Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

This study compares and analyzes the relationship of design-build (DB) and design-bid-build (DBB) project delivery methods with performance metrics of large highway projects ( $>\$50\mathrm{million}$ ). Project performance is measured in cost, schedule, and change orders on these two types of highway projects. This study also investigates associations between project characteristics (input variables) and project performance (output variables) of large highway projects. The performance comparison methodology used here is derived from work done on a Texas Department of Transportation study of the State Highway 130 Project. The study results show that the construction speed and project delivery speed per lane mile (or lane kilometer) of DB projects were significantly faster than that of DBB projects for this sample. The study also showed that out of 21 inputs analyzed, 14 inputs have statistically significant associations with one or more outputs of these projects.

Nowadays, along with the inherent intricacy and magnitude of large-scale construction projects come increasingly complex disputes. Because most projects operate on tight budgets, alternative dispute-resolution (ADR) techniques such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration are being widely adopted in large-scale construction projects to help handle disputes in more effective and cost-saving ways. However, the risk of incurring uncertain ADR-implementation costs in the dispute-resolution process has become an important issue. The traditional self-insured approach of simply retaining all risks is no longer considered economical. One way to reduce the potential for variations in the dispute-resolution budget is to price ADR techniques as an insurance product, which allows project participants to transfer the risk of incurring unexpectedly high ADR-implementation costs to the insurance company. Despite this advantage, many factors are preventing project participants from investing in ADR-implementation insurance. This paper proposes a model on how to use ADR-implementation insurance as a risk management tool for construction dispute resolution. It first investigates the possibility of using insurance for ADR-implementation and then uses subjective loss to represent the risk-averse attitude of project participants and quantify the effect of ADR-implementation costs in monetary terms. Event-tree analysis (ETA) is used to simulate different dispute-resolution processes and determine the probability mass function of ADR-implementation costs by drawing analogies from seismic risk insurance. These probabilities are employed to calculate the expected ADR-implementation costs and to derive the insurance premium. Finally, the gross premium is compared to project participants’ subjective loss to help them determine whether purchasing ADR-implementation insurance is necessary. At the end, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the application of the methodology.

Historically, actual construction costs have tended to exceed initial cost estimates and budgets. Often this discrepancy is significant enough to cause problems such as depletions of budgets, disputes, and reductions in work quality. Cost contingency is an important element included in the base cost estimate to protect construction participants including owners, contractors, and architects from the risks associated with underestimating project cost estimates and overrunning cost budgets. Typically, project participants have simply calculated contingency as a fixed percentage of project cost in spite of the importance of contingency. The uniform application of this deterministic method to calculate contingency on the basis of project costs only is not appropriate for all construction projects. This paper identifies factors that influence contingency and proposes a new method for predicting the owner’s financial contingency on transportation construction projects using an artificial neural network (ANN)–based method. Asphalt resurfacing works among transportation projects sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) completed from 2004–2006 are used for this study. The results show the viability of the ANN approach in the prediction of contingency. Accurate predictions of contingencies using this approach can help project administrators better manage contingency requirements on financing projects, allowing a more optimal usage of available project funds.

Resource scheduling, or the allocation of resources over time, is a challenging problem in large-scale or multiple-project environments. Traditional network scheduling techniques are ineffective in modeling the dynamic nature and resource interactions of large or multiunit projects. This paper presents a simulation-based auction protocol (SBAP) to solve resource scheduling problems in large-scale construction projects. SBAP is a hybrid framework that integrates multi agent resource allocation (MARA) in a simulation environment. SBAP deploys a centralized resource allocation approach, referred to as an auction protocol, whereby agents bid on different combinations of resources at the start of a simulation cycle. Agents attempt to improve their individual welfare by acquiring a combination of resources; an auctioneer looks at the entire system and allocates resources to the agents using a combinatorial algorithm to maximize an overall objective function (e.g., maximizing the system’s revenue or minimizing total costs). The auction is repeated on a regular basis. Simulation is also employed in large-scale projects to track the availability of resources, capture and release the resources, and satisfy constraints of the problem. This paper demonstrates the architecture of the SBAP framework and discusses implementation of SBAP in a real case study of crane allocation in an industrial project.

