Happy New Year 2010!
I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous year!
Hadikusumo
Safety Communication In Construction Projects
Communication of the human skills is the best way for effective and successful implementation of the safety program. Aim and meaning of the safety program is very difficult to understand for employees working in different industries. However, the risk communication design can help people work safely and brings the benefit to the workplace. According to the study from Ferguson et al. (2003), the risk communication has 3 elements in order to make it effective:
1) Usability - how easy is the material to read, remember and comprehend
2) Usefulness - the material relevant to the target audience and
3) Message framing effects - what is the influence of presenting the same risk information as positives or negatives
According to Herrero et al. (2002), one of the problems in safety management is the relationship between top manager and workers. The lack of communication from top manager to the workers could be damaged the safety management. Cullen (1990) also recognized that the break in the communications sequence between different of individuals and groups on the platform itself and the management structure is major factors contribute to the increase of the disaster.
Although many construction projects in Thailand should be intensive on safety regulation, the construction workers do not care about the safety because they are temporary employee. This can be the deficiency between the regulation and the actual that communication can solve and share the knowledge in safety together for improving the safety procedure. Finally, all the involve parties have to keep in mind that safety is the first priority for working in the dangerous workplace like construction project.
Mr. Somjate Chatutewaprasit made a research which main objective is to investigate the effective communication methods in managing construction safety and health. His sub-objectives were also explored as follows: (1) to conduct an exploratory study to identify communication methods in managing safety and health; and (2) to study problems in implementing the communication methods.
Conclusion
This study was concentrated on medium to large scale construction projects and focused on safety communication methods and the effectiveness of each safety communication methods.
For the main objective which is to investigate the effective safety communication methods in managing construction safety and health by using correlation between frequency (action) with level of safety awareness and level of understanding (output), to explain which safety communication are suitable with each situations are concluded as follow:
- Correlation analysis between Frequency of Safety communication methods and Level of Safety Awareness showed that safety communication methods do not have any correlation between each other. The meaning of this case is that if safety supervisors increase frequency of safety communication methods, the level of safety awareness in construction site would not increase following the frequency.
From this situation, the frequencies of safety communication methods are not related with safety awareness. Because of in construction site have many temporary workers so when temporary workers go out to work in agriculture field. Therefore construction should recruit the new workers who not have experience of construction work. The safety communication methods are maintained by safety supervisor, but level of awareness drop in a few months.
- Correlation analysis between Frequency of Safety communication methods and Level of New and Complex Safety Issue meant that correlation between safety communication methods with level of understanding of new and complex safety issue.
In this case, frequency of safety manual and procedure related with level of understanding of new and complex safety issue. Because of when project use new equipment or complex work methods, safety supervisor should put the work process in safety manual and distribute safety manual handbook to all workers. The process of work use cartoon to communicate to workers it easier than letters.
- Correlation analysis between Frequency of Safety communication methods and Level of Understanding of Safety Issue for Own Team and Subcontractor Team showed that there are correlations between levels of understanding of safety issue for own contractor team and safety issue for subcontractor team with safety newsletter and safety bulletin.
For correlation between frequency of safety communication methods and level of understanding of safety issue for own contractor team are related together. Safety newsletter and safety bulletin can communicate safety information such as report accident record, next activities and safety work process (from weekly work planning). Safety supervisor have to walk around and investigate workers and take pictures, after that put in safety bulletin to compare correct and incorrect work process to contractor team.
For correlation between frequency of safety communication methods and level of understanding of safety issue for own contractor team are related together. Safety newsletter and safety bulletin can communicate safety information such as report accident record, next activities and safety work process (from weekly work planning). Safety supervisor have to walk around and investigate workers and take pictures, after that put in safety bulletin to compare correct and incorrect work process to subcontractor team.
Perception of respondent of Effectiveness of Safety Communication Methods
Follow the result of this research, safety training is the best safety communication methods that safety supervisors using to communicate to all workers. The results showed that, all of safety supervisors that the researcher collected data from questionnaire, they are same perception that safety training is the best way to communicate with their workers. Because of safety training can transform all of safety information such as safety work process, checking how to check equipment before use. And then safety supervisors can investigate the workers work safety follow safety supervisor instruction, and safety supervisor can advice them in front of construction work area.
The main safety communication problems that related with subcontractor foremen and workers are lack of workers experience and lack of participation with safety supervisor. In case of lack of experience it tough to teach the workers who never work in construction site to work safety and use PPE. However safety supervisor should participation with workers and advice them repeatable, then workers will improve themselves.
His thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Due to the most important in order to get success and effectiveness in safety program is communication of the human skills. However, most accidents come from the lack of communication. The lack of communication from top manager to the workers could be damaged the safety management. Therefore, it is necessary to have the study on an effective safety communication in construction project. The objectives of the study is 1) to conduct an exploratory study to identify communication methods in managing safety and health, and 2) to study problems in implementing the communication methods.
The common ways of safety communication method are Safety training, Project meeting, Toolbox meeting, Safety orientation, Safety feedback, Safety incentive, Safety manual and procedure, Safety Poster, Safety Sign, Safety newsletter, Safety bulletin, MSDS, Safety suggestion box, and Morning talk. The problems in implementing the communication methods are Literacy, Time for explaining, Lack of workers experience, Challenge behavior of workers, Lack of participation with safety supervisor, Attitude of workers with safety program, Site environment, and Length of communication.
Data was collected by using face-to-face interviews. The analysis was based on the statistic techniques and interpreted in meaningful ways and presented in this study. Finally, the effective safety communication methods in managing construction safety and health were concluded. Accordingly, the results of this study can be used for safety management in order to provide and improve the effective safety communication methods. Safety communication problems are related with safety communication in construction site.
1) Usability - how easy is the material to read, remember and comprehend
2) Usefulness - the material relevant to the target audience and
3) Message framing effects - what is the influence of presenting the same risk information as positives or negatives
According to Herrero et al. (2002), one of the problems in safety management is the relationship between top manager and workers. The lack of communication from top manager to the workers could be damaged the safety management. Cullen (1990) also recognized that the break in the communications sequence between different of individuals and groups on the platform itself and the management structure is major factors contribute to the increase of the disaster.
Although many construction projects in Thailand should be intensive on safety regulation, the construction workers do not care about the safety because they are temporary employee. This can be the deficiency between the regulation and the actual that communication can solve and share the knowledge in safety together for improving the safety procedure. Finally, all the involve parties have to keep in mind that safety is the first priority for working in the dangerous workplace like construction project.
Mr. Somjate Chatutewaprasit made a research which main objective is to investigate the effective communication methods in managing construction safety and health. His sub-objectives were also explored as follows: (1) to conduct an exploratory study to identify communication methods in managing safety and health; and (2) to study problems in implementing the communication methods.
Conclusion
This study was concentrated on medium to large scale construction projects and focused on safety communication methods and the effectiveness of each safety communication methods.
For the main objective which is to investigate the effective safety communication methods in managing construction safety and health by using correlation between frequency (action) with level of safety awareness and level of understanding (output), to explain which safety communication are suitable with each situations are concluded as follow:
- Correlation analysis between Frequency of Safety communication methods and Level of Safety Awareness showed that safety communication methods do not have any correlation between each other. The meaning of this case is that if safety supervisors increase frequency of safety communication methods, the level of safety awareness in construction site would not increase following the frequency.
From this situation, the frequencies of safety communication methods are not related with safety awareness. Because of in construction site have many temporary workers so when temporary workers go out to work in agriculture field. Therefore construction should recruit the new workers who not have experience of construction work. The safety communication methods are maintained by safety supervisor, but level of awareness drop in a few months.
- Correlation analysis between Frequency of Safety communication methods and Level of New and Complex Safety Issue meant that correlation between safety communication methods with level of understanding of new and complex safety issue.
In this case, frequency of safety manual and procedure related with level of understanding of new and complex safety issue. Because of when project use new equipment or complex work methods, safety supervisor should put the work process in safety manual and distribute safety manual handbook to all workers. The process of work use cartoon to communicate to workers it easier than letters.
- Correlation analysis between Frequency of Safety communication methods and Level of Understanding of Safety Issue for Own Team and Subcontractor Team showed that there are correlations between levels of understanding of safety issue for own contractor team and safety issue for subcontractor team with safety newsletter and safety bulletin.
For correlation between frequency of safety communication methods and level of understanding of safety issue for own contractor team are related together. Safety newsletter and safety bulletin can communicate safety information such as report accident record, next activities and safety work process (from weekly work planning). Safety supervisor have to walk around and investigate workers and take pictures, after that put in safety bulletin to compare correct and incorrect work process to contractor team.
For correlation between frequency of safety communication methods and level of understanding of safety issue for own contractor team are related together. Safety newsletter and safety bulletin can communicate safety information such as report accident record, next activities and safety work process (from weekly work planning). Safety supervisor have to walk around and investigate workers and take pictures, after that put in safety bulletin to compare correct and incorrect work process to subcontractor team.
Perception of respondent of Effectiveness of Safety Communication Methods
Follow the result of this research, safety training is the best safety communication methods that safety supervisors using to communicate to all workers. The results showed that, all of safety supervisors that the researcher collected data from questionnaire, they are same perception that safety training is the best way to communicate with their workers. Because of safety training can transform all of safety information such as safety work process, checking how to check equipment before use. And then safety supervisors can investigate the workers work safety follow safety supervisor instruction, and safety supervisor can advice them in front of construction work area.
The main safety communication problems that related with subcontractor foremen and workers are lack of workers experience and lack of participation with safety supervisor. In case of lack of experience it tough to teach the workers who never work in construction site to work safety and use PPE. However safety supervisor should participation with workers and advice them repeatable, then workers will improve themselves.
His thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Due to the most important in order to get success and effectiveness in safety program is communication of the human skills. However, most accidents come from the lack of communication. The lack of communication from top manager to the workers could be damaged the safety management. Therefore, it is necessary to have the study on an effective safety communication in construction project. The objectives of the study is 1) to conduct an exploratory study to identify communication methods in managing safety and health, and 2) to study problems in implementing the communication methods.
The common ways of safety communication method are Safety training, Project meeting, Toolbox meeting, Safety orientation, Safety feedback, Safety incentive, Safety manual and procedure, Safety Poster, Safety Sign, Safety newsletter, Safety bulletin, MSDS, Safety suggestion box, and Morning talk. The problems in implementing the communication methods are Literacy, Time for explaining, Lack of workers experience, Challenge behavior of workers, Lack of participation with safety supervisor, Attitude of workers with safety program, Site environment, and Length of communication.
Data was collected by using face-to-face interviews. The analysis was based on the statistic techniques and interpreted in meaningful ways and presented in this study. Finally, the effective safety communication methods in managing construction safety and health were concluded. Accordingly, the results of this study can be used for safety management in order to provide and improve the effective safety communication methods. Safety communication problems are related with safety communication in construction site.
Heavy Equipment for Sale: Merrex to Explore Siribaya Gold Project in Mali
Heavy Equipment for Sale: Gregory Isenor, P.Geo., President and CEO of Merrex Gold said that IAMGOLD has confirmed its approval of the 2010 exploration plan and forecast a C$2.5 million expenditure for Merrex’s Siribaya Gold Project in Mali. While MSloane Consulting continues to offer heavy equipment for sale such as the 9 Units of 2001 Volvo A40D Articulated Dump Trucks to mining companies worldwide.Evaluation Of Effective Design In Architectural Process
Evaluation of effective design procedure is a difficult method to measure the performance of drawings. How can the architect manage this method effectively? How can they understand deeply in the role of design process? It is really a challenging task for them. For these above reasons, their experiences must be trained and modern technology methods applied in order to achieve as much best result as possible. Regarding to the way that the architect can manage the design process efficiently and effectively, they use a standardized method of measurement and common database.
Nowadays, construction is one of the most important industries in the country’s economy and still continuing to support an increasing proportion of the economy development. The construction industry plays a major role in the development of Vietnam. With the existing high growth, the demanding of all aspects concern constructability is also going along with this development. The overall economic situation will grow consistently at a relative high in future under the forecast of World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Thus, the construction industry will have a good environment to develop. Many constructors and design professionals were also approached in
In practice, the concept of design measurement activities in design phase was an expectation for the perfectibility of output-drawings. Unfortunately, the traditional design consultant only pays attention to the process of design and planning projects lead to lack of concentration how to estimate this design process.
There are following backwards usually impact on design stage of construction projects:
- Normally, the design phase of project is difficult to measure than the construction phase because the measurements are too simplicity and the quality of output in the design phase are not realized until has begun.
- There are limitations from the simplistic measurements such as: cost per drawing, man hours per drawings, etc., because of variations in drawing size and content. Furthermore, it consolidates realization that the downstream effects of a good or poor design process will multiply many times in the construction phase of project (Tucker and Scarlett, 1986).
- The most general indicators of design effectiveness are the ratio of design man hours per drawing. While this ratio may be an effective indicator of designer productivity, it does not address the expensive design-related problems projects occur construction stage (Tucker and Scarlett, 1986).
- The project designs are evaluated on cost design because cost is an important criterion in any design evaluation, but cost alone does not consider for the effects of design upon construction process.
From these problems mentioned above, the understanding of important performance measurement is applied to improve strategic design management (Amaratunga et al., 2001). It is necessary to find out a reasonable method to evaluate and control the design process. The designers should focus on improving their skills and increases the quality of drawing. In addition, if a post-project evaluation is assessed particularly, it becomes a potential tool for design management guide in forthcoming projects.
With high demand in improvement of design aspect,
a study to improve the quality design process for consulting and design architectural companies. To accomplish his objectives, four specific sub-objectives must be also accomplished:
1. Analyzing the current design management systems of Vietnamese design-consultant Company to identify the necessary improvement.
2. Defining performance of design output to clarify the meaning of design effectiveness.
3. Defining effectiveness criteria for Design Objective Matrix to apply for Vietnamese design-consultant Company.
4. Defining effectiveness criteria could apply on design architectural process for Vietnamese design-consultant Company.
Conclusions
1. The seven important criteria measuring design effectiveness immediately after construction and relevant regardless of construction category, construction activity, design user, or project variable are: Accuracy of Design Documents, Usability of Design Documents, Cost of the design, Constructability of Design, Economy of design, Performance against schedule, Ease of start-up.
2. The design evaluation matrix can be used by any design user for any projects type or phase.
3. The criteria and weights used in the matrix can be modified by the evaluator to fit any project, and the evaluation can adapt to most needs.
4. The matrix can be as simple (subjective ratings) or sophisticated (sub-matrices) as desired or needed.
5. The design evaluation matrix can track and compare performance over time and measure impact of various criteria.
6. The design evaluation matrix is feasible. As has been proved by the design evaluation matrix for piping, all data necessary to measure the criteria can be obtained or estimate.
7. The seven design evaluation criteria have proven to be meaningful, and can be quantified by various sub-criteria ratios and subjective ratings. The criteria have also proven fairly comprehensive, as no suggestions were made for additional criteria.
8. Not all the data required for the feasibility test, and for the evaluation itself, is readily at hand in some companies. Since no interviewees questioned the significance or relevance of the criteria, or could offer other measurements, the problem is not inappropriate or inapplicable criteria. Instead, this problem points out the need for a method such as the design evaluation matrix as a means of evaluation.
9. The data from the industry interviews can be inserted into evaluation matrices and used to evaluate piping design.
10. Ratio measures provide a better means of evaluation than do subjective ratings. The subjective ratings are consistently higher than the industry average at score three, and by raising performance indices this may prove misleading. Quantitative measures need to be identified for all sub-criteria.
11. It is possible to track the performance of each of the criteria using the performance index of the criterion evaluation matrix. When compared to past performance indices, the increase of this performance index indicates improvement or decline in the performance of the criterion.
12. The performance index might also be used to measure the affect on projects of the project variables of the schedules, size, and types of contract. Further study of proper use of the matrix may indicate a relationship in movement of performance index due to changes in the variables.
His thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Design effectiveness method has the potential to significantly benefits for consulting – design architectural companies to issue the best value outputs design to customers, while improves quality, reduces cost and shortens time. However, it is not widely know and applied on Vietnamese design construction field. Thus, the research focuses on main issues of current management system and design effectiveness method to find the best efficiencies and acceptability criteria suitable with Vietnamese consulting – design architectural companies. The data is mainly collected from thirty respondents at twenty-three companies who currently work on medium and large size design-consultant Vietnamese Company. The research could be utilizing questionnaires design as an efficiency tool to collect responses. The method of breaking responses’ survey is multiple rating list scale. The values “means” were considered as the benchmark to asset and rank the ratio of respondent’s perception on their responses. These results could reflect overall viewpoints of respondents toward research’s objective.
Quality Function Deployment Approach In Condominium Construction Project: A Case Study
Improving customer satisfaction has been identified as one of the most important challenges facing businesses over the past decade. As industries and companies worldwide face increasing competition, slower growth rates, and price pressures, greater attention continues to be placed on customer satisfaction (Johnson et al, 1991 cited in Syed et al, 2003)
Vietnam is experiencing many changes as it integrates into the global economy. As one of the developing country on its way towards the world economy, Vietnam now is opening the free market for the economy development in almost all its fields. With a growing population of more than 80 millions, property development is playing a very important role in the national economy. With its newly entrance in the World Trade Organization (WTO), opening the real estate market to international arena is inevitable. Furthermore, the Vietnamese government has made changes in regulation to rouse the market by introducing Decree 17CP which is considered an “opened door” policy for the real estate market (Vietnam Economy News, 2006). According to the CB Richard Ellis report (2006), the real estate industry has so far attracted 18% of total FDI in Vietnam.
Residential housing in Vietnam is a rapidly growing business especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The demand of residential housing, especially condominium units has increased compare to previous years. Due to the increasing demand, Vietnam now is a potential market for both local and oversea home builders. Satisfied customers are said to be the back bone of the home building industry. Home builders have come to realize that the ability to correctly assess the desirability of their housing units and the quality of service is crucial to their financial viability. But Vietnam housing developers faced many problems since they do not know what exactly the customers need. This is because different customers have different needs. And to address this question, developers’ answers is prioritization and take into account the customers’ needs and try to satisfy each one according to what’s important.
Ms. Pham Nguyen Quynh Huong made a research which aimed to improve the quality of apartments and give customer satisfaction in terms of housing quality. Her study objectives were: (1) identifying the needs of the customers in housing quality (focus on condominium residential) using QFD approach; (2) develop a House of Quality for apartment based on customers’ demands; and (3) give recommendation to the developer so that they could better allocate resource in order to offer the improvement according to the clients’ requirements and needs.
Conclusion
One aspect that the construction industry can improve is its ability to determine the customers’ requirements, interpret them and transfer these requirements into plans to construct a facility. This research was conducted to identify factors influencing the quality of condominium. The first step is to list the customer requirements or needs. These needs were divided by two groups, general condition factors and internal condition factors and then evaluated for theirs importance indicated by assigning a number from 1 to 5. After that the satisfaction level of actual status based upon the respondents’ perceptions were evaluated. Gap analysis was done to examine the differences between the importance of these factors and their level of satisfaction of actual status towards the customers’ attitudes. The purpose of this was to evaluate how close to optimum (most satisfactory) the present condominium was compared to each of the defined needs. Based on the survey conducted in two new urban areas Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh and My Dinh – Me Tri in Hanoi, the general factors which have the largest gap are basic facilities, workmanship, building materials, and current amenities of the over all project. The internal factors which have the largest gap are living room, kitchen, height of flat and special installation.
Quality Function Deployment was applied on this case as a tool to prioritize important point that could offer improvements according to the customers’ requirements and needs. The result indicated that the architecture work play a very important role to improve the quality of condominium. It has the highest relative degree of importance which is 26% in improving the overall general condition and about 65% in improving the overall internal condition. Construction work has relative degree of importance of 13% in improving the general conditions and 25% in improving the internal condition. The research indicated that good specifications ensure no miscommunication between the designers and the builders on site to reduce any mistake with unsatisfied customers. Besides, standard requirements are needed to be set by the developer to avoid any improper construction work. Stricter control and supervision should be established to ensure that the building is build according to the design and method specified. Further more, good building management also make a better home quality for the customers.
The development of House of Quality can be used as a guide to focus on what the customers want throughout the planning, design and implementing condominium project.
Recommendation for developer
In general, the house of quality aims to let the developer know the needs of the customers. As a developer, its his duty to satisfy all the needs of the customers. However, due time constraints, budget constraints of the developer, the developer cannot improve all the needs. The HoQ serves to guide the developer in choosing which solution based on the tabulated absolute important score. The developer should concentrate more on the solution that have high score of absolute importance. The developer can also set priority base on interaction matrix (the roof of House of Quality). The developer can decide on the type of solution effectives
In this case, from the absolute importance score, the group with the highest score in both general conditions and internal condition is architecture. This is because good specification and standard requirement in the design ensures the quality of the apartment. Therefore, the developer should concentrate on the architectural work and then move to the following group.
Her thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Many developers has been investing and developing in residential housing to cope with the increasing demands, especially condominium residential. Satisfy the need of customers is the critical factor which contributes positively and significantly to the business. In order to get better satisfaction from customer, home builders need to know what the qualities the customer desires are and how they can best provide what their customers want.
The study aims to identify the needs of the customers in housing quality especially in condominium project. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an effective approach with a wide range of applications. This study present a application of QFD in construction projects with special focus on middle- class condominium scheme. QFD approach was used as a tool in improvement quality of condominium project. House of Quality was developed to interpret the needs of customers. The developers therefore can better allocate resource in order to offer the improvement according to the clients’ requirements and needs.
Vietnam is experiencing many changes as it integrates into the global economy. As one of the developing country on its way towards the world economy, Vietnam now is opening the free market for the economy development in almost all its fields. With a growing population of more than 80 millions, property development is playing a very important role in the national economy. With its newly entrance in the World Trade Organization (WTO), opening the real estate market to international arena is inevitable. Furthermore, the Vietnamese government has made changes in regulation to rouse the market by introducing Decree 17CP which is considered an “opened door” policy for the real estate market (Vietnam Economy News, 2006). According to the CB Richard Ellis report (2006), the real estate industry has so far attracted 18% of total FDI in Vietnam.
Residential housing in Vietnam is a rapidly growing business especially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The demand of residential housing, especially condominium units has increased compare to previous years. Due to the increasing demand, Vietnam now is a potential market for both local and oversea home builders. Satisfied customers are said to be the back bone of the home building industry. Home builders have come to realize that the ability to correctly assess the desirability of their housing units and the quality of service is crucial to their financial viability. But Vietnam housing developers faced many problems since they do not know what exactly the customers need. This is because different customers have different needs. And to address this question, developers’ answers is prioritization and take into account the customers’ needs and try to satisfy each one according to what’s important.
Ms. Pham Nguyen Quynh Huong made a research which aimed to improve the quality of apartments and give customer satisfaction in terms of housing quality. Her study objectives were: (1) identifying the needs of the customers in housing quality (focus on condominium residential) using QFD approach; (2) develop a House of Quality for apartment based on customers’ demands; and (3) give recommendation to the developer so that they could better allocate resource in order to offer the improvement according to the clients’ requirements and needs.
Conclusion
One aspect that the construction industry can improve is its ability to determine the customers’ requirements, interpret them and transfer these requirements into plans to construct a facility. This research was conducted to identify factors influencing the quality of condominium. The first step is to list the customer requirements or needs. These needs were divided by two groups, general condition factors and internal condition factors and then evaluated for theirs importance indicated by assigning a number from 1 to 5. After that the satisfaction level of actual status based upon the respondents’ perceptions were evaluated. Gap analysis was done to examine the differences between the importance of these factors and their level of satisfaction of actual status towards the customers’ attitudes. The purpose of this was to evaluate how close to optimum (most satisfactory) the present condominium was compared to each of the defined needs. Based on the survey conducted in two new urban areas Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh and My Dinh – Me Tri in Hanoi, the general factors which have the largest gap are basic facilities, workmanship, building materials, and current amenities of the over all project. The internal factors which have the largest gap are living room, kitchen, height of flat and special installation.
Quality Function Deployment was applied on this case as a tool to prioritize important point that could offer improvements according to the customers’ requirements and needs. The result indicated that the architecture work play a very important role to improve the quality of condominium. It has the highest relative degree of importance which is 26% in improving the overall general condition and about 65% in improving the overall internal condition. Construction work has relative degree of importance of 13% in improving the general conditions and 25% in improving the internal condition. The research indicated that good specifications ensure no miscommunication between the designers and the builders on site to reduce any mistake with unsatisfied customers. Besides, standard requirements are needed to be set by the developer to avoid any improper construction work. Stricter control and supervision should be established to ensure that the building is build according to the design and method specified. Further more, good building management also make a better home quality for the customers.
The development of House of Quality can be used as a guide to focus on what the customers want throughout the planning, design and implementing condominium project.
Recommendation for developer
In general, the house of quality aims to let the developer know the needs of the customers. As a developer, its his duty to satisfy all the needs of the customers. However, due time constraints, budget constraints of the developer, the developer cannot improve all the needs. The HoQ serves to guide the developer in choosing which solution based on the tabulated absolute important score. The developer should concentrate more on the solution that have high score of absolute importance. The developer can also set priority base on interaction matrix (the roof of House of Quality). The developer can decide on the type of solution effectives
In this case, from the absolute importance score, the group with the highest score in both general conditions and internal condition is architecture. This is because good specification and standard requirement in the design ensures the quality of the apartment. Therefore, the developer should concentrate on the architectural work and then move to the following group.
Her thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Many developers has been investing and developing in residential housing to cope with the increasing demands, especially condominium residential. Satisfy the need of customers is the critical factor which contributes positively and significantly to the business. In order to get better satisfaction from customer, home builders need to know what the qualities the customer desires are and how they can best provide what their customers want.
The study aims to identify the needs of the customers in housing quality especially in condominium project. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an effective approach with a wide range of applications. This study present a application of QFD in construction projects with special focus on middle- class condominium scheme. QFD approach was used as a tool in improvement quality of condominium project. House of Quality was developed to interpret the needs of customers. The developers therefore can better allocate resource in order to offer the improvement according to the clients’ requirements and needs.
Construction Equipment: Cheetham Hill Construction of UK Orders Volvo ATDs
Construction Equipment: Cheetham Hill Construction Ltd of Bury Lancashire are no strangers to running Volvo articulated haulers and more recently Volvo excavators with favourably results in terms of fuel consumption and cost per tonne moved as MSloane Consulting provides used construction equipment to construction companies worldwide. Click here to view our latest offering Volvo A40D Articulated Dump Trucks.According to plant director Sean Isherwood, the thirty tonne A30E has become the optimum sized hauler for the majority of the contracts currently undertaken by CHC and their regular client base. "In general we see job sites getting smaller and typically we work on landfill sites, land reclamation projects, quarrying and utility contracts. This coupled to the predominantly wet British weather favours a medium capacity truck fitted with floatation tyres and the A30E fits the bill," he said. "This latest package reflects CHC's strong position in a troubled market and a commitment to provide new and productive machines to our clientele operating across the whole of the UK," he continued.
Mining Equipment: Mawson Resources to Expand in Scandinavia
Mining Equipment: Mawson Resources Limited announced that they have started proceedings to expand its uranium exploration in Scandinavia while withdrawing its mineral exploration in Spain. MSloane Consulting on the other hand, provides mining equipment to mining companies worldwide.They have determined that Scandinavia holds the largest potential for further uranium discoveries. Mawson Resources will increase its exposure in Sweden and Finland by expanding their project generation efforts, by exploring forling around uranium resources and through potential further acquisitions.
Used Mining Equipment for Sale:
Dove Diamonds & Mining reports that diamond prices are up 61% from a Q1 bottom. MSloane Consulting provides used mining equipment for sale to mining companies around the world. Mr. Dovid Hauck, CEO of Dove Diamonds & Mining Inc. also said that, "Rough diamond prices have improved by at least 61% from the lows experienced at the weakest point of the market, in the first quarter of the year. Going forward, mine supply for rough diamonds will remain constrained, implying continued price rises in the near term, increasing in velocity as the US economic recovers.”
An odd form of advertising
While sitting outside for dinner last night near the Honolulu commercial port, a large roll-on roll-off ship pulled up in the channel. It came to a stop and a large searchlight lit up the advertising for the shipping line. pashahawaii.com
Smart phones appeared at nearby tables to check out the website. Inexpensive car shipping to/from Hawaii.
Smart phones appeared at nearby tables to check out the website. Inexpensive car shipping to/from Hawaii.
Used Construction Equipment: Over 40% Will Not Buy New Equipment in 2010, But Rather Buy Used Construction Equipment
The Transportation Construction Coalition’s just released a survey showing that 81.2 percent of 527 transportation contractor respondents said that they will not buy new construction equipment in 2010. A contractor on the teleconference that announced the survey said that, "We'd rather buy used construction equipment, than buy new ones." Also, another contractor put this figure in prospective: “We have 60 percent of our equipment parked in our yard with nothing to do,” said Dean Word, president, Dean Word Construction, New Braunfels, Texas. “We are not spending money on new equipment. If we find we have a particular need for specialty equipment, we’ll lease it and then send it back.”
Television: Drug of the nation*
Here are a few things I have learned from three weeks living with a television (my room at Lincoln Hall at UH-Manoa):
1. SyFy? The science fiction channel appears to have a new name which is different from any abbreviated form of "science fiction" that I've ever seen previously.
2. There are an impressive host of "ghost hunting" shows on SyFy, see above. The guy using an old HP spectrum analyzer with no input was especially amusingl.
3. Infomercials about a colon cleaning system? (I admit that was due to working with a postdoc here who works late nights, and then turning on the TV when I got back to my room at 2am.)
4. Paddling Hawaii and Hawaiian Skindiver shows. Never seen either before. Pretty cool.
5. That's who Glenn Beck is.
6. Corollary to #5. The man's insane.
7. Adult Swim is funny. For a few minutes at least.
8. Chef reality shows? The segment I saw had the "I want to be a chef" folks try to make bread. Few of them ever had, and the results were pretty dodgy. And someone was kicked off the kitchen island as a result.
9. MTV now shows four videos per day. And it's the same four videos each day. Silversun Pickups have a good name, but are pretty dull.
10. There are three Peanuts/Charlie Brown Christmas specials.
I admit that writing about TV reminds me of priests talking about sex or shipwrecked sailors discussing navigation, but what else are blogs for?
* Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.
1. SyFy? The science fiction channel appears to have a new name which is different from any abbreviated form of "science fiction" that I've ever seen previously.
2. There are an impressive host of "ghost hunting" shows on SyFy, see above. The guy using an old HP spectrum analyzer with no input was especially amusingl.
3. Infomercials about a colon cleaning system? (I admit that was due to working with a postdoc here who works late nights, and then turning on the TV when I got back to my room at 2am.)
4. Paddling Hawaii and Hawaiian Skindiver shows. Never seen either before. Pretty cool.
5. That's who Glenn Beck is.
6. Corollary to #5. The man's insane.
7. Adult Swim is funny. For a few minutes at least.
8. Chef reality shows? The segment I saw had the "I want to be a chef" folks try to make bread. Few of them ever had, and the results were pretty dodgy. And someone was kicked off the kitchen island as a result.
9. MTV now shows four videos per day. And it's the same four videos each day. Silversun Pickups have a good name, but are pretty dull.
10. There are three Peanuts/Charlie Brown Christmas specials.
I admit that writing about TV reminds me of priests talking about sex or shipwrecked sailors discussing navigation, but what else are blogs for?
* Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.
