Project Contract Research Articles

Causations of failure in megaprojects: A case study of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant project

This paper uses project organizational theories to draw lessons from a historic megaproject, the Ajaokuta Steel Plant (ASP). Archival reports on the ASP were explored to identify the unique attributes of the project; the political wrangling that underplayed its evolution, its economic significance and organizational impacts. Findings suggest the goals of the ASP project were, and still are, unambiguous. Failure occurred as socio-political forces aggravated the project’s complex milestones. Stakeholders were impatient with pre-project investigations. During planning, owners ignored opinions that were contrary to their expectations. While delays lingered, pressures from the global economy weakened the project’s motivation to succeed. These combined to turn the project’s outcomes into a <i>chaotic</i> situation that triggered dire implications. Despite about 1400% overrun in cost, the success achieved on the plant was 28% at commissioning. Contractors remained on site until eight years after commissioning. Six key elements of the 482 items in the ASP project contract were not delivered nearly 40 years on. A simplistic look at these suggests poor planning is the main problem. However, planning issues is not entirely strange in greenfield projects. The paper draws strength from project organization theories to explain <i>what</i> was poor about the planning. Socrates’ generic management theory was used to explain the role of leadership in the failure of the ASP project. McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y explain the significance of stakeholders’ integration in megaprojects. Systems and chaos theories were used to explain the sensitivity of the ASP project to uncertainties. Narratives on these combine well to inspire stakeholders of megaprojects on <i>where</i> and <i>how</i> to seek courage in making effective plans that can help achieve success in complex projects. While normative literature only recognizes project success in a definitive perspective, this study provides insights from failure as an instrument to trigger sublime reflections.

PROBLEMA ORGANISASI PROYEK PELAKSANA KONSTRUKSI BANGUNAN

The efforts to improve man power quality are the efforts that is done by contractor to improve its work quality. Improving the man power quality principally influences of internal and external factors. The objective of this study is to answer the internal factors that influences project team performance quality in organization structure of contractor project at building construction implementation and to determine the variables that are needed to improve contractor enterprise quality. This research used building construction project which have done in 2010 at Lhokseumawe city, collecting by disseminating Likert questionnaire. Respondents were chosen from contractor elements, those were project managers and field supervisors. This research used descriptive and inferential analysis. The results showed that the overlapping of job descriptions among division in project organization project, the ability to put workers in project, the ability of adaptation in any changes, the tools and machines condition that are used, and the time realization that appropriates to project schedule that is done, are the dominant sub aspects influenced project performance optimization. The influence of organization aspect, workers aspect, physical environment aspect, tools and technology that are used in project aspect, and team performance quality in contractor project organization aspect towards project performance optimization aspect was 69,6%.Keywords: project performance optimization, team performance quality

Culturally appropriate organization of water and sewerage projects built through public private partnerships.

This paper contributes to the pursuit of socially sustainable water and sanitation infrastructure for all people by discovering statistically robust relationships between Hofstede’s dimensions of cross-cultural comparison and the choice of contract award types, project type, and primary revenue sources. This analysis, which represents 973 projects distributed across 24 low- and middle-income nations, uses a World Bank dataset describing high capital cost water and sewerage projects funded through private investment. The results show that cultural dimensions explain variation in the choice of contract award types, project type, and primary revenue sources. These results provide empirical evidence that strategies for water and sewerage project organization are not culturally neutral. The data show, for example, that highly individualistic contexts are more likely to select competitive contract award types and to depend on user fees to provide the primary project revenue stream post-construction. By selecting more locally appropriate ways to organize projects, project stakeholders will be better able to pursue the construction of socially sustainable water and sewerage infrastructure.

