Conventional Projects Research Articles

Exploring the Hurdles and Solutions in Procuring IBS Components for Malaysian Housing Projects

The adoption of industrialized building system (IBS) needs different method to cope with its dissimilar with traditional construction as it requires different process on design, installation and precision, but yet IBS always been treated the same as conventional projects. This cause problems and thus, this study provides a questionnaire survey comprising 24 questions delivered to experienced professionals who involved in Malaysian IBS housing projects. The aim is to ascertain the challenges and suggest solutions on procuring the IBS components focusing for Malaysian IBS housing. The collected result was then verified through several semi- structured interviews with experienced professionals from various field involve in IBS. This study finds that the main challenges in procuring IBS components are surround by factors on price, logistical barriers, and inadequacy on terms of agreement, The result also revealed in most IBS housing projects, the contract agreement between IBS manufacturers and main contractors were often breached especially on payment mechanism, amount and delivery time. Due to payment problems, some IBS manufacturers take unilateral action by stop delivery the IBS components, causing delay to the project, while others pursue the case to court, which also prolong into litigation. Contribution of this research is on the highlighting several urgent issues in the context of procuring IBS components for Malaysian housing. The findings reveal due to the unsolved issues, IBS targets to reduce cost and faster completion is hard to achieve, while exposing the project to end with delay or litigation.

The Housing Cost Predicting Model for Conventional Private sector Construction Projects in Iran

The Housing Cost Predicting Model for Conventional Private sector Construction Projects in Iran

Leading Construction Quality Management Efforts for Milestone Projects: From The Baluarte-Bicentennial Bridge to The Otay-Tijuana Cross Border Xpress Bridge - An updated perspective

The success of construction projects is sustained by the cooperation and coordination of numerous multidisciplinary teams with supplementary perspectives but aligned in terms what needs to be achieved in perspectives such as safety, quality, scope, schedule, costs or environmental impact. Leading construction quality management efforts for infrastructure projects that includes NDE, due to this multidisciplinary perspective, demands not only profound ethical commitment and comprehensive engineering knowledge, but also established leadership, acute strategic thinking, strong managerial experience and multi-role multi-cultural communication skills. Those personal characteristics and skills are often defied in conventional projects, but they are specially challenged when the project, due to its unprecedent characteristics, constitute a milestone for a sector or a region at the time of its construction. The presentation aims to share practical insights that contribute with the success of quality management efforts in projects with unprecedent characteristics, through a parallel perspective derived from both the internal quality function of the fabricator/contractor and the external perspective of the supervision, through two remarkable projects: 1) The Baluarte-Bicentennial Bridge is a 1,124 m (3,688 ft) cable-stayed bridge located in Mexico. The bridge has a central cable-stayed span of 520 m (1,710 ft) formed by a set of structural steel bridge segments which form the road deck located at 403 m (1,322 ft)[2] above the valley below. The bridge is at the core of the Durango–Mazatlán transversal highway that interconnects the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico. Due to its location, total length and height the project offered unique challenges to all participants. 2) The Otay-Tijuana Cross Border Xpress Bridge is a 390-foot (120 m) pedestrian bridge located at the United States–Mexico border that connects passenger terminals between two countries. The bridge constitutes the core of the Cross Border Xpress Complex which is a unique binational inititative that seeks to have a positive im-pact in the communities of Tijuana and San Diego. In a parallel to its operation, the construction process in-volved profound cooperation and coordination between professionals, companies and supervising authorities in both countries. We are sharing our experience in both aiming to contribute with companies and NDE practitioners around the world with valuable insights that aim to provide them increased confidence to face the challenge of milestone projects.