MSloane Consulting Heavy Equipment for Sale: Alexis Minerals Corporation Announced the Sale of a Brokered Private Placement
Heavy Equipment for Sale: More heavy equipment for sale by MSloane Consulting as Alexis Minerals Corporation announced the sale of a brokered private placement in an amount of up to $10,000,000 consisting of up to 20,000,000 flow-through shares at a price of $0.50 each while retaining Industrial Alliance Securities, Sandfire Securities Inc. and Cormark Securities Inc. to act as their agents.
Factors Influencing The Financial Crisis That Affect Small And Medium-Sized Construction Enterprises In Thailand
Construction plays a vital role in economic growth and development. It is also important in terms of satisfying basic physical and social needs for a greater standard of living. ILO (1987) stated that construction is one of the few industries that is of common importance in all countries and is recognized as a great contributor to the national economies of all countries. Construction stimulates a sizeable amount of economic growth because the development of the construction industry supports other considerable industries such as manufacturing and real estate.
The construction industry, through the products that it creates, its size, and its ability to create employment, is likely to influence an economy’s gross domestic product (GDP) more than any other service industry (Love et al., 2004). In Thailand, the construction industry is a major component and greatly influences the economic growth. It is interesting to note that even though being an enormous industry, construction relies much on small and medium-sized construction enterprises or “construction SMEs”. Construction SMEs are not only the grass-roots of Thailand’s construction industry; they also play a significant role to drive the construction business which has the potential to develop the country. Office of SMEs promotion in Thailand (2001) promoted that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been accepted as significant players and are the majority of business enterprises and comprise an important component for developing the economy and society of all nations. The information from National Statistic Office of Thailand (NSO, 2004), using the number of employees as the measure of size, reports that SMEs represent 98 percent of construction enterprises. In addition, construction SMEs have the financial volume approximately three times that of large construction enterprises. These distinguish how SMEs are important for construction but most construction firms are classified as SMEs.
Ms. Chanagarn Watanantachai made a study which aimed to investigate factors influencing the financial crisis that is affecting construction SMEs in Thailand so that the effective recommendations for financial crisis management could be proposed for minimize and prevent them from getting into a crisis. To achieve her objective, her sub-objectives were identified as follows: (1) to identify the key factors that lead to financial crisis and classify the importance level of each factor; (2) to explore and gain in-depth understanding how key factors influencing the financial crisis base on the practices of construction SMEs; and (3) to propose recommendations for financial crisis management that are appropriate for construction SMEs in handling with key factors influencing the financial crisis.
Results
In achieving the first objective, the analysis framework consists of 6 analysis processes. The first process is to identify the definition of factors influencing the financial crisis that is affecting construction SMEs in Thailand by using literature review and interview the managing directors. The researcher gets 33 factors that influence the financial crisis from interview expert compound with internal factors and external factors. The internal factors are included with the analysis of factors from Business Management, Financial and Accounting, Marketing, and Construction. The external factors are included with the analysis of factors from Financial Institute, Client, Supplier, Sub-contractor, and Environment .
The first objective was accomplished by using two statistic methods: 1) descriptive analysis (mean and ranking) for classifying the importance level of each factor and 2) hypothesis testing (T-test) for test the perception difference between construction SMEs with financial problem and construction SMEs without financial problem.
According to a descriptive analysis of the sample results, the main factors (the first top 10 ranked) influencing the financial crisis that is affecting construction SMEs in Thailand are Economic downturn, Payment delay from client, Increasing in construction costs, Politic instability, High competition, Unable to access sources of funds, Insufficient funds and limited capital, Low price bidding to get projects, Under-table expense for client, and Cash flow shortage. All top 10 factors are classified as a high importance level for influencing the financial crisis. There are 7 factors (out of top ten) from external factors which are difficult to control. The others 3 factors (out of top ten) are from internal factors. The groups of external factors and internal factors are shown below:
External factor
· From environment: Economic downturn, Politic instability and High competition
· From client: Payment delay from client and Under-table expense for client
· From supplier: Increasing in construction costs
· From financial institute: Unable to access sources of funds
Internal factor
From finance: Insufficient funds and limited capital and Cash flow shortage
From marketing: Low price bidding to get projects
In order to achieve the second objective of this study, factor analysis was used to explore and gain in-depth understanding how key factors influencing the financial crisis from the practices of construction SMEs. From factor analysis, the 33 factors influencing the financial crisis were classified into 7 groups of key factors: Adverse Effects of the Nation’s Situation, Less Profit or Making Loss, Low Cash Liquidity, Poor Credit Potential, Deficiency in Knowledge and Experience, Improper Contract Administration, , and construction project problems. The relationship and logical framework for summer of key factors that is influencing the financial crisis was illustrated in figure 1.
Figure 1. Logical Framework for Summer of Key Factors that is Influencing the Financial Crisis
Finally, the summary of interrelationship frameworks that demonstrate how key factors influencing the financial crisis are developed as illustrated in figure 2.
Figure 2. Summary of Interrelationship Framework of Key Factors that is Influencing the
Financial Crisis
Recommendations for Improvement
For achieving the final objective of this study, the last research objective is completed by proposing the recommendation for financial crisis management that are appropriate for construction SMEs. The causes, consequences, and recommendation for handling with the 10 key factors were discussed in table 1.
The construction industry, through the products that it creates, its size, and its ability to create employment, is likely to influence an economy’s gross domestic product (GDP) more than any other service industry (Love et al., 2004). In Thailand, the construction industry is a major component and greatly influences the economic growth. It is interesting to note that even though being an enormous industry, construction relies much on small and medium-sized construction enterprises or “construction SMEs”. Construction SMEs are not only the grass-roots of Thailand’s construction industry; they also play a significant role to drive the construction business which has the potential to develop the country. Office of SMEs promotion in Thailand (2001) promoted that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been accepted as significant players and are the majority of business enterprises and comprise an important component for developing the economy and society of all nations. The information from National Statistic Office of Thailand (NSO, 2004), using the number of employees as the measure of size, reports that SMEs represent 98 percent of construction enterprises. In addition, construction SMEs have the financial volume approximately three times that of large construction enterprises. These distinguish how SMEs are important for construction but most construction firms are classified as SMEs.
Ms. Chanagarn Watanantachai made a study which aimed to investigate factors influencing the financial crisis that is affecting construction SMEs in Thailand so that the effective recommendations for financial crisis management could be proposed for minimize and prevent them from getting into a crisis. To achieve her objective, her sub-objectives were identified as follows: (1) to identify the key factors that lead to financial crisis and classify the importance level of each factor; (2) to explore and gain in-depth understanding how key factors influencing the financial crisis base on the practices of construction SMEs; and (3) to propose recommendations for financial crisis management that are appropriate for construction SMEs in handling with key factors influencing the financial crisis.
Results
In achieving the first objective, the analysis framework consists of 6 analysis processes. The first process is to identify the definition of factors influencing the financial crisis that is affecting construction SMEs in Thailand by using literature review and interview the managing directors. The researcher gets 33 factors that influence the financial crisis from interview expert compound with internal factors and external factors. The internal factors are included with the analysis of factors from Business Management, Financial and Accounting, Marketing, and Construction. The external factors are included with the analysis of factors from Financial Institute, Client, Supplier, Sub-contractor, and Environment .
The first objective was accomplished by using two statistic methods: 1) descriptive analysis (mean and ranking) for classifying the importance level of each factor and 2) hypothesis testing (T-test) for test the perception difference between construction SMEs with financial problem and construction SMEs without financial problem.
According to a descriptive analysis of the sample results, the main factors (the first top 10 ranked) influencing the financial crisis that is affecting construction SMEs in Thailand are Economic downturn, Payment delay from client, Increasing in construction costs, Politic instability, High competition, Unable to access sources of funds, Insufficient funds and limited capital, Low price bidding to get projects, Under-table expense for client, and Cash flow shortage. All top 10 factors are classified as a high importance level for influencing the financial crisis. There are 7 factors (out of top ten) from external factors which are difficult to control. The others 3 factors (out of top ten) are from internal factors. The groups of external factors and internal factors are shown below:
External factor
· From environment: Economic downturn, Politic instability and High competition
· From client: Payment delay from client and Under-table expense for client
· From supplier: Increasing in construction costs
· From financial institute: Unable to access sources of funds
Internal factor
From finance: Insufficient funds and limited capital and Cash flow shortage
From marketing: Low price bidding to get projects
In order to achieve the second objective of this study, factor analysis was used to explore and gain in-depth understanding how key factors influencing the financial crisis from the practices of construction SMEs. From factor analysis, the 33 factors influencing the financial crisis were classified into 7 groups of key factors: Adverse Effects of the Nation’s Situation, Less Profit or Making Loss, Low Cash Liquidity, Poor Credit Potential, Deficiency in Knowledge and Experience, Improper Contract Administration, , and construction project problems. The relationship and logical framework for summer of key factors that is influencing the financial crisis was illustrated in figure 1.
Figure 1. Logical Framework for Summer of Key Factors that is Influencing the Financial Crisis
Finally, the summary of interrelationship frameworks that demonstrate how key factors influencing the financial crisis are developed as illustrated in figure 2.
Figure 2. Summary of Interrelationship Framework of Key Factors that is Influencing the
Financial Crisis
Recommendations for Improvement
For achieving the final objective of this study, the last research objective is completed by proposing the recommendation for financial crisis management that are appropriate for construction SMEs. The causes, consequences, and recommendation for handling with the 10 key factors were discussed in table 1.
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Her thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Construction SMEs are a backbone of the construction industry in Thailand. Unfortunately, construction SMEs have extremely high uncertainty and risk that lead them face with financial crisis and business failure easily and they can lead to failure of the Thai construction industry. Therefore, it is necessary to have a study concerned with financial crisis in order to know what factors lead construction SMEs to get into a financial crisis. This study aims to investigate key factors that influencing the financial crisis that is affecting construction SMEs in Thailand and recommend the effective method for financial crisis management.
The researcher decided to use 2 types of research design: 1) quantitative research by using survey design and 2) qualitative research by using case study. There are 3 statistic methods were used to analyze data from questionnaire surveys: 1) descriptive analysis (mean and ranking) for classifying the importance level of each factor, 2) hypothesis testing (T-test) for test the perception difference between construction SMEs with financial problem and construction SMEs without financial problem, and 3) factor analysis for reducing set of factors. For qualitative study, the case study was used to gain in-depth understanding how key factors influencing the financial crisis base on the practices of construction SMEs.
Results were found that there are 10 key factors that influencing the financial crisis: Economic downturn, Payment delay from client, Increasing in construction costs, Politic instability, High competition, Unable to access sources of funds, Insufficient funds and limited capital, Low price bidding to get projects, Under-table expense for client, and Cash flow shortage. The causes, consequences, and recommendation for handling with the 10 key factors were discussed in this study.
Construction Equipment: Alaska Industrial Development and Export Agency Studies Road Expansion for the Lik Deposit
Construction Equipment: Alaska Industrial Development and Export Agency (”AIDEA”) to undergo due diligence activities on the proposed expansion of the Delong Mountain Transportation System (”DMTS”) as MSloane Consulting continue to provide consulting, procurement, acquisition and disposition of construction equipment and mining equipment in the mining and construction industries. This proposed expansion will facilitate both the development of the Lik deposit, and handle future concentrate production from the deposit. The Lik deposit is composed of zinc, lead, silver deposits located 22km from the Red Dog mine in northwestern Alaska. Lik is one of the largest undeveloped zinc deposits in the western world.Integration Of Capital Investment Analysis With Public Interest And Value For Money In Mass Rapid Transit Project In Thailand
An infrastructure is always realized by the government as a major component for the economic growth of the every country. It is objectively originated in order to serve public need and poverty. On the other hand, the infrastructures projects, created by the government, play a vital role as an economic development instrument of the nation. Moreover, they functionally serve public demands and also drive the domestic economic. Groote et al. (1999) indicated that economic historians have always assigned a large role to infrastructure in the process of economic growth. Undoubtedly, the government attempt to generate many infrastructure projects and also they hope that it will fulfil the needs of public.
Unfortunately, the poor practices of the infrastructure project can be seen everywhere. One reason which leads the project to be unsound is lack of the Capital Investment Analysis (CIA). For example, the Hopewell project in Thailand, cannot be completed during construction period because the government agency has inadequate source of funds to support all of the construction cost. In some case, the total life cycle cost of a project is very costly by comparing with the socio-economic benefit of its actual function. Therefore, if the project can be succeeds, the effective CIA technique should be conducted at the right place and on the right time. Alkaraan and Northcott (2006) revealed that Strategic’ projects are substantial investments that involve high levels of risk, produce hard-to-quantify (or intangible) outcomes, and have a significant long-term impact on corporate performance.
Technically, the Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) technique is employed by a project developer and a decision-maker in order to evaluate the project performance and also select the beneficial option. The CIA technique has become the crucial instrument for evaluating, selecting, and controlling the project capital investment. However, it has a number of weaknesses, such as the lack of information gathering process and bias decision during decision-making process. Meanwhile, there are several factors which lead a certain project to be the operational and financial failure.
By adopting the CIA technique, the financial and economic performance of the project has been evaluated whether the project should be implemented. However, one of the constraints leading a project to be unsuccessful is the CIA itself. The CIA procedures obtain many redundant data within each stage of the decision making. Boehlje and Ehmke (2005) discovered that the most important task of investment analysis is gathering the appropriate data. In fact, the significant errors are transferred to the next design phase and cause the project coming out with unsound and inaccurate consequences.
Most of the time, we recognize on the fact that the facility’s life cycle cost is very costly by comparing with the user satisfaction or expectation. Therefore, the Value for Money (VFM) concept should be conducted to provide the diverse issue which should be taken into account, such as the analytical tool and the critical parameter.
During the CIA procedures, some significant parameters are missing which cause the unsound outputs. However, the stated problem will be mitigated by conducting the Public Interest (PI) concept into the CIA technique. Public Interest (PI) means the well-being of public users or community in a certain area which the project will be located. Furthermore, it composes of a group of parameters which an individual and a community usually involve with, for example the effectiveness of a project, consumer right, security and safety of public users, and so forth. Unfortunately, the CIA technique does not take into account of all these critical parameters which leads a project to be not sound.
Since CIA technique basically has no mechanism to eliminate non-value added elements as well as an unnecessary expense of the proposed option. Big amount of capital expenditure has been used in order to create an infrastructure project but it cannot fulfill the user satisfactions effectively. In conclusion, the project comes out with uneconomical and unproductive consequence. By applying Value Engineering (VE) technique, the alternative option selected will be more realistic and then the cost of the project can be reduced but the project performance will not be decreased.
Mr. Aut Thaitrong made a research that aimed to : (1) formulate the improved CIA tool by integrating the Public Interest (PI) concept, the Value for Money (VFM) concept, and the Value Engineering technique into the traditional CIA technique; (2) examine on the applicability of the improved CIA tool by conducting the project case studies, included (1) Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project called Urban Rail Transportation Master Plan in Bangkok and Surrounding Areas (URMAP) with Dark Red Line of Bangkok Mass Transit project and (2) Bangkok-Nakonratchasima High Speed Rail (HSR) project of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT); (3) propose the recommendations from the mentioned case studies in order to strengthen the CIA technique by incorporating the significant critical parameters.
His research shown that the critical problems of Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) technique were stated included the significant parameters are normally missing. A number of concepts, such as Public Interest and Value for Money, have been investigated and their significant parameters were identified. After that Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) framework has been formulated as a parameter checklist. The CIA framework (or called critical parameter checklist) basically provides the procedures of CIA technique and, at the same time, a group of significant parameters. Thus, a project developer can use it as a guideline to ensure that each step of CIA and critical parameter will be taken into account.
From the CIA framework, the procedures of CIA are basically divided into nine steps, included (1) Project Objectives, Outputs and Outcomes Identification, (2) Option Analysis, (3) Demand Analysis, (4) Technology Selection, (5) Price Analysis, (6) Socio-Economic Analysis, (7) Financial Analysis, (8) Project Risk Management, and (9) Project Evaluation and Recommendation.
