Building design team communication: practice and education.

This study examined three propositions: - (i) there are problems in the building design team created by difficulties of communication between different professional disciplines, (ii) communication difficulties are primarily a function of cultural differences instilled by vocational education, and (iii) communication gaps require educational initiatives able to bridge cultural differences instilled by vocational traditions in the educational process. To achieve the most efficient process and ultimately a more effective product, building design team professionals must maximise their capacity for integrated activity and inter-professional communication. The nature of inter-professional relationships, and their development through the group formation process, is presented as a central consideration in the analysis of building design team communication. The rationale and methodological development of the study seeks to understand whether differences in inter-professional interaction are largely a matter of values and attitudes, and whether these can be modified by training to improve communication in the building design team. Research examines whether influencing positively professional attitudes at the formative stage addresses inter-disciplinary dissonance. This study establishes a link between education for the construction industry, and the adverse affects of perceived professional discord. This study goes beyond current conflictual opinion regarding the structure of specialised education for construction, and presents evidence that, handled correctly, future tertiary education can provide the most suitable antecedent for a more efficiently integrated building industry

Surrogate Model Optimisation for PWR Fuel Management

Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) fuel management is an operational problem for nuclear operators, requiring solutions on a regular basis throughout the life of the plant. A variety of conflicting factors and changing goals mean that fuel loading pattern design problems are multiobjective and, by design, have many input variables. This causes a combinatorial explosion, known as the ‘curse of dimensionality’, which makes these complex problems difficult to investigate. In this thesis, the method of surrogate model optimisation is adapted to PWR loading pattern generation. Surrogate models are developed based around three approaches: deep learning methods (convolutional neural networks and multi-layer perceptrons), the fission matrix and simulated quantum annealing. The models are used to predict core parameters of reactors in simplified optimisation scenarios for a microcore, a small modular reactor, and a ‘standard’ PWR. The experiments with deep learning models show that competitive results can be obtained for training sets using a much lower number of simulations than direct optimisation. Fission matrix experiments demonstrate the method to predict core parameters for the first time, with interesting preliminary results. Novel experiments using simulated quantum annealing demonstrate the technique is able to generate loading patterns by following heuristic rules and is suitable for application to custom optimisation hardware. The principal contribution of this work is to show that surrogate model optimisation can be used to augment fuel loading pattern optimisation, generating competitive results and providing enormous computational cost reduction and thus permitting more investigation within a given computational budget. These methods can also make use of new computational hardware such as neural chips and quantum annealers. The promising methods developed in this thesis thus provide candidate implementations that can bring the benefits of these innovations to the sphere of nuclear engineering

Turnaround as an Experience: Using School Culture and Climate as the Driver for School Turnaround

The number of schools failing to prepare students for post-secondary life continues to increase; thus, school reform continues to be a pressing concern. Millions of dollars have been spent on school reform initiatives, particularly comprehensive reform such as complete school turnaround. Turnaround efforts include full closure, restarts, and transformation of schools that are currently failing. School turnaround requires the immediate disruption of past practices to establish new practices. These changes require the development of new habits of mind, a refocus on expectations and a re-examination of adult-adult, adult-student, and student-student relationships. For stakeholders, school turnaround is viewed as what happens to them rather than what happens for their benefit. The stakeholders who are the students and teachers within the school are affected in numerous ways by the disruption. This study reviewed literature on turnaround endeavors and pinpointed the important organizational design, traits of leadership, culture and climate, and adult actions that can be leveraged to create comprehensive school turnaround that is sustainable. The findings of this study resulted in the development of a handbook that provides school turnaround leaders with the tools to design a comprehensive turnaround program. This Turnaround Handbook is built on the premise of stabilizing culture and climate within the school to drive change practices that lead to school success. This handbook takes into account the needs of students to have a voice, adults to be supported and developed, and practices to be sustained beyond a finite period of classification as a turnaround school. The significance of this research is that school turnaround leaders can design programs that are sustainable and can significantly improve the lives and educational experiences of those affected by the reform process

Impact of contractor internal tendering procedure governance on tender win-rates: How procedures can be improved

