Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

A lack of value-based decision criteria leads to an inability to effectively compare prefabrication and off-site production with conventional construction, which inhibits the realization of benefits of off-site approaches. This paper develops value-based decision criteria and quantifies their relative importance for assessing building technologies systematically. The research employed a multimethodological strategy within a broad case-study-based design, with six large house-building organizations in the United Kingdom. These companies together accounted for more than one-tenth of new-build home completions in the United Kingdom. More than 50 criteria were developed, grouped under cost, time, quality, health and safety, sustainability, process, procurement, and regulatory and statutory acceptance. Cost was ranked most important, which, coupled with time and quality, predominated technology selection in these companies. Sustainability, process, and procurement were weighted lower, whereas health and safety and regulatory and statutory acceptance were deemed compulsory, hence offering no trade-off opportunity. A lack of incorporating innovative sustainable technology into corporate strategy was observed. The developed criteria and the systematic process should help house-building organizations manage technological innovation and hopefully achieve more informed corporate decisions.

Collusion is an insidious issue in the construction industry. Even though it is widely acknowledged as unethical and illegal, there are not many research studies conducted to detect collusive bidding. This study proposes a step-by-step method to detect collusive bidding by analyzing historical bidding data provided by a construction owner. The construction owner in this study is a public agency that commissioned 108 construction projects that were worth $1.3 billion during a 10-year study period (2001–2010). The number of bidders (80 in total) was small considering that a total of 108 contracts were awarded in the study period. Five of the 80 bidders jointly undertook 72% of the total contracts awarded by this public agency during the study period. The proposed detection method is on the basis of a regression model and involves identifying the potential cartel bidders using two tests called the residual test and the cost structure stability test. After conducting the study, it was found that two of the six potential cartel bidders that were identified in this study had been audited by the public agency for bid fraud, and that another potential cartel bidder had been found guilty by the courts and forbidden from doing business with the public agency.

As large-scale building projects increase in frequency, their construction costs become a matter of great concern, especially because of their lengthy construction periods. In particular, recent volatile fluctuations of construction material prices have fueled problems like cost forecasting. Many researchers try to accurately estimate cost escalations, but price forecasting for numerous construction materials requires a simplified and automated process. The research in this paper develops an automated time-series material cost forecasting (ATMF) system including both autoselected procedures for determining a best-fitting model and an autoextracting module for forecasting values using the Box-Jenkins approach. If the modeling process is simplified and iterative arbitrary decisions for the modeler eliminated, each future prices of a large number of materials can be forecast differently. Thus, the ATMF system can be utilized for predicting future trends in construction material costs. Further, an out-of-sample forecast applying several material price data confirms that this system can be effectively applied to material cost estimation at a more detailed level in object-based cost planning. The proposed system can thus help decision makers in the construction industry deal with changes in economic conditions and design by estimating cost escalations caused by volatile factors such as inflation.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the cost-estimating community over the next decade is the loss of knowledge and experience of highly experienced estimators because a high percentage of them are retiring, and a shortage of qualified cost estimators is evident in the construction industry. This study identified 23 core estimating competencies classified into skills, knowledge, and personal attributes and also quantified the degree by which new estimators lack each competency. In total, 228 completed questionnaires were collected through the Construction Industry Institute member companies, through the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International (AACE-I) and the American Society of Professional Estimators (ASPE) workshops. An estimating core-competency criticality matrix was developed to prioritize competencies on the basis of the combined effects of the level of importance of each competency and its associated gap between the ideal and actual level of competency. The factor analysis method was applied to investigate the correlation effects of the 23 estimating competencies, which resulted in seven core estimating competency factors representing the core estimating competencies. The findings of this study can help companies in the construction industry assess their estimators’ capabilities and design appropriate training programs for their estimators on the basis of their specific needs.

The gradual disappearance of traditional borderlines between equipment cultures and the increasing use of tower cranes as today’s dominant building construction equipment result in exposure to safety issues concerning tower crane operation that have not yet been fully addressed. This paper proposes a model capable of computing an overall index that realistically reflects the safety level on any individual site due to the operation of tower cranes. The model integrates four modules: (1) nonsite-specific relative weights of safety factors, (2) measurement of the magnitude of each safety factor actually present on site, (3) scales to convert each measured magnitude into a value representing the potential risk generated by each factor present on site, and (4) multiplying factors to convert the cumulative risk generated by all factors into actual risk. The model was computerized and tested on two construction sites and the user interface for company and site data gathering was validated. The development of the model builds on expert judgment and as such, its potential application in other construction cultures would require due adjustments, which are made possible by its modular architecture and content transparency.