Case-based reasoning (CBR) utilizes old solutions to solve a present problem. However, as no past situation is ever exactly the same as a new one, old solutions should be fitted for new circumstances, which is called case adaptation. Thus, the success of CBR depends on the ability of case adaptation. Generally, the case adaptation method can be categorized by two methods: decreasing the need for adaptation and increasing the capability. Nevertheless, previous research has focused on applying the method itself and rarely examined the adaptation or candidates selection. As an effort to enhance the performance of CBR, this research develops a case adaptation method that is balanced for both methods. To validate the method, a CBR cost model was developed that has an adaptation function using 129 military barrack projects in Korea, and then the method was tested by using 13 test cases. Furthermore, an applicability test was conducted based on 164 Korean public apartment projects.

Informatics deal with knowledge management and not just information technology, which, by its very nature, is social, cognitive, and tied to linguistics and human communication. Consequently, philosophy plays a major role in informatics because one has to understand in a human and not artificial way the meaning of concepts, their relationships, and their frames of references (context). Over the last few years, this has manifested in the development of many ontologies (a formal description of what knowledge is known). Epistemology, the means by which one knows or creates assumptions about knowledge, did not receive its due attention. This paper establishes the need for investigating the epistemological foundations of construction informatics systems, reviews related schools of epistemology in general philosophy and in that of science, reviews the rather limited and indirect use of epistemology in construction research, and presents a proposal for an epistemology for construction informatics. Such epistemology is meant to act as guidelines for the development of informatics systems and, more importantly, the ontologies they use. The proposed epistemology (1) advocates the use of constructivist models (bottom-up approach) at the microlevel (individual models) within a contemporary pragmatic framework, i.e., acceptance of dualism and probabilistic coexistence and focus on usability and benefit to users, at the macrolevel in which models should be linked to one other effectively to present a value for users; (2) emphasizes the need for context modeling along with concept modeling; (3) calls for balancing object orientation (top-down standardization) with prototype orientation (discovery and situational awareness) in concept development; and (4) balancing communication (linguistic orientation) along with the prevailing reasoning orientation.

The effects of different aspects of working hours on performance, including length of work and rest periods, time of day, and amount of set overtime, have been studied separately by scholars from different disciplines, including construction. Most of these studies have accounted for specific factors and for specific types of work. Current approaches fall short of enabling a work manager to estimate the impact of various working-hour arrangements on productivity with a reasonable degree of accuracy. We have developed a dynamic modeling tool that can be used for estimating expected productivity in a range of construction jobs for different working-hour arrangements. Through this dynamic modeling tool, construction managers can see the expected effects of working-hour changes on productivity and adjust work-hour schedules to improve productivity. To test the applicability of the model, it has been applied to a real construction case, and the effects of different working-hour arrangements on productivity have been investigated.

Following the recent economic boom in Mainland China (ML), the Chinese construction industry has undergone continuous expansion. As a result, many construction companies in Hong Kong (HK) have expanded their business into ML. Necessary strategic changes in the direction of company business have led to an increasing number of HK expatriate construction professionals working in ML (HKE-CP-M). Due to the dynamic nature of the construction industry, it has long been recognized that HK construction professionals (HK-CPs) are a highly stressed group. Conducting work in an unfamiliar environment can cause HKE-CP-Ms stress. Hence, this study aims to explore and identify the various types of expatriate stressors that cause HKE-CP-Ms stress. To achieve this aim, six standardized focus groups were held: four expatriate groups comprised of HKE-CP-Ms working in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Macau, respectively; a repatriated HK-CP group; and a HK-CP group with no expatriate work experience. The expatriate stressors addressed by the focus groups fell into four main categories: interpersonal stressors, task stressors, organization stressors, and physical stressors. Based on the stressors identified by the expatriate groups, and a comparison of these with the stressors identified by the HK group, a stressors model was developed for HKE-CP-Ms. This model was designed to act as the first step in developing a stress management model for HKE-CP-Ms.

