Computer aided estimating for civil engineering contractors

At the start of the research the impact of computers upon the world of estimating for civil engineering works had been minimal and barely touched the six thousand middle sized companies within the construction industry, The challenge of the research was to: -determine the requirements of a computer aided estimating system for civil engineering estimators: -to design a system to meet those requirements; -to produce and field test the system: -to explore the use of estimator's data within other functions within the contractor's organization, A study and critical appraisal of previous research and the six types of existing estimating systems was made to determine why computers have failed to make an impact upon this area of the construction industry, The estimating and tendering process was examined by interviewing eight estimators from three different civil engineering companies a minimum of four times over a period of one year. Eleven existing methods of task analysis were examined, were found satisfactory for the analysis of the estimator's tasks for the purpose of the research, A hybrid method of analysis was developed which was used to analyse the estimator's tasks for the purpose of producing a Specification for a computer aided estimating system, The system was produced by an iterative method of design, development, testing and re-design until an acceptable solution was reached, The system was tested by: -installing a minicomputer within the estimating department of a civil engineering contractor's organization and inviting six estimators to test and comment on the system; -demonstrating the system to individuals and groups of practising estimators from forty construction companies where comments on all aspects were noted, As a result of the research a computer aided estimating system that was acceptable to civil engineering estimators was produced, To date eight such systems have been installed within contractor's offices and this fact gives some indication of the success in meeting this main objective. The other outcome of this work is: the determination of the implementation and user support requirements for the introduction of computer aided estimating systems into contractor's organizations; the production of user support facilities for the system including a comprehensive user manual and training programmes for the system, In addition the work has created a platform for the construction of a completed linked suite of construction management programmes unavailable before because of the paucity of existing computer aided estimating systems

Community-partnered contracts in developing countries

There is a growing recognition in developing countries of community-based infrastructure procurement and its potential to achieve sustainable development. The advantages of such an approach are that it encourages participative negotiation of activities and speedier implementation, the use of local resources, skills and appropriate technology, and entrepreneurship within communities. These wider socio-economic impacts arising from community-partnered micro-projects can lead to more sustainable infrastructure through meeting local stakeholders’ needs, community empowerment and capacity building. This paper describes the development and use of performance indicators for community-contracted urban infrastructure provision in low-income communities in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In particular, these indicators refer to the dimensions of time and cost; some key performance yardsticks are also proposed. The urban infrastructure and services referred to in these cases are the facilities needed for water and sanitation provision, access roads, street lighting and solid waste management. In general, it was found that costs for community-contracted micro-projects were normally very close to being on target. The quality of infrastructure and service provision also tended to be superior to that envisioned by local government engineers. However, project duration generally exceeded the target but was still comparable to conventional contracts. The overall performance of the community-partnered micro-projects was found to be comparable or better than the conventional micro-contracts; in addition, the performance of these projects in terms of socio-economic elements was likely to far exceed that of the conventional micro-projects

The citation behaviour of Civil Engineering students

The New Review project investigated how to improve students’ information searching skills and the resulting reference lists through a new approach to teaching the literature review. This paper reports on one element of this study, which analysed reference lists from 47 final-year projects written by Civil & Building Engineering undergraduate students (BEng and MSc). It finds a strong positive correlation between the literature review mark and overall mark for each project, as well as a slightly weaker correlation between the number of references cited and the mark received. An analysis of the number, age, and type of references cited is performed in addition to an investigation into the quality of the bibliographic citations themselves. Finally, this paper makes recommendations as to how Information Literacy (IL) teaching relating to the literature review may be improved

A study of students’ information searching strategies

Concerns have been expressed with respect to students’ ability to search for information using electronic search engines and databases. This research adopted a structured method comprising a combination of questionnaire surveys, an observational study and a ‘sense making’ interview to assess the information searching skills of a group of 14 students undertaking their final year dissertation studies on undergraduate programmes within the Department of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University. The findings reveal that the participants encountered problems with each type of search engine used (Google, Metalib, the Library OPAC system, and individual databases) and lacked knowledge of how to use advanced search strategies. All the participants formulated queries using simple words or free text and there was no evidence of consideration of structured word searching using systematically selected keywords. The results indicate priority areas for additional tuition in information literacy

Accelerated creep(ing): A 'buy & forget' mentality for Chinese homes

Accelerated creep(ing): A 'buy & forget' mentality for Chinese home

Using the evidence: a comparison of Civil and Building lecturers and students' approach to the literature review

