compatibility between resolution methods and features of trade-off decisions are highlighted. The researchers‟ approach and methodology to fill the gap between the realities of project trade-off decisions mainly based on the compatibility of the decision problem characteristics and capabilities of the decision making method are desc...
In the scheduling of construction projects, conflicts can arise when activities require resources... more In the scheduling of construction projects, conflicts can arise when activities require resources that are available in limited quantities. Mathematical techniques exist for allocating resources whilst retaining minimum project durations. One such technique is ‘LINRES’, a heuristic algorithm devised by researchers at Northumbria University in the UK who demonstrated the advantages of LINRES over 32 existing heuristic rules, in trials on a hypothetical project (Abeyasinge et al., 2001). Following this hypothetical test of the algorithm, the present paper reports on the live implementation and empirical testing of LINRES on a real project. The project was an important section of the Shariati Combined-cycle power plant, carried-out by the MAPNA Company in Iran: namely, the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG). Research was carried out to investigate if the LINRES algorithm could improve the scheduling of the HRSG construction, which took place in 2002. Data from the project were simult...
For over fifty years, dating back to the Simon report (1944), commentators on the UK construction... more For over fifty years, dating back to the Simon report (1944), commentators on the UK construction industry have been lamenting the design-construct divorce and advocating earlier contractor involvement to produce, inter alia, better quality buildings. Since 2003 a substantial part of the addition to the value of UK new building stock has been in the form of schools. Most have been delivered through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and the majority of projects within BSF have been procured under a modified PFI (PPP) system. This of course means that early contractor involvement is a 'given'. Despite this, in 2006 a CABE report on new schools was still critical of their quality. The paper explores whether other factors – in particular the degree and timing of user-engagement – have had an influence on the quality of the end product, and presents a method for testing this. Keywords: building schools for the future, design process, design quality indicator, us...
The need for a major re-think of our approach to project management education has begun to emerge... more The need for a major re-think of our approach to project management education has begun to emerge. This re-think is being driven by the growing dominance of project management as the model of delivery in many private and public sector organisation across a wide range of requirements and its limited success in achieving all objectives. Sustained development of project managers is here considered to depend on adopting a radical approach to their education which focuses on encouraging their development as competent reflective and creative professionals.
One of the main problematical operational issues in construction projects is the co-ordination of... more One of the main problematical operational issues in construction projects is the co-ordination of building materials to arrive on site at the right time, in the right quantities, and at an acceptable quality level. The number and details of the steps involved in the material life cycle indicate the complex nature of the process and the potential for problems in the process for even a relatively small project. This heightens the need for more flexible and sophisticated project management tools to support collaborative geographically dispersed participants in the simultaneous planning and scheduling of tasks, and their execution, and they must highlight the critical technical and business risks that challenge successful material procurement. This work illustrates the use of a SharePoint environment to tackle problems in the interesting field of material supply chain, from the point of view that collaborative working is necessary in the materials supply chain environment. Hence, it jus...
In developing techniques for monitoring the costs associated with different procurement routes, t... more In developing techniques for monitoring the costs associated with different procurement routes, the central task is disentanglingthe various project costs incurred by organizationstaking part in construction projects. While all firms are familiar with the need to analyse their own costs, it is unusual to apply the same kind of analysis to projects. The purpose of this research is to
There are two ways to analyze the problem of construction nonperformance (not on time, not meetin... more There are two ways to analyze the problem of construction nonperformance (not on time, not meeting the quality expectations of the owner, and not having cost increase change orders). The first is a project-specific approach, which assumes that the problems are being caused by the uniqueness of each project. This approach stresses: finding solutions in better trained personnel and craftspeople, more standards, construction management, and inspection. The other is a process approach, which assumes that the problems are being caused by the process. Performance-based procurement uses the process approach. It hypothesizes that the current price-based design-bid-build procurement process is inefficient, supports an adversarial environment, is devoid of performance information, is highly inefficient, maximizes management and inspection instead of quality control, and treats highly differential construction products and services as commodities. The Performance Information Procurement System...