Current status of agrivoltaic systems and their benefits to energy, food, environment, economy, and society

The rate of solar power generation is increasing globally at a significant increase in the net electricity demand, leading to competition for agricultural lands and forest invasion. Agrivoltaic systems, which integrate photovoltaic (PV) systems with crop production, are potential solutions to this situation. Currently, there are two types of agrivoltaic systems: 1) systems involving agricultural activities on available land in pre-existing PV facilities, and 2) systems intentionally designed and installed for the co-production of agricultural crops and PV power. Agrivoltaic systems can boost electricity generation efficiency and capacity, as well as the land equivalent ratio. They also generate revenue for farmers and entrepreneurs through the sale of electricity and crops. Therefore, these systems have the potential to sustain energy, food, the environment, the economy, and society. Despite the numerous advantages of both types of agrivoltaic systems, few studies on utilizing the available land area under existing ground-mounted PV systems for agricultural crop production have been conducted. Moreover, with several conventional solar power plant projects currently underway around the world, an expanding trend is anticipated. As a result, this article offers practical advice for agrivoltaic systems on how to implement an agricultural area under ground-mounted PV power systems without agricultural pre-plans. These systems are useful for policymaking and optimizing land use efficiency in terms of energy production, food supply, environmental impact, local economy, and sustainable societies.

A Review of the Most Significant Challenges Impacting Conventional Project Management Success

To remain competitive, it is important for organizations to be aware of the success factors for effective conventional project management. It is equally important for them to develop knowledge about project management challenges and how such challenges can be addressed. Organizations and their project management teams are influenced by the three categories of enablers, limitations, and challenges. In this article, a review was carried out to highlight the challenges impacting the effectiveness of conventional project management. The review process comprised of identifying the research question; identifying relevant references; selecting studies; charting the data; and collating, summarizing, and reporting results. This process resulted in the inclusion of eight relevant references. Based on the frequency of challenge occurrence, the following five significant challenges have been identified: communication, control, competence, culture, and complexity. Complementarity and dependence links between these five challenges have been highlighted in this article. In this article, some project management challenges may not be presented. Due to the selected databases, search terms, chosen publications, and the authors’ assessment, the research may have some limitations. Furthermore, the challenges of conventional project management can partly be overcome by a mixture of other project management methods and identified recommendations.

Mechanism for Increasing Rating of ESG-Factors of Construction Investment Life Cycle

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are a key factor in investment decisions due to their rise in the public and corporate area. It is well known that integration of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) makes companies in the construction industry less vulnerable to economic, technological, political and regulatory risks, which results in diminishing cash flow volatility and enhances profitability at all phases of construction investment life cycle. Currently, there are a number of ways to include ESG factors in construction investment life cycle. One of the fundamental ways is "green" construction. Russian and foreign researchers consider green building to be an integral part of the global ecosystem, which is characterized by being environmentally-friendly, energy and resource efficient. Analysis of modern scientific literature reveal certain issues of "green" construction, most of which arise due to enhanced investment costs compared to conventional construction projects. Based on this, it is relevant to look into the market of modern green construction in Russia, outline directions of its development and overview modern technologies used in green construction. The authors propose ways to assess efficiency of green construction and estimate pace of development of the ESG factors of construction investment life cycle.

Process optimization for post disaster reconstruction project based on industrial design structure matrix (DSM)

Post-disaster reconstruction projects face tighter time constraints and are in a more complex environment, making the implementation process of conventional projects unable to meet new requirements. This study decomposes the construction process and then determines the feed-forward and feedback relationship between activities in the post-disaster reconstruction environment. An information relationship diagram is established, and the relationship is transformed into a design structure matrix (DSM). Through DSM manipulation, a partitioned DSM is formed to express the activity process that is more suitable for reconstruction. This research shows that the activities sequence and content need to be changed to adapt to the reconstruction scenario, and some activities may even be canceled. Some suggestions can help construct the project faster, including closer cooperation between design and construction. The bidding scope includes design and construction and the use of more integrated project delivery methods. Finally, a reconstruction case in China illustrates the operability of analyzing and adjusting the implementation process through this framework.

Whether China's overseas energy infrastructure projects dirtier or cleaner after the belt and road initiative?