On the other hand, the new significant parameters inside the CIA framework should be highlighted and briefly explained. The major parameter from both Public Interest and Value for Money is equal to twenty parameters in total. From now on, nine and three parameters from Public Interest and Value for Money respectively discussed.
Public Interest (PI) Critical Parameters
- Effectiveness
Effectiveness can be separated into effectiveness of service delivery and effectiveness of analysis result. Effectiveness of output and service delivery basically concentrates on the specification and requirement of the quality of service for the unique project, for instance the rapidity of the mass transit, such as metro, should satisfy public user. Simultaneously, it also focuses on the standard level of service which all public projects should be complied with the standard, for example a seat for kid, lady and monk should be provided in each public transport.
- Accountability and Transparency
Accountability and Transparency should be always stated on a public project because it has to deal with a great amount of investment capital in the project. The policy can be applied in order to ensure that the money which basically comes from the taxes will be used as stated in the project objective. Accountability policy allows public to access to information of a project. On the other hand, transparency policy provides the guideline for a project developer and a decision maker in order to make a decision based on the real information and neutral judgment. This can be used against the bias thinking and political decision.
a. Affected Individuals and Communities
b. Public Access
c. Consumer Rights
d. Security and Awareness
e. Openness
f. Equity of User
Value for Money (VFM) critical parameters
g. Design Amenity
h. Sustainability in Case Private Involvement
i. Quantifiable Impact on Core Service in Case Private Participation
The conclusion from the case study revealed that the critical parameters should be stated at the early stage, such as accountability and transparency, in order to prevent the bias judgment. In Option Analysis stage, Value Engineering (VE) technique can be applied in order to identify an optimum alternate option. Some tool should be conducted in order to verify the availability and validity of information because most information can be derived from the previous studies.
Many analytical tools in CIA, such as Demand Analysis, Price Analysis, Socio-Economic and Financial Analysis, basically use that kind of information during analysis. Thus, error information can be transferred to the next analysis led to be unsound result. The last finding is that Project Risk Management should be addressed in each real practice because a project developer can evaluate and prevent an unexpected incident before it happens. All significant parameters in each analysis tools can be discussed individually in order to summarize the results of the case study analysis.
Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) technique as a Parameter Checklist
1. Project Objectives, Outputs and Outcomes Identification
j. Capacity, rate and level of utilization
k. Affordability of service user
l. Quality of service (level & frequency)
m. Accountability
n. Transparency
2. Option Analysis
o. Private sector involvement
3. Demand Analysis
p. Availability and validity of information
4. Technology Selection
q. Technology cost
r. Accountability and transparency
5. Price Analysis
s. Affordability of public user
6. Socio-Economic and Financial Analysis
t. Availability and Validity of information
7. Project Risk Management
Recommendation for Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) Improvement
Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) framework can be used as one of the CIA tool which provides a framework of significant parameters. A project developer can employ it as a guideline in order to make sure that, in each stage of CIA study, the important parameter will not be neglected. In conclusion, it can be enhanced by keep collecting the critical parameter from further concept and technique but the parameter should benefit to individual and community.
His thesis abstract is copied and posted.
Abstract
A number of concepts, such as Public Interest and Value for Money, have been investigated and their significant parameters were identified. After that Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) framework has been formulated as a parameter checklist. The CIA framework (or called critical parameter checklist) mutually provides the procedures of CIA technique and a group of significant parameters. Thus, a project developer can use it as a guideline to ensure that each step of CIA will be thoroughly concerned and the critical parameters will be taken into account.
Unfortunately, the poor practices of the infrastructure project can be seen everywhere. One reason which leads the project to be unsound is lack of the Capital Investment Analysis (CIA). For example, the Hopewell project in Thailand, cannot be completed during construction period because the government agency has inadequate source of funds to support all of the construction cost. In some case, the total life cycle cost of a project is very costly by comparing with the socio-economic benefit of its actual function. Therefore, if the project can be succeeds, the effective CIA technique should be conducted at the right place and on the right time. Alkaraan and Northcott (2006) revealed that Strategic’ projects are substantial investments that involve high levels of risk, produce hard-to-quantify (or intangible) outcomes, and have a significant long-term impact on corporate performance.
Technically, the Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) technique is employed by a project developer and a decision-maker in order to evaluate the project performance and also select the beneficial option. The CIA technique has become the crucial instrument for evaluating, selecting, and controlling the project capital investment. However, it has a number of weaknesses, such as the lack of information gathering process and bias decision during decision-making process. Meanwhile, there are several factors which lead a certain project to be the operational and financial failure.
By adopting the CIA technique, the financial and economic performance of the project has been evaluated whether the project should be implemented. However, one of the constraints leading a project to be unsuccessful is the CIA itself. The CIA procedures obtain many redundant data within each stage of the decision making. Boehlje and Ehmke (2005) discovered that the most important task of investment analysis is gathering the appropriate data. In fact, the significant errors are transferred to the next design phase and cause the project coming out with unsound and inaccurate consequences.
Most of the time, we recognize on the fact that the facility’s life cycle cost is very costly by comparing with the user satisfaction or expectation. Therefore, the Value for Money (VFM) concept should be conducted to provide the diverse issue which should be taken into account, such as the analytical tool and the critical parameter.
During the CIA procedures, some significant parameters are missing which cause the unsound outputs. However, the stated problem will be mitigated by conducting the Public Interest (PI) concept into the CIA technique. Public Interest (PI) means the well-being of public users or community in a certain area which the project will be located. Furthermore, it composes of a group of parameters which an individual and a community usually involve with, for example the effectiveness of a project, consumer right, security and safety of public users, and so forth. Unfortunately, the CIA technique does not take into account of all these critical parameters which leads a project to be not sound.
Since CIA technique basically has no mechanism to eliminate non-value added elements as well as an unnecessary expense of the proposed option. Big amount of capital expenditure has been used in order to create an infrastructure project but it cannot fulfill the user satisfactions effectively. In conclusion, the project comes out with uneconomical and unproductive consequence. By applying Value Engineering (VE) technique, the alternative option selected will be more realistic and then the cost of the project can be reduced but the project performance will not be decreased.
Mr. Aut Thaitrong made a research that aimed to : (1) formulate the improved CIA tool by integrating the Public Interest (PI) concept, the Value for Money (VFM) concept, and the Value Engineering technique into the traditional CIA technique; (2) examine on the applicability of the improved CIA tool by conducting the project case studies, included (1) Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project called Urban Rail Transportation Master Plan in Bangkok and Surrounding Areas (URMAP) with Dark Red Line of Bangkok Mass Transit project and (2) Bangkok-Nakonratchasima High Speed Rail (HSR) project of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT); (3) propose the recommendations from the mentioned case studies in order to strengthen the CIA technique by incorporating the significant critical parameters.
His research shown that the critical problems of Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) technique were stated included the significant parameters are normally missing. A number of concepts, such as Public Interest and Value for Money, have been investigated and their significant parameters were identified. After that Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) framework has been formulated as a parameter checklist. The CIA framework (or called critical parameter checklist) basically provides the procedures of CIA technique and, at the same time, a group of significant parameters. Thus, a project developer can use it as a guideline to ensure that each step of CIA and critical parameter will be taken into account.
From the CIA framework, the procedures of CIA are basically divided into nine steps, included (1) Project Objectives, Outputs and Outcomes Identification, (2) Option Analysis, (3) Demand Analysis, (4) Technology Selection, (5) Price Analysis, (6) Socio-Economic Analysis, (7) Financial Analysis, (8) Project Risk Management, and (9) Project Evaluation and Recommendation.
On the other hand, the new significant parameters inside the CIA framework should be highlighted and briefly explained. The major parameter from both Public Interest and Value for Money is equal to twenty parameters in total. From now on, nine and three parameters from Public Interest and Value for Money respectively discussed.
Public Interest (PI) Critical Parameters
- Effectiveness
Effectiveness can be separated into effectiveness of service delivery and effectiveness of analysis result. Effectiveness of output and service delivery basically concentrates on the specification and requirement of the quality of service for the unique project, for instance the rapidity of the mass transit, such as metro, should satisfy public user. Simultaneously, it also focuses on the standard level of service which all public projects should be complied with the standard, for example a seat for kid, lady and monk should be provided in each public transport.
- Accountability and Transparency
Accountability and Transparency should be always stated on a public project because it has to deal with a great amount of investment capital in the project. The policy can be applied in order to ensure that the money which basically comes from the taxes will be used as stated in the project objective. Accountability policy allows public to access to information of a project. On the other hand, transparency policy provides the guideline for a project developer and a decision maker in order to make a decision based on the real information and neutral judgment. This can be used against the bias thinking and political decision.
a. Affected Individuals and Communities
b. Public Access
c. Consumer Rights
d. Security and Awareness
e. Openness
f. Equity of User
Value for Money (VFM) critical parameters
g. Design Amenity
h. Sustainability in Case Private Involvement
i. Quantifiable Impact on Core Service in Case Private Participation
The conclusion from the case study revealed that the critical parameters should be stated at the early stage, such as accountability and transparency, in order to prevent the bias judgment. In Option Analysis stage, Value Engineering (VE) technique can be applied in order to identify an optimum alternate option. Some tool should be conducted in order to verify the availability and validity of information because most information can be derived from the previous studies.
Many analytical tools in CIA, such as Demand Analysis, Price Analysis, Socio-Economic and Financial Analysis, basically use that kind of information during analysis. Thus, error information can be transferred to the next analysis led to be unsound result. The last finding is that Project Risk Management should be addressed in each real practice because a project developer can evaluate and prevent an unexpected incident before it happens. All significant parameters in each analysis tools can be discussed individually in order to summarize the results of the case study analysis.
Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) technique as a Parameter Checklist
1. Project Objectives, Outputs and Outcomes Identification
j. Capacity, rate and level of utilization
k. Affordability of service user
l. Quality of service (level & frequency)
m. Accountability
n. Transparency
2. Option Analysis
o. Private sector involvement
3. Demand Analysis
p. Availability and validity of information
4. Technology Selection
q. Technology cost
r. Accountability and transparency
5. Price Analysis
s. Affordability of public user
6. Socio-Economic and Financial Analysis
t. Availability and Validity of information
7. Project Risk Management
Recommendation for Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) Improvement
Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) framework can be used as one of the CIA tool which provides a framework of significant parameters. A project developer can employ it as a guideline in order to make sure that, in each stage of CIA study, the important parameter will not be neglected. In conclusion, it can be enhanced by keep collecting the critical parameter from further concept and technique but the parameter should benefit to individual and community.
His thesis abstract is copied and posted.
Abstract
A number of concepts, such as Public Interest and Value for Money, have been investigated and their significant parameters were identified. After that Capital Investment Analysis (CIA) framework has been formulated as a parameter checklist. The CIA framework (or called critical parameter checklist) mutually provides the procedures of CIA technique and a group of significant parameters. Thus, a project developer can use it as a guideline to ensure that each step of CIA will be thoroughly concerned and the critical parameters will be taken into account.
Mining Equipment: Pan American Acquires Shares of Aquiline Resources Inc.
Mining Equipment: MSloane Consulting provides consulting, acquisition and disposition services of mining equipment gear for the mining industry.Pan American Silver Corp. said that Kingsdale Shareholder Services Inc. that 67,216,956 common shares of Aquiline Resources Inc. have been deposited to Pan American’s offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding Aquiline Shares, representing approximately 81.8% of the shares issued and outstanding as of December 2009 calculated on a diluted basis.
Making Construction Employment Decent Work: Dynamic Modelling Of Workers’ Willingness To Be Employed In The Industry
Employment is widely recognised as the best route out of poverty. The construction sector which is the backbone of a nation’s development has a very high potential of employment creation. Construction is a labour-intensive activity and has the capacity to provide extensive employment with very little investment. It is considered an ‘employment spinner’ which provides employment for the least educated and marginalized poor. (ILO, 2001)
Creating jobs is not sufficient. There are many people who work, but are poor. They do not have adequate income and protection. The ‘working poor’ are people who have jobs but still cannot lift themselves out of poverty (World Bank, 2005). A job which is not ‘decent’ enough, that is, a job which does not give a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families and better prospects for personal development and social integration will not improve the quality of peoples’ lives. Hence, creating ‘decent work’ which ensures decent levels of income and living standards is essential. (ILO, 2004)
Regrettably, construction employment is not considered ‘decent’. Construction work is considered as “dirty, difficult and dangerous”. Studies point out that people work in construction sector out of necessity rather than out of choice (Mitullah and Wachira, 2003). The temporary and casual terms of employment, the practice of recruitment through subcontractors and intermediaries, lack of opportunities for training and skill formation, continuous mobility of workforce and health and safety problems contribute to the unattractiveness of a career in construction. (ILO, 2001).
Moreover, the workers stay most of their lives as construction workers no matter what hardships they have to go through. Generally, construction labourers are not a transient population (Mitullah and Wachira, 2003). They work in the industry for 20-30 years. Hence, the question is what makes the workers willing to be employed in construction? Is it only the subsistence requirement which makes them willing?
Further, income from construction job is generally very low. In that case, what do the poor achieve from the construction employment? Can the job fulfil their aspirations? Is the job helping the workers to improve the quality of their lives? Are the peoples’ lives better than before? Or are they still poor with low levels of quality of life?
The prevailing practices regarding labour in the construction industry such as outsourcing labour and temporary and casual terms of employment lead to deteriorating working conditions (ILO, 2001). This raises a question whether the welfare of the workers is taken care of in the construction industry. Can the workers’ life quality deteriorate instead of improvement, due to these bad working conditions? Is it possible for them to change the quality of their lives with construction employment which is not considered ‘decent’? How can the job be made ‘decent’ so that workers do not have to fight daily for their lives?
The negligence of the workers’ welfare may be due to the nature of the industry which considers labourers as ‘production cost’ only. Reducing costs and maximising profits have been the aims of the industry most of the time and workers’ welfare is often neglected (ILO, 2001). It should be noted that workers are one of the major stakeholders of construction projects. Their satisfaction in the process of production shall not be neglected. Thus, it is essential for the industry to take initiatives to study about workers’ aspirations and improve their lives so that the production process benefits all stake holders.
Ms. Ramya Kanaganayagam made a research that investigated on what can be done to improve the job and workers’ lives. The objectives of her study were: (1) identify factors which determine the quality of construction workers’ lives and influence workers’ willingness to be employed as construction workers; (2) using System Dynamics approach, develop a model to understand the dynamics of workers’ willingness to be employed as construction workers; (3) using the model, study the influence of factors which can be leveraged by construction companies to improve construction workers’ lives and make construction employment ‘decent work’.
The following conclusions were reached from her study.
1. Employment provides opportunities for people to fulfil their needs. The importance of needs and the extent to which these needs are fulfilled determine the quality of life. Hence, it can be concluded that employment determines quality of life. The satisfaction or dissatisfaction resulting from fulfilment of needs will determine the willingness to continue work and or the motivation to perform in work.
2· Work which is not ‘decent’ may erode the quality of life. Insecure and inadequate income, necessity for severe physical exertion, exposure to health and safety hazards, exposure to poor living conditions, requirement for separation from family, lack of free time, gender discrimination which result due to the nature and terms of construction employment erode the quality of workers’ life. Though, economic conditions of the construction industry play a major role in determining the severity of these conditions. When economic conditions are good, that is, when the labour supply is less than the demand, these conditions are not so severe.
3· Factors which determine the quality of a worker’s life and affect the worker’s willingness to be employed in construction are almost identical. The need to improve the quality of life and improvements achieved as a result of the employment in the quality of life make workers willing to be employed in construction. On the other hand factors which deteriorate the quality of life reduce the willingness.
