Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

The United States is in the middle of a large environmental restoration effort that is hampered by a lack of knowledge on how to measure the performance of the project delivery process. This study evaluates one environmental restoration program’s ability to deliver projects: the Environmental Management Program (EMP), a federally sponsored program managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Project performance metrics are compiled and used to measure two types of program improvements made in project delivery: trend improvements over time, and the ability to reach established benchmarks. The benchmarks come from both agency guidance and construction industry benchmarks. The metrics measure the program’s ability to accurately estimate the required resources (time and money) to accomplish the project, estimate the cost to operate and maintain the project, and meet the customers’ design requirements. To build the metrics, estimates from the project planning documents are compared against the actual results. Currently, the Corps of Engineers has established some benchmarks and does evaluate projects for design success, but the benchmarks do not include all aspects of project delivery and are not universally applied. Analysis of the metrics shows that the Corps has made improvements in the delivery of projects, but some major components of the process should be improved. Establishing benchmarks would provide the Corps with information to improve the project delivery of the EMP and other environmental restoration programs across the country. This study provides an example of applying business principles to a governmental program.

In the light of the rapidly growing investment in infrastructure over the past 10 years, East Asia has developed into one of the most dynamic construction markets in the world. Despite progress in market-oriented reforms in some countries of this region, considerable obstacles in the form of varying technical standards and local preference policies still can lead to significant cost increases. Five categories of obstacles are identified in this paper: business environment risk, regulatory restrictions, contractual arrangements and differences in standards and in culture. The likelihood of occurrence of these obstacles as well as their impact on the profitability of cross-border construction are uncertain. The degree of their effect also varies across East Asian countries. Through an industry survey of top international construction firms based in Singapore, the significant obstacles or cost growth factors and their impact on cost growth in tendering, construction, and overheads are determined. In particular, the risk situations in China and Singapore are compared.

There is a great need in the construction industry for identifying a set of common indicators to be used by construction executive and project managers in measuring construction performance at the project level. The focus of this research was to collect management perceptions of the key performance indicators currently utilized in the construction industry. Both quantitative performance indicators and qualitative performance indicators are represented. A literature search was used to generate the initial set of perceived key performance indicators, which were administered to the construction industry via a survey. A statistical analysis of the collected survey responses provided information for the identification of a common set of perceived Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by construction sector, management level, and experience level. Correlations were performed for both the quantitative and qualitative indicators to determine which type of indicator is used most extensively. Basic statistical analyses and frequency distributions provided evidence in support of some of the hypotheses of the research. The results of the survey data analysis support the hypothesis that KPIs vary according to management’s perspective. Further analysis displayed a substantial difference between construction executive and project management’s perceptions. However, six indicators were reported as being most useful by every segment of the construction industry involved in this study. The correlation between quantitative indicators and qualitative indicators proved to be inconclusive.

The purpose of this paper was twofold: (1) to determine jobs/tasks associated with current injury, illness, and fatality trends in the electrical contracting sector of the construction industry; and (2) to identify current safety practices associated with the prevention of these injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. To achieve the project objectives, a survey was designed and sent to Michigan electrical contractors. To design an adequate survey, the research team first collected background information using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics online database, published research, and contractor interviews. This paper presents and discusses the results of this study.

In the construction industry specialty contractors perform most of the construction work. Given their impact on the industry, the safety performance of specialty contractors should be of concern to the construction industry. This paper describes a study conducted to identify factors that significantly influence the safety performance of specialty contractors. The study was composed of separate surveys of three different specialty contractor populations—a variety of trade contractors located primarily in southern Nevada, roofing contractors in the state of Florida, and the regional offices of a large, nationwide mechanical contractor. While there appeared to be contradictions between the surveys in some areas, the study concluded that specialty contractor safety performance was consistently influenced, in part, by a number of factors. The factors shown to positively affect safety performance include minimizing worker turnover, implementing employee drug testing with various factors initiating the testing, and training with the assistance of contractor associations. Safety incentive programs were not necessarily associated with better safety performance. Growth in company size was found to be associated with improved safety performance as well.

The satisfaction that a customer has with the construction product and construction services provided by a contractor has a direct influence on the customer’s willingness to select that contractor for future work. Labor and management working together have the opportunity to influence customer satisfaction. Activities at the contractor/craft worker level, the contractor/local union level, and the contractor association/local union level have the greatest potential to influence customer satisfaction. A precisely defined plan incorporating labor-management activities targeted at specific satisfaction factors will have the greatest likelihood of creating high customer satisfaction.

This paper presents a simulation engine, developed to model earthmoving operations. The engine has been designed utilizing object-oriented features, and it represents a main component in a newly developed automated system for selecting a near-optimum fleet configuration. It provides contractors with a vehicle for estimating the time and cost of this class of projects considering different practical scenarios. The system has been implemented in a Microsoft environment to facilitate integration among its components, which have been developed in the same environment. The paper focuses on the modeling aspects of the simulation process using discrete event simulation and object orientation. A numerical example of an actual case is analyzed to validate the developed simulation engine and demonstrate its capabilities. The results are compared to those generated using Caterpillar software (FPC). The engine and FPC recommended the same fleet and their estimated project durations were very close, with a difference less than 8%. Unlike FPC, the developed engine, however, can model and account for uncertainty during the execution of earthmoving operations in a reliable manner.