Improving labor productivity of in situ reinforced concrete construction is necessary because of the importance of this material to the industry. Several factors influence labor productivity, but buildability is among the most important. Despite the plethora of research into construction productivity reported over the years, a thorough examination of the literature revealed a dearth of research into the effects of buildability factors on the efficiency of the concreting operation. Because concreting is an integral, labor intensive, trade of in situ reinforced concrete construction, the objective of this research is to explore the influence of primary buildability factors on concreting labor productivity. In achieving this objective, a sufficiently large volume of productivity data was collected and analyzed by using the categorical-regression method. As a result, the effects and relative influence of: (1) concrete workability; (2) reinforcing steel congestion; (3) volume of pours; and (4) height relative to ground level, on labor productivity of skipped and pumped placement methods are determined and quantified. The findings show significant impacts of factors investigated on the efficiency of the concreting operation, which can provide designers with feedback on how well their designs consider the requirements of the buildability concept, and the tangible consequences of their decisions on the productivity of the operatives. Practical recommendations, moreover, are presented, which upon implementations, may improve the buildability level of this trade, thus translate into higher labor productivity and lower labor cost. On the other hand, the depicted patterns of results can provide guidance to construction managers for effective planning and efficient labor and plant utilization.

In a design and construction project, non-value-adding effort (NVAE; also called non-value-adding activities) is wasted effort that could have been avoided if the project had been more carefully planned, executed, monitored, and controlled. NVAE is considered the main contributor to schedule delays and cost overruns in design and construction projects. Microlevel analyses such as work sampling and resource balance charts have been applied extensively to identify and minimize NVAE. These methods can pinpoint unnecessary steps in a highly repetitive construction activity and are most effective when analyzing activities with low performance variation in each cycle. However, microlevel analyses lack the capabilities to deal with errors and changes that usually result in significant performance variations, although they are a major trigger of NVAE in design and construction projects. To address this deficiency, this paper outlines the development of a system dynamics-based model for analysis on a macrolevel. The model’s application to a bridge project in Massachusetts revealed that it can effectively identify and quantify NVAE particularly triggered by errors and changes, and can capture the propagation of NVAE between interrelated activities. On the basis of results, this paper concluded that the developed model can be utilized as a management tool to bring a more comprehensive understanding of NVAE in design and construction projects, which in turn can lead to a greater reduction in NVAE.

Structural materials are fundamental to application in construction, and the process of selecting these materials can be considered one of the keys to sustainable construction development. Making structures sustainable is a major challenge because of serious environmental impacts, limitation of natural resources, and socioeconomic issues. However, there is a lack of information on the aspect of sustainability related to construction, which is one of the largest users of energy, material resources, and water, and is responsible for a very significant portion of pollution by harmful and damaging emissions and wastes. Comprehensive review of sustainable materials in the construction industry is carried out to identify the sustainable criteria related to the structural materials based on life-cycle thinking. This criterion is utilized to develop a sustainable scoring system (SSS), which is intended to be a reasonable way to assess the structural material sustainability from extraction to demolition and linked to the design of the structural element. This system consists of three major items: phases of material total life, developed list of 10 sustainable factors including their relevant indicators, and a material sustainable measurement scale (MSMS).

Although the design-build (DB) system has been demonstrated to be an effective delivery method and has gained popularity worldwide, it has not gained the same popularity in the construction market of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The objective of this study was to investigate the barriers to entry in the DB market. A total of 22 entry barriers were first identified through an open-ended questionnaire survey with 15 top construction professionals in the construction market of China. A broad questionnaire survey was further conducted to prioritize these entry barriers. Statistical analysis of responses shows that the most dominant barriers to entry into the DB market are lack of design expertise, lack of interest from owners, lack of suitable organization structure, lack of DB specialists, and lack of credit record system. Analysis of variance indicates that there is no difference of opinions among the respondent groups of academia, government departments, state-owned companies, and private companies, at the 5% significance level, on most of the barriers to entry. Finally, the underlying dimensions of barriers to entry in the DB market were investigated through factor analysis. The results indicate that there are six major underlying dimensions of entry barriers in DB market, including the competence of design-builders, difficulty in project procurement, characteristics of DB projects, lack of support from public sectors, the competence of DB owners, and the immaturity of DB market. These findings are useful for both potential and incumbent design-builders to understand and analyze the DB market in China.