Financial optimisation of the scheduling for the multi-stage project

AbstractThe paper analyses the problem of discounted cash flow maximising for the resource-constrained project scheduling from the project contractor’s perspective. Financial optimisation for the multi-stage project is considered. Cash outflows are the contactor’s expenses related to activity execution. Cash inflows are the client’s payments for the completed milestones. To solve the problem, the procedure of backward scheduling taking into account contractual milestones is proposed. The effectiveness of this procedure, as used to generate solutions for the simulated annealing algorithm, is verified with use of standard test instances with additionally defined cash flows and contractual milestones.

Bowtie diagrams: A user-friendly risk communication tool

The rail infrastructure controller in Great Britain recognised that more work was required to allow a robust and consistent demonstration that appropriate health and safety risk assessments are being undertaken throughout each stage of the contracting process. In response to this requirement, the authors were engaged to assist the rail infrastructure client with the development of a new risk-based contractor management and assurance process. Bowtie diagrams were selected as a key component of this process to represent: Key safety risks associated with rail construction projects; Potential causes and consequences of unwanted events; Good practice in risk barriers/controls. To test the suitability of Bowties for risk communication to contractors, three key hazards were identified for Bowtie analysis. These and the specific top events selected were as follows: Hazard: Working at height – from scaffold, ladders, mobile elevating working platforms, mobile towers or ledges; Top event: Falls from height – to surface; Hazard: Working in vicinity of uninsulated conductors and supply points; Top event: Contact with live/charged equipment &gt;60 V; Hazard: Working on or near the line; Top event: Personnel in path of oncoming train. A one-day Bowtie development workshop was held for each of the hazards selected. These were attended by client personnel with the required knowledge and expertise of the hazard and associated barrier measures, ensuring the necessary levels of input and consultation. Feedback to date on the Bowtie approach has been positive, both within the client and contractor organisations. Bowties provide a method of communicating the client’s expectations about levels of protection to infrastructure project contractors and address the following key requirements: Allow contractors to understand risk management requirements in detail and to price jobs accordingly; Enable identification of gaps in the barrier of key risks and facilitate implementation of best practice; Can be used by the client as a project safety assurance tool to check the risk management measures in place against those defined in the Bowtie; Demonstrate to the regulator that the client is communicating a clear ‘safety story’ throughout a project. This paper describes the Bowtie development process in accordance with Ten Golden Rules including how human factors can be incorporated in a systematic and meaningful way. It will demonstrate how the Bowties developed within this project represent in a clear and accessible manner what constitutes industry best practice with regard to controlling important safety risks in construction projects.

Project Quality Management Performance: An Insight to Sustainable Development Initiatives in Oil and Gas Host Communities

A fundamental principle of project quality management is that quality is planned into project and not inspected through project. In the context of host communities in developing countries with mineral exploration activities construction projects and contracts generally is a key provider of employment in both short, medium and long term and particularly for the locals, therefore the incorporation of quality management systems in project life cycle is paramount for sustainable development. Ensuring project quality plays an important role in socio-economic development of people as it provides the most basic infrastructure that promotes economic activities. Quality management systems (QMS) has significant value relating to project quality and cost reduction and a comprehensive quality management culture can promote project success, mutual beneficial relationship and organisational sustainability. This study provides empirical findings emanating from local vendor(s) understanding, compliance and implementation of quality management systems in a multinational oil company (MNOC) community assisted projects. The study utilised SPSS version 22 for the statistical data analysis and Goodness-of-fit-test interrogated the assumption that contractors are not complying with quality management systems in project execution. The study found inter alia that 65% of the vendors are registered as closed corporation (sole proprietorship), 15% were limited liability companies, while 20% belong to other category such as subcontractors. Furthermore, 98% of the 222 respondent are yet to develop a quality manual and a conceptual nominated vendor system (NVS) project quality model was developed to improve the contract award and project management status quo, with emphasis on the need for integration of quality management systems in project life cycle for the oil and gas host communities.