4· The pressure to generate income and satisfaction resulting from fulfilment of certain higher level needs increase workers’ ‘willingness to be employed as construction workers’. Dissatisfaction resulting from bad conditions of work; and other available opportunities reduce the willingness. The commitment from employers or construction companies reduces dissatisfaction, increase satisfaction and thereby increase workers willingness to work in construction and attachment to the particular company.
5· The adverse nature and terms of construction employment cannot be avoided. However, employers or construction companies can make construction employment ‘decent’ by leveraging the following factors: working hours and wages, social security and welfare, occupational safety and health measures, skills development and gender equality.
Her thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Employment is considered the best way out of poverty. The construction industry has a very high potential of employment creation, especially for the uneducated and poor. However prevailing practices regarding labour in the construction industry such as outsourcing and recruiting on temporary and casual terms, lead to deteriorating working conditions. It is sometimes viewed that construction employment is not ‘decent’ and a mere exploitation of cheap labour. This research aimed to investigate how construction employment is shaping workers’ lives, what makes the workers willing to work in construction and how the job can be improved. Qualitative data gathered from case study and interviews conducted in Thailand and a review of literature helped to develop a System Dynamics model to investigate workers’ willingness to work in construction. The study reveals that insecure and inadequate income, necessity for severe physical exertion, exposure to health and safety hazards, exposure to poor living conditions, requirement for separation from family, lack of free time and gender discrimination erode workers’ quality of life and reduce their willingness. The pressure to generate income and satisfaction resulting from fulfilment of certain higher level needs increase willingness. The study also investigates possible actions by construction companies such as limiting overtime hours, provisions for accommodation and welfare facilities, safety and health measures, skills development and gender equality which could improve workers’ willingness and their life.
Creating jobs is not sufficient. There are many people who work, but are poor. They do not have adequate income and protection. The ‘working poor’ are people who have jobs but still cannot lift themselves out of poverty (World Bank, 2005). A job which is not ‘decent’ enough, that is, a job which does not give a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families and better prospects for personal development and social integration will not improve the quality of peoples’ lives. Hence, creating ‘decent work’ which ensures decent levels of income and living standards is essential. (ILO, 2004)
Regrettably, construction employment is not considered ‘decent’. Construction work is considered as “dirty, difficult and dangerous”. Studies point out that people work in construction sector out of necessity rather than out of choice (Mitullah and Wachira, 2003). The temporary and casual terms of employment, the practice of recruitment through subcontractors and intermediaries, lack of opportunities for training and skill formation, continuous mobility of workforce and health and safety problems contribute to the unattractiveness of a career in construction. (ILO, 2001).
Moreover, the workers stay most of their lives as construction workers no matter what hardships they have to go through. Generally, construction labourers are not a transient population (Mitullah and Wachira, 2003). They work in the industry for 20-30 years. Hence, the question is what makes the workers willing to be employed in construction? Is it only the subsistence requirement which makes them willing?
Further, income from construction job is generally very low. In that case, what do the poor achieve from the construction employment? Can the job fulfil their aspirations? Is the job helping the workers to improve the quality of their lives? Are the peoples’ lives better than before? Or are they still poor with low levels of quality of life?
The prevailing practices regarding labour in the construction industry such as outsourcing labour and temporary and casual terms of employment lead to deteriorating working conditions (ILO, 2001). This raises a question whether the welfare of the workers is taken care of in the construction industry. Can the workers’ life quality deteriorate instead of improvement, due to these bad working conditions? Is it possible for them to change the quality of their lives with construction employment which is not considered ‘decent’? How can the job be made ‘decent’ so that workers do not have to fight daily for their lives?
The negligence of the workers’ welfare may be due to the nature of the industry which considers labourers as ‘production cost’ only. Reducing costs and maximising profits have been the aims of the industry most of the time and workers’ welfare is often neglected (ILO, 2001). It should be noted that workers are one of the major stakeholders of construction projects. Their satisfaction in the process of production shall not be neglected. Thus, it is essential for the industry to take initiatives to study about workers’ aspirations and improve their lives so that the production process benefits all stake holders.
Ms. Ramya Kanaganayagam made a research that investigated on what can be done to improve the job and workers’ lives. The objectives of her study were: (1) identify factors which determine the quality of construction workers’ lives and influence workers’ willingness to be employed as construction workers; (2) using System Dynamics approach, develop a model to understand the dynamics of workers’ willingness to be employed as construction workers; (3) using the model, study the influence of factors which can be leveraged by construction companies to improve construction workers’ lives and make construction employment ‘decent work’.
The following conclusions were reached from her study.
1. Employment provides opportunities for people to fulfil their needs. The importance of needs and the extent to which these needs are fulfilled determine the quality of life. Hence, it can be concluded that employment determines quality of life. The satisfaction or dissatisfaction resulting from fulfilment of needs will determine the willingness to continue work and or the motivation to perform in work.
2· Work which is not ‘decent’ may erode the quality of life. Insecure and inadequate income, necessity for severe physical exertion, exposure to health and safety hazards, exposure to poor living conditions, requirement for separation from family, lack of free time, gender discrimination which result due to the nature and terms of construction employment erode the quality of workers’ life. Though, economic conditions of the construction industry play a major role in determining the severity of these conditions. When economic conditions are good, that is, when the labour supply is less than the demand, these conditions are not so severe.
3· Factors which determine the quality of a worker’s life and affect the worker’s willingness to be employed in construction are almost identical. The need to improve the quality of life and improvements achieved as a result of the employment in the quality of life make workers willing to be employed in construction. On the other hand factors which deteriorate the quality of life reduce the willingness.
4· The pressure to generate income and satisfaction resulting from fulfilment of certain higher level needs increase workers’ ‘willingness to be employed as construction workers’. Dissatisfaction resulting from bad conditions of work; and other available opportunities reduce the willingness. The commitment from employers or construction companies reduces dissatisfaction, increase satisfaction and thereby increase workers willingness to work in construction and attachment to the particular company.
5· The adverse nature and terms of construction employment cannot be avoided. However, employers or construction companies can make construction employment ‘decent’ by leveraging the following factors: working hours and wages, social security and welfare, occupational safety and health measures, skills development and gender equality.
Her thesis abstract is copied and posted.
ABSTRACT
Employment is considered the best way out of poverty. The construction industry has a very high potential of employment creation, especially for the uneducated and poor. However prevailing practices regarding labour in the construction industry such as outsourcing and recruiting on temporary and casual terms, lead to deteriorating working conditions. It is sometimes viewed that construction employment is not ‘decent’ and a mere exploitation of cheap labour. This research aimed to investigate how construction employment is shaping workers’ lives, what makes the workers willing to work in construction and how the job can be improved. Qualitative data gathered from case study and interviews conducted in Thailand and a review of literature helped to develop a System Dynamics model to investigate workers’ willingness to work in construction. The study reveals that insecure and inadequate income, necessity for severe physical exertion, exposure to health and safety hazards, exposure to poor living conditions, requirement for separation from family, lack of free time and gender discrimination erode workers’ quality of life and reduce their willingness. The pressure to generate income and satisfaction resulting from fulfilment of certain higher level needs increase willingness. The study also investigates possible actions by construction companies such as limiting overtime hours, provisions for accommodation and welfare facilities, safety and health measures, skills development and gender equality which could improve workers’ willingness and their life.
4files heavy haulage
4 files side by side combination
If you need this trailer, feel free to contact me
Jeff Lee
+86 186 0768 9697
Email: jeffgbc@gmail.com
If you need this trailer, feel free to contact me
Jeff Lee
+86 186 0768 9697
Email: jeffgbc@gmail.com
4files heavy haulage
4 files side by side combination
If you need this trailer, feel free to contact me
Jeff Lee
+86 186 0768 9697
Email: jeffgbc@gmail.com
If you need this trailer, feel free to contact me
Jeff Lee
+86 186 0768 9697
Email: jeffgbc@gmail.com
Modeling the Dynamics of Heavy Equipment Management Practices and Downtime in Large Highway Contractors
Thanapun Prasertrungruang1 and B. H. W. Hadikusumo2
Introduction
In the construction industry, the tangible benefits of using machinery are obvious as greater productivity, performance, cost reductions, and improved competitiveness for contractors can be obtained. This is particularly so in highway construction organizations where a variety of construction equipment has been heavily deployed as a major resource in generating work production. However, managing construction equipment effectively is not an easy task since the contractor is required to dynamically interact with various parties and activities. Highway contractors are thus invariably plagued by a number of equipment management problems. Downtime resulting from machine breakdown during operations is of prime concern in views of contractors (Prasertrungruang and Hadikusumo 2007). Indeed, equipment practices and policies are some of the most important factors that affect machine downtime significantly (Elazouni and Basha 1996). Variation in practices regarding the flow of factors (e.g., spare parts, operators, equipment, mechanics, and information) over time is claimed as a major cause of the dynamics of downtime (Nepal and Park 2004). Nevertheless, to date, little efforts have been made to study the effect of less tangible factors (e.g., equipment management practices) on downtime, which control the dynamic behavior of the system, particularly in the construction context (Edwards et al. 2002). Hence, this research attempts to address this issue by exploring and highlighting key dynamic structures of equipment management practices and downtime inherent in each particular stage of machine lifecycle and then uses them as a framework in building a system dynamics (SD) simulation model. Scope of this study covers merely on large highway contractors with five types of heavy equipment for highway construction (see Table 1) as machine weight is one of the major indicators of downtime and maintenance cost (Edwards et al. 2002). It is noted that weight interval for each equipment type is also assigned in order to allow for machine generalization.
Applications of SD in Construction Decision-Making
By nature, construction project management is considered as a complex system (Richardson and Pugh 1981). Several researchers have adopted a SD methodology to model construction project.
For instance, Richardson and Pugh (1981) introduced a SD model for project management. This model concentrates on schedule overrun controlled by the magnitude of the workforce and rework. Subsequently, large-scale projects using fast-track procurement were modeled using the SD approach (Huot and Sylvestre 1985). The results reveal that the major problems in project failure are problems of quality, productivity, and worker morale. The SD was also used to model rework in construction (Love et al. 1999). Results show that rework is predominantly attributable to designer’s errors, design changes and construction errors. To solve this problem, teamwork between design and construction people, training, and skill development must be emphasized.
In the context of construction equipment management, the use of SD in modeling the dynamics of downtime is highly promising (Nepal and Park 2004). It was proposed that downtime and its consequences on construction equipment are significantly influenced by many factors: equipment-related factors, site-related factors, project-related factors, company’s policies, crew-level factors, site management actions, and force majeure.
Equipment Management Practices and Downtime
As the challenge of selecting, managing, and maintaining the equipment asset becomes more complex and costly every day, effective management of these assets directly fuels the success for business by significantly minimizing direct and indirect costs of equipment while still concurrently ensuring high availability of equipment productivity. Realizing the right practices on equipment management is dependent on where the machines are in their lifecycle. Indeed, equipment management practices can be categorized into four groups: machine acquisition, operations, maintenance, and disposal. Key practices in each particular stage of machine lifecycle include, for example, procurement decision approach (equipment acquisition stage), safety and training programs (equipment operational stage), schedule PM inspection and standby repair-maintenance facilities (equipment maintenance stage), equipment economic life and replacement decisions (equipment disposal stage) (Prasertrungruang and Hadikusumo
2006).
When the machine fails during operations, it is said to be “down or unavailable” which means that it is waiting for repair and thus incurring downtime (Nagi 1987). Typically, downtime duration consists of three major components, including (1) administrative time: time required for communication flow from user to manufacturer, time required for commercial formalities, and hours necessary to report a machine failure and give work directions for maintenance; (2) supply time: time when repair is delayed due to non-availability of spare parts and materials necessary to perform maintenance; and (3) active repair: time when technicians are working on the equipment to actually commission it including both preventive and corrective maintenance (Komatsu 1986). To minimize the consequential impact of downtime, contractors may opt to seek for substitute equipment, wait until the repair finished, accelerate work pace, modify work schedule, or transfer crews to other works (Nepal and Park 2004).
The research methodology was divided into two parts: data collection and data analysis. For the Data Collection, the research uses data collected from face-to-face interviews with five large highway contractors located in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces in Thailand. An equipment manager with at least 10 years work experience was selected as the interviewee for each of the participated contractors. A convenience sampling technique was used in identifying not only the sample contractors but also the interviewees. The interview checklist is in a semi-structured format in order to cover both open and closed-end dialogs. During the interviews, causal relationships between each pair of variables were disclosed and confirmed by the interviewees. For the data analysis, data collected from all five large contractor cases was administered using within-case as well as cross-case analysis approaches (Eisenhardt 1989). First, within-case analysis was employed to reveal the data characteristics for each particular contractor case. Then, attempt was made to draw the integrated picture among all contractor cases regarding the generic feedback structures of equipment management practices and downtime using cross-case analysis approach. The generic feedback structures were rechecked again with experts for validation until they are satisfactorily valid. Next, the generic feedback structures were used as a foundation in constructing the generic SD simulation model, using Powersim software. During this step, a number of stock and flow diagrams, which are all connected together in the generic SD model, have been identified. “Stock” represents accumulated quantities that change over time, while “flow” controls the changing rate of quantity going into or out of the stock (Sterman 2000). After data from each of the five contractor cases was input separately into the generic SD model, five applied SD models could be launched. Each of the applied SD models was then subjected to a number of validation tests to ensure that the model is structurally and behaviorally valid. Upon passing all validation tests, the generic SD model is deemed valid in representing the equipment management system as related to downtime of large contractors.
Conclusions
The aim of this paper is to give an insight into the dynamics of equipment management practices and downtime in large highway contractors. The dynamics of equipment management practices and downtime are presented through five generic feedback structures: machine acquisition, operations, maintenance, disposal, and downtime. Each of the feedback structures is interrelated and used as a framework in constructing the generic SD simulation model. A number of validation tests were used to ensure that the model is structurally and behaviorally valid.
To be successful in managing downtime, equipment management practices must be perceived as a combination of multiple feedback processes, which are interrelated to machine downtime. Indeed, downtime is interdependent and stimulated by three reinforcing cycles: schedule disruption and acceleration, operator schedule pressure creep, and mechanics’ schedule pressure creep. Even though downtime can be tackled through adoption of three balancing cycles (i.e., repair outsourced adjustment, operator skill adjustment, and mechanics’ skill adjustment), their expected benefits are always delayed, which retard or sometimes deteriorate the scenarios if contractors opt to stop the improvement processes. In addition, downtime is partly minimized through the reduction of disruption of work sequences by activating another two balancing cycles (i.e., rental machine adjustment and subcontractor adjustment). With high downtime, PM efforts are eroded, which in turn even worsen the scenarios as the reinforcing cycles of operator schedule pressure creep and mechanics’ schedule pressure creep have now been activated. However, contractors can mitigate this problem through adoption of balancing cycle of dealer maintenance services adjustment and the reinforcing cycle of management commitment in proactive maintenance.
Future work could be directed toward studying the interactions among equipment policies that have been addressed in the study. This would be useful especially when there are multiple performance tradeoffs involved among the stated policies (e.g., adopting participatory multi-skilled training policy may cause more fatigue to equipment operators and thus reduce the operator’s effort in performing the autonomous maintenance policy). Additional case studies are also needed to validate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed system and make further adjustments for a more reliable system.
This paper is part of the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 135, No. 10, October 1, 2009. Full paper is available upon request.
Abstract is copied and posted.
Abstract: Machine downtime is invariably perceived as one of the most critical problems faced by highway contractors. Attempts to reduce downtime often result in failure due to the dynamic behaviors between equipment management practices and downtime. This paper is thus intended to highlight the dynamics of heavy equipment management practices and downtime in large highway contractors and utilizes them as a framework in constructing a simulation model using a system dynamics approach. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with equipment managers from five different large highway contractors in Thailand. The finding reveals that, to be successful in alleviating downtime, contractors must view their practices on equipment management as an integration of multiple feedback processes, which are interrelated and interdependent with downtime. Based on various validation tests, the simulation model is deemed appropriate in representing the equipment management system as related to downtime of large highway contractors. The research is of value in facilitating better understanding on the dynamics of equipment management practices and downtime as well as their interdependency.
