Search results

Construction projects in India continue to suffer excessive delays. This paper aims to investigate the delay causes in India by project sector (transport, power, buildings and water) and carry out a comparative study of delay causes in design build (DB) projects with that of design bid build (DBB) projects along with mitigation measures.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among major clients, contractors and consultants in India. Importance Index was used for ranking of the delay causes. Projects were categorized based on the type, and causes of delay in each project type were identified. Projects were also categorized based on type of contract, and delay causes in DB and DBB projects were compared. Statistical analysis of responses by Cronbach’s alpha, one-way analysis of variance, Kruskal–Wallis tests was carried out with Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with senior industry professionals to develop exhaustive mitigation measures.

The research findings indicate finance-related causes as the most critical causes of delay in Indian projects. Delay in settlement of claims, contractor’s financial difficulties, delay in payment for extra work/variations by owner, late payment from contractor to subcontractor or suppliers, variation orders/changes of scope by owner during construction and changes in design by owner were the highly ranked delay causes. The research found no significant difference in the delay causes in DB and DBB projects.

This is the first study wherein delay causes for various project types within a single country are identified. In addition, the study has identified and compared the delay causes in DB projects and DBB projects. Mitigation measures developed in this study will help professionals and project managers not just in India but other developing countries as well to alleviate delay causes and in improvement of project timelines.

This paper aims to improve upon the performance of magnetic fluid‐based squeeze film between transversely rough curved annular plates by embarking on a comparative study of the geometrical structure of the curved annular plates.

The objectives are met by mathematically modeling a magnetic fluid‐based squeeze film between transversely rough curved annular plates. The standard method is to solve the associated Reynolds' equation with appropriate boundary conditions by describing the random roughness through a stochastic random variable with non‐zero mean, variance and skewness. Results for bearing performance characteristics such as pressure distribution and load‐carrying capacity are numerically computed. In order to analyze the quantitative effect of the roughness, different geometrical structures of surfaces have been considered and the results are compared.

Certainly, the performance of the bearing with the magnetic fluid lubricant is comparatively better than the conventional lubricant. The findings indicate that although the effect of roughness is adverse in general, the adverse effect introduced by roughness and aspect ratio can be compensated for, to a considerable extent, by the positive effect of magnetization parameter in the case of negatively skewed roughness by choosing the curvature parameters properly.

From the industry point of view, this investigation will be definitely useful for improving the performance of the squeeze film based on magnetic fluid between transversely rough curved annular plates by minimizing the effect of roughness. Furthermore, it offers an additional degree of freedom from a design point of view in the form of the geometrical structure of the surfaces.

The paper presents significant information as it compares shapes and offers suggestions for the best improved performance from a bearing's longevity point of view. This study presents an approach for the enhanced performance of the magnetic fluid‐based squeeze film between transversely rough curved annular plates.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the major influencing factors for the COVID 19 patients’ satisfaction with a six sigma framework model and to explore the successful deployment of six sigma in the health-care sector a case study on COVID 19 patients’ satisfaction.

The study is based on a descriptive research design conducted in Chennai, India between May to July 2020 wherein 1,000 COVID 19 patients were studied. The convenience sampling method is used by the researcher for data collection. In this research paper, define-measure-analysis-improve-control methodology has been applied and factors such as assurance, process standardization, infrastructure, waiting time, cost were analyzed using quality function deployment (QFD), regression analysis and Monte Carlo simulation.

The applied six sigma model indicated that process standardization contributed the most toward the variation in COVID 19 patients’ satisfaction. Assurance by doctors is the second important factor. The interpersonal quality is important, which indicates a higher level of psychological needs in COVID 19 patients. Waiting time is another important factor influencing COVID 19 patients’ satisfaction. One of the unexpected findings is that cost is insignificant in influencing COVID 19 patients’ satisfaction.

Six Sigma focuses on process variation improvement that encourages data analysis and problem-solving statistical techniques and evaluates the ability of a process to perform defect-free. Six sigma focused toward COVID 19 patients’ satisfaction has not been carried out, which this paper has done.