Browsing by Subject "Capital projects"
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Item Analysis of the impact of phase arrangement on duration and performance of capital projects(2017-12-08) Park, Hyeon Yong; Caldas, Carlos H.; Mulva, Stephen Patrick; Leite, Fernanda L; Zhang, Zhanmin; Bickel, J. ErickIn today’s construction industry, projects continue to get larger and more complex than ever before. Meanwhile, project owners demand early completion of their projects, motivated by the desire to attain the first-mover advantage that heavily presses on the construction business. Within these circumstances, establishing project schedule that is reasonably certain to bring a project to completion on time or sooner requires a thorough understanding of how project schedule has been implemented. Phase arrangement used in this research is defined as the relative position and sequence of phases that encompass the project’s development life cycle, namely: planning, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, and startup. A thorough understanding of phase arrangement can supply the basis to create preliminary project schedule early in the planning phase. The primary goal of this research is to characterize and identify patterns of phase arrangements and to measure their impact on duration and performance outcomes. Based on the quantification analysis of project schedules with consideration of their influential project characteristics, phase arrangements of the project development life cycle were characterized. Eleven unique pairwise and fifteen triple–wise patterns of phase arrangement that were employed by capital projects were identified and documented in this dissertation. Due to small sample size, comparisons of all patterns could not be conducted. Nonetheless, several statistically significant findings were observed specifically for projects that initiated early procurement involvement prior to planning, in terms of project duration and performance outcomes. This research contributed to the body of knowledge in two main areas. The first contribution is the characterization of phase arrangements to provide an analytic framework for analyzing project schedule at the phase level. The second contribution is that the impact analysis results of phase arrangements on duration and performance outcomes provide practitioners and researchers opportunities to acknowledge that phase arrangement and patterns of concurrency become an important consideration in planning and executing capital projects.Item A decision support system for rapid evaluation and selection of engineered equipment suppliers(2009-08) Azambuja, Marcelo Menna Barreto; O'Brien, William J.Procurement’s role in engineering and construction is changing. Procurement is evolving into a far more strategic discipline. Major equipment procurement in particular ties up a large proportion of construction cost, has long lead time, and is usually associated with the acquisition of complex or specialized technology. Selection of suppliers is a complex process which requires the evaluation of several suppliers and project targets. This analysis is usually performed manually, it is time consuming, and certain tradeoffs may be overlooked. This research advances state of the art to aid the commercial evaluation and selection of engineered equipment suppliers in the early stages of capital projects. A decision support system was developed in cooperation with several leading engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) and owner firms within industrial construction. The system integrates firms’ market and supplier performance data with a decision aid method to support rapid tradeoff analysis and evaluation of sourcing alternatives in the early stages of capital projects. The tool has been developed in Visual C#, in the form of simple and intuitive forms, with Microsoft Access as the back-end database. A supplier selection module uses the Aspiration Interactive Method (AIM) for providing rapid tradeoff analysis and points how each supplier is ranked in relation to the expected procurement targets. The system also includes a module for schedule analysis of the preferred supplier. Managers first need to assess unique project and supplier’s characteristics to estimate most likely durations. These durations are used to run a PERT analysis and provide initial feedback on probability of equipment delivery success. Therefore, managers are able to check whether their procurement master schedule milestones are feasible or not. Two actual selection cases were used to validate system’s usefulness, completeness, and deployability. According to experienced managers, this tool brings intelligence to the traditional selection process. The ability to quickly generate what-if scenarios and rapidly perform tradeoff analysis based on real data improves the quality of decision making, and supports commercial assessment and recommendation of suppliers in the early phases of capital projects.Item Factors affecting underreporting of construction safety incidents on capital projects(2015-05) Al-Aubaidy, Nadia Abdulrehman; Caldas, Carlos H.; Mulva, Stephen Patrick; O’Brien, William J.; Novoselc, Atila; Brockett, PatrickAt the national policy level, accurate reporting of work-related injuries and illnesses can help the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) develop statistical interferences, determine required standards and improve its performance. Moreover, at the employer level accurate recordkeeping allows safety managers to identify unsafe work