This study compares certification systems for green healthcare facilities implemented worldwide. Healthcare facilities are complex structures designed to provide uninterrupted service while involving substantial resources, high energy consumption, and heavy human and material traffic. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of designs that ensure hygiene, reduce environmental impact, and improve energy efficiency, making green certification systems for healthcare facilities increasingly critical. Eight certification systems currently in use across eight countries were examined, four from advanced economies (LEED in the U.S., BREEAM in the U.K., Green Star in Australia, and CASBEE in Japan) and four from developing economies (YeS-TR in Turkiye, IGBC in India, GBI in Malaysia, and GREENSHIP in Indonesia). Country selection considered regional diversity, similarities in environmental policies, and the potential for healthcare infrastructure development. A literature-based comparative analysis was conducted, and seven key categories were identified for evaluating sustainability: sustainable land and transport, water and waste management, energy efficiency, material and life cycle impact, indoor environmental quality, project management process, and innovation. The comparison revealed considerable overlap among the systems but also highlighted shortcomings in addressing healthcare-specific needs. This paper contributes to the advancement of sustainability assessment in the healthcare sector by highlighting the need for certification schemes specifically designed for medical facilities. The findings emphasize the necessity of developing healthcare-tailored frameworks that not only address environmental performance but also capture the unique operational, functional, and clinical dynamics of this sector.
The goal of this research is to conduct a comparative investigation of the performance of minority/disadvantaged/women business enterprise (MBE/DBE/WBE) versus non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies in transportation projects. A performance assessment model was developed in a survey format following review of contemporary performance measurement tools. The survey was administered to prequalified MBE/DBE/WBE and non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies in transportation projects nationwide. The names and addresses of these companies were obtained from U.S. DOT websites. Comparisons between the two groups were made using the Mann-Whitney test. When the test was administered to the entire group regardless of firm size and age, non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies outperformed MBE/DBE/WBE companies. However, MBE/DBE/WBE companies were smaller and had been in business for fewer years than non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies. When MBE/DBE/WBE and non-MBE/DBE/WBE companies of similar size and age were compared, the study revealed that there are no significant differences in performance.
This study compares certification systems for green healthcare facilities implemented worldwide. Healthcare facilities are complex structures designed to provide uninterrupted service while involving substantial resources, high energy consumption, and heavy human and material traffic. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of designs that ensure hygiene, reduce environmental impact, and improve energy efficiency, making green certification systems for healthcare facilities increasingly critical. Eight certification systems currently in use across eight countries were examined, four from advanced economies (LEED in the U.S., BREEAM in the U.K., Green Star in Australia, and CASBEE in Japan) and four from developing economies (YeS-TR in Türkiye, IGBC in India, GBI in Malaysia, and GREENSHIP in Indonesia). Country selection considered regional diversity, similarities in environmental policies, and the potential for healthcare infrastructure development. A literature-based comparative analysis was conducted, and seven key categories were identified for evaluating sustainability: sustainable land and transport, water and waste management, energy efficiency, material and life cycle impact, indoor environmental quality, project management process, and innovation. The comparison revealed considerable overlap among the systems but also highlighted shortcomings in addressing healthcare-specific needs. This paper contributes to the advancement of sustainability assessment in the healthcare sector by highlighting the need for certification schemes specifically designed for medical facilities. The findings emphasize the necessity of developing healthcare-tailored frameworks that not only address environmental performance but also capture the unique operational, functional, and clinical dynamics of this sector.
Effective progress control is vital for steering infrastructure construction to completion with minimum delay. Walking through the infrastructure project site to record progress in different activities is time-consuming, requiring information extracted from construction drawings, schedules, and budgets, as well as data collected from the construction site. This process can be automated by using advanced remote sensing technologies. This study contributes to progress monitoring in large horizontal infrastructure projects. It presents a practical automated method using laser scanning technology that can track the project’s progress in a real construction environment with limited human input. It is robust and accurate and is currently operational. The system capitalizes on the success of laboratory experiments. This system deals with occlusions effectively, accelerates the registration process of multiple scans, reduces the noise in the data, recognizes the objects of irregular shape, and is economically feasible. It provides evidence that all current challenges encountered in using laser scanners in monitoring construction progress can be overcome. This method has been successfully tested in the Wacker Drive reconstruction project in Chicago, IL.
Abstract: Project acceleration often results in claims. A LISP program for performing time impact analysis for project acceleration is presented. The program helps the user identify the number of days by which the project can be accelerated and what the user's share will be of the acceleration costs involved. The program analyzes the as‐planned, as‐built, and utility data files submitted by the user and identifies all delayed, accelerated, added, and canceled (DAAC) activities. It then generates as‐planned, as‐built, projected, adjusted, owner‐accountable, and contractor‐accountable schedules. The program performs a compression analysis on the remaining portion of the project. After a consultation session with the user, it apportions acceleration costs between the owner and the contractor in an equitable way. This program is expected to help settle claims.
