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The purpose of this paper is to develop a multi-agent-based model for quantitatively measuring how the design change management strategies improve project performance.

Based on questionnaires and interviews, this paper investigates the coordination mechanism of risks due to design changes in prefabricated construction (PC) projects. Combined with all the variables related with design change risks, a multi-agent-based simulation model is proposed to evaluate the design change management effect.

The coordination mechanism between design change factors, design change events, risk consequence and management strategy in PC projects is described and then the simulation-based design change management mechanism in PC projects is used to assess the effect of management strategies under dynamic scenarios.

PC projects have rapidly increased in recent years due to the advantages of fast construction, high quality and labor savings. Different from traditional on-site construction, the impact and risk from design changes are likely to be greater due to the prefabricated project being multi-stage, highly interactive and complex. The simulations presented in this paper make it possible to test different design change management strategies in order to study their effectiveness and support managerial decision making.

The aim of this paper is to present a systematic approach to provide decision makers in the Taipei City Government and private developers with an opportunity to review their decisions on urban renewal project selections, and to provide a model which could be adapted for other locations.

Porter's diamond model of competitive advantage is applied to establish evaluating criteria on urban competitiveness quality, and a fuzzy set theory combining the PROMETHEE method is used to determine the priority of projects. In assigning scores for urban sustainability, the expected return for each project is calculated for the economic dimension and a subjective scale has been used for the social and environmental dimensions. Genetic algorithms (GA) are introduced to search optimal solutions considering cost‐score tradeoffs for decisions on investment ratio determination and renewal type selection. The proposed approach is tested by evaluating 13 urban renewal projects in Taipei City.

The three‐stage model proposed by this study has established a comprehensive and systematic approach that considers key factors in urban renewal, assesses renewal projects from the standpoint of urban competitiveness and sustainability, and provides decision makers with helpful guidelines for investment.

There is difficulty in re‐examining social and environmental issues of the city government's earlier decisions became decision makers did not fully consider these two issues at the beginning of the planning stage, which is a limitation of this research.

The results documented in the paper provide many other cities facing similar renewal decision problems with insightful strategies and useful implications.

The paper's purpose is to describe and examine the level of utilisation of construction enterprise information systems (CEIS) and to identify critical success factors and benefits from their implementation.

A survey was conducted to quantify the current situation of CEIS. The population consisted of stakeholders with reliable working knowledge of their firms' information systems. Statistical tests were conducted to draw conclusions from the data.

A total of 48 per cent of the firms use enterprise resource planning packages, but only 4 per cent of these firms chose to implement the project management modules that are commercially available. Only 16 per cent of the respondents were satisfied with their current level of integration due to CEIS. There was no evidence to suggest a tendency for the integration level due to CEIS to increase together with the business geographical dispersion.

The rate of response to the survey was low (9 per cent), maybe due to the unavailability of CEIS in all the firms that were contacted. Further, research is needed to study the dynamics between management practices and their effect on CEIS adoption and level of integration.

Integration efforts and software that are currently in use still do not fully address the concerns of industry practitioners. Associations found between the level of integration and project characteristics can be used to help IT stakeholders decide on the CEIS functions to adopt.

The strategic, operational and organizational benefits found from the implementation of CEIS are based on current data obtained from a targeted survey of construction related firms.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework to assess the feasibility of fuel cells in both monetary and non‐monetary terms. It aims to develop an index is to compare different sources of energy in the residential market of the rural Appalachian region of the USA.

An index is developed to measure sustainable criteria and the factors that influence the user's decision‐making process of adopting an alternative energy. The sustainable criteria are obtained through a literature review, and the factors that influenced the decision‐making process are found through surveys to individuals who may potentially adopt alternative energies. After the index is developed, it is used to compare fuel cells and the conventional grid system using the specific case of a typical rural house.

