Construction Research Congress: Wind of Change: Integration and Innovation of Construction

The shortage of skilled construction workers in the United States is a long-term and structural problem that at times may be alleviated slightly during a recession but will continue to worsen as time progresses. The reasons behind the shortage are numerous, ranging from a poor image of the industry, to declining real wages, to poor work environments and the lack of a stable worker career path. Incentives and wage increases represent some of the solutions used to address the situation but are difficult to sustain without a comprehensive, long-term strategy to support them. An alternate approach is the Two-Tier work force strategy. Developed with senior industry advisors and researchers from the Center for Construction Industry Studies (CCIS) and the Construction Industry Institute (CII), it is comprised of two work force management strategies, Tier II (CCIS) and Tier I (CII). Tier II is designed to improve workers' skills and productivity creating a situation where the value of the workers is increased (Borcherding et al, 2001). The goal of this increased value is increased wages and longer careers in the industry. The other strategy, Tier I, is designed to efficiently manage an existing workforce, regardless of its skill level. The focus is on organization, communication, and utilization of field management. Both strategies are defined by metrics that measure the degree of implementation. The metrics represent the ideal goal of the strategies without prescribing the methods of implementation. Both the Tier I and Tier II implementation metrics must be tested and refined using baseline data. Approximately 25 projects have been volunteered and at the time of this paper, data has been collected from 13 projects with over 500 construction workers interviewed. The characterizations of the workforce and the preliminary Tier I findings are presented in this paper.

Shortages of skilled construction workers and their consequent impact on project performance have been reported with increasing frequency over the last few years. Several diverse factors have contributed to the problem, including decreased real wages, transient nature of work, poor industry image, lack of training, and lack of a worker-oriented career path. Various studies to address individual issues have resulted in limited successes. However, none of these approaches has comprehensively addressed all the issues within a single framework. The Center for Construction Industry Studies (CCIS) at The University of Texas at Austin has proposed a work force management strategy, referred to as Tier II, to address the need for a comprehensive approach to the problem. Projects executed under the Tier II strategy would utilize fewer, better-educated and skilled workers who perform craft functions and some lower-management functions and receive higher compensation, while delivering improved or comparable project results. With the participation of industry leaders, labor organizations and experienced highly skilled craft workers, the strategy and its implementation metric have been developed. The metric has two broad categories: (1) project worker skills and (2) project execution. To date, baseline data has been gathered from 12 industrial construction projects located in seven states within the USA, including surveys from over 500 workers. An equivalent number of projects are scheduled for gathering additional data by the end of 2002. Preliminary findings suggest a strong potential for implementation of the Tier II strategy as a structured work force management strategy under which the technical and management skills of workers are recognized, utilized, and remunerated. Refining the Tier II strategy is an objective of gathering current baseline data. If proven successful, this strategy will mitigate the shortage of skilled workers while maintaining or improving project performance.

The construction industry is facing an unprecedented, nationwide shortage of skilled labor. Construction is the second largest employer in the country and according to a Construction Industry Institute study 75% of contractors are experiencing labor shortages that are manifesting themselves as cost overruns and/or schedule delays. This crisis has been a long time coming and our current culture has not helped the problem. Young people who don't go to college are seen as "failures," and fewer native-born Americans want to work with their hands, outdoors—at any wage. In fact a group of high school students surveyed about attractive careers listed construction 498^th out of 500 possible occupations. Not only does construction have an image problem, but also the workforce composition of the future is largely minority and women, a challenge for an industry that is dominantly and traditionally white male. In order to face this labor shortage head on, the industry must swallow a bitter pill — Change or continue to accept increases in project cost and duration. In response to this challenge, several contractors and construction entities have begun to develop innovative new programs to recruit more individuals to the construction trades, including charter schools, community outreach and active participation in high school career guidance by apprenticeship programs. More construction companies are realizing that diversity practices add economic value to their customers. They are establishing mentoring programs for minority and women contractors and employing consulting firms to assist them in acquiring these new cultural competencies. Other firms are focusing their efforts on creating a working atmosphere that embraces a diverse workforce, complete with worker training on how to effectively deal with the changing workplace culture. What positive effects are these approaches having on the overall problem? Should these individual efforts to improve the image of construction and its thrust for diversity be aligned? This paper will attempt to highlight the successes that some programs have achieved and what new innovations they invoked in their endeavors. Additionally, it will address areas where the efforts could successfully be combined.

The shortage of skilled construction workers is considered to be one of the greatest challenges facing the U.S. construction industry. Advances in construction equipment and material technologies, modularized components, and estimating and scheduling strategies have offset the shortage of skilled construction labor. However, there is a perception among industry leaders that the skilled worker shortage is getting worse. The shortage of skilled workers poses a considerable threat to the competitiveness of the U.S. construction industry. There have been many reasons offered for the drop in construction labor availability from the drop in construction real wages to decline of construction unions. One other possible reason is a drop in worker satisfaction in construction. Using data from the General Sociological Survey (GSS), this paper examines the changes in worker satisfaction among U.S. construction workers from the 1970s, 1980s, to the 1990s. Changes in construction worker satisfaction are compared to changes in the general population to examine their uniqueness. The paper also examines how changes in worker satisfaction have occurred in both union and non-union trades. The analysis examines how worker accomplishment, opportunity for advancement, working hours, job security, and income relate to job satisfaction and how they are influenced by occupation and education attainment. An understanding of what promotes a construction workers' job satisfaction should improve management's ability to get the most out of the current workforce and increase its size for future needs.

Advancements in construction are concentrated largely on producing innovative practices to perform construction projects in an efficient and timely manner. Understanding the relationship between performance on the job site and level of productivity is important to develop best and innovative practices to improve construction productivity. This paper explains the ongoing research project within Alberta construction industry to identify the most critical aspects in terms of human, external and management issues that affect construction productivity. The pilot study interviewed very experienced personnel from the construction sector not only to prioritize the factors but also to identify the measurement criteria to improve future construction projects. The second phase of the research and the deliverables are also outlined in the paper.

Factors affecting construction productivity in Thailand were disclosed in previous studies carried out by the authors, which confirmed that the construction industry in Thailand has experienced problems like many other countries. The objectives of this paper are to ascertain foremen's perception of factors affecting construction productivity in Thailand and to confirm the results obtained from earlier research on the same aspects. To do so, 57 foremen working in the construction industry in Thailand completed a structured questionnaire survey. The factors were ranked by the use of a relative important index (RII) and results indicate that the six factors that were rated to have more than a moderate effect on productivity in Thailand are lack of material, incomplete drawings, lack of tools and equipment, rework, change order and tools and equipment breakdown.

The industrial construction sector in Alberta is facing a period of rapid growth and, consequently, shortages of skilled workers in many trades. A low rate of apprentice utilization in the industrial sector, combined with an aging construction workforce, makes labour force training and renewal a significant issue. In an effort to address this issue, the Construction Owners Association of Alberta (COAA) has established a goal of developing an industry Best Practice on how to improve the on-the-job portion of apprenticeship training. This paper presents an overview of the research methodology and key findings of a pilot study that was conducted to help identify the most effective level of apprentice utilization in an industrial context. The COAA's recommendations based on this study for an industry Best Practice on the effective utilization of apprentices are presented.

This document specifies the effects of absenteeism and turnover on labor productivity for the electrical contracting industry. Losses in efficiency were studied on the macro (entire project) and micro (task specific) levels. Percent absenteeism on the macro level is defined as the ratio between the number of craftsmen that fail to appear for work to the number of craftsmen employed, and on the micro level as the ratio between the number of craftsmen who fail to appear to the original number of workers who were assigned to that one specific activity. Percent turnover was studied on the macro level and identified as ratio of the number of craftsmen hired to replace those who have left to the number of craftsmen employed. This document begins by reviewing literature on the subject and presenting qualitative information determined from 98 responses of a comprehensive questionnaire detailing absenteeism and turnover from both manager and electrician perspectives. Data for the micro-analysis was collected through a monthly data collection form from five on-going projects also located across the United States. Data for the macro-analysis was collected by questionnaire from 31 completed electrical projects located across the United States. Statistical analysis techniques such as, P-Value Tests, Two sample T-Tests, Analysis of Variance, and Multiple Regression were executed to develop quantitative relationship curves. The results showed distinct relationships on both levels with losses of efficiency depending on project specific factors. This paper also lists best practices for electrical contractors to assist in reducing absenteeism and turnover within their company.

This paper describes an engineering productivity measurement system and proposes a neural network modeling approach for estimating the engineering productivity. The methodology has been applied to steel drafting. Firstly, the research focused on measuring the work scope of steel drafting projects. A method of quantitatively measuring the work scope was developed based on installed quantities, which is the quantity of steel pieces in terms of their physical characteristics. With the developed consistent measurement standard, a neural network model for estimating drafting productivity was developed and implemented using influencing factors appropriate to project conditions. Historical data collected through an implemented data acquisition system in a steel fabrication company were prepared for neural network training and model validation. This predictive model streamlines and increases the accuracy of earlier estimating process, which was highly subjective.

Changes in the engineering and construction industry during the last half of the 20^th century may have affected the ability of designers to obtain appropriate construction knowledge. The "Designer Construction Knowledge" research investigation included surveying architectural, engineering, and construction industry professionals on the current processes they use for training design engineers and architects on subjects related to construction methods and processes. The information obtained from the research project is summarized in this paper. The results of the research indicated that designers obtain limited knowledge related to construction processes.

The trend in managing construction disputes is to design the most appropriate dispute resolution (DR) mechanism to be incorporated into the contract, thus avoiding disputes or quickly resolving them when they do arise. In addition to traditional arbitration, many new, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms have been developed. Most construction contracts have either one of the DR mechanisms, or a combination of them in the form of a multi-tiered DR mechanism, incorporated into their contracts, particularly for large international construction projects. Such development has been acknowledged as the "disputology" in all construction activities. For disputes in international construction projects, there are more than just rights and interests of the parties to be considered. It is proposed that previous studies on pattern of disputes relating to "interests-rights" could be extended to consider other factors including politics, law and cultural compatibility in international construction projects.

A wide variety of alternatives are available to forecast future outcomes; methods range from intuitive to systematic processes. Forecasting construction volume should be an interest for all stakeholders in the construction marketplace. Contractors, especially, will benefit because they will be making management decisions and planning for future market trends on a short-term basis. Thus in this study, the authors compare the forecasting performance of two methods, simple and complicated models, and provide a decision support tool for short-term construction volume forecasting. Various forecast evaluation methods explored in this study include: Mincer and Zarnowitz's method; Theil's U and U2 statistic; Mean Square Forecasting Errors (MSFE); and turning point errors. Forecasting realization diagrams are also utilized to compare the degree of error deviations. Furthermore, advantages of a combined forecasting method are discussed. In conclusion, the authors recommend using a simple method in forecasting future construction volumes because it is comparable to the complicated model in forecasting performance.

This paper describes the design of an ongoing pilot study on construction field rework measurement. It describes the measures developed, which include an industry standard classification system for identifying the causes of field rework, and an industry standard index for quantifying field rework. The data collection methodology is described, and the problems encountered and solutions found are presented. Using this methodology over time, the construction industry can develop an industry standard method of measuring field rework and assessing its causes, so that solutions can be developed to help prevent field rework.

The objective of any constructibility program is to identify elements of a project that can be modified to make the project easier to bid and to build. Such a review can help minimize the number and magnitude of change orders, disputes, cost overruns, and delays during construction. This involves enhancing the input of construction knowledge and experience during the design and planning stages of a project. The type of construction, scale of a project, and owner will influence the implementation of a constructibility process. This paper reports the results of a study that is examining how to implement constructibility practices on projects for a state transportation agency. In particular, it examines the common barriers such as the availability of time and manpower. The paper further identifies some of the most common constructibility issues that arise on highway construction projects, such as utilities, right-of-way commitments, traffic control, as well as other issues. Some possible resolutions to these issues are also discussed. One element of some constructibility programs is a "lessons learned" system, which is a formal process designed to collect, organize, and disseminate constructibility knowledge from project to project. The paper examines the barriers and success factors of lessons learned systems implemented by state transportation agencies. Recommendations are also made regarding successful implementation of constructibility programs and lessons learned systems on highway construction projects.

To meet the technology requirements outlined in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), semiconductor-manufacturing facilities must be built quickly, more cost effectively, and with high quality standards. The construction industry has traditionally experienced difficulties in maintaining a balance between supply and demand of labor for these high tech facilities due to the cyclical swings and localized nature of the semiconductor industry. When construction is in high demand, skilled labor generally is in short supply. This is particularly true for a semiconductor manufacturing facility where unique skill sets are pivotal for successful completion of a fast-paced, capital-intensive project requiring high caliber skilled labor. How can the design/construction industry deal with this issue of unavailability of skilled labor? One approach could be to better utilize existing training resources. Alternately, improved resource forecasting could result in plans that would better match the number of new employees with projected industry needs. To address these issues, a research project was undertaken by CREATE, an advanced technology research consortium at Arizona State University, to identify the resource requirements for the design and construction of a semiconductor manufacturing facility. The research study outlines the skills and labor requirements from programming (initial design) to the completion of a model base-build facility. The results from this research indicate a high demand for a skilled labor force, especially for the mechanical and electrical trades, during the construction phase. Data collected from additional fabrication facilities will help create a resource model, which will assist in forecasting the demand of skilled labor for a proposed project.