With spending for computer and networking hardware, software and services projected to exceed a t... more With spending for computer and networking hardware, software and services projected to exceed a trillion pounds by 2005, the potential for greater involvement of ICT in the creation of organisation wealth could be hampered by an extremely high rate of project failures in ICT industry projects. The poor performance of the ICT industry in deploying its products has been demonstrated
ABSTRACT A ten year study of construction performance has resulted in a conclusion that construct... more ABSTRACT A ten year study of construction performance has resulted in a conclusion that construction industry performance problems are being caused by the client's delivery process. The hypothesis of the research is that the client has created a price-based environment which forces a technical solution to construction issues. Modeling has been created which deductively shows that the problem is being caused by the client's selection of contractors rather than the type of delivery process (design-bid-build, design-build, or CM@Risk). A solution is proposed in the paper which uses the concepts of outsourcing, quality control (rather than management and inspection), continuous improvement with minimal client control, and a process based upon leadership rather than management principles. One of the major design requirements for the process is that the client must receive best value (best performance at the lowest possible cost) and the contractor must maximize their profit. The deductive design is supported by test results over the past ten years.
In construction scheduling, conflicts can arise when activities require common resources that are... more In construction scheduling, conflicts can arise when activities require common resources that are available only in limited quantities. To overcome this, while retaining minimum project durations, mathematical techniques have been developed for allocating resources. ...
Buildings have a significant impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions. Smart buildings a... more Buildings have a significant impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions. Smart buildings are deemed to play a crucial role in improving the energy performance of buildings and cities. Managing a smart building requires the modelling of data concerning smart systems and components. While there is a significant amount of research on optimising building energy using the smart building concept, there is a dearth of studies investigating the modelling and management of smart systems’ data, which is the starting point for establishing the necessary digital environment for representing a smart building. This study aimed to develop and test a solution for modelling and managing smart building information using an industry foundation classes (IFCs)-based BIM process. A conceptual model expressed in the SysML language was proposed to define a smart building. Five BIM approaches were identified as potential ‘prototypes’ for representing and exchanging smart building information. The fid...
This paper draws attention to project trade-offs significance in project management and criticall... more This paper draws attention to project trade-offs significance in project management and critically reviews the current state of the knowledge on the elements to be considered and the methods to resolve trade-off decisions. Traditionally the elements to be considered in trade-offs are mainly limited to time and cost and to some extent quality or risk or the well-known Project Triangle. The trade-off methods are also dominantly developed based on mathematical models familiar in Operations Research. The limitations of traditional approaches in identifying trade-off elements; the constraints of the common methods of trade-off resolution; and the necessity of compatibility between resolution methods and features of trade-off decisions are highlighted. The researchers‟ approach and methodology to fill the gap between the realities of project trade-off decisions mainly based on the compatibility of the decision problem characteristics and capabilities of the decision making method are desc...
In the scheduling of construction projects, conflicts can arise when activities require resources... more In the scheduling of construction projects, conflicts can arise when activities require resources that are available in limited quantities. Mathematical techniques exist for allocating resources whilst retaining minimum project durations. One such technique is ‘LINRES’, a heuristic algorithm devised by researchers at Northumbria University in the UK who demonstrated the advantages of LINRES over 32 existing heuristic rules, in trials on a hypothetical project (Abeyasinge et al., 2001). Following this hypothetical test of the algorithm, the present paper reports on the live implementation and empirical testing of LINRES on a real project. The project was an important section of the Shariati Combined-cycle power plant, carried-out by the MAPNA Company in Iran: namely, the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG). Research was carried out to investigate if the LINRES algorithm could improve the scheduling of the HRSG construction, which took place in 2002. Data from the project were simult...
