Architecture Commons^™

Contractors' Competition Strategies In Bidding: Hong Kong Study, Yongtao Tan, Liyin Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Selecting an appropriate competition strategy in bidding is the ambition of most contractors. The multiple requirements of clients encourage contractors to consider other strategies to deliver additional benefits besides offering a low-price bid. Offering low bids will reduce contractors' profits and potentially make development less attractive. Contractors need to understand their specific resources that generate competitive advantage and accordingly develop strategies to win contracts. This paper reports the findings from a recent survey on competition strategies in the Hong Kong construction industry. Thirteen typical bidding strategies, their used frequency in bidding, and their effectiveness for winning contracts of different types …

Construction Project Selection Using Fuzzy Topsis Approach, Young-Tao Tan, Li-Yin Shen, Craig Langston, Yan Liu

Craig Langston

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to introduce a quantitative method for assisting contractors to select appropriate projects for bidding by considering multiple attributes and integrating decision group member opinions.

Design/methodology/approach - The fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is used to help contractors make decision on project selection and the linguistic terms are defined for representing the triangular fuzzy numbers for ratings of alternatives and weights of criteria.

Findings - The selection of appropriate projects for bidding is a multiple attribute group decision-making exercise. In a real decision process, there are …

Bond Between Self-Compacting Concrete And Reinforcement, Marian Sabau, Traian Onet, Ioan Pop

Marian Sabau

This paper study the bond behaviour of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in comparison to normal vibrated concrete (NVC). In this paper are presented the following parameters: the influence of bar diameter, the influence of concrete quality, the top-bar effect, the influence of active and passive confinement. In literature, different test results are found for the bond strength in SCC, which deliver contradictory results, but internationally it seems to be agreed that bond strength in SCC is slightly higher than NVC.

Hardened Properties Of Self-Compacting Concrete, Marian Sabau, Traian Onet, Ana Ioana Petean

Marian Sabau

This paper presents the properties of hardened self-compacting concrete (SCC) and compare them to those reported for normally vibrated concrete (NVC). The mechanical properties evaluated are: compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, creep, shrinkage and bond with reinforcement. The very wide range of materials and mixes already used for SCC produced a significant scatter of data, but clear conclusions have been obtained. The compressive strength of SCC was likely to be the same or greater than that of NVC by using the same content of cement and water. Modulus of elasticity of SCC was lower than that of NVC …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Lynn Crawford

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Craig Langston

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Systemic Rework Risk Classification For Offshore Projects, Peter Love, Jim Smith, Sangwon Han

Jim Smith

Rework arises due to errors and omissions, and significantly contributes to project cost and schedule overruns in offshore projects. To acquire an understanding of the causal nature of rework in offshore projects, twenty three in-depth interviews with leading oil and gas industry practitioners were undertaken. The dialogue and narratives obtained from the interviews enabled the underlying dynamics of rework to be determined. A risk classification matrix is developed that can be utilized as a frame of reference to mitigate future rework. If rework risks are not given due consideration then there is the potential for latent conditions to become embedded …

Extending The Project Management Skillset To Encompass Change Implementation, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

Project management standards address change control but are largely silent on change implementation. As the majority of projects involve some degree of organizational or behavioural change, and as project management is now applied to implementation of organisational changes as a specific project type, extension of coverage to recognise specific activities and competencies involved in effective change implementation should be considered in review of project management standards. As input to such a review, this paper presents results of research investigating the project and change implementation practices used, in practice, on projects requiring varying degrees of organizational and behavioural change.

Comparing Apples With Apples: Aligning Project Management Capability With Corporate Strategy, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

It makes little sense for an organization to invest in project management systems that are not directly suited to the nature of their business yet they need some form of guidance to tell them what good looks like. Generic project management maturity models can be a useful starting point but they take no account of differences in context and using them is like comparing apples with oranges. This paper presents results of research that investigates differences in strategic drivers and associated project management practices and outcomes between industries. Results of this research provide input to development of more compelling and …

A Vision For A Longer-Term Future: From Project Managers To “Synthesists”?, Alan Stretton, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

This paper first gives a snapshot of how some articulate contributors to a broader future-oriented non-management literature perceive the growth of specialization of avocations/ professions. A primary drawback is seen to be a resultant lack of people who are fluent in the language of many different disciplines, and who have the ability to expertly integrate them to achieve broader societal goals – i.e. “synthesists”.Project managers essentially integrate the contributions of many varied disciplines to achieve beneficial outcomes. Therefore project management appears to be extremely well placed to broaden its perspectives, and to develop and consolidate a role as “synthesists” in …

Fitting Project Management Capability To Strategy, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

Project management is now recognized as an organizational capability and there are numerous generic maturity models providing one size fits all approaches to what is considered to be best practice. Both maturity models and best practices are problematic. Maturity models typically suggest that all firms must strive to progressively achieve prescribed levels of practice across the same range of best practices. But what constitutes best practice for whom and under what circumstances? If we look at an organization’s project management systems, although they may have similarities across firms, they are operating in different contexts, driven by different strategies. What may …

Exploring The Intersection Of Project And Change Management, Lynn Crawford, Alicia Aitken, Anat Hassner-Nahmias

Lynn Crawford

The intersection of change and project management is attracting interest from both practitioners and researchers because, in a rapidly changing and evolving environment, an organization’s ability to change itself has become critical to strategic performance. Much of the responsibility for organizational change rests in the hands of general management but devolution of parts of this responsibility to specific change management roles is occurring and there is widespread acceptance of projects and programs as organizing frameworks for change initiatives. However, the fields of project and change management rest on different foundations and have developed in different directions. Although project and program …