This paper introduces three concepts: Drucker's knowledge worker from the "Post Capitalist Society," Just In Time (JIT) principle from Toyota's application in lean manufacturing, and Information Measurement Theory (IMT) to identify the potential impact of performance information in the delivery of construction. The three concepts are used to structure the construction delivery system into an efficient information system, which makes best value procurement effective and useable. The paper defines the difference between a construction manager and an information worker, shows how less information is more effective than more information, and how a full information system is the most effective method of regulating performance. Many of the issues of performance information are resolved by the concepts including how to compare subjective and objective criteria, how to minimize litigation over performance information, and the obstacles in implementing the information system.

Modern concurrent design and construction is common in the industry due to increased demand for faster time-to-market. However, despite its promise of speed, increased uncertainties and complexities in concurrent design and construction can make the project more difficult to handle. Main reasons for the potential risk include iterative quality improvement actions and change cycles introduced during the execution of concurrent construction that creates subsequent impacts on the project performance. In this context, this paper presents a framework for quality and change management in order to capture iterative cycles and their impacts during actual execution, particularly, in concurrent design and construction.

Reducing the cost of construction is a primary concern for owners, designers, and builders of facilities. Today, project teams often perform constructability reviews during the design phase to identify design constraints that limit a constructor's ability to perform construction operations effectively and increase construction cost. However, the current manual process is time-consuming and prone to error and does not identify the cost implications of constructability problems. Consequently, many constructability problems either go undetected or unnoticed, resulting in inefficiencies in the project delivery process and increased construction cost. This paper describes a vision for on-line computer tools that provide cost-specific constructability feedback to help project teams develop more cost-effective and constructable designs. Through a case example, we outline new functionality and the corresponding formalisms and mechanisms needed to model the cost implications of different constructability problems and identify the specific design conditions that impact constructability and increase construction cost. These contributions will allow project teams to leverage IFC-based product models and enable the necessary functionality to identify constructability problems and their impact on construction costs early in the project delivery process.

With a view to undertaking a comparison of contractor performance in Japan, the UK and the US, the development of a new methodology for comparing performance internationally is briefly presented. A hypothetical construction project forms the platform of the methodology thereby allowing comparable and representative data to be collected. A critical review of performance measures is then presented. Client satisfaction is considered to be the principal measure of contractor performance, and for this the traditional dimensions of cost, time and quality are still considered appropriate. However, in the interests of a sustainable construction industry, the goal of client satisfaction should not be at the expense of contractors. As such, sustainability is presented as the fourth dimension of contractor performance. Early indications from on-going research suggest these dimensions to be appropriate for the comparison of contractor performance. Results suggest some significant differences in performance levels against each of these performance measures across the three countries.

The disintegration and asynchronous resource flow causes problems in process performance, scheduling, and is responsible for large amounts of wasted resources. This paper discusses the opportunities of a site-based web-site that serves as the central hub for real-time communication, monitoring, and control of critical resources in construction. Such a web-site offers opportunities that go far beyond the well known WebCam. The paper lists a series of applications that have been tested at construction sites in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to helping contractors plan and control the resource flow in real time the site-web-site serves also as a tool to: a) create daily reports electronically, b) solve problems that require the input of various experts, c) inspect quality, d) measure and improve productivity, e) automate on-site-security, f) communicate with on-site equipment, and g) create as-builts automatically. It is felt that the key obstacle to implementing a site-web-site is the competitive nature of construction which discourages openness and information sharing. This paper presents a strategy which could be used to establish a framework for assessing the economic benefits of creating collaborative relationships between general contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers, etc. This strategy is founded on game theory and value sharing.

State departments of transportation are adopting formal computer-based sign management systems to help manage large inventories of roadside sign assets. These systems identify signs that are deficient with respect to placement location, visibility, reflectivity, overall condition, and other criteria. A sign management system also facilitates the planning and execution of replacement activities by sign type, facing material, age, geographical area, and/or route designation. From a liability standpoint, the system permits the agency to demonstrate periodic inspection activities and document a prioritized replacement plan for defective signs. Ideally, the sign management system should be tied to a geographical information system (GIS) so signs with a given criteria can be superimposed on a roadway map. Placing a bar coded label on the signs facilitates sign distribution from central shop locations. Incorporating selected digital photographs into the computer system database permits management evaluation of unique conditions that can not be adequately described in the system file data. This paper will discuss the methodology used by the authors to plan and implement the pilot project and forecast the labor and equipment resources required for statewide implementation. The pilot project examined a number of alternatives for the utilization of GIS, bar code, digital photography, and database systems technology. The pilot project also examined alternative organizational structures and labor utilization strategies required for field inventory and inspection, computer data entry, and overall system utilization. Also, the paper will compare the very specific implementation recommendations contained in the authors research report to the implementation plan adopted by SCDOT. The rationale used by SCDOT for adopting the statewide system and allocating implementation resources will also be discussed.

Construction design projects are multi-disciplinary requiring input from several players including planners and design professionals. Project managers have developed techniques for planning, organizing, monitoring, and optimizing complex design projects. The Critical Path Method (CPM) is traditionally the most commonly used to address these issues. Various techniques have been added to CPM like splitting the activities to optimize projects duration. However, the CPM approach is based on workflow and is not effective in handling iterations, which is a characteristic of design projects. Also, while CPM can effectively handle sequential and parallel activities, it cannot handle coupled activities. The Design Structure Matrix (DSM) approach represents information flows in addition to workflows in a project. The DSM method can handle sequential, parallel, in addition to coupled activities. The study reported here involves the application of DSM for design projects, and describes an algorithm to optimize planning of design processes. Using DSM and through finding critical activities, management focuses on the essential information transfer requirements in the project, thereby minimizing rework, and improving throughput and design quality.

The paper describes the development and application of a neural network based approach to predicting the process time in a linear construction workshop. Specifically, the workshop situation considered was the production of molded timber strips. The objective was to establish an accurate means of estimating how long a molding order would take to process, thus to enable more efficient sequencing of multiple jobs and to provide customers with accurate estimates of delivery dates. The neural network model was developed to predict the production rate of molding (linear feet per minute) as a function of a range of independent variables (including molding profile, type of timber, and thickness of timber). A number of alternative neural network architectures were studied and their performances compared, and a sensitivity analysis was undertaken to identify the importance of the various independent variables. Training and testing of the neural networks was undertaken using a set of 3,000 sample jobs collected during 1998 and 1999. The neural network proved to be a viable approach to modeling this type of linear process. Suggests are provided for further improving performance of the model by use of alternative neural systems.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards relate to the safety of the construction site, the implementation of safe work practices, and the safety of temporary structures, such as fall protection, ladders, scaffolding, and excavations, all of which are typically part of the constructor's responsibility on a project. The engineer's scope of work, namely the design of the permanent structure, is not directly addressed in the OSHA standards. Nonetheless, engineers are required to be involved, as stipulated in some regulations. This paper describes a study involving the identification of those OSHA regulations that address the role of the engineer in ensuring a safe construction project. OSHA regulations that incorporate reference to engineers and those that could be fulfilled through design modifications were found through an electronic search of the OSHA regulations. This search identified those provisions that require the involvement of a licensed professional engineer. These provisions were then categorized to understand where an engineer's input is specifically required. As part of the review of the OSHA regulations, each provision was also examined from the viewpoint of how the design of the permanent structure could be modified to eliminate specific hazards and thereby avoid the need to address certain safety measures on-site. A list of design modifications was then created by which an engineer could assist the constructor in maintaining a safe construction site. If such recommendations were to be followed, construction safety truly would have its beginning in the design phase.

Construction safety has substantially improved, but has reached a plateau. A breakthrough transcending "Best Practice" is required. This paper considers current "Best Practice" to reveal its underlying theoretical assumptions. An alternative theory is proposed, based on the work of Jens Rasmussen, a leading thinker on risk management in dynamic environments. A research program is put forward to test and develop a new approach to safety management.

Work place safety is a central concern in society and in organizations, yet researchers decry the paucity of research on how safety cultures and climates are created, managed, and ultimately affect the performance of individuals and organizations. The general lack of research is especially apparent, and the absence of it particularly critical, in the construction industry. Occupations in the construction industry, in the United States and elsewhere, continue to be among the most, if not the most, dangerous to hold. As an example, from 1997 to 2000 more than 1000 workers were killed each year in the construction industry in the United States accounting for approximately 20 percent of the total number of work-related fatalities during those years. This percentage is more striking given that construction jobs account for only about 6 percent of the total jobs in the United States. Moreover, these high numbers of fatalities occurred in spite of presumed major safety improvements in the industry during this time.

Poor construction productivity is commonly caused by a lack of resources at the crew level. Providing proper resources is an important planning issue, requires significant effort, and is necessary to properly manage a construction project. Anecdotal data indicate that reducing these delays through effective management can significantly decrease total craft work hours expended on a project by as much as 20%. Considering the annual volume of construction in the United States, this reduction represents a significant potential cost savings. Our research indicated that some projects employ innovative management methods in order to improve productivity. These methods deserve study in order to identify and disseminate their fundamental elements. This paper briefly describes a procedure used to document and evaluate innovative management methods that improve construction productivity through the qualitative and quantitative assessment of intermediate impacts. Communication, empowerment, metrics, planning, and training emerged as common elements of the management methods. The paper emphasizes the structured short-interval planning efforts observed in two of the four case studies. The scope of this research was limited to active construction projects in the United States, and included union and merit shop contractors.

This paper presents a metric for measuring the success of the construction phase of projects. This metric differs from other success metrics in that it is quantitatively derived, and secondly, it deals with a single project phase. The impetus of this research was the need for a quantitatively-based construction phase success metric on a simple and measurable scale. Data used in this research are from the Construction Industry Institute's Benchmarking and Metrics (BM&M) database. Specifically investigated are 209 North American, fast-track, domestic, heavy and light industrial projects in excess of $15 million from the data base. Scoring ranges based on statistical distributions for construction cost growth, construction schedule growth, lost workday case incident rates, and rework factor are presented. An empirical equation is presented for calculating the construction phase success metric on a scale of 0–10. Construction phase success scores are calculated for projects, and a relative frequency distribution for construction phase success is presented, against which owners and contractors can benchmark their performances.

Resource leveling is a commonly used planning technique to avoid extraordinary demands or excessive fluctuations in labor and plant resources required for a construction project, which could otherwise lead to a drop in productivity or an increase in production cost. In performing resource leveling, many planners or managers would adopt standard heuristic approaches to obtain an acceptable solution. This is because mathematical methods are only considered suitable for small to medium networks due to the combinatorial non-deterministic nature of the problem. The leveling of multiple resources is also dominated by the chosen heuristic methods, e.g. whether by leveling multiple resources in series or through combined resource leveling. Although heuristic approaches are easy to understand, they are problem-dependent. Hence, it is difficult to guarantee that an optimal solution can be achieved. This paper proposes a new Genetic Algorithms (GAs) enabled multiobjective technique for optimizing the multi-resource leveling problem. Adaptive weights are introduced so that each resource is assigned with a certain priority. This could effectively avoid the dominance of only one resource through the optimization process, as the adaptive weights can `learn' from the last generation and guide the genetic algorithms to balance the search pressure among different resources.

The objective of this paper is to describe a computerized model for selecting a cost-effective slab shoring/reshoring scheme for construction of multi-story concrete buildings. The model is based on two main criteria: safety during construction and cost-effectiveness. As construction of high-rise concrete buildings moves up, shoring of lower slabs are stripped and placed on top of the just stripped slabs in order to cast the upper slabs. Some of the stripped lower slabs must be reshored to carry the additional construction load. Both safety and cost must be considered in a reasonable manner in order to determine the optimum shoring/reshoring combination for a particular construction. Factors such as cycle time (duration between casting of two consecutive slabs), concrete strength, building configuration and member dimensions, cost of shoring and reshoring materials, and labor productivity must be taken into account in order to analyze and determine the optimum combination. In this study, thirty customary and practical shoring/reshoring combinations are investigated. SHORING2, a program developed by Chen and Mossalam is used to analyze load distribution and check safety of construction. A database module in Access® is developed to store various possible building configuration data, labor and materials unit prices, and other material properties data. Another module developed in Excel® is used to compile and further analyze results from SHORING2 and Microsoft Access® modules. As a result, information on cost and duration of the construction is obtained. In the final operation of the system, the results are displayed in graphically Access® module. These results provide a helpful guide to users in choosing the best shoring/reshoring combination.

Pulled-in-place pipes for trenchless construction applications have traditionally consisted of Steel and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) material. While providing excellent documented results, these two materials require professional welding and fusion of their joints prior to installation. New developments have introduced two emerging pipe products that are rapidly gaining acceptance as alternatives to Steel and HDPE. These are Flex-Ring Restrained Joint Ductile Iron and C-900 Polyvinylcholoride (PVC) pipes. Centrifugally cast for transport of water, sewer, or other liquids, the Flex-Ring Ductile Iron pipe allows for up to 5 degree flexing and comes in diameters ranging from 100 mm (4 in.) to 900 mm (36 in.). Additionally, the boltless restrained connection provides flexibility, ease of assembly, and positive restraint against endwise separation due to pulling during trenchless installation. The restrained joint C-900 PVC pipe increases the tensile capacity of a standard bell-and-spigot PVC pipe by 35 times, while maintaining the ability to negotiate tight curves (i.e. min. bending radius of 19 m). Typically used in horizontal directional drilling and pipe bursting installations, both pipe products meet AWWA pressure standards making them suitable for pressure pipe applications. This paper provides discussion on these two emerging pulled-in-place products for trenchless applications and analysis of testing results supplemented with supporting field case studies.