Untangling the Complexities of Successful Tendering Practices: Exploring the Factors Leading to Bidding Success from a General Contractor’s Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to explore the complexity of tendering practices from a contractor perspective by investigating the conditions that lead to successful bid results. To do this, the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) method is used to describe combinations of conditions and their results. Empirical material collected through data mining of previously completed building projects in Denmark (quantitative data) is supported by data obtained from project managers of the same general contractor company (qualitative data) in order to holistically describe the combination of conditions that has resulted in particular tender results. The major finding of the analysis is a solution set explaining the path leading to the winning of project contracts; previous work experience between the client and general contractor, together with either previous work experience between the architect and general contractor for design-bid-build projects, or senior project manager involvement on the contractor’s side in design-build projects. The analysis illustrates how contracting companies whose existence is highly dependent on winning new contracts can learn from patterns abstracted from previous projects. The results will contribute to the development of more predictable project organizations and might thereby be used to help construction organizations allocate valuable resources during the bidding phase in the best way possible.

Between a frightening Present and a disjoined Future. Recession and social vulnerability in the case of Greek Neets: Socio-demographics, facets of the Crisis’ Impact and the revival of the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

The paper initially approaches definitional issues and proceeds in a brief overview of the state of play concerning NEETs (young people not in education, employment or training) in the EU, emphasizing the relation between youth unemployment and NEET rates. Then, based on some of the key findings of a recent quantitative research (carried out within the framework of the EEA Grants/ GR07-3757 Project), the paper maps Greek NEETs’ main characteristics today and presents findings related to the impact of the crisis in both Young people in total and NEETs’ life course, employability, public trust, civics and survival strategies. The research leading to several of the results presented in the present paper has received funding from the EEA/Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, under the Project Contract n° EEA Grants/ GR07- 3757 (‘Neets2). The Project was carried out by the Centre for Educational Policy Development of the General Federation of Greek Workers (KANEP/GSEE) (Project Coordinator Partner), the Centre for Political Research & Documentation of the Department of Political Science at the University of Crete (KEPET/ UoC) and the Centre for Human Rights of the Department of Political Science at the University of Crete (KEADIK/UoC) (Project Partner 1). It was carried out from 15/12/2015 to 14/12/2016.

Prediction Power Propulsion of the Ship at the Stage of Preliminary Design Part II: Mathematical Model Ship Power Propulsion for Service Speed Useful in the Preliminary Design

Abstract During the design of the ship the most important decisions are made at the stage of preliminary design. One of the most important design parameters assumed by the shipowner is its service speed in real weather conditions occurring in the shipping line. For this speed, at the stage of preliminary design, when are known only to the basic geometric parameters of the ship should be determined motor power. In practice design, power propulsion is determined with a very approximate formulas but for the speed in calm water. Only after the project contract and the signing of the contract are carried out by means of resistance and self-propulsion of model test. The paper presents a mathematical model for determining the power propulsion for the assumed operating speed. This model is dependent only on the basic geometric parameters of the hull of the ship and the weather parameters occurring in liner shipping. Also shows the results of calculations according to this model, the power propulsion for one of vessels built.

Direct and indirect connections between type of contract and software project outcome

This paper reports two empirical studies on how the use of different contract types affects, directly and indirectly, the outcomes of software projects. The first study evaluates the effect of contract type on project failure using information from a large international dataset of small-scale, outsourced software projects and tasks. The second study proposes and tests how the use of contracts is connected with project outcome using information about Norwegian software projects with a public client. Both studies find that the use of fixed price contracts is connected with a higher risk of project failure compared to time and materials types of contracts. The results from the second study suggest that different project outcomes with different contract types is explained by differences in how the provider is selected, how the client is involved in the project, the use of agile practices and the use of benefit management during project execution.