DOI: 10.1061/_ASCE_CO.1943-7862.0000076
CE Database subject headings: Maintenance; Dynamic models; Construction equipment; Contractors; Systems management; Construction industry; Thailand; Contractors; Highway and road construction.
1Researcher, Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management,
School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology,
Pathumthani 12120, Thailand (corresponding author). E-mail:
st101533@ait.ac.th
2Associate Professor, Construction Engineering and Infrastructure
Management, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of
Technology, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand.
Introduction
In the construction industry, the tangible benefits of using machinery are obvious as greater productivity, performance, cost reductions, and improved competitiveness for contractors can be obtained. This is particularly so in highway construction organizations where a variety of construction equipment has been heavily deployed as a major resource in generating work production. However, managing construction equipment effectively is not an easy task since the contractor is required to dynamically interact with various parties and activities. Highway contractors are thus invariably plagued by a number of equipment management problems. Downtime resulting from machine breakdown during operations is of prime concern in views of contractors (Prasertrungruang and Hadikusumo 2007). Indeed, equipment practices and policies are some of the most important factors that affect machine downtime significantly (Elazouni and Basha 1996). Variation in practices regarding the flow of factors (e.g., spare parts, operators, equipment, mechanics, and information) over time is claimed as a major cause of the dynamics of downtime (Nepal and Park 2004). Nevertheless, to date, little efforts have been made to study the effect of less tangible factors (e.g., equipment management practices) on downtime, which control the dynamic behavior of the system, particularly in the construction context (Edwards et al. 2002). Hence, this research attempts to address this issue by exploring and highlighting key dynamic structures of equipment management practices and downtime inherent in each particular stage of machine lifecycle and then uses them as a framework in building a system dynamics (SD) simulation model. Scope of this study covers merely on large highway contractors with five types of heavy equipment for highway construction (see Table 1) as machine weight is one of the major indicators of downtime and maintenance cost (Edwards et al. 2002). It is noted that weight interval for each equipment type is also assigned in order to allow for machine generalization.
Applications of SD in Construction Decision-Making
By nature, construction project management is considered as a complex system (Richardson and Pugh 1981). Several researchers have adopted a SD methodology to model construction project.
For instance, Richardson and Pugh (1981) introduced a SD model for project management. This model concentrates on schedule overrun controlled by the magnitude of the workforce and rework. Subsequently, large-scale projects using fast-track procurement were modeled using the SD approach (Huot and Sylvestre 1985). The results reveal that the major problems in project failure are problems of quality, productivity, and worker morale. The SD was also used to model rework in construction (Love et al. 1999). Results show that rework is predominantly attributable to designer’s errors, design changes and construction errors. To solve this problem, teamwork between design and construction people, training, and skill development must be emphasized.
In the context of construction equipment management, the use of SD in modeling the dynamics of downtime is highly promising (Nepal and Park 2004). It was proposed that downtime and its consequences on construction equipment are significantly influenced by many factors: equipment-related factors, site-related factors, project-related factors, company’s policies, crew-level factors, site management actions, and force majeure.
Equipment Management Practices and Downtime
As the challenge of selecting, managing, and maintaining the equipment asset becomes more complex and costly every day, effective management of these assets directly fuels the success for business by significantly minimizing direct and indirect costs of equipment while still concurrently ensuring high availability of equipment productivity. Realizing the right practices on equipment management is dependent on where the machines are in their lifecycle. Indeed, equipment management practices can be categorized into four groups: machine acquisition, operations, maintenance, and disposal. Key practices in each particular stage of machine lifecycle include, for example, procurement decision approach (equipment acquisition stage), safety and training programs (equipment operational stage), schedule PM inspection and standby repair-maintenance facilities (equipment maintenance stage), equipment economic life and replacement decisions (equipment disposal stage) (Prasertrungruang and Hadikusumo
2006).
When the machine fails during operations, it is said to be “down or unavailable” which means that it is waiting for repair and thus incurring downtime (Nagi 1987). Typically, downtime duration consists of three major components, including (1) administrative time: time required for communication flow from user to manufacturer, time required for commercial formalities, and hours necessary to report a machine failure and give work directions for maintenance; (2) supply time: time when repair is delayed due to non-availability of spare parts and materials necessary to perform maintenance; and (3) active repair: time when technicians are working on the equipment to actually commission it including both preventive and corrective maintenance (Komatsu 1986). To minimize the consequential impact of downtime, contractors may opt to seek for substitute equipment, wait until the repair finished, accelerate work pace, modify work schedule, or transfer crews to other works (Nepal and Park 2004).
The research methodology was divided into two parts: data collection and data analysis. For the Data Collection, the research uses data collected from face-to-face interviews with five large highway contractors located in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces in Thailand. An equipment manager with at least 10 years work experience was selected as the interviewee for each of the participated contractors. A convenience sampling technique was used in identifying not only the sample contractors but also the interviewees. The interview checklist is in a semi-structured format in order to cover both open and closed-end dialogs. During the interviews, causal relationships between each pair of variables were disclosed and confirmed by the interviewees. For the data analysis, data collected from all five large contractor cases was administered using within-case as well as cross-case analysis approaches (Eisenhardt 1989). First, within-case analysis was employed to reveal the data characteristics for each particular contractor case. Then, attempt was made to draw the integrated picture among all contractor cases regarding the generic feedback structures of equipment management practices and downtime using cross-case analysis approach. The generic feedback structures were rechecked again with experts for validation until they are satisfactorily valid. Next, the generic feedback structures were used as a foundation in constructing the generic SD simulation model, using Powersim software. During this step, a number of stock and flow diagrams, which are all connected together in the generic SD model, have been identified. “Stock” represents accumulated quantities that change over time, while “flow” controls the changing rate of quantity going into or out of the stock (Sterman 2000). After data from each of the five contractor cases was input separately into the generic SD model, five applied SD models could be launched. Each of the applied SD models was then subjected to a number of validation tests to ensure that the model is structurally and behaviorally valid. Upon passing all validation tests, the generic SD model is deemed valid in representing the equipment management system as related to downtime of large contractors.
Conclusions
The aim of this paper is to give an insight into the dynamics of equipment management practices and downtime in large highway contractors. The dynamics of equipment management practices and downtime are presented through five generic feedback structures: machine acquisition, operations, maintenance, disposal, and downtime. Each of the feedback structures is interrelated and used as a framework in constructing the generic SD simulation model. A number of validation tests were used to ensure that the model is structurally and behaviorally valid.
To be successful in managing downtime, equipment management practices must be perceived as a combination of multiple feedback processes, which are interrelated to machine downtime. Indeed, downtime is interdependent and stimulated by three reinforcing cycles: schedule disruption and acceleration, operator schedule pressure creep, and mechanics’ schedule pressure creep. Even though downtime can be tackled through adoption of three balancing cycles (i.e., repair outsourced adjustment, operator skill adjustment, and mechanics’ skill adjustment), their expected benefits are always delayed, which retard or sometimes deteriorate the scenarios if contractors opt to stop the improvement processes. In addition, downtime is partly minimized through the reduction of disruption of work sequences by activating another two balancing cycles (i.e., rental machine adjustment and subcontractor adjustment). With high downtime, PM efforts are eroded, which in turn even worsen the scenarios as the reinforcing cycles of operator schedule pressure creep and mechanics’ schedule pressure creep have now been activated. However, contractors can mitigate this problem through adoption of balancing cycle of dealer maintenance services adjustment and the reinforcing cycle of management commitment in proactive maintenance.
Future work could be directed toward studying the interactions among equipment policies that have been addressed in the study. This would be useful especially when there are multiple performance tradeoffs involved among the stated policies (e.g., adopting participatory multi-skilled training policy may cause more fatigue to equipment operators and thus reduce the operator’s effort in performing the autonomous maintenance policy). Additional case studies are also needed to validate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed system and make further adjustments for a more reliable system.
This paper is part of the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 135, No. 10, October 1, 2009. Full paper is available upon request.
Abstract is copied and posted.
Abstract: Machine downtime is invariably perceived as one of the most critical problems faced by highway contractors. Attempts to reduce downtime often result in failure due to the dynamic behaviors between equipment management practices and downtime. This paper is thus intended to highlight the dynamics of heavy equipment management practices and downtime in large highway contractors and utilizes them as a framework in constructing a simulation model using a system dynamics approach. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with equipment managers from five different large highway contractors in Thailand. The finding reveals that, to be successful in alleviating downtime, contractors must view their practices on equipment management as an integration of multiple feedback processes, which are interrelated and interdependent with downtime. Based on various validation tests, the simulation model is deemed appropriate in representing the equipment management system as related to downtime of large highway contractors. The research is of value in facilitating better understanding on the dynamics of equipment management practices and downtime as well as their interdependency.
DOI: 10.1061/_ASCE_CO.1943-7862.0000076
CE Database subject headings: Maintenance; Dynamic models; Construction equipment; Contractors; Systems management; Construction industry; Thailand; Contractors; Highway and road construction.
1Researcher, Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management,
School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology,
Pathumthani 12120, Thailand (corresponding author). E-mail:
st101533@ait.ac.th
2Associate Professor, Construction Engineering and Infrastructure
Management, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of
Technology, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand.
Used Mining Equipment for Sale: MSloane Consulting and Terra Energy & Resource Technologies for Gold, Rubies and Marble Exploration
Used Mining Equipment for Sale: Terra Energy & Resource Technologies completed two projects for gold, rubies and marble exploration in Cambodia utilizing its innovative proprietary technology STeP® taht can go with legacy mining equipment, as MSloane Consulting provides "legacy" used mining equipment for sale that can dramatically reduce capex and operation costs. Terra Energy & Resource Technologies is a natural resource exploration services technology company.Both service contracts were awarded to Terra by The Millennium International Group, LLC, which has subsequently requested the company to submit a service proposal for the next stages of exploration as well as for the initial extraction of minerals, for which Terra Energy & Resource Technologies has submitted the proposal to the client.
4DCAD-Safety: visualizing project scheduling and safety planning
Damrong Chantawit, Bonaventura H.W. Hadikusumo, and Chotchai Charoenngam
The abstract is also copied and posted.
Abstract: Safety planning in construction project management is separated from other planning functions, such as scheduling. This separation creates difficulties for safety engineers to analyse what, when, why and where safety measures are needed for preventing accidents. Another problem occurs due to the conventional practice of representing project designs using two-dimensional (2D) drawings. In this practice, an engineer has to convert the 2D drawings into three-dimensional (3D) mental pictures which are a tedious task. Since this conversion is already difficult, combining these 2D drawings with safety plans increases the difficulty. In order to address the problems, 4DCAD-Safety is proposed. This paper discusses the design and development of 4DCAD-Safety application and testing its usefulness in terms of assisting users in analysing what, when, where and why safety measures are needed.
Key words: accident prevention; computer aided simulation; computer graphics; hazards; Safety
Address for correspondence: B.H.W. Hadikusumo, Assistant Professor, Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. E-mail: kusumo@ait.ac.th
Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
Steve Rowlinson
Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Introduction
Safety is considered as one of the project’s success factors. Poor safety management may result in accidents that impact on human, economic, and legal issues. The human impact involves both physical and psychological pains suffered by worker and his family. The economic impacts increase direct and indirect costs of the organization. In addition, there is the legal impact that relates to a breach of safety regulations. Therefore, it is necessary to consider safety and health as a project success factor along with other project success factors, such as time, project and quality.
Safety management covers from planning to implementation. Safety planning must be conducted prior to a construction activity for determining safety measures needed. The planning is the first fundamental step for managing safety. However, there is a problem with the conventional safety planning in construction project management.
The problem is related with loose relationships of plans: safety plan, project scheduling, and project drawings that are in 2D representation. This problem causes difficulties in using and analysing safety plans. For this reason, Kartam (1997) integrated safety plan with project scheduling. However, project design (i.e., drawings) was not included in his study. Without integrating project design, safety engineer will have difficulties in visualizing how the site will look; and this is important in determining safety hazards occurring.
This paper discusses our 4DCAD-Safety research that aims to integrate 4DCAD (i.e., 3DCAD objects and project time schedule) and construction site safety plan for assisting users in analysing and utilizing safety plans in terms of what, when, where, and why a safety measure is needed. This paper explains how a 4DCAD-Safety application is designed, developed, and tested.
Construction safety planning
Safety planning plays its important roles in construction project management for reducing unnecessary cost and delays related to undesired accidents. Safety planning ensures that safety will be taken into account along with costs, schedules, quality and other important job goals.
Safety planning includes identifying all potential hazards and hazardous operations and safety measures. This safety planning can be enhanced into safety risk management system by adding more tasks: identifying safety hazards, classifying risks, controlling the risks and monitoring the implementation. Among these tasks, safety hazard identification is the most important, since failure to identify safety hazards means safety measures are not adequately investigated.
Safety planning is traditionally managed separately from project planning/scheduling task. However, there must be a method to link these planning tasks. There are two reasons for explaining why the link is important. First, the safety plans must be linked with the construction schedule because safety engineers need to identify when safety measures on the safety plans must be used. Secondly, the safety engineers have to use construction drawings for developing the safety plans because these drawings have the information related to why and where safety measures are chosen. Kartam (1997) has developed Integrated Knowledge Intensive System for Construction Safety and Health Performance Control (IKIS-Safety System) that integrates safety and health requirement (i.e., safety plan) into a CPM-based project schedule. This integration provides a way to manage safety and health performance proactively rather than reactively, and alert construction manager and all involved parties when reviewing the CPM schedule (MacCollum 1995: 130; Kartam 1997). IKIS-Safety system helps users to know when a safety measure (i.e., what) is used since it is integrated with project scheduling; however, IKIS-Safety does not support adequate information for analysis. In our study, we consider that providing adequate information for safety engineers to analyse a safety plan in terms of why, when, where a safety measure (i.e., what) is important.
In order to provide adequate information, integrating the safety plan with 4DCAD, i.e., 3D object plus scheduling, is crucial. The 3D object should be used because it provides What- You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) benefit. In conventional construction project, most of the objects are represented using 2D drawings. Collier (1994) noted that this 2D representation is a bottleneck since engineers have to convert this drawing into 3D mental picture which is a tedious task. Since creating this 3D mental picture is already a tedious task, combining the 2D drawing with safety planning increases the difficulty. As a solution, 3D model computer representation can be adopted.
4DCAD technology for managing construction projects
Koo and Fischer (2000) defined Four-Dimensional Computer Aided Design (4DCAD) as a result of integrating 3D objects to the fourth dimension, time. The 3D and time integration allows users to run a visualization of the planned construction process of the project. The first idea was conceived in 1986–1987 when Bechtel collaborated with Hitachi Ltd to develop the Construction CAE=4D Planner software (Simons, 1988 cited in Rischmoller, 2000). The 4D model aims to overcome deficiencies of the traditional planning and control, such as bar charts and network diagrams, that do not effectively represent and communicate the spatial, temporal, and non-precedence information.
In conventional project planning, a contractor has to abstract the visual description of a project design into a textual description of activities and construction schedule. Later at the construction stage, engineers have to visually conceptualize the sequence of construction, and the 3D mental model of construction objects for construction purposes. In 4D environment, this tedious process is eliminated since the 4D model explicitly represents the relationship between the description of a facility (3D object) and the construction schedule (McKinney and Fischer, 1998).
4DCAD facilitates 3D construction products to be visualized along with construction processes on a computer screen therefore users need not to interpret construction products and processes in their minds. In other words, users can visualize the construction processes, as they would be actually carried out in reality. Potential benefits of 4DCAD have been extended by adding additional dimension, such as resources constraint management (Sripasert and Dawood, 2002), and nD-modelling (Rowlinson and Yates, 2003; Lee et al., 2004).