We evaluated whether China's overseas investments in energy infrastructure were dirtier or cleaner after the Belt and Road Initiative than those of other countries with similar project and host country characteristics. We used the energy infrastructure project data from the World Bank's private participation in infrastructure database, which allows comparison among countries of investment and controls for the influences of host countries' demand. Our main findings are as follows. First, during our sample period from 2006 to 2019, the average investment volume of projects funded by China was significantly higher overall including in conventional energy projects, compared to those with other financial sources and similar features. Second, after the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the volume of projects invested in by China was comparatively smaller in conventional energy projects but larger in renewable energy projects. Third, the choice of technology type in energy projects reflected path dependency effects on both the investment and host countries' sides. Nevertheless, after the Belt and Road Initiative, China had actively begun to break away from these effects, investing more in clean energy overseas.

What is left and what was achieved? A time perspective of a pioneering project 20 years after the European Fish Ageing Network

The European Fish Ageing Network (EFAN) funded by the European Union, is reviewed, and assessed after a 20-year hiatus. The large number of scientists and technicians involved in this independent and informal network, and the time invested (four years), provided a significant advance in fish age estimation and methodologies. The results presented are based on two survey questionnaires sent to EFAN members, specifically to those who had been most actively involved in the programme. Overall, EFAN can be considered as successful as it fulfilled the aim of the FAIR (Fostering Awareness Inclusion and Recognition) program in improving collaboration both at a national and European levels in the field of sclerochronology. Adding to the success was that many survey participants reported a positive impact on both their creativity and scientific careers, particularly participants from university environments and the female members, and around 50% of the participants continued in their age-related research careers. These factors, as well as the positive scientific impact EFAN has had in various European countries (n = 16), point to a very successful programme. The aim of improving what is an objective approach required to interpret growth increments in calcified structures (otoliths) in fishes, is reflected in the various tools developed by EFAN, all of which are found in the many reports produced by the Network. Examples are seen in the quality control approach by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), where tools developed by EFAN have been key to their fisheries management approach. Our general impression is that a project with a lifetime of around four years in principle provides a suitable time period to develop age estimation tools, quality control routines, and working procedures to improve the use of fish age data for fish stock assessments. We argue however, that developing a functioning network requires more time than a conventional project. Therefore, to fully meet the aims of projects such as EFAN, a period of between 10 and 15 years is a more appropriate time frame for these types of programmes to run. A longer time scale can help ensure recommendations are regularly followed, can provide more confidence in on-going routine age estimation data, and so achieve a significant improvement in the application of ageing methods. In turn a more accurate and robust scientific outcome would be available for European fish stock assessments.

The Rapid Development of Virtual Care Tools in Response to COVID-19: Case Studies in Three Australian Health Services.

BackgroundNews of the impact of COVID-19 around the world delivered a brief opportunity for Australian health services to plan new ways of delivering care to large numbers of people while maintaining staff safety through greater physical separation. The rapid pivot to telemedicine and virtual care provided immediate and longer term benefits; however, such rapid-cycle development also created risks.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to understand the sociotechnical aspects of the rapid-cycle development of seven different COVID-19 virtual care tools, and to identify enablers, barriers, and risks at three health services in Victoria, Australia.MethodsA qualitative, embedded, multiple case study design was adopted. Researchers from three health services collaborated with university researchers who were independent from those health services to gather and analyze structured interview data from key people involved in either clinical or technical aspects of designing and deploying seven different virtual care tools.ResultsThe overall objectives of each health service reflected the international requirements for managing large numbers of patients safely but remotely and for protecting staff. However, the governance, digital maturity, and specific use cases at each institution shaped the methodology and specific outcomes required. Dependence on key individuals and their domain knowledge within an existing governance framework generally enabled rapid deployment, but sometimes posed barriers. Existing relationships with technical service developers enabled strong solutions, which in some cases were highly scalable. Conventional project methodologies such as steering committees, scope, budget control, tight functional specification, consumer engagement and codesign, universal accessibility, and postimplementation evaluation were ignored almost universally in this environment.ConclusionsThese three health services took a variety of approaches to the rapid-cycle development of virtual care tools to meet their urgent needs for triaging and remote monitoring during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences provided insights into many social and technical barriers and enablers to the development of virtual care tools. If these are addressed proactively, they will improve clinical governance and technical management of future virtual care. Some changes can be made within individual health services, while others entail health system policy reforms. Enhancing the environment for virtual care tool design and implementation now will yield returns not only during future health emergencies but also in many more routine care settings.