Inspections are often conducted to ensure the safety and health of civil infrastructure systems, such as bridges, highways, and tunnels. Inspections involve both intrusive and non-intrusive (i.e., non-destructive) procedures to evaluate conditions and maintenance needs. Performed by experienced personnel with special equipment, inspections involve setting up instruments, collecting field data, analyzing information, and documenting the results. Often consultation with off-site experts is necessary. Unlike laboratory tests, these in-situ tests vary significantly from one site to another; furthermore, it is costly and time-consuming to set up instrumentation for these tests. Due to budget and resource constraints, most municipal, state, or federal agencies can only conduct periodic inspections subject to available personnel, resources, and budget. As a result, many problems that could have been detected and repaired cost effectively end up as major costly rehabilitation. New advances in information technologies—especially in sensors, mobile computing, and wireless communications—provide a unique opportunity to rethink the paradigm of infrastructure inspections. This paper presents an ongoing research project that utilizes these technologies for inspection tasks. A schematic design of the system is presented, followed by a discussion of relevant technologies, lessons learned, and the plan for the future.

Knowledge of concrete pressure is critical for the economical and safe design of formwork for concrete construction. This paper summarizes results a study conducted to improve the prediction of fresh concrete lateral pressures on formwork. Research tasks were to collect data published in the last 25 years on concrete lateral pressure against formwork, and analyze this data with regards to the effects of various cement types, admixtures, and placement rates. Recommendations are presented which include applying unit weight and chemistry modification factors to the previous ACI 347R-94 lateral pressure prediction equations and extending the placement rates over which the equations are applicable. These recommendations have been adopted in ACI 347-01.

The utilization of nighttime construction in highway projects has been increasing in recent years in order to alleviate construction-related traffic congestions and delays. In order to ensure quality and safety in these nighttime construction projects, proper and adequate lighting conditions need to be provided on site. This paper presents the findings of a recent study that focused on (1) identifying lighting requirements for nighttime construction operations in highway projects; and (2) developing a practical design tool to address these requirements. Survey and site visits were conducted to identify the current practices and requirements of highway nighttime construction operations. The analysis of the survey results have led to a number of important findings, including: (1) participant Departments of Transportation (DOTs) reported that an average of 17% of their construction projects involved nighttime work in fiscal year 2001; (2) standards to regulate work zone lighting were found to be lacking in many states as 60% of responses received from state DOTs indicated that they do not have lighting standards or guidelines for nighttime construction operations; and (3) the main challenges in nighttime construction lighting were identified to be insufficient lighting, non-uniformity of provided lighting, and glare to road users. This paper also presents a design and optimization tool to address the needs of highway nighttime construction operations that were identified in the above survey. This tool can be utilized by contractors in design and implementation of lighting arrangements, and by resident engineers in the inspection of lighting conditions on site.

Simphony is a simulation-modeling environment that may be applied to many aspects and fields within construction engineering and management. Simphony has the ability to provide decision support services for a variety of problems arising during the project life cycle. The focus of this paper will be given to tunnel construction by detailing the application of Simphony on three separate projects. These examples address the special purpose simulation templates within Simphony, and their use in addressing real life concerns regarding estimation, planning, risk analysis, and refining of the construction process. Discussion includes details of these example projects and the cost benefits identified.

Ground displacements and borehole stability are always of prime concern during trenchless technology installations under pavements, and in close proximity to existing buried utilities and structures. Stable boreholes also relate to successful completion of the projects. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), University of Missouri — Columbia, Michigan State University, and several industry participants have joined forces to conduct a research program to evaluate borehole stability. The objective of this research is to study the ground movements caused by pipe jacking, auger and guided boring and horizontal directional drilling methods. The soil displacement in the vicinity of the cutterhead, reamer and at the ground surface will be examined. To conduct the research, several field installations were conducted at the University of Missouri's Capsule Pipeline Research Center during the summer of 2002. In addition, an actual road crossing with pipe jacking method was closely monitored. The results of these unique field evaluations will be incorporated in the MoDOT specifications and guidelines and a summary will be presented in this paper. This will bring cost saving information for future MoDOT projects.

A substantial amount of research has been performed on the use of high performance construction materials and their effects on the anticipated frequency of maintenance and time to repair or replacement. However, practical implementation of this work has been restricted due to the difficulty of evaluating the cost-effectiveness and the life-cycle costs and benefits of alternative approaches in the preliminary design stages of projects, when decisions about materials are commonly made. The lack of simple methods for making quick life-cycle economic comparisons typically results in the use of conventional materials because they are well-known, although high-performance materials might actually be more cost-effective. This paper presents simple deterministic and probabilistic methodologies for evaluating comparative life-cycle costs for reinforced concrete bridge structures using conventional and high performance construction materials.

This paper describes a joint effort of twelve Chilean construction companies to introduce improvements in their project management processes. These companies participate in a collaborative research project to improve construction project performance developed by the Universidad Católica de Chile. The strategies followed for implementation include some key elements such as: training for action, collaborative sharing among companies, coaching and action research. All these aspects are part of an overall strategy to introduce principles of lean construction and better practices in the organizations. This paper describes a computer system developed to support implementation of improved management practices. The system uses the core concepts of the "Last Planner" system of production control, to develop a knowledge framework for management decision making. This framework, implemented in a computer system, provides the means to capture and manage data collected during project planning meetings and from the project information systems. The system provides valuable information for continuous improvement of the project. Three stages are identified during the implementation of the improved planning process: Stage I, initial status of the companies, Stage II, one year after the beginning of implementation in each company and Stage III, implementation of the strategy supported by A computer system. The paper reports continuous improvements in all the stages, with a notorious increase in speed of improvements in the third stage.

The Lean Construction Institute's (LCI) goal is to develop and deploy a new way of thinking about and practicing project management. Projects are conceived as temporary production systems, to be designed in light of the relevant `physics' of the task to be accomplished. It is claimed that complex, quick, and uncertain projects cannot be managed in traditional ways. Detailed CPM schedules, after-the-fact tracking, earned value analysis, and competitive bidding are inadequate to the challenge of today's dynamic projects. There are four roots of this Lean Construction approach: success of the Toyota Production System, dissatisfaction with project performance, efforts to establish project management on a theoretical foundation, and the discovery of facts anomalous (impossible to explain) from the perspective of traditional thinking and practice. The last of these four is explored in this paper, which presents the current state of construction management thinking as one of conflict between competing paradigms.

Production home building possesses characteristics similar to manufacturing processes (such as the construction of more or less similar houses repeatedly and a growing demand for mass customization of homes). Home builders generally utilize critical path method scheduling, cost estimating, and earned value analysis management tools to manage their production process. However, these tools are not responsive to many undesirable situations that arise during the production process, such as increasing cycle time and increasing amounts of work in process, both of which increase capital investment, decrease company financial performance, and slow product delivery to customers. This study examines relationships between cycle time, work in process, system throughput, new construction starts, and production system capacity using building permit data for new single family homes in Chandler, Arizona. The applicability of Little's Law, a basic equation used in factory production system design, to a residential production system is examined. This study shows a definite, predictable relationship between cycle time, work in process, and production system throughput. This study provides for further study of production system characteristics that have historically not been considered in construction management models, with the expectation of developing a new construction management system that will account for more of the characteristics of construction production systems that affect project performance and company financial performance.

During the past decade, manufacturing and service industries have greatly increased their levels of productivity, quality and profitability through the use of lean methods and information technology. Despite these advances, the majority of construction work is based on time-honored techniques, attended by fragmentation (due to increasing sub-contracting), supply-chain deficiencies and high defect rates. These factors typically result in wasted labor and materials. Estimates indicate that up to 30% of construction costs is lost to inefficiencies, mistakes, delays, and poor communications. As global competitiveness increases, so will the expectation of higher levels of productivity in the delivery of constructed facilities. Increasingly, customers in other industries expect their suppliers to be flexible, communicative, and responsive to their needs in today's fast-paced business environment. Construction organizations that fail to utilize the foregoing approaches will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. This paper proposes a combination of lean techniques and e-business approaches to overcome these shortcomings. A framework is proposed for providing technical support for lean methods and e-business applications, and for continuous improvement in the associated activities.

The paper endeavors to analyze the requirements to be set for a production system in construction, starting from first principles or, in other terms, from a theoretical foundation. It is argued that the theoretical foundation pertaining to construction production consists of three main parts: theory of production, theory of management and conceptualization of peculiarities of construction. According to present understanding of the theory of production, there are three views to production, each providing for a number of principles for the production system: transformation, flow and value generation. The theory of management implies that those principles are appropriately realized in all of the three generic managerial actions: design, operation and improvement of the production system. Furthermore, it is not enough to adopt generic requirements for the production system in construction, but rather it is required that the peculiarities of construction, such as one-of-a-kind production, site production and temporary organization are suitably accommodated. Lastly, it is required that all parts and aspects of the production system are synergistically coupled: the total optimum is sought, rather than a sum of local optima. The resulting theory-led requirements to a construction production system are summarized and compared to typical, present production systems in construction. It turns out that the present production systems do not - and are not even meant to - fulfill a number of crucial requirements. It is argued that this is the root cause of the internationally recognized malaise of construction. Current work aiming at defining and experimenting with a production system based on theory-led requirements is briefly reviewed.

Housing industry is continuously looking at various ways to industrialize its production process. Around one third of all houses are now produced in the factory setting and manufactured housing leads, in production numbers, among all factory-built housing. Since World War II, the manufactured homes have come a long way, from the trailers to one of the most preferred and popular forms of factory built housing. In 1999, around 21.4 million Americans lived in manufactured homes. It has been estimated that the annual need for housing units typically exceeds 2 million, whereas, annual housing supply has been around 1.75 million during the 1980's and is estimated to be around 1.5 million during the 1990's and 2000. In view of the increasing demand for housing units, the housing industry has tried various production approaches. In the process of industrializing their product, the industry is constantly identifying and solving many production process related obstacles. A major obstacle faced by the housing producers is the lack of guidelines for either converting old production plants or designing new plants to increase productivity. This paper reports on the on-going research in the area of manufactured housing production at Michigan State University. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation's Partnership in Advancing Technologies in Housing (PATH) initiative. The goal of this research is to produce systematic guidelines for the design of a layout for a manufactured housing production plant. For this purpose, the tools and techniques available in the field of industrial engineering and supply chain management disciplines were investigated. Space and proximity requirements in a production plant were developed and a layout design software program, FactoryPLAN, was used to generate production layout design alternatives. Finally, the detailed steps involved in the layout design generation process were compiled as a process model.

Supply chain management (SCM) is increasingly getting attention from companies involved in the delivery of capital projects, but some companies have strategically been pursuing SCM for many years already. Recognizing the different levels of SC maturity among engineering and construction firms, we intend with this paper to pique interest in SCM for those who are not yet practicing it. This paper describes a multitude of supply-chain tactics that one supplier organization has implemented. The company described in this case study designs, fabricates, and erects pre-engineered metal buildings and components. The company also has subsidiaries that manufacture other building products. Recognizing the value of SCM, competitors in this sector of the engineering and construction industry as well as companies in other sectors may want to assess under what circumstances these SC tactics apply to their business, and then rethink their business opportunities and corresponding SC strategy.

The growth in urban population in Third World countries has been dramatic in the last decades, motivating a very large demand for low-income housing. The offer of affordable housing units produced by the formal construction sector is not inexpensive enough to cover all the demand. This pushes many families into the informal construction of their dwellings, with very negative consequences on the quality of life. This paper shows research oriented to make legally built housing more affordable, by using the concept of progressive development.

To get a systematic assessment of a commercial building's environmental performance, the impacts that occur throughout the different stages of a product's life-cycle (raw materials acquisition and processing, manufacturing, use, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life) need to be identified and quantified. The environmental impacts that occur during the construction, maintenance, and end-of-life phases are not well known. Once those impacts are known along with the impacts from all building life-cycle stages, commercial building designs could be evaluated for their environmental impacts, areas or processes of significant impact could be targeted for improvements, and alternate building designs could be compared. This analysis is best performed using life-cycle assessment (LCA) which identifies each component of a system (all resource input streams and potential emission or waste sources), and applies mass-balance calculations (where inputs equal outputs) to them. This paper focuses on the construction processes for two of the most common building structure types for commercial construction: cast-in-place concrete (with steel reinforcement) and structural steel. A systems model of the critical processes involved with creating cast-in-place concrete and structural steel buildings is presented. For each activity within the process, necessary labor, material, equipment, and energy inputs as well as the ensuing wastes and environmental emissions are identified. The choice of study boundary, activity selection and detail, and direct vs. supply chain impacts are addressed. Process diagrams showing environmental impacts for cast-in-place concrete and structural steel are presented.