This paper describes a stochastic simulation-based scheduling system (S3) that: (1) integrates the deterministic critical path method (CPM), the probabilistic program evaluation and review technique (PERT), and the stochastic discrete event simulation (DES) approaches into a single system and lets the scheduler make an informed decision as to which method is better suited to the company's risk-taking culture; (2) automatically determines the minimum number of simulation runs in DES mode and therefore optimizes the simulation process; and (3) provides a terminal method that tests the statistical significance of the differences between simulations, hence eliminating outliers and therefore increasing the accuracy of the DES process. The system is based on an earlier version of the system called stochastic project scheduling simulation and makes use of all the capabilities of this system. The study is of value to practitioners because S3 produces a realistic prediction of the probability of completing a project in a specified time. The study is also of relevance to researchers in that it allows researchers to compare the outcome of CPM, PERT, and DES under different conditions such as different variability or skewness in the activity duration data, the configuration of the network, or the distribution of the activity durations.
Many state agencies are shifting towards nighttime construction/maintenance especially on urban highways. While nighttime construction/maintenance has many advantages, it also has disadvantages compared to daytime construction. One major disadvantage is that nighttime construction operations may be more hazardous to both drivers and construction personnel because of visibility problems at night. Visibility depends on providing more luminance contrast to the driver than otherwise available. A system called LUMINA was developed to measure the luminance of six commonly used safety vests in nighttime construction/maintenance work areas. LUMINA was used (1) to perform field experiments that involved recording on videotape the performance of the safety vests; and (2) to convert the video movies into snapshots, to calculate the average luminance of the vests tested, and to index them. These tests were conducted not in a laboratory setting but on actual construction/maintenance sites that involved different lighting, traffic, and weather conditions. Two of the six safety vests outperformed the others significantly. © ASCE.
An input/output model is proposed to explain business failures in the construction industry. The proposed input/output model argues that organizational and environmental factors are the determinants of failure/survival in that they solely or jointly affect the performance of an organization, whose components in turn constitute the symptoms of failure/survival. Dun and Bradstreet's US business failure data are used in the study to populate the input/output model. The proposed input/output model is generated by two processes. In the initial process, environmental and organizational determinants (i.e. inputs) are transformed into performance symptoms (i.e. outputs). According to the results of the study, environmental factors account for 60.7% and organizational factors for the remaining 39.3% of all the determinants of failure. In the final process, performance factors (i.e. symptoms) are considered to be indicators of failure. The study indicates that the most important symptoms of failure are insufficient profits, heavy operating expenses and burdensome institutional debt. Based on the symptoms and in the light of prevailing environmental conditions, company executives can adjust organizational factors, among which the most conducive to failure appear to be insufficient capital and lack of business, managerial and line experience.
Surveys of the top 400 US contractors were conducted in 1979, 1983 and 1993 to identify the areas with potential for productivity improvement in the construction industry. The trends in the findings of these surveys are observed and interpreted. The results indicate that cost control, scheduling, design practices, labour training, and quality control are the functions that consistently over the years are perceived as having considerable room for productivity improvement, whereas materials packaging and foreign developments in construction technologies are perceived consistently as functions that do not have much effect on improving construction productivity. The functions that were identified as needing more improvement in 1993 compared with the previous surveys were prefabrication, new materials, value engineering, specifications, labour availability, labour training, and quality control, whereas those that were identified as needing less improvement than in the previous surveys were field inspection and labour contract agreements. Also, respondents indicated consistently over the years that they are willing to participate in activities related to improving construction productivity but are not interested in funding any such activities.
Maintainability is one of the considerations designers take into account in the design stage of building construction projects. In other words, maintainability is a design consideration that may improve ease of maintenance during operation. The designer is expected to include maintenance knowledge and experience into the design, including planning for specific tools to facilitate implementation. Maintainability issues appear during the occupancy stage and have a direct impact on the cost of owning and operating a facility. Annual operation and maintenance expenses during the life cycle of a building could amount to many times the initial construction cost. Design deficiencies constitute one of the main reasons for high annual maintenance cost. Facility management involves activities to maintain and operate a constructed facility. It is essential to evaluate facility managers’ perspective on how maintainability characteristics should be considered at design phase of facilities. A survey of 168 facility managers in the mid-west region of the US is uncovered that (1) maintainability should be top priority in design, especially for mechanical systems, (2) deferred maintenance should be avoided because it increases costs over the life-cycle of buildings, and (3) constructed facilities should be handed over with a maintenance schedule provided by the designer. Paying special attention to maintainability in the design phase is expected to help reducing the cost of operation.
Unbalanced bidding is a serious problem for the construction owner because it may increase the cost of construction The most common way to mathematically unbalance a bid is frontloading where a bidder overstates the unit price of line items scheduled to be performed early in the project and understates the unit price of line items performed later. A bidder can also overstate the unit price of a line item whose quantity was somehow underrated by the engineer. If the owner proves that a mathematically unbalanced bid costs more to perform, the bid is said to be materially unbalanced, in which case the owner can reject the bid. A model is presented that formalizes and automates the process of detecting mathematically and materially unbalanced bids by comparing line item prices with the engineer's estimates and the average prices offered by the bidders. This model allows owners to detect and reject unbalanced bids, and deters bidders from unbalancing their bid.