The energy, exergy, and techno-economic analysis of a solar seasonal residual energy utilization system

Building heating projects lead to massive energy consumption and carbon emissions. Despite solar energy being clean and abundant for building heating, it has a temporal mismatch issue in which the energy demand and provision are opposite in magnitude between the heating and non-heating seasons. This paper propounds an energy management strategy, which aims to use year-round solar energy efficiently by producing heat in the heating season and generating electricity from the non-heating season's solar residual energy. The results prove that it can meet most of the space heating demand of the target district and provide extra electricity in the non-heating season. The year-round solar effective utilization duration is elevated to 2.48-fold of the conventional solar heating project and the annual thermal energy storage efficiency of 91.22% manifests that solar energy can be utilized more efficiently than the seasonal storage system (< 60%) throughout the whole year. Furthermore, the life cycle cost analysis indicates that the unit energy cost of this system (0.102 €/kWh) is lower than the solar seasonal energy storage system. Therefore, the solar energy supply-demand mismatch problem is settled via this energy management strategy and it is prospective to be promoted worldwide in the future.

Vanguard Projects as Intermediation Spaces in Sustainability Transitions

In response to climate change issues, increasing numbers of vanguard projects are being established to help governments achieve sustainability goals through rapid technology development. We focus on the transition intermediation literature to argue that vanguard projects, as intermediation spaces, enable core and external project actors to assume intermediary characteristics to align, negotiate, and pursue policy level goals beyond the remit of conventional project goals. We contribute to project studies by providing a macrolevel contextualization of vanguard projects in the wider sociotechnical transitions debates. We suggest that transition intermediation is key for understanding projects and their achievement of wider policy goals.

Monte Carlo simulation approach to understand the cost variance for energy retrofit projects: comparative study of Finland and the United States

Energy-efficient building is often characterised with higher construction costs. There is a large variance in energy-efficient building construction costs, especially in retrofit projects. A lack of understanding of cost variance and ambiguity of cost-optimal practices has impeded the adoption of energy retrofit practices globally. To respond to such a knowledge gap, a comparative study was conducted on energy retrofit projects on residential buildings in Finland and the United States. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to determine the coefficient of variation for construction costs and the potential reasons behind the variations. The specific aims of this study are (a) to gain a deeper understanding of construction cost variances in energy retrofit projects, (b) to identify the most influential cost items, and (c) to understand the correlations among different cost items. For this analysis, a database including 10 Finnish buildings and 7 US buildings was created, and actual construction cost data was collected. The results showed the following: (1) US projects had a larger total construction cost variance with highly skewed distribution, and Finnish energy retrofit projects had a cost distribution similar to conventional retrofit projects; (2) the two most significant construction cost factors for both countries were non-energy related cost items and the building envelope, rather than the mechanical system (heating and ventilation) as commonly perceived; and (3) the larger construction cost variance in the United States may be associated with the unfamiliarity of energy-efficient technologies and varied construction methods in different regions. The insights and suggestions derived from those findings are discussed in the conclusion.

Improved stormwater management through the combination of the conventional water sensitive urban design and stormwater pipeline network

With rapid urbanization, flooding events become more frequently in daily life, causing enormous economic damage and loss of life. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is a common approach for mitigating stormwater runoff. However, it showed limited performance in big catchment areas (>1000 ha). This study proposed an innovative approach by combining conventional WSUD projects with the stormwater pipeline network through linear connections for better stormwater runoff management for a big catchment. The performance of combined WSUD projects and conventional WSUD was evaluated using the urban water system of a catchment (over 1200 ha) in Sydney, Australia, through the water mass balance modelling approach using annual rainfall data of 70 years (from 1950 to 2020). Combined WSUD reduced the stormwater runoff by over 124 ML/yr compared to that of the conventional WSUD model in accommodating future development. Combined WSUD restored the evapotranspiration and infiltration under high, average and low annual rainfall scenarios with an increasing 20–30% increase of evapotranspiration and infiltration in combined WSUD than the conventional WSUD. The results obtained from the study demonstrated that combining WSUDs with the stormwater pipeline network through linear connections is a promising approach in stormwater management and restoring the natural hydrological cycle.