The most relevant sustainable criteria found in literature are environmental impact, energy consumption, and cost. The factors that influenced the user's decision to adopt an alternative energy are cost, environmental impact, space, reliability, and safety. Those factors are combined in an index used to compare fuel cells and the coal‐fired grid system. According to the index, fuel cells have a slightly better rating than the grid system powered by a coal‐fired power plant; however, further development of fuel cells will be needed in order to be fully competitive.

The index developed is based on the rural Appalachian region of the USA. If the index is used in other locations, factors, and weights should be adjusted accordingly.

The framework discussed in the paper includes both the sustainable performance of the system, and the factors that influenced the user's decision to adopt an alternative energy. The latter has previously not been taken into consideration in the assessment of these types of technologies.

The factors considered in the paper will make a significant difference if alternative energies are to be considered as a viable alternative to traditional energy forms. The framework took a holistic approach, and considered factors such as cost, environment, energy consumption, reliability, maintenance, space and safety, that are deemed important by the final user.

This research seeks to investigate sources of renewable energy into the everyday operation of federally owned facilities. The goal is to present comparisons of existing US federal buildings and analyze the savings and methodologies for acceptance of each project for the use of building and project managers within the US federal government or other researchers interested in similar analysis.

Data were analyzed on several case studies where solar, wind, and geothermal sources of renewable energy have already been integrated in federally owned facilities. The analysis focused on cost due to available data and resources, and its scope was to estimate the potential for success or failure and possible outcomes.

Current case studies of solar, wind, and geothermal projects within the US federal government suggest that cost savings are not the sole reason for adopting such technologies. Projects move forward based on additional motivations such as reduced environmental impact, government policy, and in an effort to increase leadership, awareness, and image.

A larger number of case studies are needed to infer trends in federal renewable energy projects. The methodology is aimed at an objective comparison of electricity costs between buildings; however, as the findings demonstrate, the quantitative normalized ratio implemented needs other soft considerations to fully represent renewable energy scenarios in US federal buildings.

Key decisions that must be made in order to get a renewable energy‐building project completed may be facilitated by using the paper and its implications of the need for soft factors to become part of the analysis.

The analysis presented here includes five stages or key decisions that must be made to get a renewable energy project in US federal facilities to award, including criteria beyond economics. Findings support the need for inclusion of soft factors, along with economic considerations for project success.

This chapter focused on presenting the result of the Delphi study from the questionnaire distributed to the experts. The Delphi technique was used for modelling the construction supply chain management (CSCM) practice in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. The technique was also used to predict the supply chain management's (SCM) possible trends in the construction industry. A total of 15 experts were selected for this study based on their working experience. The Delphi study also validated the gaps (organisational culture and 4IR component) identified from the existing CSCM model. The findings from the Delphi study revealed that organisational culture has a significant impact on the practice of CSCM in the 4IR era. Regarding adopting the 4IR component for the CSCM in Nigeria, the Delphi study revealed that smart management and virtualisation are the most adopted. Unfortunately, the cyber-physical system, the heartbeat of the 4IR, is yet to be fully implemented for CSCM practice in the Nigerian construction industry.

Housing provides constructed space for human activities. Literature indicates that housing impacts wealth, education attainment and health outcomes, among others. Because of its contributions to society, it is essential to develop and implement strategies that address the housing shortage experienced in most cities across the globe. This study aims to unpack the factors affecting housing production in the UK and chart the way forward.

In addressing this study's aim, an interprivitst approach was adopted and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 experienced professionals. Data were collected across the four nations of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).

The results indicated that the opportunistic behaviour of stakeholders is one of the main factors affecting housing production in the study area. Also, modern construction methods, collaborative practices, government intervention and affordable housing schemes were identified as key strategies for addressing housing production factors.

This study identified strategies for mitigating housing production issues that provide a focal point to all stakeholders keen on filling the housing shortage gap and improving productivity to channel their resources and effort accordingly.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to empirically analyse the influencing factors on the housing gap in the UK from the perspective of the supply side to provide information that could lead towards closing the said gap.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive methodology and a case study about the successful integration of FCA with continuous improvement tools for strategic decision-making processes. Reliable knowledge of the condition of tangible assets and their ability to fulfill their target activities over time are required for an assertive strategical decision process. Facility condition assessment (FCA) is a recognized methodology that allows the systematic evaluation of this performance. For those companies whose primary objective is the production of goods, decisions associated with improvements on the productive system or re-adaptation of existing assets may also require the implementation of alternative methodologies, with a direct impact on the indicators of the company and therefore on the FCA.