Joint ventures have become popular because of their importance as a strategic alternative in global competition. One of the reasons why international joint ventures (IJVs) are difficult to manage is because the cultural distance between IN partners has significant impact on alliance performance. Since construction projects are highly sensitive to external risks, the effect of the culture in the location in which the IN operates is also significant. In this study, the effect of cultural similarity/difference relative to the national and organizational characteristics of partner companies on IN performance is examined through a questionnaire survey. The impact of the cultural similarity/difference between an IN partner and the host country is also assessed. The results of the study suggest that differences in organizational culture have a greater impact on IN performance than differences in national and host country culture. The findings also reveal that similarity between the national cultures of IN partners has a negative effect on IN performance. The analysis of the data failed to provide evidence that IN performance is affected by differences between the culture of the host country and the culture of an IN partner.
The preferential selection of minority firms in federally assisted contracts, state contracts and large metropolitan contracts has been in effect in the US for the purpose of meeting affirmative action goals, but this practice has also raised questions about the quality of contract performance. A survey of 93 firms was conducted for a comparative investigation of the performance of minority vs. non-minority construction management (CM) firms. Minority CM firms include firms owned by ethnic minorities, disabled persons and women. An assessment model was developed following an extensive literature review on contemporary performance measurement tools. The model was converted into a survey that was administered to prequalified minority and non-minority firms that provided CM services in the transportation sector in the US. When a Mann-Whitney test was administered to the collected data regardless of firm size and age, it was found that non-minority CM firms outperformed minority CM firms. However, it was also found that minority CM firms were smaller and younger than non-minority CM firms. When 'large and old' minority and non-minority CM firms were compared, no significant differences were found in performance. But when 'small and young' minority and non-minority CM firms were compared, it was found that minority firms were outperformed by non-minority firms financially. It is concluded that 'small and young' minority firms particularly suffer from the liability created by smallness and newness.
Purpose Planning for increased contractor profits should start at the time the contract is signed because low profits and lack of profitability are the primary causes of contractor failure. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated profit maximization model (IPMM) that aims for maximum expected profit by using time-cost tradeoff analysis, adjusted start times of activities, minimized financing cost and minimized extension of work schedule beyond the contract duration. This kind of integrated approach was never researched in the past. Design/methodology/approach IPMM is programmed into an automated system using MATLAB 2016a. It generates an optimal work schedule that leads to maximum profit by means of time-cost tradeoff analysis considering different activity acceleration/deceleration methods and adjusting the start/finish times of activities. While doing so, IPMM minimizes the contractor’s financing cost by considering combinations of different financing alternatives such as short-term loans, long-term loans and lines of credit. IPMM also considers the impact of extending the project duration on project profit. Findings IPMM is tested for different project durations, for the optimality of the solutions, differing activity start/finish times and project financing alternatives. In all cases, contractors can achieve maximum profit by using IPMM. Research limitations/implications IPMM considers a deterministic project schedule, whereas stochastic time-cost tradeoff analysis can improve its performance. Resource allocation and resource leveling are not considered in IPMM, but can be incorporated into the model in future research. Finally, the long computational time is a challenge that needs to be overcome in future research. Practical implications IPMM is likely to increase profits and improve the chances of contractors to survive and grow compared to their competitors. The practical value of IPMM is that any contractor can and should use IPMM since all the data required to run IPMM is available to the contractor at the time the contract is signed. The contractor who provides information about network logic, schedule data, cost data, contractual terms, and available financing alternatives and their APRs can use an automated IPMM that adjusts activity start times and durations, minimizes financing cost, eliminates or minimizes time extensions, minimizes total cost and maximizes expected profit. Originality/value Unlike any prior study that looks into contractors’ profits by considering the impact of only one or two factors at a time, this study presents an IPMM that considers all major factors that affect profits, namely, time-cost tradeoff analysis, adjusted start times of activities, minimized financing cost and minimized extension of work schedule beyond the contract duration.
Reasonably accurate cost estimation of the structural system is quite desirable at the early stages of the design process of a construction project. However, the numerous interactions among the many cost-variables make the prediction difficult. Artificial neural networks (ANN) and case-based reasoning (CBR) are reported to overcome this difficulty. This paper presents a comparison of CBR and ANN augmented by genetic algorithms (GA) conducted by using spreadsheet simulations. GA was used to determine the optimum weights for the ANN and CBR models. The cost data of twenty-nine actual cases of residential building projects were used as an example application. Two different sets of cases were randomly selected from the data set for training and testing purposes. Prediction rates of 84% in the GA/CBR study and 89% in the GA/ANN study were obtained. The advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are discussed in the light of the experiments and the findings. It appears that GA/ANN is a more suitable model for this example of cost estimation where the prediction of numerical values is required and only a limited number of cases exist. The integration of GA into CBR and ANN in a spreadsheet format is likely to improve the prediction rates.
