Enablers That Help Foreign Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Firms Win Construction Contracts in China

With China’s fast economic growth and entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), more foreign architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms are expected to venture into this huge and attractive market. This paper explores the important strategies to help foreign AEC firms clinch construction projects in China. Using a questionnaire survey approach complemented by in-depth interviews, it was found that firms need to pay more attention to the market and working conditions in China and to strengthen their own capabilities. To win projects in China, foreign AEC firms should also be able to offer project financing services. The findings are useful to foreign AEC firms because it may help them win projects in the Chinese construction industry.     

ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering: Review of the years 1985–2002

This study considers the content of the papers published by ASCE’s Journal of Management in Engineering, which has witnessed a growth in number of papers and breadth of participation, particularly of international origin, during the 1985–2002 period. The content is analyzed in two main dimensions: the type of subject and its composing topics, and the type of contributors to the journal. The analysis shows the evolution of the engineering management discipline as represented in the journal. Over the years the discipline has been enriched by an increasing number of contributions on corporate strategies and programs, organizational change, and cultures issues, as well as a growing interest in project management topics, such as quality planning and evaluation of alternative project delivery systems. The number of papers by practitioners, initially the largest contributing group to the journal, has declined significantly over the years.     

Building Better: Technical Support for Construction

Increasing complexity of many constructed facilities and escalating demands for project performance are driving significant changes in design and construction. Increased project integration and technical support of construction operations provide a promising response to these demands. This paper identifies and describes nine critical activities to increase technical support for construction: integrate early planning; plan for regulatory compliance; consider construction methods and sequences in design; tailor and time technical information to users’ needs; provide materials to support effective construction; identify and provide construction-applied resources; create an environment for safe, productive, and high quality work; technically support efficient construction operations and completion; and transfer experience between projects. The paper’s relevance to industry practitioners includes multiple benefits of completing these activities for firms, projects, and professionals, along with the necessary steps to develop this capability and gain these benefits. Educators and researchers can use the activities to structure course topics related to technical fundamentals of construction and integration with design, along with future investigations of construction process knowledge.     

EnvironalPlanning: Analytic Network Process Model for Environmentally Conscious Construction Planning

Although the construction pollution index has been put forward and proved to be an efficient approach to reducing or mitigating pollution level during the construction planning stage, the problem of how to select the best construction plan based on distinguishing the degree of its potential adverse environmental impacts is still a research task. This paper first reviews environmental issues and their characteristics in construction, which are critical factors in evaluating potential adverse impacts of a construction plan. These environmental characteristics are then used to structure two decision models for environmental-conscious construction planning by using an analytic network process (ANP), including a complicated model and a simplified model. The two ANP models are combined and called the EnvironalPlanning system, which is applied to evaluate potential adverse environmental impacts of alternative construction plans.     

Contractor as Trust Initiator in Construction Partnering—Prisoner’s Dilemma Perspective

Partnering has been advocated for use in construction as a project-delivery approach to curb dispute and enable a cooperative contracting environment. Successful construction partnering is perceived to derive benefits to both developers and contractors. In view of significant implications to successful project delivery, there has been a surge of research and studies on construction partnering. These studies typically focus on the partnering process as well as the identification of critical success factors. Among the various success factors that underpin partnering success, establishing trust among partners is considered the most important. Moreover, skeptics have been swift to point out that establishing trust in construction is daunting. A better understanding of the role of trust and its manifestation in partnering efforts is therefore of both academic and practical value. In this study, motivating trust in construction partnering is described within the classic framework of “the prisoner’s dilemma,” which suggests the trust cycle can be kick-started if construction partners put cooperation before competition and self-interest. This paper reports a study that is designed to suggest a suitable candidate for the trust initiator. As such, the critical trust factors for two groups of construction partners in Hong Kong—developers/consultants and contractors—are first identified. It is found that “performance” and “permeability” of partners are the two most critical trust factors. “Performance” describes the partner’s competence and problem-solving ability as perceived by their counterpart. “Permeability” reflects the partner’s openness in sharing information. The result of a multiple-regression analysis further suggests that the contractor is in a position to initiate trust through competent performance and maintaining effective communication with the client. In this manner, the trust cycle can expand with reciprocal trustworthiness from the client.     