In contrast to traditional price-dominated lowest bid (LB) procurements, best value (BV) procurements select contractors most advantageous to the clients, taking into consideration not only prices but also other factors. Decisions on whether LB or BV approach should be adopted are difficult ones. There is yet to be any objective model developed to back up such decisions. This paper proposes an index named price elasticity of performance (PEP) that may serve as a quantitative measure to reach an objective decision. The theoretical model construction of PEP is also described. Two measures in the individual and market levels of PEP are defined. A design/build construction project is selected as a working example to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. Potential applications and limitations of the proposed method are also addressed. It is concluded that the proposed PEP method has the potential to resolve the dilemma of pursuing efficiency and avoiding violation of regulations in traditional procurements.

This paper examines the process of design and engineering in large-scale construction projects delivered by multinational organizations. The analysis is on the basis of using transaction cost economics to represent design and engineering as a stream of intra-firm transactions between the local contracting office and the network of subsidiary offices. The paper then applies the concept of asset specificity to process-level design and engineering knowledge and induces a theoretical framework on the basis of local and expertise specificity of assets. The framework posits that different levels of local and expertise specificity lead to different modes for intra-firm governance of work packages in design and engineering. The paper validates the theoretical framework with interview data from six major international design and engineering organizations and derives a set of management recommendations for practitioners. The framework takes the transaction cost theory into the realm of intra-firm governance represented as a stream of asset-specific transactions. The framework extends construction engineering and management literature with a transaction-based elaboration of the design and engineering process.

Along with the economic acceleration and the consequent flourishing of urban infrastructure and real estate, there has been a tremendous development within the Chinese construction industry. However, the industry continues to suffer from excessive competition and low profit margins. Based on the resource partitioning process of organizational ecology theory, which predicts how market concentration relates to the survival of specialist and generalist organizations, this study analyzes the structure and the structural effect of the Jiangsu construction industry. Using the event history analysis method and data of all companies known to have operated during the period 1989–2007, the survival of both large and small construction companies within this low but increasing concentration industry has been investigated. It is concluded that the increasing concentration of the Jiangsu construction industry has a negative effect on the survival of construction companies. Nevertheless, no resource partitioning process can have occurred because it is found that the effect of concentration on decline for smaller companies is greater than for larger ones, which violates the assumption of the resource partitioning theory. In addition, macroeconomic policies and factors at the firm level have proved significant in relation to the incidence of survival of Jiangsu construction companies. Although this research focused mainly on the major construction companies of one province in China, the result reflects the profile of the whole country to some extent, and the research method could be replicated in other parts of the world for international comparisons. This would assist in understanding the structures of the construction industries in different countries and the structural effect on the survival of different types of firms.

Many large construction projects are being carried out simultaneously. The accuracy of the budget allocated in the planning phase of such projects is considered a key element in efficient budget use, but lack of information during the planning phase results in the inaccurate estimation of the construction cost. Thus, it is necessary to devise a method that improves the accuracy of construction cost estimation in the planning phase. Although recently there has been an increase in the use of case-based reasoning (CBR) for construction cost estimation, the use of CBR tends to reduce the accuracy of the estimated construction cost, unless there is sufficient similarity between the cases stored in the database and the retrieved cases. Therefore, a revised CBR model based on the regression analysis model was developed in this study, and a calculation model capable of estimating the construction cost in the planning phase was developed with a focus on railroad-bridge construction projects. To verify the revised CBR model, five case studies were conducted. The results showed that the revised CBR model reduced the construction cost error rate of the proposed CBR model by 16.2%. In particular, it is expected that the revised CBR model will be useful when there is a lack of similarity between the cases stored in the database and the retrieved cases.

The objective of this paper is to shed light on obstacles to, and opportunities for, increasing the effectiveness of construction firms in managing buyer-supplier relationships. More specifically, the focus is on assessing the maturity level of buyer-supplier relationship management by construction firms. First, on the basis of a literature review and discussions with industry experts, five constructs were defined and, on the basis of these constructs, a measurement tool was developed. Following this, the maturity level in terms of the five constructs was assessed by applying the measurement tool in 19 Dutch construction firms. The results demonstrate a large potential for improved management of buyer-supplier relationships. Although there are major factors impeding, there are, at the same time, developments stimulating the effectiveness of managing buyer-supplier relationships. A useful next research step would be to determine the optimum portfolio of relationship types between contractors and suppliers in the construction industry.