An empirical analysis is presented to investigate the factors that have significant influence on the share of public financing into the total initial investment required to develop build-operate-transfer (BOT) health-care projects. Based on a model describing the main risks associated with public participation in BOT projects, a linear regression analysis has been conducted on a data set of Italian BOT hospital projects to yield implications. Outcomes reveal that the size of investment, the financial strength of the concessionaire, the duration of the concession period, the number of services, and the level of borrowing of the local health-care granting agency are significant factors of the level of public funding. The study confirms that public funding is provided not only to cover the non-self-financing portion of investment but also as a way to undertake a project in periods of scarce public financial resources. The methodology may be useful to refine the decision criteria for determining the level of public funding of a BOT hospital project in order to gain an understanding of the value that could be obtained from funding similar projects.

Construction projects are facing a greater number of uncertainties and more severe risks, which could cause much bigger losses than in the past. From the perspective of information economics, asymmetric information gives rise to opportunistic behavior, which is the primary cause of loss of faith and increased risk in the construction market. Asymmetric information theory is helpful for solving problems arising in construction projects and for preventing construction project risk. The main objective in this paper is to explore risk prevention mechanisms and measures in construction projects on the basis of asymmetric information theory. The research processes are (1) exploring the relationship between asymmetric information and construction project risk and exploring the mechanisms of construction project risk formation on the basis of asymmetric information; (2) analyzing the issue of asymmetric information in construction projects and creating an information model of construction project management; (3) proposing measures for resolving information asymmetries of construction projects. The contributions to the literature are (1) an application of asymmetric information theory to construction project management, confirming that asymmetric information theory is helpful for resolving problems and preventing construction project risk; (2) showing that incomplete information, especially asymmetric information, is the essential cause of construction project risk.

Greenhouse gas (GRG) emissions are an important primary criteria for environmental evaluation. As a project evaluation criterion, this study developed a framework that could estimate GHG emissions in asphalt pavement construction based on the limited information available in the feasibility study phase. A thorough literature review and in-depth interviews with domain experts in the field of road engineering were conducted to identify the input variables for this framework. By considering the characteristics of the input variables, such as material type, geometric shape of the structure, and earthwork quantities, an artificial neural network and a parametric calculation were used to develop the framework for estimating GHG emissions. When applied to real-life asphalt pavement projects in the Republic of Korea, the framework produced an average estimation error of 11.2%, which was considered sufficiently accurate for the planning phase. The proposed framework is expected to help decision makers easily evaluate the GHG emission potential of asphalt pavement projects in their preliminary phase such that project viability and priority can be determined in a more holistic manner.

Despite general perceptions, mass customization of double-curved metal panels with slight variations remains challenging. This paper reports the results of a three-year effort to develop a new hybrid sheet metal processing technique to fabricate double-curved metal panels for the Dongdaemun Design Park (DDP) building. DDP, designed by Zaha Hadid, has an unusually high percentage of double-curved panels. Among the 45,000 façade panels, approximately 22,000 panels are double curved. Despite the complexity and the large number of different types of panels, the joints are only 25 mm wide. Precision and a limited budget were the key requirements. The project team successfully developed a new and affordable sheet metal forming method called multipoint stretch forming, which is a hybrid method of multipoint forming and stretch bending, through trial and error. Several machines and prototypes were custom built and tested. The cost of fabrication of typical double-curved panels using this new method was US$260 per square meter compared with US$7,000 per square meter when die casting was used and US$3,000 per square meter when hydroforming was used. Furthermore, the average fabrication time per panel was reduced from several hours to 15 min per panel when using the new multipoint stretch forming method.

Despite extensive research into attitudes and practice surrounding the uptake of off-site production technologies, there is limited understanding of how best to integrate their use into business processes at the organizational level. Drawing on an action-research case study with a leading U.K. house-building organization, this paper scrutinizes the processes through which off-site technologies were adopted and utilized. The use of off-site methods was fundamentally framed by the key stages and business milestone reviews of the house-building process, which together represented a complex and multilayered structure of business management. Five off-site reviews were aligned with the business processes. Strategies for integrating the use of off-site technologies are examined. It was crucial to establish an overall off-site strategy and integrate it into the process from land acquisition on. Organizational learning embraced the adoption of off-site methods, whereas extra reporting and management efforts introduced bureaucracy. Culture change was commonly perceived as difficult and painful. Earlier engagement with supply chains was advocated for favoring the off-site approach and improving business efficiency, whereas it also demanded greater commitment of the house builder to specific supply chains and therefore exposed the business to risks associated with planning and market changes. The strategies should facilitate building companies’ strategic management of off-site technology.

The controlling path and controlling segment are the basis for repetitive project scheduling. In this paper the controlling path is defined as the longest path in duration that determines the minimum project duration, including the controlling segments and controlling constraints on it. The controlling segments are defined as the subactivities on the controlling path. A method to identify the controlling path and controlling segments is proposed, on the basis of the technology of identifying the potential controlling points. To investigate how the project duration is determined, three types of controlling segments are defined and analyzed, namely, the forward controlling segment, the point controlling segment, and the backward controlling segment. This paper presents a convenient and correct way to identify the controlling path and controlling segments conforming to the constraints of projects.