Editor’s Note
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132, Issue 10
This issue contains a variety of technical papers covering several topics: Contracting (3); Labor and Personnel Issues (2); Organizational Issues (1); Project Planning and Design (1); Quantitative Methods (2); Information Technology (1); and a Technical Note related to construction-associated solids loads with a temporary sediment control. Additionally, there is a discussion and closure related to a paper titled, “Evaluation of the Resource–Constrained Critical Path Method Algorithms,” by Kim and de la Garza.
This is also the inaugural issue of a new section to the Journal called the Industry Forum, which includes industry practitioner perspectives on critical research–related issues pertaining to construction engineering and management. Academic researchers can obtain ideas for future construction–related research projects and practitioners are provided a platform to share their views on key issues facing our industry. Dr. Samuel Yen-Liang Yin, CEO Ruentex Group, authors the first industry forum related to the importance of innovation to our industry’s long term success and the sharing of knowledge from many participants at institutions of higher education, research institutes, private businesses, and government agencies. The Industry Forum will be published when as suitable articles are received. These articles are meant to be between one to three pages and will be reviewed by the Journal editorial team.
Contracting
“Logistic Likelihood Analysis of Mediation Outcomes”: Mediation is the popular alternative dispute resolution choice in Hong Kong due to its cost–saving, flexible, speedy, confidential, and voluntary attributes. Yiu, Cheung, and Mok report a study that employs a three–stage logistic regression to predict mediation outcomes respective to the tactics used. The models suggest that satisfactory outcomes are positively correlated with mediation tactics such as “Ice–Breaking,” “Trust Building,” “Encourage for Self–Improvement,” and “Process Control.”
“Exploring the Bidding Situation for Economically Most Advantageous Tender Projects Using a Bidding Game”: With the increasing emphasis on the quality and value of procurement, Economically Most Advantageous Tender (EMAT) has been widely adopted as an alternative contract–awarding criterion, which has changed competitive strategies in the construction industry. Perng, Juan, and Chien establish a conceptual model of competitive bidding in EMAT to reflect the credibility of the bidding situation. Afterward, a bidding game for EMAT projects is performed by 24 participants to test the model, upon which conclusions are drawn regarding the effectiveness of the model.
“Conflict Resolution in Construction Disputes using the Graph Model”: Authors Kassab, Hipel, and Hegazy present a formal approach for systematically resolving construction conflicts. Using an actual case study, a decision support system based on the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution is employed to effectively investigate the strategic interactions that took place between an owner and a general contractor, concerning the financing of a construction project. The graph model is then used to perform an in–depth stability analysis in order to ascertain the possible compromise resolutions or equilibria. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the model is then performed.
Labor and Personnel Issues
“What Does the Construction Industry Value in its Workers?” Srour, Haas, and Borcherding present the social and demographic characteristics of a sample of 862 construction workers that were interviewed in 2002, as a part of a research effort at the University of Texas at Austin. Via statistical analysis, the paper explores the relationships between workers’ attributes and how the industry compensates them, as reflected in both hourly wages and average annual incomes.
“Physical Risk Factors and Controls for Musculoskeletal Disorders in Construction Trades”: Adoption of the Washington State Ergonomics Rule in 2000 initiated seven different demonstration projects in nine high–risk construction trades. Spielholz, Davis, and Griffith present summaries and results of each project with the aim of providing the results to construction professionals and researchers seeking to identify and reduce injury risks and building costs. The projects identify “Hazard Zone” risk factors as defined by the rule and note feasible solutions in agreement with company partners to mitigate these risk factors, evaluated by ergonomist field observation and working group analysis.
Organizational Issues
“Stimulating Construction Innovation in Singapore through the National System of Innovation”: Lim, Ofori, and Park examine the national approach to the stimulation of innovation in construction. The authors establish a model based on a qualitative systems thinking approach using the assumption that local contractors’ key motivation for innovation is based on profit maximization. The research findings indicate that while high profit levels provide a higher growth momentum compared to the social desirability of innovation, the latter is associated with a number of obstacles whereas high profit levels do not impose any significant hindrances.
Project Planning & Design
“Lean Processes for Sustainable Project Delivery”: Lean production principles have been proven to reduce waste and improve process performance in highly complex development and production environments. Lapinski, Horman, and Riley report a study that identifies the presence of value and waste in a sustainable building project. Through an empirical investigation of the Real Estate and Facilities Division of Toyota Motor Sales, Toyota’s capital facility delivery process is mapped to identify both, the steps in project delivery critical for success and those that are waste. Through post hoc process–based analysis, insight about added value and waste in sustainable project delivery at Toyota is obtained.
Quantitative Methods
“Determining Attribute Weights in a CBR Model for Early Cost Prediction of Structural Systems”: Doğan, Arditi, and Günaydin compare the performance of three optimization techniques namely, feature counting, gradient descent, and genetic algorithms, in generating attribute weights that were used in a spreadsheet-based CBR prediction model. The model is tested by using data pertaining to the early design parameters and unit cost of the structural system of 29 residential building projects. The results indicate that genetic-algorithm-augmented CBR performs better than CBR used in association with the other two techniques.
“Entropy Application to Improve Construction Finance Decisions”: In financial decision-making processes, the adopted weights of the objective functions have a significant impact on the final decision outcome. Entropy, a quantitative measure of uncertainty, has been useful in exploring weights of attributes in decision making. Authors Tang, Leung, and Lam employ a fuzzy and entropy-based mathematical approach to solve the weighting problem of the objective functions in an overall cash-flow model and demonstrate its application in multiproject cash flow situations.
Information Technologies
“Evaluation Model for Information Systems Benefits in Construction Management Processes”: Yu, Lee, and Kim suggest an evaluation model for information systems benefits in construction management processes. The model is based on the evaluation of information systems implementation benefits at the construction management task level, highlighting four basic measures as the fundamental evaluation criteria. A case study is performed to validate the model via statistical analysis.
Construction Materials and Methods
In the Technical Note, “Construction-Associated Solids Loads with a Temporary Sediment Control BMP”: Cleveland and Fashokun introduce the results of a study to determine the effectiveness of a temporary rock filter dam that was part of the pollution prevention program for a highway construction site. The results are compared in a before-during-after approach and an upstream-downstream approach, using a two-sample t-test for differences in the mean values during the different construction phases. It is determined that construction activity caused a sixfold increase in total solids leaving the construction site during the work.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132 • Issue 10 • October 2006
Pages: 1023 - 1024
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Published online: Oct 1, 2006
Published in print: Oct 2006
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