For over fifty years, dating back to the Simon report (1944), commentators on the UK construction... more For over fifty years, dating back to the Simon report (1944), commentators on the UK construction industry have been lamenting the design-construct divorce and advocating earlier contractor involvement to produce, inter alia, better quality buildings. Since 2003 a substantial part of the addition to the value of UK new building stock has been in the form of schools. Most have been delivered through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and the majority of projects within BSF have been procured under a modified PFI (PPP) system. This of course means that early contractor involvement is a 'given'. Despite this, in 2006 a CABE report on new schools was still critical of their quality. The paper explores whether other factors – in particular the degree and timing of user-engagement – have had an influence on the quality of the end product, and presents a method for testing this. Keywords: building schools for the future, design process, design quality indicator, us...
The need for a major re-think of our approach to project management education has begun to emerge... more The need for a major re-think of our approach to project management education has begun to emerge. This re-think is being driven by the growing dominance of project management as the model of delivery in many private and public sector organisation across a wide range of requirements and its limited success in achieving all objectives. Sustained development of project managers is here considered to depend on adopting a radical approach to their education which focuses on encouraging their development as competent reflective and creative professionals.
One of the main problematical operational issues in construction projects is the co-ordination of... more One of the main problematical operational issues in construction projects is the co-ordination of building materials to arrive on site at the right time, in the right quantities, and at an acceptable quality level. The number and details of the steps involved in the material life cycle indicate the complex nature of the process and the potential for problems in the process for even a relatively small project. This heightens the need for more flexible and sophisticated project management tools to support collaborative geographically dispersed participants in the simultaneous planning and scheduling of tasks, and their execution, and they must highlight the critical technical and business risks that challenge successful material procurement. This work illustrates the use of a SharePoint environment to tackle problems in the interesting field of material supply chain, from the point of view that collaborative working is necessary in the materials supply chain environment. Hence, it jus...
In developing techniques for monitoring the costs associated with different procurement routes, t... more In developing techniques for monitoring the costs associated with different procurement routes, the central task is disentanglingthe various project costs incurred by organizationstaking part in construction projects. While all firms are familiar with the need to analyse their own costs, it is unusual to apply the same kind of analysis to projects. The purpose of this research is to
There are two ways to analyze the problem of construction nonperformance (not on time, not meetin... more There are two ways to analyze the problem of construction nonperformance (not on time, not meeting the quality expectations of the owner, and not having cost increase change orders). The first is a project-specific approach, which assumes that the problems are being caused by the uniqueness of each project. This approach stresses: finding solutions in better trained personnel and craftspeople, more standards, construction management, and inspection. The other is a process approach, which assumes that the problems are being caused by the process. Performance-based procurement uses the process approach. It hypothesizes that the current price-based design-bid-build procurement process is inefficient, supports an adversarial environment, is devoid of performance information, is highly inefficient, maximizes management and inspection instead of quality control, and treats highly differential construction products and services as commodities. The Performance Information Procurement System...
With spending for computer and networking hardware, software and services projected to exceed a t... more With spending for computer and networking hardware, software and services projected to exceed a trillion pounds by 2005, the potential for greater involvement of ICT in the creation of organisation wealth could be hampered by an extremely high rate of project failures in ICT industry projects. The poor performance of the ICT industry in deploying its products has been demonstrated
ABSTRACT A ten year study of construction performance has resulted in a conclusion that construct... more ABSTRACT A ten year study of construction performance has resulted in a conclusion that construction industry performance problems are being caused by the client's delivery process. The hypothesis of the research is that the client has created a price-based environment which forces a technical solution to construction issues. Modeling has been created which deductively shows that the problem is being caused by the client's selection of contractors rather than the type of delivery process (design-bid-build, design-build, or CM@Risk). A solution is proposed in the paper which uses the concepts of outsourcing, quality control (rather than management and inspection), continuous improvement with minimal client control, and a process based upon leadership rather than management principles. One of the major design requirements for the process is that the client must receive best value (best performance at the lowest possible cost) and the contractor must maximize their profit. The deductive design is supported by test results over the past ten years.
In construction scheduling, conflicts can arise when activities require common resources that are... more In construction scheduling, conflicts can arise when activities require common resources that are available only in limited quantities. To overcome this, while retaining minimum project durations, mathematical techniques have been developed for allocating resources. ...
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