Testing B-violating signatures from exotic instantons in future colliders**A. A.’s work was Supported in part by the MIUR research grant “Theoretical Astroparticle Physics" PRIN 2012CPPYP7. XWK's work is partly Supported by the DFG and the NSFC through funds provided to the Sino-German CRC 110 “Symmetries and the Emergence of Structure in QCD” when he was in Jülich, and by MOST,

We discuss possible implications of exotic stringy instantons for baryon-violating signatures in future colliders. In particular, we discuss high-energy quark collisions and transitions. In principle, the process can be probed by high-luminosity electron-positron colliders. However, we find that an extremely high luminosity is needed in order to provide a (somewhat) stringent bound compared to the current data on NN → ππ,KK. On the other hand, (exotic) instanton-induced six-quark interactions can be tested in near future high-energy colliders beyond LHC, at energies around 20–100 TeV. The Super proton-proton Collider (SppC) would be capable of such measurement given the proposed energy level of 50–90 TeV. Comparison with other channels is made. In particular, we show the compatibility of our model with neutron-antineutron and NN → ππ,KK bounds.

Governing Collaborative New Product Development: Toward a Configurational Perspective on the Role of Contracts

This study inductively explores the interplay among different contractual functions and their impact on project performance in collaborative new product development (NPD) projects. Applying a configurational perspective, contracts are conceptualized as bundles of different functions. In line with the notion of discriminating alignment, an explicit distinction is made between different contextual settings in terms of innovation objectives (i.e., incremental versus radical) and relational embeddedness (i.e., presence versus absence of prior collaboration) in the exploration of the project performance implications of different contractual configurations. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses on a sample of 125 collaborative NPD projects helped to generate propositions on the interplay between different contractual functions across different contextual settings. The results indicate that the contractual coordination function is an important function in achieving high project performance in collaborative NPD projects. However, the research findings demonstrate that it is not a sufficient condition and needs to be complemented with discrete safeguarding functions depending on the particular context. Together, these findings provide new insights into how particular combinations of contractual functions can help address the core governance challenges of collaborative NPD. They also point to the relevance of applying a configurational perspective to the study of the role of contracts in management research. Finally, they provide practitioners with specific recommendations concerning the design of contracts for collaborative NPD projects.

Advanced Purification of Industrial and Mixed Wastewater by Combined Membrance Filtration and Sonochemical Technologies

The textile sector plays a critical role in this context, because textile companies are large users of water - typically 0.2-0.5 m3 are needed to produce 1 kg of finished product [1] – and they are historically concentrated in districts (e.g. Prato in Italy) located in Southern Member States, such as Italy, Spain and Portugal, which are facing more and more longer periods of drought and therefore are strongly in the need to preserve the availability of water for potable use. The finishing processes (i.e. pre-treatment, dyeing, printing and special finishing) are especially polluting and resource consuming in terms of water, energy and chemicals. Almost the entire of water used in textile production is discharged and, on average, the effluents volume covers 90-95% of the water used [2]. According to that, a new Ultrafiltration/Sonichemical combined process has been investigated on textile wastewater by evaluating the reduction of the pollution load induced by physical separation and by chemical oxidation promoted by Ultrasound cavitation. The experimental campaign carried out at the Municipal Wastewater treatment Plant in Prato showed that the quality of the treated water reaches the target reported in literature [3] for textile manufacturing sectors. An estimation of the costs of the purified water has been assessed and the combined process seems to be promising for further development. The authors would like to thank the European Commission to funding this project (contract number LIFE07/IT/000439) within the LIFE+ Environmental Policy and Governance 2007 Programme.

Multi-resource trade-off problem of the project contractors in a cooperative environment: highway construction case study

Large-scale projects often have several activities which are performed by some contractors having multiple resources such as human resources, budget, equipment, etc. Time and multi-resources trade-off are important factors for the contractors and the client. In real large projects, the contractors cooperate with each other and form coalitions to improve the project profit and/or to reduce the project time, which is reasonable. The purpose of this paper is to address the challenges of time and multi-resources management during the contractors’ cooperation. This study presents a model based on cooperative game theory for project time/multi-resource trade-off problems. A numerical example is presented for the comprehensive investigation of the problem and the cooperative techniques of game theory. Results of the proposed model demonstrate that the contractors can obtain higher profits due to cooperating through sharing resources. Moreover, it is found that techniques such as the Shapley value, the max–min core, and the equal profit method are able to assign the extra cooperation profit fairly among the contractors.