The benefit of 4DCAD can also be used for safety planning purposes in which the 4DCAD technology can be integrated with safety plan for providing safety engineers for analyzing what, when, where, and why a safety measure is needed. This integration is called 4DCAD-Safety.
4DCAD-Safety
System functionalities
4DCAD-Safety application is designed to facilitate safety engineers to analyse and utilize a safety plan. For this purpose, necessary information, i.e., 1) what safety measures are needed, 2) why, 3) where, and 4) when they are needed, must be provided. The information related with type of safety measures can be stored in a database, so that engineers can retrieve this information when they need it for planning safety measures in a project. When the engineers have to determine type of safety measures need to be used, their decision is influenced by two aspects: the physical condition of the project, represented in project designs; and the project progress, represented in a project schedule. The physical condition affects engineers’ decision in terms of where and why the safety measures are needed. Similar tasks conducted in different conditions may need different safety measures, e.g., constructing a column at the perimeter of a building has different hazard exposure compared to constructing a column at the centre of the building. This means safety engineers need to know where the safety measures will be used in order to analyse why they need to be used. The other aspect, project progress, also affects the reason for why a safety measure is needed because project progress may temporarily create different safety hazards.
In order to include what, why, where, and when aspects, the 4DCAD-Safety is equipped with three main components: 1) 4DCAD simulator, 2) safety library and plan, and 3) 4DCAD-Safety simulator. The 4DCAD simulator is used to simulate the project progress for a specific date. The safety library and plan are used to determine what types of safety measures are needed. Finally, the 4DCAD-Safety simulator is used to simulate specific safety measures chosen for a specific project progress. In other words, the simulation generates the project progress at a specific date and safety measures related; and this is useful for the engineers to analyse what safety measures are needed, why, when and where they are needed.
A case example for illustrating the 4DCAD-Safety is presented below.
4DCAD simulation. The 4DCAD simulation engine aims to generate, manipulate and simulate the 4DCAD model. Before generating the 4DCAD model of the whole project, all subschedules from the subcontractors need to be combined into one main schedule otherwise some construction products may not be shown during the simulation. Hence, the first feature provided in this function is to combine subschedules of subcontractors into a main schedule of a contractor. (Note: this feature is optional.)
The 4D simulation can be obtained by making the 3D objects visible or invisible according to the construction scheduling. Ongoing and completed 3D objects are set as visible while the rests are set as invisible. The ongoing objects are represented in blue colour, while the completed objects are in green.
Safety library and planning function. A safety plan contains safety measures to prevent accidents. In order to generate a safety plan, 4DCAD-Safety is equipped with two safety features: safety library and safety planning.
A safety library contains several safety data collected from regulatory standards and safety engineers’ experience, e.g., installing a guardrail to protect workers from falling from an open slab. Due to the nature of a library as a storage function, the safety library may have a lot of safety data; and this creates difficulties for a user to find the specific safety data in the safety library. For solving this problem, a keyword system is used to filter safety data. For example, when a user filters the safety library with the ‘Piling’ keyword, every safety data holding this keyword will be shown, such as 1) use earmuff, 2) use safety helmet, and 3) use eyes protection.
A safety plan is created by assigning the safety data, compiled from the safety library, into an activity. The relationship between construction task (or activity) and safety data is illustrated in Figure 1.
System architecture
4DCAD-Safety system architecture consists of four parts (see Figure 2): 1) MS ProjectTM, 2) AutoCADTM or AutoDesk Architecture DesktopTM, 3) Database, and 4) the 4DCAD-Safety application (i.e., an interface application). The construction project scheduling is created using MS ProjectTM software. The advantage of using MS ProjectTM is in its ability to export a schedule file to a database file using an ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) function; and therefore the construction schedule developed using MS Project can be easily converted into a MS Access database. The system database is designed to store three categories of data: 1) safety plan, 2) imported construction schedules, and 3) 3D objects group. For visualizing construction products, AutoCADTM software is used for developing the 3D computer objects as well as displaying them for 4D simulation purpose. Reasons for choosing AutoCAD or AutoDesk are: 1) it supports functions that can be accessed using programming languages, such as Visual Basic, and 2) this software is commonly used in the AEC industry. One important function for the purpose of 4D simulation is ‘visibility’ property of AutoCAD in which this property can be turned-off to hide an object, and turned-on to display an object. In addition, rendered images in the AutoCAD can be saved in DFX file which then can be open as 3D objects using WorldUpTM, a virtual reality software. Viewing 3D objects in World Up facilitates a better visualization since user is provided with sophisticated walkthrough mechanism to explore the 3D objects. The last part, 4DCAD-Safety interface, developed using Visual Basic programming language, aims to integrate the system database and AutoCADTM or AutoDeskTM. ADO technology that connects objects (e.g., a list box, a combo box, and so on) to the system database through MS Jet OLEDB 4.0 Provider is adopted in this application. In relation to the connection between the 4DCAD-Safety interface and AutoCADTM, this study utilized ActiveX technology to control every object, method, property, and event of AutoCADTM.
Database design. The 4DCAD-Safety system database was developed using a relational database by using MS Access application. Its data can be mainly categorized into three main groups: products, processes, and safety plan. Figure 3 illustrates the database structure of 4DCAD-Safety system that consists of main tables (i.e., entities): ‘Group’, ‘4DLink’, ‘Task’, ‘SafetyLink’, ‘SafetyLibrary’, and ‘SafetyKeyword’.
‘Task’ table is needed to store main scheduling data from the MS project: TaskID, WBS, Task Name, Start Date, and Finish Date. From MS project schedule, this data must be exported to a MS Access database file. All construction activities in the MS Access database must be assigned into groups because some of the activities are not represented in the 3D models. For example, constructing column activity is usually elaborated into four activities: installing rebar, installing formwork, concreting, and stripping off the formwork; and this four activities can be grouped together to represent ‘constructing column’ activity which is linked into a 3D model of the column (see Figure 3). In order to group tasks from the ‘Task’ table and assign them to relate with a group of 3D objects, an additional entity so called 4Dlink table is created. In this 4Dlink, the relationship between ‘Group’ and ‘Task’ table is set as ‘a group can contain many tasks, but one task can be a part of a group only’.
The ‘Group’ table stores data of 3D objects such as group name, WBS, and work area. One group might contain one or more 3D objects that are similar and must be built at the same time, for example, a group of second floor slabs, which represent slabs from different areas.
In relation to safety planning, the ‘SafetyLibrary’ table is created as the library of safety data. It stores records of predefined safety measures collected from regulatory standard and safety engineers’ experience. For example, install a guardrail to protect workers to fall from an open slab. This safety library is used to create a safety plan stored in a composite entity, ‘SafetyLink’ table. This table relates several safety data in the library with a construction task in ‘Task’ table. This enables safety measures in a safety plan to be displayed along with construction products and construction processes being simulated in the 4D simulation. For example, the roof truss installation task needs some safety measures such as equipping a safety helmet, and providing a safety belt. When the 4D simulation reaches roof objects (construction products) and roof truss installation tasks (construction processes), these safety measures will be displayed.
The last table, ‘Safety Keyword’ aims to assist users to list the specific records of safety library based on their keywords, e.g., list all records of safety library related to a task, then users can choose suitable safety measures displayed. For example, when the users use ‘excavation’ keyword, the database will suggest safety helmet and install a temporary shoring, then the user may choose which measures are suitable.
4DCAD-Safety interface. The 4DCAD-Safety interface, developed using Visual Basic programming language, is designed for integrating system database and AutoCADTM or AutoDeskTM. The interface is mainly divided into three parts: 1) 4DCAD interface (see area 1 in Figure 4), 2) safety interface (see area 2 in Figure 4), and 3) viewing part (see area 3 in Figure 4).
The 4DCAD interface is designed for controlling the 4D components consisting of object groups, related tasks, and lists of tasks for providing the 4D generating function and the simulation function. The 4D generating function aims to generate relationships between the object groups and their related tasks, while the simulation function aims to run 4DCAD-Safety simulation. These two functions are the main objective of this application.
The safety interface is created for communicating a safety plan to user when its related 4DCAD model is being simulated (i.e., being constructed in real world). Moreover it also enables a user to develop a new or modify an existing safety library as well as integrate safety plans with 4DCAD model.
The viewing part, AutoCADTM or AutoDeskTM application, is to display 3D objects and 4D simulation. Each interface is designed to work consistently with others. For example, when, according to the scheduling, fourth columns are on being constructed (in the section 1 of Figure 4), the viewing part will display the columns being constructed (in the section 2 of Figure 4) as well as the safety measures related (in the section 2 of Figure 4).
The 4DCAD system can be further expanded into a virtual reality visualization by exporting the simulated 3DCAD into a virtual reality object (Figure 5). User can easily does a walkthrough to any location in the simulated construction progress. This virtual reality visualization can magnify the benefits of 4DCAD safety in terms of analysing and interpreting safety measures in terms of what, why and where the measures are needed. In addition, the visualization can also be used as a material for group discussion within safety engineers for safety knowledge socialization.
Introduction
Safety is considered as one of the project’s success factors. Poor safety management may result in accidents that impact on human, economic, and legal issues. The human impact involves both physical and psychological pains suffered by worker and his family. The economic impacts increase direct and indirect costs of the organization. In addition, there is the legal impact that relates to a breach of safety regulations. Therefore, it is necessary to consider safety and health as a project success factor along with other project success factors, such as time, project and quality.
Safety management covers from planning to implementation. Safety planning must be conducted prior to a construction activity for determining safety measures needed. The planning is the first fundamental step for managing safety. However, there is a problem with the conventional safety planning in construction project management.
The problem is related with loose relationships of plans: safety plan, project scheduling, and project drawings that are in 2D representation. This problem causes difficulties in using and analysing safety plans. For this reason, Kartam (1997) integrated safety plan with project scheduling. However, project design (i.e., drawings) was not included in his study. Without integrating project design, safety engineer will have difficulties in visualizing how the site will look; and this is important in determining safety hazards occurring.
This paper discusses our 4DCAD-Safety research that aims to integrate 4DCAD (i.e., 3DCAD objects and project time schedule) and construction site safety plan for assisting users in analysing and utilizing safety plans in terms of what, when, where, and why a safety measure is needed. This paper explains how a 4DCAD-Safety application is designed, developed, and tested.
Construction safety planning
Safety planning plays its important roles in construction project management for reducing unnecessary cost and delays related to undesired accidents. Safety planning ensures that safety will be taken into account along with costs, schedules, quality and other important job goals.
Safety planning includes identifying all potential hazards and hazardous operations and safety measures. This safety planning can be enhanced into safety risk management system by adding more tasks: identifying safety hazards, classifying risks, controlling the risks and monitoring the implementation. Among these tasks, safety hazard identification is the most important, since failure to identify safety hazards means safety measures are not adequately investigated.
Safety planning is traditionally managed separately from project planning/scheduling task. However, there must be a method to link these planning tasks. There are two reasons for explaining why the link is important. First, the safety plans must be linked with the construction schedule because safety engineers need to identify when safety measures on the safety plans must be used. Secondly, the safety engineers have to use construction drawings for developing the safety plans because these drawings have the information related to why and where safety measures are chosen. Kartam (1997) has developed Integrated Knowledge Intensive System for Construction Safety and Health Performance Control (IKIS-Safety System) that integrates safety and health requirement (i.e., safety plan) into a CPM-based project schedule. This integration provides a way to manage safety and health performance proactively rather than reactively, and alert construction manager and all involved parties when reviewing the CPM schedule (MacCollum 1995: 130; Kartam 1997). IKIS-Safety system helps users to know when a safety measure (i.e., what) is used since it is integrated with project scheduling; however, IKIS-Safety does not support adequate information for analysis. In our study, we consider that providing adequate information for safety engineers to analyse a safety plan in terms of why, when, where a safety measure (i.e., what) is important.
In order to provide adequate information, integrating the safety plan with 4DCAD, i.e., 3D object plus scheduling, is crucial. The 3D object should be used because it provides What- You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) benefit. In conventional construction project, most of the objects are represented using 2D drawings. Collier (1994) noted that this 2D representation is a bottleneck since engineers have to convert this drawing into 3D mental picture which is a tedious task. Since creating this 3D mental picture is already a tedious task, combining the 2D drawing with safety planning increases the difficulty. As a solution, 3D model computer representation can be adopted.
4DCAD technology for managing construction projects
Koo and Fischer (2000) defined Four-Dimensional Computer Aided Design (4DCAD) as a result of integrating 3D objects to the fourth dimension, time. The 3D and time integration allows users to run a visualization of the planned construction process of the project. The first idea was conceived in 1986–1987 when Bechtel collaborated with Hitachi Ltd to develop the Construction CAE=4D Planner software (Simons, 1988 cited in Rischmoller, 2000). The 4D model aims to overcome deficiencies of the traditional planning and control, such as bar charts and network diagrams, that do not effectively represent and communicate the spatial, temporal, and non-precedence information.
In conventional project planning, a contractor has to abstract the visual description of a project design into a textual description of activities and construction schedule. Later at the construction stage, engineers have to visually conceptualize the sequence of construction, and the 3D mental model of construction objects for construction purposes. In 4D environment, this tedious process is eliminated since the 4D model explicitly represents the relationship between the description of a facility (3D object) and the construction schedule (McKinney and Fischer, 1998).
4DCAD facilitates 3D construction products to be visualized along with construction processes on a computer screen therefore users need not to interpret construction products and processes in their minds. In other words, users can visualize the construction processes, as they would be actually carried out in reality. Potential benefits of 4DCAD have been extended by adding additional dimension, such as resources constraint management (Sripasert and Dawood, 2002), and nD-modelling (Rowlinson and Yates, 2003; Lee et al., 2004).
The benefit of 4DCAD can also be used for safety planning purposes in which the 4DCAD technology can be integrated with safety plan for providing safety engineers for analyzing what, when, where, and why a safety measure is needed. This integration is called 4DCAD-Safety.
4DCAD-Safety
System functionalities
4DCAD-Safety application is designed to facilitate safety engineers to analyse and utilize a safety plan. For this purpose, necessary information, i.e., 1) what safety measures are needed, 2) why, 3) where, and 4) when they are needed, must be provided. The information related with type of safety measures can be stored in a database, so that engineers can retrieve this information when they need it for planning safety measures in a project. When the engineers have to determine type of safety measures need to be used, their decision is influenced by two aspects: the physical condition of the project, represented in project designs; and the project progress, represented in a project schedule. The physical condition affects engineers’ decision in terms of where and why the safety measures are needed. Similar tasks conducted in different conditions may need different safety measures, e.g., constructing a column at the perimeter of a building has different hazard exposure compared to constructing a column at the centre of the building. This means safety engineers need to know where the safety measures will be used in order to analyse why they need to be used. The other aspect, project progress, also affects the reason for why a safety measure is needed because project progress may temporarily create different safety hazards.
In order to include what, why, where, and when aspects, the 4DCAD-Safety is equipped with three main components: 1) 4DCAD simulator, 2) safety library and plan, and 3) 4DCAD-Safety simulator. The 4DCAD simulator is used to simulate the project progress for a specific date. The safety library and plan are used to determine what types of safety measures are needed. Finally, the 4DCAD-Safety simulator is used to simulate specific safety measures chosen for a specific project progress. In other words, the simulation generates the project progress at a specific date and safety measures related; and this is useful for the engineers to analyse what safety measures are needed, why, when and where they are needed.
A case example for illustrating the 4DCAD-Safety is presented below.
4DCAD simulation. The 4DCAD simulation engine aims to generate, manipulate and simulate the 4DCAD model. Before generating the 4DCAD model of the whole project, all subschedules from the subcontractors need to be combined into one main schedule otherwise some construction products may not be shown during the simulation. Hence, the first feature provided in this function is to combine subschedules of subcontractors into a main schedule of a contractor. (Note: this feature is optional.)