environments and work practices, monitor worker health and wellbeing, and eliminate risky situations. Evidence from previous research, media, and worker testimony has shown that workplace injuries and illnesses are being significantly underreported on capital projects. Despite widespread acceptance of the importance of accurate recordkeeping and significant research having been conducted with the intention of improving the safety performance of capital projects, the study of the underreporting of construction safety incidents remains limited. The main purpose of this research is to study the underreporting problems by investigating the reporting practices of real-world databases, identifying the factors causing underreporting of construction safety incidents, assessing the relative impact of factors causing underreporting of construction safety incidents, and demonstrating the incidence of those factors. An exploratory case study that provided with data obtained from databases tracking construction safety incidents within an owner organization are used as a point of departure. The data source triangulation method and expert interviews are utilized to gather categorical data and information for this relatively novel topic. Two surveys are deployed to collect data through Qualtrics Survey Tools. This research provides evidence about the presence of underreporting problems within construction organizations. It reveals the key causes that contribute to the underreporting and groups them into topic areas. A total of 53 factors that have an influence on underreporting are identified and their relative importance is assessed. This research also presents evidence that demonstrates that the occurrence of factors affecting underreporting is more frequent on projects where the project safety team was doubtful about the accuracy of reporting. This research helps to provide insight about the importance of those factors and allows management to mitigate their negative influence on reporting construction safety incidents. Also, it brings management attention to the difference between good and bad projects, in regards to recording incidents, and to use this knowledge to improve recordkeeping of illnesses and injuries.Item Information integration in the capital projects industry : interaction effects and benefits of complementary practices(2010-08) Kang, Young Cheol; Thomas, Stephen Richard, 1949-; O'Brien, William J.; Novoselac, Atila; O'Connor, James T.; Bias, Randolph G.; Mulva, Stephen P.Information integration is considered a source of competitive advantage in the capital projects industry. While it has been broadly implemented, many organizations appear to have achieved only limited benefits from their efforts. This dissertation investigates the complementarity relationship between information technology (IT) use and project execution processes and practices. It asserts that rather than directly improving an organization’s competitive advantage, IT serves instead as a mode to improve existing processes and practices which in turn serve to improve the bottom line. Building from this foundation, the dissertation proceeds to expand its findings to document mechanisms by which various resources influence the complementarity relationship. Topics within this dissertation are investigated with both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Using capital projects data, evidence of complementarity is established quantitatively between general use of IT and best practices. The benefits of complementarity in terms of cost, schedule, and rework project performance measures are documented. Data analyses show that more use of IT is associated with more use of best practice; and, projects that intensively implement IT and best practice tend to show superior project performance. Furthermore, by investigating the use of a specific technology, this dissertation presents a thorough statistical analysis showing that IT use affects the use of practices, which together support improved project performance. Next, this dissertation lists organization resources that may affect complementarity. Using sixteen actual information integration cases, the major resources consistently affecting complementarity are identified. Illustrations of seven case studies present how the resources are managed. The case studies are also used when discussing the interaction of IT use and processes generating complementarity. The primary contribution of this research is to provide a quantitative evidence of IT’s indirect impact on construction project performance via practices. A broad discussion citing the range of resources affecting the complementarity and identifying the major ones in the capital projects industry is another contribution of this research.Item A Quantitative Approach for Measuring Managerial Interfaces in the Development of a Capital Project(Construction Research Congress, 2012) Mulva, Stephen P.; O'Brien, William J.; Yun, SungminCapital projects are funded with the intention of meeting a business need. For the delivery of the facility to be successful, the interface between the owner’s business personnel and its project personnel must be effective. This paper outlines a quantitative approach for the measurement of this management interface; an approach which has not been accomplished to date. Although previous studies examined various technical interfaces among project personnel, the interface between business and project personnel is in fact, more important to ensuring the realization of the project’s stated benefits. Therefore, this