Extracting the right information at the right time is vital in any research project. Moreover, researchers generally seek innovative “knowledge mining” techniques for optimizing their research efforts within constrained time frames and with scarce resources. Meanwhile, rapid developments in the fields of computing and information technology drive the accelerated globalization process in both industry and academia. This paper explores some of the emerging technologies and associated research methodologies from an information supply chain perspective. An application in a recent Internet based two-phase questionnaire survey for design/build contractor selection provides a useful case study in the structuring of an innovative knowledge mining strategy. This experience feeds into the formulation of a “high-velocity” knowledge mining framework and a set of guidelines—to facilitate and enhance such innovative construction management research, while dealing with some initial issues/problems in the Internet based research environment. Furthermore, some critical success factors, key performance indicators, and mining strategies are consolidated for marshalling both vivid and tacit knowledge sources, such as by “exploiting” Internet resources for more creative and efficient construction management research.

According to some electrical contractors who are members of the Federated Electrical Contractors, electrical contractor firms may experience a lack of profitability as the firm grows in size. Under these conditions, statistical models were developed to study the firm’s size-profitability relationship. Economic data were obtained from the National Bureau of Economic Research, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Mortgage Information Service. Financial data for 1985–1996 were obtained from the FEC group. Statistical analysis reveals that small, medium, and large firms are significantly different from each other in terms of their profit rate; profitability drops as firms grow larger than $50 million in sales. An indicator variables model with a first-order autoregressive model built into the error term was developed using backward elimination regression. Data from the year 1996 were used to validate the model, which predicted 76% of the year 1996 response variable, profitability, correctly.

The importance of accurate estimates during the early stages of capital projects has been widely recognized for many years. Early project estimates represent a key ingredient in business unit decisions and often become the basis for a project’s ultimate funding. However, a stark contrast arises when comparing the importance of early estimates with the amount of information typically available during the preparation of an early estimate. Such limited scope definition often leads to questionable estimate accuracy. Even so, very few quantitative methods are available that enable estimators and business managers to objectively evaluate the accuracy of early estimates. The primary objective of this study was to establish such a model. To accomplish this objective, quantitative data were collected from completed construction projects in the process industry. Each of the respondents was asked to assign a one-to-five rating for each of 45 potential drivers of estimate accuracy for a given estimate. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and multivariate regression analysis. The factor analysis was used to group the 45 elements into 11 orthogonal factors. Multivariate regression analysis was performed on the 11 factors to determine a suitable model for predicting estimate accuracy. The resulting model, known as the estimate score procedure, allows the project team to score an estimate and then predict its accuracy based on the estimate score. In addition, a computer software tool, the Estimate Score Program, was developed to automate the estimate score procedure. The multivariate regression analysis identified 5 of the 11 factors that were significant at the $\alpha =10\%$ level. The five factors, in order of significance, were basic process design, team experience and cost information, time allowed to prepare the estimate, site requirements, and bidding and labor climate.

This paper contains a study of build-operate-transfer (BOT) project financing strategies from the perspective of project sponsors. The financing strategy for a BOT project includes the selection of the appropriate mix of equity and debt financing, and the identification of appropriate financing sources. Project sponsors typically wish to minimize their financing costs to ensure their tenders are competitive. Thirteen transportation and power-generation BOT projects in North America and Asia were analyzed. Important considerations and financing strategies were identified and examined. The findings suggest that project risks, project conditions, and availability of financing are the major considerations in selecting a financing strategy. The project risks that were determined to be most significant in financing strategy selection were political, financial, and market risks. Based on the study findings, a decision model was developed that can be used by BOT project sponsors in selecting appropriate financing strategies.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) was originated in the manufacturing industry. It provides a general working environment for an enterprise to integrate its major business management functions with one single common database so that information can be shared and efficient communications can be achieved between management functions. This paper first briefs the ERP technology, its origin, and its current development in general. Based on the needs of running a construction enterprise, ERP shows its potential for the construction industry. However, the unique nature of the industry prevents a direct implementation of existing ERP systems, which are primarily developed for the manufacturing industry. This paper underlines the importance of the establishment of the basic theory for developing construction enterprise resource planning systems (CERP). A CERP must address the nature of the general industry practice. Fundamental features are identified and discussed in the paper. A three-tiered client/server architecture is proposed, with discussions on the functions and major components of each tier. Needed research issues are discussed, including CERP architectures, project management functions, advanced planning techniques, standardization of management functions, and modeling human intelligence. Construction management examples are incorporated into the discussions.

Construction in city center areas frequently requires below ground construction of underground car parks and basements immediately adjacent to existing buildings. When existing buildings are on shallow foundations, this form of construction poses considerable risks of litigation through damage to the existing buildings caused by ground movement. Consequently, construction costs of below ground construction in this type of environment are considerably higher than above ground construction costs. This paper presents a novel methodology for carrying out this form of construction and offering the advantages of considerably reduced risk of damage to adjacent buildings while still providing a cost-effective means of construction. The paper includes sufficient detail to allow this methodology to be adopted by other practitioners.

Most cable-stayed bridges in the United States have been built in the last 30 years. As the number of existing cable-stayed bridges increase, one problem continues to arise—how to inspect the cable stays for corrosion and deterioration. An inherent difficulty in developing an inspection procedure for cable-stayed bridges is that each cable-stayed bridge is unique in its cable configuration. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) has built two separate trolleys to aid their inspectors and maintenance crew with visual inspection and maintenance of the cable stays on the Luling Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish near New Orleans, Louisiana. With the use of the two trolleys, LADOTD bridge inspectors are able to inspect the cable stays at hands-on distances. The cable-stay inspection procedure adopted by the LADOTD is inexpensive and time efficient, and it minimally impacts bridge traffic. This manuscript reviews the inspection procedure adopted by the LADOTD to inspect the cable sheathing at the Luling Bridge.