Editor’s Note
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132, Issue 11
This issue contains a variety of technical papers covering several topics: Case Studies (2); Information Technologies (1); Labor and Personnel Issues (1); Organizational Issues (2); Project Planning and Design (1); and Quantitative Methods (3).
There are several organizational changes that have been made to the Journal management team. Dr. Paul Chinowsky will be replaced by Dr. Moonseo Park from Seoul National University. I look forward to having Dr. Park on the team and thank Dr. Chinowsky for all of his service and dedication to the Journal. I would also like to welcome Dr. Christine Fiori, Arizona State University, who will be working as an assistant specialty editor in the Organizational Issues area. Dr. John Gambatese will be departing as the Labor and Personnel Issues assistant specialty editor. I thank Dr. Gambatese for all of his dedicated efforts in helping to make the Journal a success. He will be replaced by Dr. Yong Bai, University of Kansas, and Dr. Janaka Ruwanpura, University of Calgary. I look forward to having them both on the Journal management team as well. The Journal is pleased to welcome, Dr. John Kuprenas, University of Southern California, who will assume the duties as Industry Forum specialty editor, which is a new position being created to allow industry practitioners to share their views and ideas on research needs.
Case Studies
“Construction Delivery Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Their Performance within School Districts.” Although specialty contractors believe that multiple prime is an advantageous system, many general contractors, architects, and owners believe that the system inherently has coordination projects. Col Debella and Ries aim to objectively analyze the performance of construction delivery systems within public school districts. The authors use both quantitative and qualitative variables for comparison as well as presenting descriptive statistics on the incidence of litigation in such projects.
“Rapid Bridge Replacement: Processes, Techniques, and Needs for Improvements.” Previous and possible future threats to United States transportation systems have presented an urgent need to develop emergency response plans to quickly react to the possible consequences of an extreme event. Bai and Burkett conduct a research project to identify rapid bridge replacement processes, techniques, and needs for improvement by studying three cases of previous bridge replacements following extreme events.
Information Technologies
“Modeling and Analyzing the Impact of Technology on Data Capture and Transfer Processes at Construction Sites: A Case Study.” A detailed case study conducted at a highway construction project demonstrated that missing and inaccurate data items result in non-value adding communication loops among construction personnel. In their paper, Akinci, Kiziltas, Ergen, Karaesmen, and Keceli use a simulation-based framework to model information flow processes from a job site to a field office to measure and highlight existing deficiencies and to model and demonstrate the effect of using automated reality capture technologies such as laser scanners and RFID tags in streamlining the data collection process for the same project.
Labor and Personnel Issues
“Linear Programming Approach to Optimize Strategic Investment in the Construction Workforce.” The construction industry in the United States and other parts of the world has been facing several challenges, including a shortage of skilled workers. Srour, Haas, and Morton present a framework to optimize the investment in, and to make the best use of, the available workforce with the intent to reduce project costs and improve schedule performance. A linear program model is built to provide an optimization-based framework for matching supply and demand of construction labor most efficiently through training, recruitment, and allocation.
Organizational Issues
“Only Dynamics Can Absorb Dynamics.” A study conducted in Israel examined the ways in which on-site construction project managers cope with the dynamic project environment of the modern construction site. Data gathered lead to the development of the star model by Telem, Laufer, and Shapira, which offers a multidimensional description of the dynamic patterns of the managers’ activities. In addition, the identification of a tentative relationship between contextual conditions that characterize the project environment and the level of managerial dynamics practiced by the managers is presented.
“Investigation of Critical Success Factors in Construction Project Briefing by Way of Content Analysis.” Yu, Shen, Kelly, and Hunter perform a study of factors that could contribute to a successful construction briefing—a complex and dynamic process that involves accurately identifying and conveying clients’ actual needs and requirements to the project team. The study aims to identify, categorize, and prioritize a general set of critical success factors for briefing through evaluation of a questionnaire given to experienced construction practitioners.
Project Planning and Design
“Approaches to Improving the Quality of Construction Drawings from Owner’s Perspective.” Construction practitioners have increasingly become more interested in and concerned about improving communications, coordination, and cooperation during the drawing and specification development process. Gao, Walters, Jaselskis, and Wipf conduct a study to examine methods to improve the quality of drawing clarity through the use of color drawings and other technologies. A survey is used to collect feedback from designers to better understand the current challenges and potential solutions.
Quantitative Methods
“Forecasting Project Status by Using Fuzzy Logic.” Li, Moselhi, and Alkass describe a forecasting method for predicting potential cost overruns and schedule delays on construction projects. The authors’ paper addresses the effects of a number of factors on project cost overruns and schedule delays by using fuzzy logic. The proposed forecasting method is implemented in a prototype that operates in the World Wide Web environment, utilizing an open architecture that allows users to actively interact and make use of their own experience and knowledge in the forecasting process.
“Markov-Based Optimization Model for Building Facilities Management.” An effective and efficient building facilities management system calls for a systematic performance-based methodology. Zhang proposes an integer-programming model based on the Markov decision process in which Markov chains are used to optimize annual management actions and annual budget allocation, subject to various types of constraints.
“Application Framework for Mapping and Simulation of Waste Handling Processes in Construction.” Lu, Poon, and Wong present research focused on modeling waste-handling processes in construction, with particular emphasis on how to map out and simulate on-site waste sorting processes. The research proposes an application framework for guiding the development of process mapping models and simulation models and further assessing the cost-effectiveness of on-site waste sorting efforts under practical site constraints, such as labor resource availability and limited working area space at a building site.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 132 • Issue 11 • November 2006
Pages: 1129 - 1130
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Published online: Nov 1, 2006
Published in print: Nov 2006
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