Managing knowledge is becoming more and more important within the construction industry because it is considered critical for the competitiveness of a construction firm. Managing knowledge is particularly important to the construction industry due to the unique characteristics of its projects such as multi-disciplinary teams, temporary team members, heavy reliance on experience, the one-off nature of the projects, tight schedules, limited budget, etc. Many initiatives have been undertaken within the industry itself and in the academic world to develop mechanisms and tools for managing knowledge within a construction firm and on projects. These address issues such as capturing knowledge, storing knowledge, and transferring knowledge. Despite these efforts, there is still very little understanding of the best ways to foster the creation of knowledge, less about how to capture it, and even less about how to ensure that knowledge is readily available to other individuals, project teams, and companies. The C-SanD Project (Creating, Sustaining, And Disseminating Knowledge For Sustainable Construction: Tools, Methods And Architectures) is being undertaken by Loughborough University, the London School of Economics, and Salford University. The aim of the project is to develop, test, and implement software tools which enable the capture and retrieval of relevant knowledge, and to embed these tools in working methods that enable the creation of new knowledge particularly in the area of sustainable construction. This paper presents some initial project findings and discusses the knowledge management issues identified during the case studies undertaken within the project. It highlights that little has been done to create and retain knowledge on sustainable construction. It concludes that there is much to be done in order to manage sustainable construction knowledge within the industry. The C-SanD Project is addressing this current need.

Hourly energy simulation and a life cycle assessment framework were used to evaluate the relative environmental impacts and energy efficiencies of the construction and operation of alternative technologies for providing space and domestic water heating, cooling, and electrical power for equipment and lights in buildings. Life cycle comparisons are presented for current practice (average U.S. power generation mix, electric chillers, and gas-fired boilers), high efficiency natural gas combined cycle power generation, and three building-integrated combined heat and power (CHP) technologies. The analysis demonstrates (a) a framework that supports decision-making regarding system selection and operational strategies to limit environmental impact; (b) the importance of a life cycle assessment framework, illustrated by the analysis of primary energy consumption, global warming potential, tropospheric ozone potential; and acidification potential; and (c) the importance of building load characteristics for the analysis of CHP scenarios.

Sustainable design and constructability are two keys for efficient design and construction that are often addressed separately from each other in projects. This paper examines the integration of these two initiatives on the Pentagon renovation. The examination exposes a synergistic relationship between sustainable design and constructability. This relationship strives to efficiently utilize resources and reduce waste in the project. The integrated organizational structure and design-build performance based contracting strategies at the Pentagon have assisted in the implementation of sustainable design and constructability. Connections between the two initiatives were found at the conceptual level, system level, materials level and in the design implementation process. Importantly, the analysis of the Pentagon reveals that the potential to improve the sustainability and the constructability of a project is enhanced when the two initiatives are integrated and approached in a combined fashion.

Environmental assessment of the built environment has generally used spatially and temporally insensitive evaluation methods that do not include uncertainty. Aggregated mass emission values in a pollutant inventory do not consider the distribution nor the characteristics of the context, resulting in a loss of information regarding their location, and emission rate. Hence, the impact valuation methods that use such inventories cannot include these aspects. Although modeling spatial and temporal emission distributions in the context of a life cycle assessment (LCA) can be data intensive, judgements regarding the intensity, duration, and spatial distribution of emission releases should be considered in impact analysis. Furthermore, evaluating uncertainty in a LCA has been acknowledged as an important aspect of the analysis. Data regarding construction, operation and maintenance processes, properties of substances, ambient concentration limits, and manufacturing processes of functionally equivalent systems or materials are all variable and uncertain. In order to enable a more comprehensive evaluation of environmental impact of the built environment life cycle, appropriate methods and models implemented in computational design and evaluation tool is required. A multi-aspect simulation-based approach using multiple models for environmental assessment is presented along with demonstrative analysis results. The computational tool uses distributed simulation modules for projecting operational effects, and includes models of geophysical systems and evaluative environments to estimate the temporal and the spatial distribution of an environmental load for use in the indicator calculation. The impact valuation method is an extension of a traditional material-focused LCA, and is based on an allocation for emissions and resource usage. The recursive Monte Carlo sampling is based on a pseudo-random number generator, and the probability distributions are primarily log-normal and normal. Uncertain parameters are described by a mean value, standard deviation, and distribution.

Being one of the biggest consumers of nature, it is not surprising that the construction industry has become the target of environmentalists and, more recently, government attempts to manage the environment more effectively. The construction industry needs to improve its environmental record and changing people's wasteful behaviour can make a significant contribution. This paper describes a research project which used Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour to investigate the attitudinal forces which shape wasteful behaviour on site. It concludes that site operatives' see waste as an inevitable by-product of construction activity. Although attitudes towards waste management are not negative, they are pragmatic and impeded by perceptions of a lack of managerial commitment. Waste management is perceived as a low project priority and there is an absence of appropriate resources and incentives to support it. Suggestions are made to bring about a more positive environmental culture on construction sites.

This paper looks at efforts to incorporate, critical thinking, teaming skills, and leadership skills in the curriculum for the Department of Building Construction at Virginia tech. These skills are in conjunction with the technical, managerial, and practical course offerings that make up the curriculum. Of particular importance is the cross year exercise we have been running over the last 5 years. Further the paper looks at the education for construction and how we might be able to do this better. The paper draws from two papers recently published at the Associated Schools of Construction Conference held in Roanoke, VA in April 2002.

People learn in different ways. Psychologists referred to these differences as cognitive styles that describe how people differ in cognitive traits such as perception or information processing. On the other hand, college study needs to be considered a profession in its own right requiring a large set of skills such as stress management, reading, writing, test taking, and metacognition. Research has shown that engineering attracts mostly students that learn best by regurgitation (55%) or theoretical study (22%). It is not surprising that teachers in engineering feel that they serve the students best with lectures and homework problems, preferred method of learning by 80% of the student population. Furthermore, an experiment at NCSU demonstrated that young engineers that don't fit the "lecture-and-quiz" mode leave engineering (a fact that has been observed at other universities too). Unfortunately those are the people who are highly creative problem-solvers, representatives of a group that our profession needs more of. The paper will present data collected over many years of research in engineering education which highlight the desperate need in radical change in the way the universities teaches its engineering students.

The history of construction engineering and management education closely follows the emergence of the construction industry as an economic force in the United States. The initial introduction of programs in the post-World War II era was followed by specialization and the introduction of graduate construction specialties in the early 1960s as the industry demanded better educated and prepared professionals. The number of civil engineering programs offering construction graduate specialties grew from a handful to over 50 by the 1980s. Concurrently, the recruitment and development of CEM faculty became a primary focus of concern from both universities and the profession. Specifically, the lack of qualified individuals was recognized as a factor in successfully developing the CEM focus as an academic discipline. Today, that concern continues as CEM programs in the United States find themselves under attack by academic colleagues for issues such as lack of qualified faculty candidates and lack of funding opportunities, and by the construction industry for a perceived lack of knowledge about the everyday concerns of the profession. The combination of these forces has set in place the environment for CEM educators to work together as a community to reply to and resolve some of these longstanding issues. With almost half of the 120 active CEM faculty members graduating from only five universities, a common foundation is set to act as a unified community. Additionally, this sense of community should be strengthened by similarity in research focus. As outlined in this paper, a study of over 3,000 research papers establishes six common research eras from which the current CEM faculty originated. However, external forces such as research funding and promotion requirements continue to challenge this direction. This paper addresses this situation by examining the common history of the CEM faculty through a genealogical approach, the historical research record through an examination of the publication record, and the forces that are preventing the growth of a stronger CEM community.

Opinions vary as to the role graduate education plays in training Construction Engineers. Some practitioners feel that the Bachelors degree is a sufficient foundation and that further preparation requires on the job training in the real world. Others feel that graduate study expands the mind and is required to bring an engineering graduate to the level of a well educated professional. This paper will look at the issue from both perspectives.

Construction experience exposes students to construction methods and leads to an appreciation of construction capabilities, challenges and limitations. Actual construction experiences also tend to be more interesting and memorable than a typical classroom lecture. However, it is often difficult to bring construction experiences into the academic classroom. This paper describes how a variety of construction experiences are incorporated into several undergraduate courses in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy. The construction experiences vary from hands-on summer activities and classroom demonstrations to construction site field trips and guest speakers from the construction industry. These experiences are integrated into the curriculum beginning with a hands-on course during the summer after the sophomore year and continuing through the capstone course in the final senior semester.

In response to the perception that civil engineering undergraduate education was becoming increasingly compartmentalized as well as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology's (ABET) requirements for the development of communication and team skills, the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Kentucky developed a course to integrate the areas of civil engineering and develop these skills. After the course was offered as an elective for five years, it is now required of all civil engineering students and is designed to be taken in the students' last year of study.

In the fall semester of 2000 a project-based student Enterprise program was established at Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech). This is a project-based approach to learning where significant team projects and business elements are incorporated into the traditional engineering curriculum. In the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department the Pavement Design, Construction, and Materials (Pavement) Enterprise offers scholarships to students that participate in the Thompson Scholars program. This is an asphalt paving industry-sponsored program that addresses the needs of the industry in terms of attracting and educating future engineers. While skilled individuals are needed in all areas of construction, the asphalt paving industry not only needs people with traditional construction skills but also significant knowledge about material properties, construction operations, testing procedures, life-cycle cost analysis, risk analysis, leadership and teamwork. This is particularly true as this industry moves towards design-build and warranty contracts, which shift more responsibility onto contractors. This paper will discuss: the creation of the Pavement Enterprise; the benefits to the students and industry; the interaction of industry professionals in the Enterprise; a discussion on the Enterprise curriculum; the construction aspects of the program; and the internships in an asphalt related job. The program tries to develop a contextual method of learning by integrating class material with real asphalt paving related projects.

North Dakota State University (NDSU) was the recent recipient of a Bush Grant for providing support and training for NDSU faculty. As part of that grant, the Faculty Institute for Excellence in Learning (FIEL) was created. The author was selected as a FIEL Fellow and subsequently submitted a proposal and received funding to apply a problem-based learning approach to the departmental capstone course. During the summer of 2001, the capstone course was revised and restructured to meet the primary objective of the course. The basic philosophy, format, evaluation and assessment of the course came into question. The contents of this paper, 1.) describe the basic philosophy of the course, 2) describes the application of problem-based learning within the course, and 3) provides an explanation of the methods and techniques used to evaluate student work and provide for course assessment following the ABET criteria.

A simple model is proposed to define the territory of each of three functional areas that drive the construction industry. The functional areas are design of the physical product, design of the production processes together with the associated tools and equipment needed to carry out those processes, and management of the construction project. A fourth functional area, that of production management, is identified as worthy of consideration to be included in the family of construction professional disciplines. The goal of this paper is to provoke discussion leading to clarification and better understanding of the distinct roles that have emerged in the design and execution of construction projects. This should result in more enlightened and respectful interaction among professionals representing the functional areas. It should also lead to a better definition of opportunities for research supporting the development the body of knowledge underlying each discipline. Finally, it should lead to research into improving the interaction among the disciplines.

Technology is becoming an increasingly essential tool in most educational experiences. One sees technology incorporated in delivery of instruction in conventional classrooms, in enrichment activities, and in remedial programs. Technology applications are becoming an indispensable part of education on all levels, and it goes far beyond that when technological skills play a vital role in finding and retaining a job. One technique capable of enhancing the potential of technology in education is the electronic portfolio (A.K.A. e-portfolios/digital portfolios). The use of a portfolio as a teaching tool and alternative assessment instrument is not new for education or instruction. During the past decade, educators have been using portfolios as a viable method of demonstrating student learning in outcome-based education and professional preparation. Wiedmer found that the reported benefits of the electronic portfolio development process are similar to those that have been recorded for developing the hard-copy portfolio, while the enhanced medium offers additional ways to display unique talents and abilities. This paper presents a historical background on the development and evolution of electronic portfolios, together with some of the opportunities and challenges facing the development of one, and finally, an application of the concept of e-portfolios to the field of undergraduate education in construction management. The model used in the development of the suggested multimedia e-portfolio uses the SIPOC approach to quality management, including the five phases of supplier, input, process, output, and customer.

Early American civil engineers received their training through apprenticeships and work experience. Very few had formal education in engineering subjects. Through the 1840s men trained by working in the field were more often than not considered superior engineers to the academically trained engineers produced by the first engineering schools. As iron and steel began to be used in construction a science based future overwhelmed the earlier reliance upon the careful study of previous experience. But an engineer/designer has two duties: 1) to satisfy the needs of the owner and 2) to do so at the lowest practical cost. To satisfy those duties requires that the designer include detailed consideration of the construction process as well as of the completed facility. It is proposed that the real educational issue is how to prepare engineers and constructors to deliver a quality product to an owner.

The traditional approach to success in the construction industry, both in academia and in industry, places great emphasis on the ability to plan and execute projects. In the past, companies completing projects in a timely manner within an established budget and meeting required quality considerations have been considered successful companies. Minimizing an emphasis on management practices and organizational stability, companies with a track record of successful project completion have been considered the construction industries' top-performers. In contrast, other industries emphasize management practices at a corporate level as an essential element of success. However, the future environment of the typical construction company will be much different due to technological and economic advancements. Therefore, a shift in emphasis from project success to corporate success should be examined for construction organizations to compete in an ever-changing marketplace. This paper advocates the adoption of a critical success factor methodology to enhance construction organization success and identify elements that are essential for organizations to achieve this success.