Trade-off between Safety and Cost in Planning Construction Site Layouts

Planning construction site layouts involves identifying the positions of temporary facilities on site, and accordingly it has a significant impact on the safety and efficiency of construction operations. Although available models are capable of minimizing the travel cost of resources on site, they do not consider safety as an important and separate objective in the optimization of site layouts. This paper presents the development of an expanded site layout planning model that is capable of maximizing construction safety and minimizing the travel cost of resources on site, simultaneously. The model incorporates newly developed concepts and performance criteria that enable the quantification of construction safety and travel cost of resources on site. The present model is developed in three main phases: (1) formulating decision variables and optimization objectives in this site layout planning problem; (2) identifying and satisfying all practical constraints in this optimization problem; and (3) implementing the model as a multiobjective genetic algorithm. An application example is analyzed to illustrate the use of the model and demonstrate its capabilities in optimizing construction site layouts and generating optimal trade-offs between safety and travel cost of resources on site.     

Using Weibull Analysis for Evaluation of Cost and Schedule Performance

Large amounts of money are lost each year in the construction industry because of poor schedule and cost control. Few contractors specify and follow systematic schedule monitoring practices. Traditionally, the earned value method (EVM) is used to control and monitor schedule performance using the schedule and cost performance indices which compare the budgeted cost of work performed to what was originally scheduled or what is actually expended. This paper presents a statistical approach, namely Weibull analysis, to evaluate stochastically the schedule performance of construction or design projects. The approach can be used in conjunction with the EVM to enhance the evaluation and control of schedule performance. Weibull analysis is a common method for failure analysis and reliability engineering used in a wide range of applications. In this paper, the applicability of Weibull analysis for evaluating and comparing the reliability of the schedule performance of multiple projects is presented. The various steps in the analysis are discussed along with an example in which two projects are analyzed and compared. The authors conclude that Weibull analysis has several advantages and provides a relatively robust and effective method for construction managers to better control and monitor their projects.     

Effect of Safety and Environmental Variables on Task Durations in Steel Erection

In spite of the efforts by government agencies, labor organizations, and researchers in the field of health and safety, injuries and fatalities continue to affect the construction industry. In 2002 the construction industry had the undesirable distinction of having two of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, with fatalities among structural steel workers at 58.2 per 100,000 workers (fourth highest rate) and among construction laborers at 27.7 per 100,000 workers (ninth highest rate). Costs associated with construction accidents, such as increased insurance premiums and medical expenses, and loss of productivity are also concerns in the industry. It has not been demonstrated how unsafe working conditions affect worker performance, and the impact of unsafe work practices on worker performance has not been quantified. This paper describes a methodology that included direct observation of steel erection activities and statistical analysis of task duration data. The data collected at steel erection sites included safety conditions such as the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), elevation of the work area, environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity, and worker performance in the form of task durations. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis of 186 of steel erection task durations collected over a six-month period showed that the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), the time of day during which the operation was being performed, the elevation at which the work was being performed, and the presence of decking below the work area had statistically significant effects on the durations of steel erection tasks.     

The Nature of Struck-by Accidents

Construction accidents are broadly categorized into five basic groups, namely falls (from elevation), shock (electrical), caught in/between, struck-by, and other. “Struck-by” accidents accounted for 22% of all construction-related fatalities recorded by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration between 1985 and 1989. Recent (1997 to 2000) data show that the percentage of struck-by accidents constituted 24.6% of the fatalities and serious construction worker injuries. Struck-by accidents primarily involve workers struck by equipment, private vehicles, falling materials, vertically hoisted materials, horizontally transported materials, and trench cave ins. Determining possible causation factors of these accident types is often difficult, due to the broad categories utilized in the accident coding system. This study resulted in gaining insights about the root causes of the struck-by injuries. By finding the root causes, effective methods for accident prevention can be developed.     

Quantifying Engineering Project Scope for Productivity Modeling

A poor scope definition in an engineering design project disrupts project rhythm, causes rework, increases project time and cost, and lowers the productivity and morale of the workforce. A quantitative measurement of the project scope is the basis for productivity modeling that involves the measurement, estimation, control, and evaluation of productivity. This paper proposes a conceptual model, the quantitative engineering project scope definition (QEPSD), to standardize the measurement of engineering project scope in construction projects, within a computer aided design environment. The QEPSD quantitatively measures engineering project scope, in terms of the complexity of design items by defining design categories and complexity functions appropriate to the particular discipline. The proposed method was originally verified and implemented specifically for steel drafting projects. Actual data was analyzed and used to demonstrate the benefits of historical data prepared using QEPSD for project scope definition. It was found that the new method led to increased utilization of previously untapped values in historical data, improving the accuracy of project scope definition, and productivity modeling. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential benefits of adopting the QEPSD method, and its implications upon various project management functions.