FOSTERING INTEGRATED DESIGN IN AN ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT: PROCESS AND A METHOD

In conventional building design projects architects make pre-design and conceptual design decisions on buildings and hand these down to structural and building services engineers to follow up with design development. It is well known that the conceptual design stage of a project is the point where decisions make the most impact, and changes can be made at least cost. The sustainability and innovation aspects of projects often suffer in this respect. One way of addressing this is through Integrated Design Methods that set out mobilise the full potential of all design disciplines on a project by getting them to work effectively together. This method involves architect, engineers, contractors, and owners/clients in all design phases. The current literature reported fundamental principles and processes of Integrated Design however current industry practices do not fully embrace them. Introducing integrated design studios into university pedagogies is a key step in addressing this. Reports on methods of setting up integrated design studios in a university context are however rare. The aim of this article is to develop and document the underlying settings for such design studios. The principles and best practices for applying integrated design are identified. A specific framework of settings in university context is developed and the justifications presented. This article may be of value for the industry and universities to setup integrated design studios to better foster integrated design education.

The Effects on Secondary School Students of Applying Experiential Learning to the Conversational AI Learning Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to design a curriculum of artificial intelligence (AI) application for secondary schools. The learning objective of the curriculum was to allow students to learn the application of conversational AI on a block-based programming platform. Moreover, the empirical study actually implemented the curriculum in the formal learning of a secondary school for a period of six weeks. The study evaluated the learning performance of students who were taught with the cycle of experiential learning in one class, while also evaluating the learning performance of students who were taught with the conventional instruction, which was called the cycle of doing projects. Two factors, learning approach and gender, were taken into account. The results showed that females’ learning effectiveness was significantly better than that of males regardless of whether they used experiential learning or the conventional projects approach. Most of the males tended to be distracted from the conversational AI curriculum because they misbehaved during the conversational AI process. In particular, in their performance using the Voice User Interface with the conventional learning approach, the females outperformed the males significantly. The results of two-way ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction between gender and learning approach on computational thinking concepts. Females with the conventional learning approach of doing projects had the best computational thinking concepts in comparison with the other groups.

Millimeter-Wave Channel Model Parameters for Various Office Environments

In this paper, a 60-GHz millimeter-wave cluster channel model for various office environments was developed, and the impact of cluster characteristics on wireless data transmission was investigated. To develop the channel model, double-directional channel measurement campaigns were conducted in a university laboratory office environment. A custom-developed channel sounder with an angular resolution of 6&#x00B0; and a delay resolution of 2.5 ns at 58.32 GHz was used for the measurements. Using a super-resolution multipath parameter estimation algorithm, multipath components were extracted from the measured data with a delay resolution of 0.1 ns and an azimuth resolution of 0.1&#x00B0;, and clusters were identified using the <i>K</i>-PowerMeans algorithm. In this study, based on the conventional 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) model, which is a scenario-categorized site-general model, an attempt was made to develop a highly accurate cluster model that can more accurately reproduce small-scale fading fluctuations in site-specific environments. The large- and small-scale parameters obtained from the measured data were extracted and compared with those of the 3GPP map-based hybrid channel model, which is a quasi-deterministic channel model. The results revealed strong site dependency in the inter-cluster and intra-cluster properties. Moreover, the impact of different channel parameters on system evaluation was demonstrated using single-user and multi-user multiple-input&#x2013;multiple-output channel capacities.