In his treatise Nicomechian Ethics, Aristotle recognized the importance of emotions when he stated: "One must learn to manage our emotional life with intelligence." In other words, how can we bring intelligence to our emotions and emotions to our intelligence? Why do some people with high IQ fail, and some people with low IQ succeed? Successful intelligence represents the consilience of intellectual intelligence, practical intelligence, and creative intelligence. We measure intellectual intelligence by IQ, practical intelligence by years of experience, and creative intelligence—also known as emotional intelligence—by emotional quotient (EQ). Self-efficacy and tacit knowledge have been found to be the two most important characteristics for someone with a high EQ. Ninety-percent of the qualities or "competencies" that make someone excellent or better than average have been identified as characteristics of emotional intelligence. If education teaches intellectual intelligence and industry focuses on practical intelligence, do either learning experiences provide the environment to teach emotional intelligence? In our quest for successful intelligence, who is teaching our students to think "out of the box?"

Knowledge Management is of strategic importance to organisations wishing to remain competitive. Construction organisations rely extensively on their knowledge assets, expertise and human capital to undertake construction projects. This paper adopts a case study methodology in order to provide comparisons between the KM strategies adopted by UK construction companies and Canadian oil and gas companies. Detailed interviews were held with senior officials in both the UK construction organisations and the Canadian oil and gas organisations. The paper focuses on how KM strategies are developed, the processes and resources utilised. The paper finds that there is little difference between the UK and Canadian approaches. Some organisations are very much aware of the different interpretations of knowledge management whilst some do not use the terminology `knowledge management'. The paper also finds a strong reliance on IT-centred solutions with less regard given to the dissemination of tacit knowledge through non-IT mechanisms.

Ever increasing technological capabilities exist in the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) industry. Email, project specific websites, Computer Aided Drafting (CAD), and animations are but a few technologies adopted in recent years within the industry. The change methods used in the adoptions suggest a focus on technology, yet the technology itself is seen as a primary barrier to successful implementation. In general, the AEC industry is extremely slow to embrace available technology. The hesitation in adoption originates because technology is the driver of change, rather than an enabler of change. Therefore, technology focused change models are inappropriate to ensure successful technology implementation in the AEC industry. This paper discusses initial research results investigating the importance of each of these behavioral characteristic measures indicative of resistance to change.

Over the years, management fads have come and gone. Some have been good; some, not so good. None have made major impacts on the construction sector of the economy. Total Quality Management, Deming's 14 Points, and Partnering are a few such approaches that are aimed at making the business of construction a more pleasant and less adversarial business. All of these construction management approaches allude to, but skirt explicit address of, the fundamental element of construction management that is essential to achieving the goals in construction. That fundamental element is leadership. Following basic principles of leadership can eliminate the adversarial nature of the business. Those principles can make the project team a real team filled with emotional intelligence. Moreover, if the leadership starts with the owner, following the principles allow the adoption of new technologies that can make the construction process more successful to all stakeholders in the project process. This paper develops the principles of leadership in construction management, discusses how to apply these principles in a project setting, and discusses how the adoption of technologies is made easier by the application of these principles. This paper involves a case-study project in which these principles were applied, new technologies adopted, and all goals met or exceeded.

Global Change Projects (GCPs) are large, multinational projects that are the vehicle to enable strategic change for corporations, governments and foundations. Many GCPs take several decades from original initiation to full-scale operation. Shaping the project, finding funding, creating partnerships and fitting the initiative to the numerous interests of different stakeholders can take as long as 10 to 20 years. The sprint phase of the actual, physical realization of the project typically takes at least five years and the ramp-up phase at least additional two to three years. After these phases, the life cycle of the end result can be centuries. It is well known by agencies such as The World Bank that significant differences between sponsors' and other stakeholders' goals, values and cultural norms can impose large "institutional costs" on their global change projects. In their own project reviews, they have estimated that fewer than 30% of their projects achieve their stated performance objectives. However, the current state of knowledge does not allow The World Bank or other sponsors of GCPs to estimate the magnitude of a given project's institutional costs, nor to plan interventions to mitigate them. This paper focuses firstly on the causes of institutional costs in GCPs. Secondly, the paper discusses the background for research that we are initiating to create tools to estimate and control the institutional costs in initiating, planning, executing and maintaining the results of GCPs.

The construction industry traditionally evaluates success based on individual project performance. Because of this evaluation technique, there has been extensive focus to improve the efficiency and success of individual projects. This focus has resulted in a consistent evolutionary change in project management methods, from the development of CPM to the development of modern, computer-based scheduling and estimating systems. During this evolutionary development, the dominant attitude within the construction industry has been that strategic business management and long term business planning did not apply to the construction industry due to the constantly changing nature of the business/ projects. However, in the changing economic world, a resurgence of interest is occurring in the importance of organization management to the success of companies within the A/E/C industry. For an industry that has had the success of the individual project as the primary determining factor of success, this change in accepted thought will be slow to occur. Specifically, the impact of organization management practices on project success has to be determined and demonstrated before wide spread acceptance. However no bridge currently exists that connects organization management practices and project success. This paper explores the relationship that business management practices have with individual project success within the construction industry.

This paper reports on an investigation into the effect lack of management skills has on the performance of small building companies. The study noted that most of these companies are run by self-taught migrants who have poor communication skills. Despite this most of them are eager to improve their managerial skills and this paper canvases the idea that such a group needs a special educational strategy based on oral communication. The suggestion is made that a "mentoring" program may be the most efficient way of reaching these contractors.

Construction is a risky business, and subcontractors often find themselves in financial difficulty, which results in business failure. This paper reports the results of a study undertaken to investigate the primary causes of subcontractor business failure and to identify strategies for preventing failure. Construction industry bankers, bonding professionals, construction accountants, and specialty construction firm owners were interviewed to collect information regarding the primary causes of business failure, to determine if the primary causes varied based on the size of the construction firm, and to identify strategies that company leaders could adopt to prevent these problems and reduce the risk of business failure. There were some external economic factors identified that influence the profitability of a firm, but most of the causes identified relate to the business practices of the company and the lack of an effective business plan. The primary causes of business failure identified were insufficient capital/excessive debt, lack of managerial maturity, lack of early warning measures, increase in project scope, poor billing procedures, failure to evaluate project profitability, unfamiliarity with new geographical areas, and poor use of accounting systems. Based on the results of this analysis, risk management strategies were developed for small, mid-size and large firms.

Joint venturing characteristics and patterns found through survey-based research, conducted of the top 400 constructors and the top 400 architects (as defined by ENR) within the United States, are presented in this paper. The respondents provided information regarding their experience with project-based joint ventures, including their evaluation of success, operational characteristics, and other related factors. As change occurs in construction technology, as geographic, business and communications barriers are removed, and as project sizes increase, firms may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage when trying to secure projects. Project-based joint ventures are often used in the construction industry to assemble an organization that meets a client's project needs and matches or exceeds the capacities of competitors. The joint venture provides the means for a firm to quickly add resource, political, technical, or other required strengths that will increase project acquisition.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight an opportunity available to Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) faculty to facilitate leadership into Civil Engineering (CE) undergraduate education. Matriculating students today are not prepared to deal with the interpersonal issues attendant to addressing and solving today's CE activities, particularly assuming positions of leadership. A unique opportunity to rectify the lack of formal leadership preparation has been created by the change in the accreditation process. The shift from prescriptive criteria (doing what is specified) to outcomes (accomplishing goals and targets) via the new Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditation criteria is viewed as a major step toward enabling education change, reform, and innovation. This paper describes "what" constitutes leadership, "why" CEM faculty members are positioned to lead in this effort, and "how" leadership can be taught and modeled. If CEM faculty members fail to proactively integrate leadership principles into the curriculum, we abandon our responsibility to the profession and squander the opportunity to fully develop the intellectual assets of the future—the students—entrusted to us.

A great deal of time and effort are expended by employees at all levels of management and labor to find ways to improve their performance and the company's performance. The motivation for this improvement can vary, including ensuring job security, securing a bonus, beating the competition and improving profit margins, but these motivations do share a common thread. Improvements require measurements and measurements are based upon processes, and in order to excel in the business world, we strive to have the best processes to create the best performance. The solution is to create a culture of knowledge management in the workplace. When problems arise with safety or quality or customer service, companies are willing to instill a culture or plan to cure these ills, but when a company suffers from the inability to benefit from the knowledge that their employees possess or that the industry as a whole has to offer, then a culture of knowledge management is required. In simple terms, knowledge management is dedicated to capturing, preserving and communicating knowledge throughout a company. This can be done in a variety of ways, but the important component is that there is an active participation by all levels of management and labor to record and communicate the knowledge of the employees, to whomever requires it, for the benefit of the company as a whole. There are many potential benefits to beginning a program of best practices within your company. Whether to achieve a breakthrough in the industry, outpace the competition or simply preserve the knowledge of an effective employee for later use, a best practice program can provide the means to accomplish these goals. The goal of this report is to give the beginning or intermediate best practice program user a starting point and organizational structure to ensure a successful result to the program and a program that can grow as the company does.

In 2000, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) ranked America's wastewater infrastructure a grade of "D" and stated that the U.S. needs to invest roughly $140 billion over the next 20 years in its wastewater treatment systems. Of that total, roughly $10 billion is needed for upgrading existing wastewater collection system, $22 billion for construction of new sewer system, and $45 billion for controlling Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). With the increasing need for wastewater infrastructure rehabilitation, the need for effective infrastructure management system under budgetary constraints is crucial. The use of Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) for infrastructure management can contribute to the goals of reducing construction, operation, and maintenance costs. One mathematical tool that is viable for LCCA is probabilistic dynamic programming, which recommends optimal Maintenance & Rehabilitation (M&R) methods for each segment in the network. In many cases, the aggregate cost of applying the suggested M&R techniques to all segments within a network is often higher than available budgets. This paper describes a procedure to prioritize M&R programs to acquire a network-optimal solution. Efficient use of limited funds in construction, maintenance and operation of sewer systems will result in better quality of infrastructure and improved economic well-being of communities.

Managing capital assets throughout the asset life cycle requires a number of competencies. Owner companies maintain many of those competencies in their engineering and project organizations. These organizations are often involved in generating and maintaining assets. Over the last two decades owners have outsourced much of their project related work as the contracting community marketed engineering, construction and project management capabilities to facility owners. At one time, many owner companies did most of the construction work in-house. An owner company performing construction in-house is now considered an anomaly. For many engineering and project competencies the decision to outsource is not as easy as it is for construction. The owner-contractor work structure process was developed to evaluate owner and contractor competencies and determine the best possible sourcing strategy for each competency in the owner's capital program. This paper illustrates the successful application of the owner-contractor work structure process by a power company. The power company used the process as one tool to develop a strategy for improving the performance of their operating facilities by designing effective capital projects and outage management organizations.

The functional briefing (FB) process has a fundamental impact on the design, construction and whole life performance (WLP) of a constructed facility, yet it is widely believed to have limitations that can inhibit the success of a project. Clients are becoming more aware of the need to consider the WLP of buildings - that is, the through life costs and future performance of constructed facilities. There is also a growing realisation that the development of an integrated FB process is of primary importance in obtaining a successful project outcome. This is because FB is when the fundamental decisions regarding purpose, functionality, quality of design, materials and construction, budgets, procurement methods and constraints are made. Poor decisions in respect of any of these elements can have a negative impact on the WLP of the constructed asset. This paper argues that effective FB is vital for ensuring client satisfaction. It presents the results of an industry survey into the extent to which WLP issues are integrated into the functional brief. Details of the respondents and their views on the briefing process, as well as their understanding of the core elements of FB and WLP, are presented. The paper concludes that there is considerable scope for the WLP of constructed facilities to be improved by the development of a FB methodology that can facilitate the precise definition, analysis and translation of client requirements into a format that enhances their integration into the project process. The approach being adopted in a project that seeks to address this is also presented.

Over the course of its lifecycle, a project passes through various phases. The lifecycle properties associated with each phase, namely designability, constructability, operability, maintainability, recommissionability (reconstructability), and decommissionability (deconstructability), are attributes that represent the success with which the design has met the objectives of that phase. As part of a study of project lifecycle properties, the authors conducted a survey to understand the design professional's perspective. Designers were asked to list the lifecycle properties they addressed and rank the importance of each property to the success of a project. Information was solicited with regards to when and how the properties are addressed in practice, and how success in addressing the properties is measured. The survey revealed that while constructability is formally addressed more than any other lifecycle property, operability is considered the most important to success in achieving maximum value in the constructed facility. The level of consideration and importance given to each property, though, differ between design disciplines. Survey results indicate where in the project's lifecycle successes are most likely to occur. Understanding a designer's interest in and influence on these properties, and similarly the viewpoints of the owner and constructor, can facilitate optimization of the overall value of a facility by the project team.

Despite a recent resurgence of alternative project delivery methods, many within the construction industry continue to misunderstand the characteristics and implications of each system. Until misperceptions are clarified, project delivery systems will remain underutilized as a tool to improve the efficiency and to reduce the cost of delivering public infrastructure facilities and services. Project delivery systems offer owners choice in their search for value in infrastructure cost, quality, service and technology, but they cannot provide this choice if they continue to be misunderstood. Accordingly, the intent of this paper is to clarify each delivery system's characteristics and its potential role in infrastructure improvement by contrasting: design-bid-build, design-build, design-build-operate, build-operate-transfer and contracted operations & maintenance; specific case examples are included to highlight key considerations and elements of each system. In addition, the paper describes an ongoing research initiative to develop case studies that examine procurement strategies and practices where alternative delivery methods are utilized. These cases will underpin the formation of procurement and contract models designed to preserve public interests and to attract private sector participation in the public procurement process. By systematically reviewing solicitation processes, analyzing contract conditions and monitoring long-term performance, this research will increase the ability of owners, engineers and planners to think logically about project configuration and procurement by elucidating successful strategies for insuring transparency, promoting competition, allocating risks and aligning incentives.