Agency and strategic contracts: Theory and evidence from R&D agreements in the pharmaceutical industry

We examine the use of strategic rights in research and development (R&D) agreements between a client and an agent, when an entrant may compete with the client for the license of non-contracted discoveries developed by the agent. The agent puts effort either in the contracted project, or into other R&D activities which can result in non-contracted discoveries. Strategic rights help the client and the agent extract rent from the entrant, and also motivate the agent to place effort into the contracted project. Accordingly, firms are more likely to adopt strategic rights when the likelihood of entry is larger. Moreover, strategic rights and termination rights are substitutes in mitigating agency problems. By investigating R&D agreements between pharmaceutical clients and bio-tech agents, we find consistent evidence of the positive impact of entry threat on the use of strategic rights, as well as evidence of the substitution between strategic rights and termination rights.

2409 アジャイル開発のプロジェクト契約モデルの検討(一般セッション)

2409 アジャイル開発のプロジェクト契約モデルの検討(一般セッション)

Optimizing profit and logistics for precast concrete production

This study serves as a practical model for optimizing production planning, allocation of precast component storage, and transportation sites as well as for making timely adjustments for contracted projects. To ensure that the structure of the research model is reasonable and matches actual applications, the study uses a field survey to directly observe the largest precast concrete plants in Taiwan for a period of 6 months, followed by in-depth interviews with experts involved with the planning, design, installation, and manufacturing for precast projects. The mathematical model is then established and evaluated using the data containing over 90% of national production in Taiwan. The results show that the tested corporate profits increase by an impressive 38.4% and performance is significantly increased by 97.75%. The proposed model can not only make up for oversights in human decision-making but improve the decision-making process boosting corporate competitiveness.

Exploring the impact of megaproject environmental responsibility on organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment: A social identity perspective

The importance of organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment (OCBEs) has been clearly established in the environmental literature. However, the OCBEs construct has rarely been examined in the specific and increasingly important realm of megaproject environmental responsibility (MER). To fill this gap, this paper presents an individual-level analysis that explores the impact of project participants' perceptions of MER practices on their environmental commitment and OCBEs. The results show that project participants' perceptions of MER practices directed toward internal stakeholders (i.e., stakeholders linked by project contracts) are positively related to their OCBEs. This relationship is partially mediated by the environmental commitment of project participants. Conversely, project participants' perceptions of MER practices directed toward external stakeholders (i.e., the local community and general public) have only an insignificant impact on their OCBEs. These findings provide new insights for managing MER practices to stimulate the emergence of OCBEs and thereby improve environmental performance.

Public School Facility Underfunding: A New Tool to Maximize Construction Dollars and Improve Performance Outcomes

ABSTRACTPublic education systems are facing pressure on the performance of existing infrastructure amid a growing population, while also decreasing costs and meeting tight deadlines. However, this area also presents opportunities to improve the students’ experience, produce high-performing infrastructure, and positively impact learning conditions. A longitudinal study of improvement projects at a Midwestern school district was conducted to analyze project performance and contractor response to a selection and project management initiative. The initial data reviewed were: hit rate, proposal performance, proposal cost, and interview performance. The school district also achieved exceptional performance results: the overall contractor-generated cost and schedule changes was .001%, with overall cost and schedule changes at 3.5%. Charting contractor response over time shows that the number of contractors proposing did not significantly impact cost. Public school districts can use this research as they seek to improve efficiencies through alternative selection and management initiatives.

Laterally coupled DFB interband cascade laser with tapered ridge

Financial support by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in terms of the APOSEMA project (contract no: 13N13083) within the funding program Photonics Research Germany is gratefully acknowledged.