This study presents a methodology for the integration of FCA and lean manufacturing (LM) as a tool in strategic decision-making process that involves the integration of continuous improvement processes or significant changes in the production process, in which the condition of the installation impacts decisively the productivity of the system.

The results of the implementation on an insecticide and herbicide production plant indicate an increase of 33 per cent in the capacity of the formulation process and over 20 per cent reduction in the internal quality claims associated with the packaging system.

Those methodological stages are applicable to facilities in which the FCA shows the need for significant reconditioning of assets, the need to increase the efficiency and/or the production capacity. This methodology integrates elements of continuous improvement and redesign of production systems.

The original value of this paper is oriented to the capacity to integrate different FCA and LM tools through the company indicators of productivity key performance indicators and, in addition, of a comprehensive illustration based on a study case.

The publication presents an analysis of the cost and schedule performance of incentive/disincentive projects and case studies toward developing a systematic disincentive valuation process, with Construction Analysis for Pavement Rehabilitation Strategies (CA4PRS) software integration that aids agencies in minimizing the likelihood of court challenges of disincentives.

From a California transportation database, the authors performed cost and schedule analyses of 43 incentive/disincentive (I/D) projects and case studies on four of those I/D projects. Interviewees included subject matter experts from transportation organizations to ensure applicability and maximum value-adding, and the process was implemented on ten California transportation projects and monitored for performance.

The presented process mitigates the contractor's ability to claim disincentives as penalties in a court of law through the following: (1) all calculations are performed using project-specific bases, backed by estimations of actual incurred costs; (2) the CA4PRS software allows for estimation transparency and (3) the clarity of cost inclusions reduces any chances of “double-dipping” between disincentives and liquidated damages.

Transportation agencies have historically faced legal challenges to their enforcements of disincentives. As agencies continue to apply disincentives on more megaprojects, contractors will likely attempt to pursue legal challenges more frequently. The presented process mitigates the likelihood of these challenges going to court and increases the accuracy and efficiency of disincentives.

While there have been publications that discuss the legal challenges of imposing disincentives, they mainly provide guidelines and lack applicable processes. Existing literature that does present incentive/disincentive valuation process focuses on incentive valuations and neglects the disincentives' legal challenges. The following publication fills this gap by presenting an applicable disincentive valuation process for transportation projects which incorporates the guidelines for legal mitigation.

It is postulated that operator-dependent factors have a substantial impact on the fuel consumption and emissions of heavy-duty construction vehicles, such that by adopting different operator practices, savings in fuel used and lower emissions and costs can be achieved. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the emission and cost effects of a driver-training programme aimed at fuel efficiency and construction truck operators.

A study was conducted on an urban excavation involving truck-and-trailer vehicles, serviced by an excavator, over an approximately 50 km trafficked urban circuit. Field observations, before and after training, and including those on a control truck operator, gave fuel usage, emissions data, speed, travel times, routing, production and operational costs.

Compared to baseline values, trained drivers saw a reduction in their fuel consumption by an average of 8.5 per cent, reducing to 7.7 per cent after several weeks following training. Importantly, this occurred without increased travel time or lost production.

The number of drivers participating in the research was dictated by the nature of the project involved. A larger sample, and research involving a closer study of braking, acceleration and gearshift behaviour, would help confirm this paper’s results and provide further insight.

The paper demonstrates quantitative benefits (reduced unit emissions and reduced unit costs) associated with construction equipment operator training.

The research is original, being the first related to driver training of heavy-duty construction equipment and incorporating production measurements, the first involving a study of equipment operators unaware that they were being observed, and the first involving a control.