Lecturers and students in the Civil and Building Engineering Department at Loughborough University were surveyed to gain an understanding of how they expected the literature review element of Final Year Projects to be undertaken. The results showed a disparity in the number and type of resources expected to be used; in the problems they anticipated when undertaking a literature review; and in the confidence levels students had in the use of information tools. Recommendations are made to improve the teaching of the literature review

A BIM-aided construction waste minimisation framework

At present, there are insufficient design decision making tools to support effective construction waste minimisation evaluation and implementation throughout all design stages. A limited but growing body of recent literature suggests that building information modelling has the potential to assist architects to minimise design waste on their projects. The research reported in this paper is the first attempt to develop a design decision making framework for improving construction waste minimisation performance through building information modelling. The potential use of building information modelling to drive out construction waste in building design was investigated through a questionnaire survey and follow-up interview with the top 100 architectural practices in the United Kingdom. An industry-reviewed 'building information modelling-aided construction waste minimisation framework' was developed based on the results of the literature review, questionnaire data, and interview data. The Framework is intended to act as an integrated platform for designing out waste decision making, by providing informed building information modelling-driven guidance to address waste causes throughout design stages

The potential use of BIM to aid construction waste minimalisation

It is widely acknowledged that the construction industry has a major impact on the environment, both in terms of resource consumption and waste production. The construction industry is responsible for producing a whole variety of different onsite wastes; the amount and type of which depends on factors such as the stage of construction, type of construction work, direct or indirect stakeholders’ design change contribution, and practices throughout the project lifecycle. A number of construction waste minimisation (CWM) techniques and tools are currently available to assist contractors to divert waste away from landfill. However, literature reveals that there are insufficient techniques and tools for reducing construction waste during the design and procurement stages. The last few years saw the emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques, which can be adopted to improve sustainable construction performance. BIM is a maturing modelling philosophy, which has been applied to several building-related functions such as visualising designs, automating quantity takeoffs, checking compliance with regulations, and scheduling construction processes. Furthermore, BIM, as a real-time interactive and collaborative communication system, has the potential to help project stakeholders to collaboratively attain waste minimisation for sustainable construction and building throughout design, construction and throughout the lifecycle by improving building construction performance. Hence, this paper, which is part of an ongoing doctoral study, explores the potential application of BIM to design out waste. An in-depth literature review was conducted to provide a foundation for the doctoral study that aims to investigate the use of BIM as a potential platform for building design waste minimisation. The paper explores construction waste origins and causes, current waste reduction practices; examines current industry BIM practices and investigates BIM tools for sustainable project construction and management; and identifies the knowledge gaps in existing literature that pave the way for the subsequent data collection stages

An empirical study of the complexity of requirements management in construction projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate in-depth the current approach of managing client requirements in construction and to highlight the significant factors, which contribute to the complexity of managing the requirements in order to define a better approach. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a leading international global built asset and engineering consultancy organization was conducted over two years. The case study was conducted principally using semi-participant observations supplemented with other qualitative data collection methods (i.e. interviews, questionnaires and document analysis). Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings – The results highlight major factors associated with the complexity of managing client requirements information, which include: mechanisms for documentation, storage and access, distribution of requirements information between stakeholders and across lifecycle phases of a project, traceability management and the provision of effective change management incorporating dependency checking and impact analysis. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the research is the use of an in-depth study of a single organization, which applied the same project management method across all the projects they managed. Further work is planned to develop the proposed framework fully, and develop a software platform to operationalize and evaluate its industrial applicability with construction projects. Practical implications – The implications of this research is that a better approach to managing requirements information is needed, which will facilitate the design, construction and operations of buildings within budget and time. An integrated framework and an associated tool are suggested to implement the approach. Originality/value – This study identifies major research gaps and problems in the architecture, engineering, construction and facilities management industry; proposes and presents Electronic Requirements Information Management framework to facilitate lifecycle management of the requirements

An enterprise architecture framework for electronic requirements information management

© 2017 Elsevier LtdManaging information about client requirements effectively can contribute to improve the quality of built facilities, and their related services. However, the process has been challenging to construction project management often resulting in failed projects. This necessitates an overwhelming need for a better approach. This paper presents a novel enterprise architecture framework for managing information about client requirements across all phases of a construction project and through-life of a built facility. The Integrated electronic Requirements Information Management Framework (eRIM) defines an information-centric, and process and service-oriented enterprise architecture approach to requirements management. It also describes how Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/Information Systems (IS) can support this information management. In developing the framework, findings from three case study projects were collated through observations, a questionnaire and interviews of construction practitioners. It is concluded that when implemented and incorporated in the management of construction projects, the eRIM architecture framework can potentially contribute towards improved and more efficient and effective management of client requirements across all stages of a project. Further work is outlined to operationalize the framework