Although the demand for assessing risks across the entire life cycle of international projects is apparent, a limited body of research and non-proprietary management tools exist to address these issues. This paper investigates the initial results of an on-going research project to facilitate systematic risk assessment to improve decision-making on international projects. The study underscores the need for suitable risk assessment methods throughout the project life cycle, and findings to date show that international construction performance can be enhanced when owners and contractors consider risks across the spectrum of a project rather than a one-time effort at the onset. Furthermore, risk assessment across the project continuum provides greater transparency in decision-making and optimizes project governance.

In the highly competitive and volatile advanced technology market, profitability of a new product depends upon `who makes it to the market first.' This puts an ever-increasing pressure to make production more responsive by shrinking manufacturing lead times. This translates to spending minimum time for programming by collecting the needed information in the least amount of time. To accomplish this, a more structured method of collecting, storing, sorting and retrieving the large amount of data is needed. Federal Standard 209E was the official U.S. cleanroom industry guideline for more than 40 years. It was sunsetted by the General Services Administration (GSA) on December 31^st 2001 in favor of new ISO standards to avoid potential economical disadvantage to the U.S. due to standardization efforts in the rest of the world. International standards were developed in an attempt to establish a global common denominator to enhance communication, eliminate trade barriers, and to provide generic guidelines for any industry that requires controlled environments (Cleanrooms). ISO 14644-4, Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments — Design, construction and start-up, provides guidelines for cleanroom design and construction, but it is too generic for direct use by the semiconductor industry. Construction Research and Education for Advanced Technology Environments (CREATE) at Arizona State University is developing a web based tool in ISO 14644-4 format for use in advanced technology facility programming. The objective is to provide a standard and structured methodology to collect, sort and retrieve information. The main benefits that the tool will provide are (1) Clear identification of project scope to minimize change orders and cost over runs; (2) Shorten the time required for facility programming; (3) Reduced programming cost; (4) Promote standardization across the advanced technology industry; and (5) Produce multiple ways of sorting and retrieving data.

The infrastructure system in the U.S., which includes bridges, tunnels, sewers, and other public works, has been deteriorating at a stunning rate in the last two decades. How to effectively maintain these structures at the minimum cost is an important issue as government funding sources become stretched. This research presents a methodology using the bridge deck expansion joint as an example to demonstrate how it may help in making the best rehabilitation decision and obtain the minimum life-cycle cost for the infrastructure system. The joint condition rating and cost data were provided by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). This model can be used to decide the timing of repair and replacement and to select the best rehabilitation method at the minimum cost during the life of an infrastructure. The total cost can then be used to conduct the performance evaluation, comparing different types of structures by using the total life-cycle cost. It is expected that this model could provide a convenient and efficient way of determining the best rehabilitation scheme and evaluating the life-cycle performance of the infrastructure system.

A project delivery and contract strategy defines the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved in a project and how the owner will pay for services. A project delivery and contract strategy also establishes the project execution framework. The development of a structured and integrated procedure and decision support tool that can aid owners in selecting the most appropriate project delivery and contract strategy for their capital projects is described.

Two separate construction projects that used different delivery methods and were managed for the owner by a part time construction professional are presented. One project used the classic design, bid, then build by using a low bid lump sum contract for construction. The second project selected a contractor during the design phase based on reputation and ability to perform the work. A negotiated Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) contract for construction was used for the second project. The author is a construction management professor and was the owners representative for these projects. The paper also briefly discusses efficient and prudent measures to ensure a successful endeavor when construction educators are working as a part-time construction management consultant.

State Departments of Transportation face a wide variety of challenges in serving their state constituencies. The public and the media often criticize the performance of agencies without always understanding the complexity of the issues faced by public transportation officials, including budget constraints, environmental concerns, and growth or no-growth initiatives. State Agencies are increasingly under public pressure to complete all aspects of their work, from long-term transit planning, to new road construction, to local maintenance operations, at a faster pace usually with less personnel. An increasing number of state highway agencies are turning to alternate project delivery systems such as design-build linked to help them deliver projects more quickly. Some agencies have found this is especially advantageous when replacing/upgrading sections of urban freeways which are overloaded with traffic and must remain open during construction. The lure of these alternative methods lies primarily in their ability to compress the schedule by overlapping design and construction and to create team synergies that can often expedite the project. Sanvido surveyed 351 building projects from 1992–1997 and reported that design-build projects were completed on the average 33% faster than design-bid-build projects. So while the increased delivery speed is appealing to State Highway agencies who are constantly under pressure to open lanes sooner, the concern is whether they are sacrificing quality for the sake of speed.

Departments of Transportation prioritize the completion of new construction projects because the law prohibits the award of projects without sufficient funding. However, the true priority for the nation's infrastructure is in funding the enormous backlog of maintenance and repair projects. These projects are a function of the quality of a project's design with respect to life cycle cost, and thus, the paradigm for transportation design should shift from "minimize first cost" to "minimize life cycle cost." The recent widespread use of design-build in the transportation sector creates a opportunity to maximize life cycle design issues through a design and price competition that is based on life cycle factors. This paper reports the results of a study to identify and analyze current methodologies for establishing appropriate design criteria using Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) for transportation projects. It found that there are a number of promising approaches currently in use for pavements. These methodologies have been successfully applied to design techniques that seek to define the most cost efficient design using LCCA. The paper shows how three existing studies used techniques to establish a uniform set of LCCA-based design criteria and demonstrates that these three proven methodologies can be applied to evaluating design-build technical and price proposals to achieve the best value with regard to life cycle cost. The paper concludes that public owners can easily utilize existing LCCA methodologies as the basis for DB design and evaluation criteria on future transportation projects.

Partnering construction projects during the past twenty years throughout the United States has become an increasingly popular, approach to total quality management. Despite its growth, the term "partnering" still connotes various meanings throughout the construction industry, and the results are often not quantified. Owners often ask how partnering can benefit their project, how much time and/or money can be saved? Most owners and contractors agree that partnering is a benefit to project performance, cost minimization and time efficiency, however the supporting facts are typically not quantified and are therefore not incorporated to justify these partnering claims. This paper reports the results of a study completed to provide an objective quantification of the benefits, limitations and drawbacks of partnering versus not partnering public construction projects at the City of Phoenix Water Services Department.

Effective management of unforeseen events at the post-contract stage needs the combined efforts of all major contracting parties in a collaborative teamworking manner, where the motivation of project participants plays a critical role. This in turn requires selection of appropriate `partners' with an emphasis on their `soft' qualities, to work under flexible contract conditions with suitable adjustment mechanisms and appropriate teambuilding protocols that would all be suited to a particular project. These conceptualized needs are discussed in the present paper, along with the summarized results from a series of recent Hong Kong based studies. Finally, a preliminary model for building a coalesced team comprising owners, consultants, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers is presented.

This paper presents some contractor perspectives on design-build contracting. There has been considerable literature written regarding the benefits of design-build from an owner's perspective, but little has been written from a contractor's perspective. This study involved selecting seven contractors from the Engineering News Record list of "Top 100 Design-Build-Firms" and interviewing local project managers using a common set of questions. The responses were then analyzed to determine whether or not there were any consistent themes. Contractors were most interested that the project scope was well defined, that there was a mutual understanding of the scope of work between the owner and the contractor, and that the owner had sufficient experience with the design-build project delivery method. Honorariums seemed to have little influence on some contractors' decision whether or not to pursue a project. The owner's reputation regarding treatment of contractors; the size, scope, and location of the project; and the contractor's current backlog were primary determinants regarding the decision whether or not to pursue a project. The contractors preferred that less than 35% of the design be completed at the time of contract solicitation to provide maximum opportunity for design innovation by the design-build contractor.

Early consideration of construction sequence can benefit designers and constructors by reducing design iterations and smoothening construction flow. Capturing and representing the construction sequence knowledge is critical for the incorporation of construction programming experience into the project design and the communication between project participants. This study aims to present a common representation format for designers and constructors to study the interactive impact between product and process. The Component State Criteria (CSC) knowledge representation method is presented as a semantic format to capture and reuse construction sequence knowledge in the Product Oriented Scheduling Technique (POST) context. This representation format depicts the sequence knowledge from 3 different layers: component state chain, component interaction, and intermediate function utility. With the help of CSC knowledge incorporation, the intermediate function utilities for construction can be transparently represented. This study may help evaluate the impact of various construction methods and sequencing alternatives on the design, and consequently constructability analysis of AEC product design can be more explicit and efficient.

This paper provides construction industry owners and contractors with current information about enhancing their operations using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Radio frequency identification involves the use of tags, or transponders, that collect data and manage it in a portable, changeable database; communicate routing instructions and other control requirements to equipment; and withstand harsh environments. This paper describes a pilot test using RFID tags to enhance the material management process on an actual construction project. It also investigates ways to integrate RFID technology throughout the project life cycle, improving productivity, cost, schedule, quality, and safety.

In order to diversify against risk in the industry and marketplace, reduce operation costs, secure competitive advantages and search for the most suitable profit base, the construction industry for some time has shown to have a highly fragmented subcontracting structure. In the traditional process of adopting subcontractors and procurement, for reasons of information asymmetry, benefit entanglement, uncertain factors, and ambiguous criteria for selection, the quality of tender invitation to select subcontractors frequently cannot be controlled well, finally resulting in inefficient management and poor project performance, especially for the practical use in projects that require many subcontractors under heavy time constraints. This research, following the macro viewpoint of systematization, the overall subcontracting participants of a construction project is considered as a global procurement system and a multi-attribute decision support system will be developed to obtain optimal combination of subcontractors selection under meeting the certain utility preference of decision-maker. Under the proposed framework of information system, the decision-maker can access a quicker support and have more analytical power to judge the final utility of subcontracting procurement.

A case from the authors' experience reveals that dimensional tolerance, in terms of physical dimensions of components and their position within the system; interact to compound the process variability and uncertainty within a project. Variability adds to the costs of a process with long cycle times, high work in progress levels; wasted capacity due to low utilization of resources; lost throughput, and a general increase in waste (poor quality and increased scrap). Early constructability research supports this observation: as it identified dimensional tolerances as a major factor in ease of construction and subsequently cost and schedule. Though constructability research has developed many tools for application to design, none appear to have focused on how to identify appropriate tolerances. In addition, other industries outside AEC have made significant improvements by carefully measuring and understanding the effects of tolerances within their systems. Quantifying dimensional tolerances for construction operations and materials, and developing strategies to mitigate their effects is therefore an important objective in research and design practice. Based on a case study, a strategy is recommended in which product designers are challenged to design systems that accommodate most process variability without compromising project goals.

Facilities are a major component of colleges and universities. They play a significant role in sustaining the quality of life for students, faculty, and staff. The physical inventory supports the learning areas, living quarters, research spaces, and work areas. Facilities require capital throughout their life cycles to maintain functionality and provide adequate service for their users. Presently, the rate of deterioration in United States' higher education facilities is increasing due to constraint budgets and the accumulation of deferred maintenance. Facility performance is considerably influenced by how well the project is planned, developed, designed, and constructed; considerations of maintenance requirements during the pre-construction phase may lower the operations and maintenance cost of the facility. Therefore, it is important to take a proactive approach to plan and design better facilities. This paper presents the preliminary results of a research that focuses on the knowledge discovery in maintenance databases. Applying the knowledge discovery process to higher education maintenance databases can help to discover knowledge on the parameters that increase or decrease maintenance cost, find patterns in building systems interaction and their environment, and identify the influence of planning and design on operations and maintenance. The case study illustrates one type of data-mining goals on a facility condition assessment database. It shows the clustering of building deficiencies and how they are unique to their relative building type.

This paper reports on experience inducting subcontractor process ontologies as part of research on the SEEK: Scalable Extraction of Enterprise Knowledge project at the University of Florida. We briefly review approaches to ontology generation and the application of those approaches to product/process ontologies in the AEC arena as well as process-oriented ontologies generated from a general business perspective. With limited exceptions, existing approaches have not taken an inductive approach. As such, this paper contributes a description of a two-phase inductive methodology to develop firm specific process ontologies. The methodology combines documentation of firm processes and information systems with a synthetically derived base ontology to specify and test a firm specific ontology. Brief findings from application of this methodology are presented. These findings frame description of the challenges eliciting ontological concepts and related data from firms as well as the challenges in representing process knowledge within existing frameworks and tools. Overall, induction is seen as a viable approach to AEC ontology specification, with a useful role in generating detailed ontologies that represent firms' existing processes, procedures, and terminology.

Eleven emerging systems interface standards are systematically characterized and assessed for their potential application and benefit to the facility design/construction/operations industry.