research conducted a thorough literature review on studies related to organizational interfaces and their management in the construction industry. It also examined quantitative measures of organizational involvement and the interface between business and project units. This paper concludes with some recommended quantitative assessment tools able to measure the involvement and interaction between business and project personnel assigned to develop a specific capital project.Item Successful delivery of mega-projects(2015-05) Gupta, Ashish, Ph. D.; Caldas, Carlos H.; Borcherding, JohnThe term "mega-projects" is generally used to describe those projects whose capital budgets exceed one billion dollars. Many recent studies assessing the performance of mega-projects have concluded that cost and schedule overruns are common in all industry segments and world regions. Mega-projects are of importance not only to the stakeholders involved in development and construction, but also to the societies, economies, and environments impacted by these projects. There are very few studies that provide guidance on the effective planning and execution of megaprojects. Given the enormous amount of capital dollars at stake and the prevailing trend towards poor performance, the Construction Industry Institute initiated Research Team 315 (RT 315), Successful Delivery of Mega-projects, to attempt to identify why these failures happen and what can be done to prevent or reduce mega-project performance failures. The primary research question the team was tasked to find answer was: "What sorts of changes in project development and execution are needed to increase the likelihood of success on mega-projects?" After conducting a thorough literature review the RT finalized the following two hypothesis to validate (1) there are factors that have higher occurrence and performance impacts on mega-projects. (2) These factors require changes in mega-project planning and execution to improve the chances of successful outcomes. Through preliminary interviews, surveys, follow up interviews and case studies, the research identified 34 impact factors with high occurrence and high negative performance impact on mega-projects. The research also prioritized the most impactful factors that should be avoided or mitigated to increase the likelihood of successful mega-project outcomes. The research went deeper by identifying specific case examples of how the negative impacts might manifest. Furthermore, for each of the factors, the research identified specific mitigation strategies and recommendations that should be adopted during front-end-planning and execution. All of these results have been compiled into an Excel-based Implementation Resource, IR 315-2 Mega-Project Assessment of Criticality Tool (MPACT). MPACT provides project teams the means to a structured assessment process of critical factors on mega-projects, enabling more accurate and thorough mitigation planning on these impact factors, in order to improve mega-project performance.Item Successful frameworks for financing capital projects: an analysis of Texas community college processes for bond referendums, 1998-2008(2009-12) Brazier, Elise Ann; Roueche, John E.The purpose of this study was to investigate the capital project financing methods of Texas community college districts, including an analysis of successful general obligation bond elections. A two-phase research approach was used in this analysis. The first part of the research investigation surveyed 65 community college executives and administrators representing 50 community college districts in Texas. College leaders were asked to participate in an online survey regarding finance methods used to fund capital projects. This included leaders who have participated in general obligation bond referendums on their college campuses. Thirty-four out of 65 leaders responded to the survey, which resulted in a 52.3% response rate. The second part of the investigation disaggregated survey response information from district college leaders into two groups: Those who finance capital projects utilizing general obligation bonds (GO bond) and those who use other methods than general obligation bonds to fund capital improvements or renovations. A cross-sectional study was conducted during the second phase, which investigated 12 community college district leaders’ processes and strategies of passing general obligation bond elections from 1998 to 2008. As a follow-up to the survey instrument, 11 interviews were conducted from GO and non-GO bond community college districts. The results from the findings led to the following conclusions. Each community college district is unique in how capital projects are funded. The commonalities that existed among survey participants and the personal interviews conducted were establishing strong community relationships prior to the planning of bond campaigns. The data reinforced the basic premise of building key relationships with civic/business leaders early on in the process. The importance of creating an environment that focuses on open communication and trust in support of the college was a determining factor for winning bond elections. The recommendations that emerged from this study were community college leaders must begin a dialogue to share best practices in capital project funding. Secondly, community college leaders must advocate for an organized system of data collection to record general obligation bond elections from their state agencies. Lastly, an organization for capital project advocacy must be created.