Portfolio Management: Roles, Responsibilities And Practices - A Qualitative Study, Aileen Koh

Aileen Koh

The increasing use of project and programs by organizations to achieve business strategy has led to the need to understand portfolio management. Along with the increasing diffusion of portfolio management a new managerial role evolves: the portfolio manager. This new role is pivotal in planning and controlling complex project landscapes more effectively and more efficiently, in implementing portfolio management practices as a management innovation.The practices of portfolio management, together with the associated roles, responsibilities of portfolio managers were investigated. This paper presents the first stage qualitative study, using an inductive interview based approach with six portfolio managers from six organizations …

Cross-Cultural Training: The Importance Of Investing In People, Sabina Cerimagic, Jim Smith

Jim Smith

Major international companies have established themselves in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market by setting up their regional headquarters in Dubai. These international companies want to be in a growing market in a country where their companies are recognised and affiliated with a positive image. In addition, many companies have moved to the UAE for financial reasons as well. The UAE is an expanding regional market with the potential for future growth. However, there are cultural differences between Australia (and western countries generally) and the UAE (Middle Eastern). It is easy to have genuine and honest misunderstandings and, hence, it …

Screening And Selecting Project Managers For The Middle East, Sabina Cerimagic, Jim Smith

Jim Smith

Cross-cultural training is of prime importance if the expatriates are to adjust speedily to the new environment and do well in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Selecting the right people for the overseas job is important as the selected individuals need to have a desire and readiness to learn. Some researchers in this field referred to this as the "learning orientation" where people with high learning orientations like challenges and are ready to learn and people with low learning orientations like to play it safe and do not like challenges. The way the "right" people can be chosen for the …

Sensemaking Of Rework Causation In Offshore Structures: People, Organization And Project, Peter E. D. Love, Jim Smith, Sangwon Han

Jim Smith

Cost and schedule overruns are norm in offshore hydrocarbon projects. With increasingly complex commercial and contracting arrangements, technical challenges, changing local economic and regulatory conditions and a shift toward project‘s being undertaken in peak oil frontier regions, the risks of overruns increase. A major factor contributing to such overruns is rework. Twenty three indepth interviews with leading oil and gas industry practitioners were undertaken to acquire knowledge of their experiences of rework causation in offshore projects. Analysis of the dialogue and narratives obtained enabled a nomenclature for rework causal factors to be classified as People, Organization and Project for different …

A Fuzzy Approach For Assessing Contractors Competitiveness, Yongtao Tan, Li-Yen Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Purpose – Proper assessment of contractors' competitiveness is important for assisting contractors in taking internal analysis and for assisting clients in selecting suitable contractors. This paper seeks to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach – With previously identified contractor key competitiveness indicators (KCIs), this study presents a fuzzy competitiveness rating (FCR) method for measuring contractor competitiveness with reference to the Hong Kong construction industry. A set of linguistic terms is used for facilitating the assessment process.

Findings – For illustration, an example is used to show the application of the FCR method. The results provide valuable information for helping contractors in the …

Historic Building Information Modelling Phd, Maurice Murphy

Maurice Murphy

Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) is a novel prototype library of parametric objects, based on historic architectural data, in addition to a mapping system for plotting the library objects onto laser scan survey data. The HBIM process begins with remote collection of survey data using a terrestrial laser scanner. This is then followed by the processing of the laser scan survey data to generate ortho-image and segmented point cloud data for mapping of library objects. The next stage involves the design of new shape and parametric rules for the construction of a library of objects that are based on 18th …

Impact Of The Capital Market Collapse On Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Projects, Michael Regan, Jim Smith, Peter Love

Michael Regan

The collapse of capital markets is having an impact of the funding arrangements for economic and social infrastructure projects in Australia. Bearing this in mind, this paper seeks to examine whether the current volatility and uncertainty in capital markets in Australia affects the feasibility of privately financed infrastructure and specifically the public-private partnership PPP method of procurement. This paper examines the role and dependency that capital markets play in funding PPPs, current market conditions, and how they will affect PPP viability. In addition, alternative funding and procurement mechanisms that can be used for short- and medium-term infrastructure deliveries are presented.

An Overview Of Component Unit Pricing Theory, David Cattell

David Cattell

Component unit pricing (CUP) theory presents a fresh approach to item pricing, described as the process of distributing the overall price among its constituent component items. This theory provides explanation and proof that different distributions of mark-up among the items of a project produce different levels of reward for contractors, while exposing them to different degrees of risk. The theory describes the three identified sources of these rewards, namely those of improved cash flow, escalation in compensation and valuations of likely variations. In addition, it also provides the first explanation of the three risks involved, namely the risk of ‘rejection’, …

The Bonds That Tie: Will A Performance Bond Require That A Surety Deliver A Certified Green Building?, Darren Prum, Lorilee Medders

Darren A. Prum

In 2006, the city of Washington, D. C. passed landmark legislation that introduced green building requirements for various types of structures into the jurisdiction over a five-year period. A noteworthy aspect of the legislation directed construction projects within the district to purchase green performance bonds up to $3 million to guard against a privately owned project’s failure to meet its green building aspirations. In essence, this law placed the burden of guaranteeing compliance with the government’s policy upon the contractors and sureties of a green building project.

Following the passage of this act, confusion amongst the construction industry and sureties …