This paper describes how embedded knowledge can be used to convert design data into intelligent software agents. This allows documents to sense their environment and respond to it based on a localized set of data and knowledge. As a result, this approach allows document-specific customization of applications that operate on these documents. While this approach has a wide range of possible applications, this paper highlights the benefits of this approach to the task of Document Control. Specifically, this paper describes a new approach that uses embedded knowledge to provide document-side functionality to support document tracking and interactions with a Document Control server. The approach addresses the issues of detecting new versions of a document, passing knowledge to these versions, and allowing these versions to communicate with other documents. In addition, this paper describes a sample implementation that will highlight the benefits of the proposed approach.

The construction technology landscape is changing at a pace far outstripping the capacities of a single decision-maker to stay current and take advantage of new and more efficient innovations. At the same time, projects are becoming more diverse and complex, underscoring the need to exploit such innovations. Also, construction companies are becoming bigger and geographically distributed. There exists a need to develop an IT infrastructure to help in the capture and transfer of hard-earned lessons on previous projects across the entire enterprise. In this paper, we present an architecture for such a system. It permits construction users to bank knowledge gained from industry sources and previous projects, and readily reuse these in formulating construction strategies for new projects. Emphasis is placed on how a number of modular data sources specifying the product and process aspects of construction projects can be loosely-coupled to allow reasoning about construction methods and the generation of an initial schedule.

Model-based systems are being used increasingly as a framework for information sharing among architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management (AEC/FM) project organizations. Since a large percentage of AEC/FM information is stored and exchanged in text documents, there is a need to define methods to integrate text data in AEC/FM model-based systems. This paper describes an approach to automated integration of text documents in IFC compliant model-based systems.

Smart infrastructure systems (SIS) refer to the combination of smart structures (infrastructure equipped with smart systems) and the management systems that operate them. The efficient deployment of SIS requires the employment of equally smart management systems. This paper presents a UML-based framework for integrating the management of data generated by SIS into the decision making process of an organization. Several use cases and class diagrams are used to illustrate the flow of information between the various entities. The paper also summarizes efforts made to harmonize SIS terminology through an ontology that shows their interrelationships. Finally, a prototype computer system for calculating the life cycle costing for SIS is demonstrated.

Interoperability is one of the major themes of research and development in information technology for the architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management industries. A model-based approach to interoperability requires information structures that are standardized throughout the industry. The industry foundation exchange technology for exchanging information using IFCs has now been established, but many areas require additional development before a comprehensive interoperability solutions is reached. These areas include: extending the application area beyond product data to project management data; extending the domain beyond buildings to civil infrastructure; extending the standards methodology beyond structuralist approaches to hybrid approaches; extending the communication layer beyond data dictionaries to transaction standards; extending the exchange mechanism beyond file-based exchange to distributed system architectures; extending the level of integration beyond data interoperability to integrated systems; and extending the form of information beyond homogeneous structured data to heterogeneous data and knowledge management.

Information management in construction fieldwork incurs high cost and brings about low efficiency, because construction work involves various participants and informal data that circulate among them. To overcome the problems mentioned above, information technology is being widely adopted. And, in this regard, the Korean government has been trying to promote competitiveness within the construction industry by carrying forward CALS (Continuous Acquisition and Life-cycle Support). In particular, linking and sharing knowledge and information among the participants involved has not been as efficient. The currently used EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) was developed only for each company and not for all of construction participants. Thus, a new model to achieve a more efficient methodology for abstracting and applying information that are shared among the participants in a construction project is proposed. The Web-based XML/EDI Model is developed in three steps. In the first step, we analyze construction documents work flow and deduce its remedy. In the second step, we analyze existing EDI in the construction project and establish a developing reorient. In the last step, we propose a Web Based EDI Model based on the results from the previous step. This Model performs various tasks such as document creation, settlement, reception, dispatch, storage, and abolition of documents though the Web.

This papers presents the development of Knowledge Management (KM) environment, e-CKMI, tailored the Building and Construction (BC) sector in Europe. The e-CKMI is a Web-centred and ontology-enabled solution that has been implemented following the Web services model. The functional, architectural, and technical requirements adopted to guide the development of the e-CKMI design and implementation were developed based on input from a number of leading construction organizations. This paper devotes special attention to the ontology-related matters in e-CKMI, including guidelines, methodology, and the incorporation of already existing taxonomies and product models into the ontology. Additionally, both technical and technological choices adopted in e-CKMI are discussed as well as the current status of the e-CKMI implementation including the integration with the end users application. Future steps in the e-COGNOS development conclude this work.

The ability to capture important information and transform it into useful knowledge is critical to the successful operation of organizations within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry. Recent developments in information technology allow organizations to capture, store, analyze and retrieve information in ways that were not possible five or ten years ago. Examples of these technologies include data mining, advanced decision support tools, intranets, and decision indexing. To gain full benefit from these advanced information technologies, standardized methods need to be developed to capture, store and manage knowledge within the industry. This paper presents the progress toward the development of a detailed information architecture for structuring the knowledge and information that organizations within the AEC industry can capture, analyze, and retrieve. This information architecture includes a breakdown of knowledge related to projects (physical facility, processes and environment), other organizations, contracts, and the organization's environment.

The increased complexities of on-site construction process with subsequent need for complex information management has raised a need for advanced tools and techniques, which assist in the planning and management of the complex on-site construction process. Today there are a wide range of computer applications, which deal with the manipulation and representation of construction process information. However, almost all of the construction software applications are used throughout the construction project's lifecycle to deal with individual problems and support specific information requirements working in a stand-alone manner each with its own and unique information representation, file formats and terminology. As a result information sharing between applications is inconsistent, difficult and some times impossible without application specific translators, as the meaning of the information can be completely dependent on the context in which it is viewed and interpreted. Nevertheless, an accurate and consistent process information exchange between construction applications could benefit the construction industry tremendously in terms of time and cost of a project. One way of achieving such integration is through the development of a common representation of the underlying concepts of construction process.

A decision support system (DSS) for coordinated prefabrication production scheduling is described in this paper. The proposed DSS supports the four key elements of production (re)scheduling, namely, conflict detection, determination of priority for conflict resolution, generation and evaluation of alternatives/options for conflict resolution, and ranking of outcomes for negotiation. The system combines the use of an explicit constraints-based scheduling model, genetic algorithms (GA) for the determination of scheduling parameters and conflict resolution priorities, and constraint programming (CP) to facilitate the rapid determination of several alternative schedules subject to the requirement of minimum disruption of existing plans.

Construction projects are complex in nature and have many inherent uncertainties. These uncertainties are not only from the unique nature of the project but also from the diversity of resources and activities. In addition, external factors have a very significant effect on the outcome of a project. The objective of this project was to investigate the schedule risks and their effect on the new terminal building at Lester B Pearson International Airport. This paper reviews the risk analysis techniques common for schedules, namely PERT and Monte Carlo simulation. Then the application of Monte Carlo simulation to the terminal building construction schedule is discussed including the problems encountered during data collection and model integration.

Poor usage of space at construction sites is one of the leading causes of decreased productivity in the construction industry; however, it is manageable, and some instances preventable. This study focuses on how to efficiently manage space for construction facilities on high-rise buildings in congested urban areas where space for facilities around the building footprint is not available. The construction facilities layout plan provides a logical order and priority for space planning decisions with reasonable costs. Genetic Algorithm (GA) modeling assumptions are made in order to properly allocate space for facilities that will result in lower computational costs and increased in productivity.

Estimating tunneling time and cost performance is an extremely important and challenging task for all contractors during the construction planning and cost estimating phase of tunnel projects. The complexity of tunneling operations and the variety of associated uncertainties contribute to a significant amount of risk in the estimation of tunneling time and cost. Since conventional deterministic estimating cannot measure tunneling risks, particularly geologic uncertainty, in a systematic and quantitative manner, a stochastic approach is necessary for evaluating tunneling performance. This paper presents a stochastic methodology for evaluating tunneling performance by using discrete-event simulation. Different tunnel excavation and support methods when applied to different geologic conditions define different tunneling alternatives, which change the precedence logic of tunneling operations. Thus, the construction performance for each tunneling alternative in the project must be assessed separately. To organize tunneling costs, all work items in the project are categorized into divisions based on a work breakdown structure (WBS) designed specifically for tunnel projects. Cost items within each division are then classified into fixed costs and variable costs that depend on the selected excavation-support methods and the resulting tunnel advance rates. The tunnel advance rates for a particular alternative are determined by analyzing the probabilistic network of tunneling activities associated with that alternative. The duration of tunneling activities is expressed by time-estimating equations formulated by analyzing the work at the process level. Uncertainties associated with tunneling processes are evaluated by subjective assessment using the Perry & Greig method. The probabilistic scheduling networks for different tunneling alternatives are analyzed using discrete-event simulation performed in ProbSched, a graphical probabilistic scheduling program implemented as an add-in to the STROBOSCOPE simulation system. The simulation results provide probability distributions of tunnel advance rates and tunneling unit costs for all possible alternatives, which can be used to determine optimal excavation and support policies for the project. The stochastic evaluation of tunneling performance for the Hanging Lake Project in Colorado is presented as an example application.

This paper focuses on Web-Based Project Management Systems (WPMS) which can be rented or leased from application service providers (ASP) for a usage fee. These systems are referred to as "Project Management — Application Service Providers (PM-ASP)". The paper discusses an ongoing research effort to develop an analytical model to capture the critical success/failure factors of PM-ASP implementation in construction firms. This model is intended for planning and management of PM-ASP implementations, and for promoting the possibility of a successful widespread adoption of PM-ASP applications in the construction industry.

The idea for this endeavor grew out of concerns surrounding the dramatically increased volume of construction, estimated at more than $20 billion, planned and funded for the Puget Sound region over the next five to ten years. This volume of construction has resulted in a shortage of skilled labor, undesirable competition among local contractors, material shortages, project delays and significant increases in the overall cost of each project. To address these problems, this project develops a comprehensive monitoring system for project procurement practices, manpower supply and demand projections, and a scheduling model for the proposed projects in the Puget Sound region. This comprehensive scheduling model provides contractors and owners with availability and requirements of manpower on a project by project basis for all planned projects above a minimum size. This site analyses and produces actual labor availability projections that are immediately useful to contractors and owners in every area of the country, especially the north west. The website from Phase I of this project demonstrated proof of concept and implementation that can then easily be used to develop (Phase II) a website of national labor supply and demand forecasts, and likely productivity rates specific to future planned projects.

The Virtual Coach is a web-centric virtual environment that creates temporally dynamic clinical exercises known as situational simulations, with the intention of exposing participants to rapidly unfolding events and the pressure of decision-making. This paper deals with the temporal nature of the databases, which store all the data relevant to situational simulations executed by the Virtual Coach. The first part of the paper describes situational simulations and the relevance of distributed temporal computing. The latter half of the paper focuses on developing the temporal information used to establish temporal consistency of data. It also deals with query processing issues across client-server architectures.

Described in this paper is a generalized paradigm for planning and scheduling that is applicable to all project types, but which has exceptionally strong capabilities for modeling very large scale projects which involve significant repetition. Emphasis is placed on generalized activity-planning structures, generalized precedence relationships, true hierarchical scheduling, and schedule visualization. A realistic example is used to illustrate the concepts presented.

A construction site manager frequently makes real-time decisions on allocating resources (e.g., equipment) based on the dynamic status of the process on the field. Modeling and simulating these decisions are crucial to ensure a valid simulation of the process. This paper presents two methods based on the dynamic status of a simulation, addressed as objective function-based and control variable-based rules. The objective function-based rule defines an objective function for each activity which is competing for the resource. An activity is then selected if it has the optimum (either minimal or maximal) objective function value. On the other hand, a control variable is used as an indicator of the status of the process. Through structured conditional rules, it can be used to control which activity should or should not be allocated with the resource according to the updated value of the variable at the time when the decision is made. The algorithms are implemented in the ABC simulation system. A case study is presented to illustrate the usage and advantages of the presented methods. The results show an improved production, and more stable and balanced operational behavior of the process after human decisions are incorporated in the simulation. Through the animation function, a user can visualize on the screen that decisions are dynamically made corresponding to the status of the process and the decisions are similar to what a site manager would make on the field.

Construction sites are information intensive environments. Workers need a lot of information and tools to make on-site decisions, and the lack of access to these resources at the job site causes these decisions to be deferred. This can lead to delays in the construction process and increased cost. In addition, the complex nature of the construction process and the dynamic nature of the construction sites might lead construction personnel to overlook important tasks on their schedules. To address these issues, we have built a context-aware information system designed to deliver up-to-date project information to the construction site. This system helps the user to manage the complexity of the construction data by proactively tracking current resource requirements and proactively obtaining access to context-relevant information and services. The system is targeted to run on off-the-shelf handheld computing devices and uses wireless network for communication. This allows continuous access to data and resources as users move around the job site. This paper describes the architecture of this system and shows the benefits of context-aware computing for on-site information delivery at a construction site.

In complex construction projects, superintendents need to coordinate equipment space requirements and allocate workspaces to major pieces of equipment properly to avoid equipment related spatial conflicts. These spatial conflicts can cause delays at the start and at the completion of activities resulting in possible late completion of a project and in claims between involved parties. Currently, some commercially available 4D CAD systems enable spatial representations of the dynamic motions of equipment operations. This paper discusses the technical capabilities of a commercially available 4D CAD system to model, visualize, communicate, and coordinate spaces required by equipment. It summarizes the benefits and limitations of equipment space representations on a large-scale construction project using a 4D CAD simulation system and states some recommendations for improvement.