Virtual Project Management (VPM) in Project Execution

This research study will focus mainly on the LNG sector. The objective is to determine, investigate, and seek the operability opportunity in a virtual environment’s project management, engineering, and construction. The researcher will tackle the importance and issues it addresses the virtual project management (VPM) platform demands without compromising the quality and safety of services during the execution of the project. This virtual platform simulated the model using conventional project management stated in PMBOKS. The researcher will randomly pick the possible solution and improve the existing project management consultancy (PMC) operation and processes, initially to virtualize the system to meet the technical personnel demand, lapses, and labor vacuum within the available time. The goal is to achieve this conversion, minimize face-to-face interaction, promote work at home, reduce operational costs, minimize technical human resource risk, and facilitate working space area capacity. This study divides virtual project management (VPM) into operational possibility, effectivity, and capability (OPEC). Operational Possibility and Effectivity are the primary concern in this research, and it discusses the elemental process attributes such as [1] Leadership Style, [2] Design Planning, [3] Functional Management, and [4] Performance Evaluation. However, conventional project management is the basis of this study’s viewpoint and is translated into virtual. Moreover, this study still shows the operational capability and discusses it in the logical analysis as part of the OPEC overall model. The gathered data, discussion, and analysis in two (2) groups, the possibility and effectivity of this virtual platform, and the respondent’s opinion, the virtual team from domestically is preferred by the experts in the field over offshoring or overseas. Moreover, the operational effectiveness with the two (2) highest attributes, as per the expert’s opinion, the VPM should focus on the virtual team’s Performance Evaluation [1st] and the Project manager’s (PM) Leadership Style [2nd]. The virtual team’s Performance Evaluation concentrates mainly on efficiency and completion of assigned product deliverables. PM’s Leadership Style focuses primarily on communication and personality. However, the other attributes of Functional Management [3rd] and Design Planning [4th] can be applied to the overall project execution concept. In this research, the highest recommended source of a virtual team (vT) and VPM operation effectiveness are preferred accordingly. However, the PM has fully responsible for this VPM operational effectiveness and outsourcing virtual teams in particular projects. In this regard, further verification is required for this research focuses on the implementation and application with collaborative software is needed.

Assessing Site Waste Management Practices and Cost Between Conventional and Industrialised Building System (IBS) Projects in Malaysia

The Urban development and demands in the construction industry and the increasing population numbers have positively contributed to the rising waste generation. The growth and expansion of construction activities enhanced the problem of waste generation on construction sites. In the Malaysian construction industry, there is a pressing issue of minimising construction waste, which causes significant impacts on the environment. Malaysia is moving towards better construction waste management; however, there is still insufficient collection and improper construction waste disposal in projects site. Practices to reduce, reuse, or recycle waste have not yet achieved widespread implementation due to the cost incurred in handling and transporting the physical waste to the dumpsite. Thus, adopting an Industrialised Building System (IBS) has been one alternative to the conventional construction method to reduce construction waste. The research aim is to compare site waste management practices between conventional and IBS projects. The research examines the types of site waste generated from construction project activities, the types of site waste management practices, and the cost involved in managing site waste. The research methodology used qualitative research and used a case study approach. The data is gained from semi- structured interviews with conventional and IBS contractors in Malaysia. The analysis is based on cross-case analysis and pattern matching. Findings from semi-structured interviews based on six comparative case studies revealed that there are some differences between the types of site waste generate by the conventional and IBS projects due to some causes such as improper storage and wrong handling material. Adopting an IBS can greatly minimize construction waste, saving the cost of materials, and improve the environmental performance for overall site conditions. This research shows that the government should play an important role by encourage all the construction company to implement IBS as the new way in minimizing the construction waste.

Using Principal–Steward Contracting and Scenario Planning to Manage Megaprojects

Performance on megaprojects is dismal. Megaprojects are complex, but people use constructs inappropriate in complex situations for their management, particularly contractual arrangements based on principal–agent governance and conventional project management, which is good at solving puzzles, but not at enlightening mysteries. I review current thinking. Principal–steward contracting is a liberal governance structure required in complex situations. Conventional project management emphasizes control at the expense of innovation. In cases of high uncertainty, innovation is required as unexpected events occur. Scenario planning is offered as a way of approaching the management of complex megaprojects, to construct narratives, and to identify alternative outcomes.