The 4D simulation can be obtained by making the 3D objects visible or invisible according to the construction scheduling. Ongoing and completed 3D objects are set as visible while the rests are set as invisible. The ongoing objects are represented in blue colour, while the completed objects are in green.
Safety library and planning function. A safety plan contains safety measures to prevent accidents. In order to generate a safety plan, 4DCAD-Safety is equipped with two safety features: safety library and safety planning.
A safety library contains several safety data collected from regulatory standards and safety engineers’ experience, e.g., installing a guardrail to protect workers from falling from an open slab. Due to the nature of a library as a storage function, the safety library may have a lot of safety data; and this creates difficulties for a user to find the specific safety data in the safety library. For solving this problem, a keyword system is used to filter safety data. For example, when a user filters the safety library with the ‘Piling’ keyword, every safety data holding this keyword will be shown, such as 1) use earmuff, 2) use safety helmet, and 3) use eyes protection.
A safety plan is created by assigning the safety data, compiled from the safety library, into an activity. The relationship between construction task (or activity) and safety data is illustrated in Figure 1.
System architecture
4DCAD-Safety system architecture consists of four parts (see Figure 2): 1) MS ProjectTM, 2) AutoCADTM or AutoDesk Architecture DesktopTM, 3) Database, and 4) the 4DCAD-Safety application (i.e., an interface application). The construction project scheduling is created using MS ProjectTM software. The advantage of using MS ProjectTM is in its ability to export a schedule file to a database file using an ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) function; and therefore the construction schedule developed using MS Project can be easily converted into a MS Access database. The system database is designed to store three categories of data: 1) safety plan, 2) imported construction schedules, and 3) 3D objects group. For visualizing construction products, AutoCADTM software is used for developing the 3D computer objects as well as displaying them for 4D simulation purpose. Reasons for choosing AutoCAD or AutoDesk are: 1) it supports functions that can be accessed using programming languages, such as Visual Basic, and 2) this software is commonly used in the AEC industry. One important function for the purpose of 4D simulation is ‘visibility’ property of AutoCAD in which this property can be turned-off to hide an object, and turned-on to display an object. In addition, rendered images in the AutoCAD can be saved in DFX file which then can be open as 3D objects using WorldUpTM, a virtual reality software. Viewing 3D objects in World Up facilitates a better visualization since user is provided with sophisticated walkthrough mechanism to explore the 3D objects. The last part, 4DCAD-Safety interface, developed using Visual Basic programming language, aims to integrate the system database and AutoCADTM or AutoDeskTM. ADO technology that connects objects (e.g., a list box, a combo box, and so on) to the system database through MS Jet OLEDB 4.0 Provider is adopted in this application. In relation to the connection between the 4DCAD-Safety interface and AutoCADTM, this study utilized ActiveX technology to control every object, method, property, and event of AutoCADTM.
Database design. The 4DCAD-Safety system database was developed using a relational database by using MS Access application. Its data can be mainly categorized into three main groups: products, processes, and safety plan. Figure 3 illustrates the database structure of 4DCAD-Safety system that consists of main tables (i.e., entities): ‘Group’, ‘4DLink’, ‘Task’, ‘SafetyLink’, ‘SafetyLibrary’, and ‘SafetyKeyword’.
‘Task’ table is needed to store main scheduling data from the MS project: TaskID, WBS, Task Name, Start Date, and Finish Date. From MS project schedule, this data must be exported to a MS Access database file. All construction activities in the MS Access database must be assigned into groups because some of the activities are not represented in the 3D models. For example, constructing column activity is usually elaborated into four activities: installing rebar, installing formwork, concreting, and stripping off the formwork; and this four activities can be grouped together to represent ‘constructing column’ activity which is linked into a 3D model of the column (see Figure 3). In order to group tasks from the ‘Task’ table and assign them to relate with a group of 3D objects, an additional entity so called 4Dlink table is created. In this 4Dlink, the relationship between ‘Group’ and ‘Task’ table is set as ‘a group can contain many tasks, but one task can be a part of a group only’.
The ‘Group’ table stores data of 3D objects such as group name, WBS, and work area. One group might contain one or more 3D objects that are similar and must be built at the same time, for example, a group of second floor slabs, which represent slabs from different areas.
In relation to safety planning, the ‘SafetyLibrary’ table is created as the library of safety data. It stores records of predefined safety measures collected from regulatory standard and safety engineers’ experience. For example, install a guardrail to protect workers to fall from an open slab. This safety library is used to create a safety plan stored in a composite entity, ‘SafetyLink’ table. This table relates several safety data in the library with a construction task in ‘Task’ table. This enables safety measures in a safety plan to be displayed along with construction products and construction processes being simulated in the 4D simulation. For example, the roof truss installation task needs some safety measures such as equipping a safety helmet, and providing a safety belt. When the 4D simulation reaches roof objects (construction products) and roof truss installation tasks (construction processes), these safety measures will be displayed.
The last table, ‘Safety Keyword’ aims to assist users to list the specific records of safety library based on their keywords, e.g., list all records of safety library related to a task, then users can choose suitable safety measures displayed. For example, when the users use ‘excavation’ keyword, the database will suggest safety helmet and install a temporary shoring, then the user may choose which measures are suitable.
4DCAD-Safety interface. The 4DCAD-Safety interface, developed using Visual Basic programming language, is designed for integrating system database and AutoCADTM or AutoDeskTM. The interface is mainly divided into three parts: 1) 4DCAD interface (see area 1 in Figure 4), 2) safety interface (see area 2 in Figure 4), and 3) viewing part (see area 3 in Figure 4).
The 4DCAD interface is designed for controlling the 4D components consisting of object groups, related tasks, and lists of tasks for providing the 4D generating function and the simulation function. The 4D generating function aims to generate relationships between the object groups and their related tasks, while the simulation function aims to run 4DCAD-Safety simulation. These two functions are the main objective of this application.
The safety interface is created for communicating a safety plan to user when its related 4DCAD model is being simulated (i.e., being constructed in real world). Moreover it also enables a user to develop a new or modify an existing safety library as well as integrate safety plans with 4DCAD model.
The viewing part, AutoCADTM or AutoDeskTM application, is to display 3D objects and 4D simulation. Each interface is designed to work consistently with others. For example, when, according to the scheduling, fourth columns are on being constructed (in the section 1 of Figure 4), the viewing part will display the columns being constructed (in the section 2 of Figure 4) as well as the safety measures related (in the section 2 of Figure 4).
The 4DCAD system can be further expanded into a virtual reality visualization by exporting the simulated 3DCAD into a virtual reality object (Figure 5). User can easily does a walkthrough to any location in the simulated construction progress. This virtual reality visualization can magnify the benefits of 4DCAD safety in terms of analysing and interpreting safety measures in terms of what, why and where the measures are needed. In addition, the visualization can also be used as a material for group discussion within safety engineers for safety knowledge socialization.
Testing and evaluations
Respondents’ opinions
In order to validate that the system can achieve the system objectives and benefits the construction industry, tests were conducted by two senior project managers and one senior project management consultant. The testers used the 4DCAD-Safety application, and then they were asked to answer a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire addressed two main issues: functionality, usefulness of the 4DCAD-Safety; and operability, easiness to use the system.
From Table 1, the result showed that the application is useful to assist users in analyzing construction sequence, informing spatial information and scheduling information. Moreover, the respondents were very satisfied with the application that provides them information to analyse safety planning information in terms of what, when, where and why safety measures are needed. They also considered that the application is relatively easy to use, except for generating a 4DCAD model. Generating the 4DCAD model is not easy because 1) it is difficult to develop a 3D model of a large-scale construction project, and 2) the process to link a construction scheduling and the 3D model is quite difficult. This is addressed for further research development.
System benefits and limitations
4DCAD-Safety provides general and specific benefits. The general benefits are related with the 4DCAD simulation features that have been investigated by previous researches. The specific benefits are uniquely related with the 4DCAD-Safety developed in our research.
The general benefits of 4D simulation are 1) the 4DCAD-Safety application visualizes 3D objects of a construction project, the disparity in participants’ experience or knowledge that lead to different interpretation is less significant and communication among participants can be improved (Koo and Fischer, 2000), and 2) the application can be applied to visualize and interpret construction sequence on a computer display rather than in their mind. This allows users to better understand construction sequence and detect potential problems in construction drawings as well as schedules prior construction starts (McKinney and Fischer, 1998; Kang et al., 2002).
There are two specific benefits related to the 4DCAD-Safety application. First, related with safety planning function, when construction activities are progressing according to the project calendar, the application can display safety measures that are required to carry out specific works. Secondly, since the displayed safety plan is related to the construction activities represented in 3D model, the application facilitates safety engineers to visualize spatial and physical information of construction activities and their products. This facilitates safety engineers to know and analyse what safety measures are needed to be installed, prepared, or provided for current activities and where, when, as well as why they are needed. For a better quality of visualization, 3D image rendered in AutoCAD can be saved as DFX file since this file format can be opened using World UpTM. One significant benefit of viewing 3D objects in World Up is that user can have a better walkthrough mechanism for exploring the objects (Hadikusumo and Rowlinson, 2001; 2003). As an additional benefit, the 4DCAD-Safety application has a feature for combining subcontractors’ schedules and a contractor’s schedule as well as their safety plans. This combination allows all safety plans from one organization to be communicated to other organizations since they might interact directly or indirectly in order to perform their jobs.
There are two limitations of the system: 1) the 4DCAD uses early start and finish for the simulation purposes. This must be further researched to include late start and finish, and 2) the 4DCAD uses scheduling information stored in MS Access database which is created by exporting the MS Project file to MS Access file. Therefore, the system does not support real time updating of the construction schedule.
Conclusion
4DCAD is an emerging powerful technology to manage construction projects. Several researchers have identified its advantages in terms of betterment of 1) project representation which reduces design interpretation among project members, and 2) understanding of construction sequences.
This 4DCAD technology can also be utilized to manage construction site safety. In this research, the 4DCAD is further developed into 4DCAD-Safety which supports information to safety engineers for analysing and utilizing what safety measures are needed, when, where and why they are needed.
The 4DCAD-Safety consists of four main components: AutoCADTM, Microsoft ProjectTM, Database, and 4DCAD-Safety Interface. The AutoCAD is used for modelling and displaying the 3D objects that represent the physical condition of a project. Microsoft Project is used for scheduling construction activities. Thus, by integrating the scheduling into the 3D objects, the 4DCAD technology is achieved. The database is used to store project scheduling exported from Microsoft Project, safety library and safety planning. Finally, the interface is developed to integrate the three components. The integration allows a safety plan to be simulated according to the 4DCAD simulation. Additional technology, Virtual Reality, can be added to create a virtual walkthrough mechanism. This technology facilitates users to be flexible in observing the virtually real site condition progress from any positions; and therefore a better understanding of what safety measures are needed, when, where and why they are needed is obtained.
This paper was published in the journal for “Construction Innovation 2005; 5: 99–114”. Full paper is available upon request.
Respondents’ opinions
In order to validate that the system can achieve the system objectives and benefits the construction industry, tests were conducted by two senior project managers and one senior project management consultant. The testers used the 4DCAD-Safety application, and then they were asked to answer a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire addressed two main issues: functionality, usefulness of the 4DCAD-Safety; and operability, easiness to use the system.
From Table 1, the result showed that the application is useful to assist users in analyzing construction sequence, informing spatial information and scheduling information. Moreover, the respondents were very satisfied with the application that provides them information to analyse safety planning information in terms of what, when, where and why safety measures are needed. They also considered that the application is relatively easy to use, except for generating a 4DCAD model. Generating the 4DCAD model is not easy because 1) it is difficult to develop a 3D model of a large-scale construction project, and 2) the process to link a construction scheduling and the 3D model is quite difficult. This is addressed for further research development.
System benefits and limitations
4DCAD-Safety provides general and specific benefits. The general benefits are related with the 4DCAD simulation features that have been investigated by previous researches. The specific benefits are uniquely related with the 4DCAD-Safety developed in our research.
The general benefits of 4D simulation are 1) the 4DCAD-Safety application visualizes 3D objects of a construction project, the disparity in participants’ experience or knowledge that lead to different interpretation is less significant and communication among participants can be improved (Koo and Fischer, 2000), and 2) the application can be applied to visualize and interpret construction sequence on a computer display rather than in their mind. This allows users to better understand construction sequence and detect potential problems in construction drawings as well as schedules prior construction starts (McKinney and Fischer, 1998; Kang et al., 2002).
There are two specific benefits related to the 4DCAD-Safety application. First, related with safety planning function, when construction activities are progressing according to the project calendar, the application can display safety measures that are required to carry out specific works. Secondly, since the displayed safety plan is related to the construction activities represented in 3D model, the application facilitates safety engineers to visualize spatial and physical information of construction activities and their products. This facilitates safety engineers to know and analyse what safety measures are needed to be installed, prepared, or provided for current activities and where, when, as well as why they are needed. For a better quality of visualization, 3D image rendered in AutoCAD can be saved as DFX file since this file format can be opened using World UpTM. One significant benefit of viewing 3D objects in World Up is that user can have a better walkthrough mechanism for exploring the objects (Hadikusumo and Rowlinson, 2001; 2003). As an additional benefit, the 4DCAD-Safety application has a feature for combining subcontractors’ schedules and a contractor’s schedule as well as their safety plans. This combination allows all safety plans from one organization to be communicated to other organizations since they might interact directly or indirectly in order to perform their jobs.
There are two limitations of the system: 1) the 4DCAD uses early start and finish for the simulation purposes. This must be further researched to include late start and finish, and 2) the 4DCAD uses scheduling information stored in MS Access database which is created by exporting the MS Project file to MS Access file. Therefore, the system does not support real time updating of the construction schedule.
Conclusion
4DCAD is an emerging powerful technology to manage construction projects. Several researchers have identified its advantages in terms of betterment of 1) project representation which reduces design interpretation among project members, and 2) understanding of construction sequences.
This 4DCAD technology can also be utilized to manage construction site safety. In this research, the 4DCAD is further developed into 4DCAD-Safety which supports information to safety engineers for analysing and utilizing what safety measures are needed, when, where and why they are needed.
The 4DCAD-Safety consists of four main components: AutoCADTM, Microsoft ProjectTM, Database, and 4DCAD-Safety Interface. The AutoCAD is used for modelling and displaying the 3D objects that represent the physical condition of a project. Microsoft Project is used for scheduling construction activities. Thus, by integrating the scheduling into the 3D objects, the 4DCAD technology is achieved. The database is used to store project scheduling exported from Microsoft Project, safety library and safety planning. Finally, the interface is developed to integrate the three components. The integration allows a safety plan to be simulated according to the 4DCAD simulation. Additional technology, Virtual Reality, can be added to create a virtual walkthrough mechanism. This technology facilitates users to be flexible in observing the virtually real site condition progress from any positions; and therefore a better understanding of what safety measures are needed, when, where and why they are needed is obtained.
This paper was published in the journal for “Construction Innovation 2005; 5: 99–114”. Full paper is available upon request.
The abstract is also copied and posted.
Abstract: Safety planning in construction project management is separated from other planning functions, such as scheduling. This separation creates difficulties for safety engineers to analyse what, when, why and where safety measures are needed for preventing accidents. Another problem occurs due to the conventional practice of representing project designs using two-dimensional (2D) drawings. In this practice, an engineer has to convert the 2D drawings into three-dimensional (3D) mental pictures which are a tedious task. Since this conversion is already difficult, combining these 2D drawings with safety plans increases the difficulty. In order to address the problems, 4DCAD-Safety is proposed. This paper discusses the design and development of 4DCAD-Safety application and testing its usefulness in terms of assisting users in analysing what, when, where and why safety measures are needed.
Key words: accident prevention; computer aided simulation; computer graphics; hazards; Safety
Address for correspondence: B.H.W. Hadikusumo, Assistant Professor, Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. E-mail: kusumo@ait.ac.th
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