Due to the dynamic nature of the construction site, the planning of workspaces required by construction tasks is difficult, with various research efforts focusing on this problem. 3D visualisation techniques are becoming increasingly used in the construction industry for various applications, and one such area is the support for construction space planning. This paper reports on the development of an interactive virtual reality system that allows the allocation and visualisation of construction workspace in a 4D (3D+Time) environment. Preliminary research highlighted that one of the most problematic areas for space planning involves specialist trade contractors. The development of the tools described in this paper was undertaken with input from various specialist contractors in the UK. The paper describes 3 developed tools. The first allows the construction planner to assign `strategies' to tasks and building products to develop `dynamic' construction plans that show progress of construction and in progress products during each week of the project. The second presents an interactive mark up tool that allows planners to add space objects to each weekly layout and the final tool allows the viewing of the construction (including work spaces required) in a 4D virtual reality interface.

Drafting in two dimensions by both hand and computer is the main form of producing construction drawings today even with recent technological advancements in computer technology. Currently in the AEC Industry, the increasing complexity of projects in addition to the decreasing contract period requires proactive project-delivery systems. The traditional construction design and planning tools currently in use, such as bulky rolls and stacks of two-dimensional (2D) blueprints and reams of specification do not support the timely and integrated decision making necessary to execute projects quickly and effectively. In the past decade much work has been done on 3D virtual environments but unfortunately most of these have been limited to architectural and engineering models. Although 3D computer graphics have been available to the AEC industry for some time, relatively few companies use this idea to generate construction documents. This research focuses on the idea of Pre-construction Computer Anatomic Modeling and shows how to use this concept for pre-thinking the project before it is built and as a communication tool for all the parties involved in the construction process. The research was designed to prove that if a project is built from start to finish in a virtual environment using anatomic modeling in the same manner as the actual construction, most if not all of the construction problems will be identified and addressed before they actually occur in the field, thus eliminating errors and delays in construction. A case study project was selected, its components anatomically modeled and the results were documented to illustrate the methodology.

The presented work extends the state-of-the-art in scientific simulation-driven 3D construction process visualization. We present a tool, ParticleWorks that engineers can use to visualize construction processes involving "fuzzy", unstructured, materials that are generally capable of flowing. Common processes that involve such fuzzy materials include placing concrete, dumping dirt, shotcreting, sandblasting, dewatering, water distribution, and inserting slurry. We capitalize on a classical computer graphics concept called particle systems to design simple, parametric text methods to represent arbitrary dynamic volumes of fuzzy construction materials in 3D virtual construction environments. Engineers can use these methods to instrument external authoring interfaces (e.g. simulation models) to automatically generate dynamic visualizations of any modeled operations that handle and process such fuzzy materials.

The Virtual Coach is a web-centric virtual environment that creates temporally dynamic clinical exercises known as situational simulations, with the intention of exposing participants to rapidly unfolding events and the pressure of decision-making. This paper focuses on visualization of information pertinent to the semantics of situational simulations in the Virtual Coach. It analyzes and classifies the information to be visualized, while addressing the broader issue of visualizing information in situational simulations in general.

The construction industry produces voluminous quantitative data. Much of this data is created during the controls phase of projects and relates to cost, schedule, and administrative information. Recent storage and processing advances in computers as well as display capabilities afforded by computer graphics increase the opportunity to monitor projects fundamentally different than existing project control systems. However, changes in project control methods have been slow to evolve. The lack of a fundamental model of project control data representation contributes to the inadequate application and implementation of visual tools in project control methods. Difficulties associated with the graphical representation of data can be traced to the diversity of skills required in creating visual information displays. Due to the reality that not all engineers/constructors possess these attributes in great strength, streamlining the process of how to best visualize data graphically is important. Visual representations of data hold great potential for reducing communication difficulties fostered by industry fragmentation. However, without information structure, organization and helpful visual explanations the massive amount of data available to project managers results in information overload. Therefore, improved information displays are needed to overcome the possibility of information overload with the capability of human perception. This paper discusses ongoing research to create a framework for visual representation in Construction. Underlying visualization theory, the visual framework, and an example representation are provided.

The paper presents an outline of a three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) computer model, and a FIAPP-based system for procurement and materials management, based on two case study projects in New York City. The developed FIAPP-based system is used for the purpose of providing the construction management team not only with a visualization tool, but also with related information for the procurement of services and materials, constructability reviews, and project controls for the project. The currently developed 3D computer model is to serve as the basis for 4D animation sequences of the project schedule and the basis for the bidding process and the subsequent procurement of all related services and materials. As part of this effort, the research team is developing a material-status monitoring system to be used in conjunction with the three-dimensional model that would enable the contractor and the construction manager to visually record and retrieve information related to the procurement of construction material. An example of such visual and object-based procurement tool is the "color-coding" of 3D objects in the computer model based on their procurement status (ordered, delivered, on-site, etc.).

This paper highlights an approach to Mixed Reality-based enhancement of design detailing and collaboration for the communication and shared perception of designs, essential to meaningful design development and review and construction planning. The approach is based upon a prototype Augmented Reality Computer Aided Drawing (AR CAD) system, which uses spatial tracking, graphics, and networking techniques along with standard CAD. Concepts and considerations are presented for Mixed Reality (MR)-based collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) and two application scenarios are described. Using this system, design collaborators may communicate either by shared interactive virtual model, object manipulation and gesture in a face-to-face collaboration or by shared communication space through spatial visual and audio cues combined in natural ways to aid communication in a geographically distributed environment. Human perception is explored to address visualization and perception issues associated with MR-based CVEs. Related research in psychology and human-machine perception is briefly cited as background and basis for future experimentation, and the further development of MR-based design environments where either individual or collaborative work can be done more intuitively, efficiently, and accurately.

This paper presents the results of the study of the influence of the design method on construction productivity in the area of installing the manufacturing tools in cleanroom facilities. Two new concepts were specially introduced to allow the comparison of productivity between the installations of various manufacturing tools. The two concepts are: Index of Complexity (IC) and Work Load Indicator (WLI). The IC is a measurement of the congestion around the tool and conditions for routing the connections. The WLI is the product of the IC and the number of connections of a certain type, such as piping, ductwork or electrical. The man-hours effectively spent by each trade to install various tools have been plotted against the corresponding WLI of each of the tools, and a regression analysis was performed on the resulting curves. The curves represent the expected productivity for tool installation and they are dependent upon the design method used. By comparing the productivity curves of tool installation when 2D design was used with the curves of 3D design we have determined what the level of complexity that warrants the use of 3D versus 2D is. The paper presents the logic behind IC and WLI, as well as the results of the comparison between 2D and 3D design.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is now being hailed as a foundation for the integration of organization-wide information systems. ERP systems link together an entire organization's operations such as accounting, finance, human resources, manufacturing and distribution, etc. Moreover, they also connect the organization to its customers and suppliers through the different stages of the product or process life cycle. There are very few studies conducted about the implementation of ERP systems in the construction industry, particularly for the construction contractors. The focus so far has been on client organizations, engineering and design firms. The objective of this paper is to investigate the suitability and the implementation status of ERP systems in contractor firms. The methodology employed is a mix of literature review, case studies and detailed questionnaire survey. It was found that the majority of contractor firms have awareness about ERP but very few organizations have so far implemented an internal system. The major reason is that the implementation of an ERP system requires a large investment in time, money and resources. However, when implemented to solve the right problems, these ERP systems can be a powerful tool for business improvement. This study sheds light on the barriers to the implementation of ERP systems in the construction industry and also highlights valuable lessons learned and benefits gained by companies that have such systems in place.

This paper looks at cultural issues of implementation an advanced web based information technology system for construction. Further, the paper looks at the potential for an advanced 3D+++ CAD system to be intertwined in this web based IT system. This combined web based 3D+++ CAD system can be the basis for a visual common language for all players in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction process. Cultural challenges are presented for implementing such a system.

Integrated design and construction teams rely on rapid information exchange between the design office and the point of work on site during construction. But existing means of communication are not compatible with the rugged setting of the construction jobsite, where both paper documents and electronic equipment may be easily damaged or destroyed. Recent advances in rugged, affordable, portable computers promise to dramatically improve communication between construction personnel at the point of work on site and their off-site collaborators. Using a wireless-enabled tablet or wearable computer, a field worker can access the project information needed to complete a task without ever leaving the point of work. Pen-based tablet computers are becoming a popular alternative to keyboard-input notebook computers. Wearable computers are in use today by emergency medical personnel, firefighters and others requiring extreme mobility and instantaneous information access at their point of work. This paper presents the results of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign study on this new breed of wireless-enabled portable computers for integrated design and construction. It discusses opportunities for saving time and money on integrated projects, and issues in implementing this innovative technology. Results indicate that tablet and wearable computers may significantly reduce rework, while productivity decreased slightly when tablet and wearable computers were used.

The construction industry can be characterised as fragmented as a consequence of its project-based nature and its quasi-firm supply chain (Eccles, 1981). Industry fragmentation may be decreasing with a shift from projects being regarded as independent entities towards an industry with an integrated activity flow through the supply chain. Information Communication Technology (ICT) forms the `glue' that binds the project supply chain members together, enabling closer and more effective coordination of project teams. A closer virtual engagement through ICT, together with increased acceptance of relationship based procurement systems such as Project Alliancing, has further cemented the shift towards supply chain activity integration. In this paper, we outline four case studies of Australian construction companies that have effectively embraced ICT as a tool for more productive coordination of their project teams. Through their use of ICT, these companies are preparing to embrace the concept of a virtual organisation linked by ICT to facilitate efficient project communication and information exchange for decision-making. These case studies identify how senior management has directed global strategy for change and the extent to which they have empowered team members at multiple-levels throughout their organisations to shape strategy and its implementation.

Technology enthusiasts, academics, and software companies remain concerned about the slow pace of innovation in the construction industry. Tools are widely available that seem to provide eminently sensible and glaringly apparent improvement to the process of design and construction of buildings and facilities. Why aren't they used? Because the monetary implications are not well considered. This paper explores the real business motivations of the construction and design firms who take on risk and reap reward in technology adoption. If they are motivated by enlightened economic self interest, it's clear why innovation is slow. Interested observers who wish to direct their work to the relevant issues can benefit from considering why and how the economic value of innovations actually flows through the system. Several financial models are proposed for representing those impacts. Innovation will come from other sources following disruptive business models. Four major methodologies promise true innovation — supply chain optimization, knowledge management, 3D design, and wrap-up economic models. These are likely to be adopted by new innovators and not by established firms.

This paper explores parallels in field information processes in two different construction sectors and operational domains, 1) field supervision in residential construction and 2) bridge and structure inspections. The work presented in this paper represents the first stage of a multi-stage project that will result in the integration of hand-held information technology (IT) tools to be used by field personnel for two-way field access to corporate IT systems. The first stage of the project looks at upgrading current office-based web access to corporate IT systems using hand-held tools. The second stage of the project looks at transforming current field processes to take full advantage of the new technologies in operating practices. Information flows and work processes of these two distinct domains were examined through interviews and field studies. Process mapping techniques were used to document field personnel interactions with the corporate IT system as well as data collection and information usage in daily work. Sample process maps are presented in the paper. Analysis of the process maps identified trigger points in project inspection and management, known as "ready," "set," and "go" points that become translated into field management tasks as planning, actuating, and reporting. An understanding of these trigger points is used to redesign interactions within the corporate IT system to provide maximum usability for field personnel and is expected to result in a more accurate corporate IT system. An interesting by-product of the two research projects in seemingly unconnected sectors of the construction industry is the similarities present between the field information requirements and interactions with the corporate IT system. The paper concludes with parallel strategies for transforming existing field practices using hand-held technologies developed in the projects.

Predicting and evaluating the future condition of underground infrastructure systems has become a necessity for municipalities as they try to strategically plan for short-term and long-term budget allocation. Current practice is to first assess the condition of sewer lines and then translate these ratings into predictive models. Numerous predictive analytical modeling techniques have been utilized including the use of straight-line extrapolation, regression models, Markovian models, non-linear regression, artificial neural networks, and simulation. This paper presents the methodology of a model concluded very recently using rule based simulation to predict the condition rating of the local sewer network maintained by the City of Edmonton, Alberta.

This paper presents the views of ten large construction contractors on two sets of issues relating to the impact of IT innovation on construction. Large contractors believe that web-based software that facilities electronic collaboration between project participants will have a large impact on the industry, but requires overcoming substantial barriers involving clients, subcontractors and architects. Large contractors also believe that mobile computing devices that can capture and transmit digital files and job costing data will eventually also have a large impact on the industry. Data-mining using company historical databases will continue to improve companies' estimating, marketing and project management capabilities.

The aim of the paper is to give a synthesis of current Research and Technological Development (RTD) initiatives and results in Europe in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). These initiatives have the aim to set-up an agenda for future RTD, so as to ensure that, in the future, all European companies from the building and civil engineering sectors achieve maximum business benefits from the adoption of ICT solutions in the knowledge economy. Especially, the paper introduces to the ICCI cluster project dealing with harmonization and integration of outcomes from major EC-funded projects, and the ROADCON project which is an IST Strategic Roadmap with the mission to develop a Construction industry strategic roadmap implementing an ICT-driven vision for the next 5 to 15 years.