Construction contractors normally, though not always, pursue tenders with the expectation of winning and subsequently making a project profit. Corporate governance (CG) constraints, risk appetite, and selected tender strategy impact contractors' tendered prices and any associated qualifications. Therefore, failure to win may not constitute 'failure' in senior executive's eyes. Increasing CG within some jurisdictions has led to more complicated contractor internal tendering procedures (ITP) with layers of management reviews and risk committee sign-offs. The question arises as to whether these changes make any difference to tender win rates and subsequent project outcomes. A series of qualitative semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 25 high-profile Australasian based construction contractors (11, either directly or via parent companies, operate internationally-Europe, Africa, Asia and North America), providing a mix of publicly listed and privately owned companies, as part of a wider research program investigating the efficiency and effectiveness of contractors' ITP. Moving beyond previous research limitations of smaller contractors (often sub-AU$100m turnover) this qualitative research looks at much larger contractors. Content analyses of the interview transcripts found that, while contractors talked equally about 'win' and 'lose', most did not see losing a tender as 'failure'. Only a quarter felt their changed ITP made a difference to their tender win-rate. Somewhat unexpectedly interview findings suggest that approximately three-quarters of contractors have ITP that do not formally require lessons learned (LL) from previous tenders nor projects to be inputs in subsequent tender pursuits. Larger contractors (over AU$500m turnover) were twice as likely to discuss LL, indicating different governance approaches to tender outcome expectations. Informal LL approaches were applied to clients' reputations (particularly payment) in bid/no-bid decisions. Interviewee suggestions of processes by which contractors can improve resultantly their LL procedures, as part of their CG, are also presented

Estimation of life-cycle costs of buildings: regression vs artificial neural network

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of regression and artificial-neural-networks (ANNs) methods to estimate the running cost of building projects towards improved accuracy. Design/methodology/approach – A data set of 20 building projects is used to test the performance of these two (ANNs/regression) models in estimating running cost. The concept of cost-significant-items is identified as important in assisting estimation. In addition, a stepwise technique is used to eliminate insignificant factors in regression modelling. A connection weight method is applied to determine the importance of cost factors in the performance of ANNs. Findings – The results illustrate that the value of the coefficient of determination=99.75 per cent for ANNs model(s), with a value of 98.1 per cent utilising multiple regression (MR) model(s); second, the mean percentage error (MPE) for ANNs at a testing stage is 0.179, which is less than that of the MPE gained through MR modelling of 1.28; and third, the average accuracy is 99 per cent for ANNs model(s) and 97 per cent for MR model(s). On the basis of these results, it is concluded that an ANNs model is superior to a MR model when predicting running cost of building projects. Research limitations/implications – A means for continuous improvement for the performance of the models accuracy has been established; this may be further enhanced by future extended sample. Originality/value – This work extends the knowledge base of life-cycle estimation where ANNs method has been found to reduce preparation time consumed and increasing accuracy improvement of the cost estimation

Evaluation of non-cost factors affecting the life cycle cost: an exploratory study

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the main non-cost factors affecting accurate estimation of life cycle cost (LCC) in building projects. Design/methodology/approach: Ten factors affecting LCC in building project cost estimates are identified through literature and interviews. A questionnaire survey is conducted to rank these factors in order of priority and provide the views of cost practitioners about the significance of these factors in the accurate estimation of LCC. The data from 138 construction building projects completed in UK were collected and analysed via multiple regression to discover the relationship between capital and LCCs and between non-cost factors and cost estimation at each stage of the life cycle (capital, operation, maintenance and LCC). Findings: The results of analysis of existing LCC data of completing project and survey data from cost professionals are mostly consistent with many literature views and provide a reasonable description of the non-cost factors affecting the accuracy of estimates. Originality/value: The value of this study is in the method used, which involves analysis of existing life data and survey data from cost professionals. The results provide a plausible description of the non-cost factors affecting the accuracy of estimates

Rethinking the tendering frameworks of construction contractors in the context of a soft systems methodology approach

Limited research has been conducted on the internal tendering procedures (ITP) of construction contractors because of the commercially sensitive and confidential nature of the subject matter. This limitation explains the reluctance of contractors to undergo interviews. Existing research (outside bid/no-bid and margin decision factor identification and subsequent decision modeling development) only begins to provide insights into key tendering stages, particularly around risk assessments and corporate review processes. Early research suggested one to three review stages. However, when considering the whole work procurement process from prospect identification to contract execution, five to seven series of reviews can be arguably applied by some contractors, wherein some reviews stepped through several layers of internal senior management. Tendering processes were presented as flowchart models that traditionally follow “hard” system (rectangular shapes and straight line arrows) steps, which suggest that a precise process also leads to precise results. However, given that contractors do not win every tender they submit, the process is less precise than that suggested in rigidly structured flowcharts. Twenty-five detailed semi-structured interviews were held with purposely selected high-profile publicly and privately owned construction companies in Australia with significantly varied turnovers. Analyses show that contractors are concerned about the negative effects of increasing corporate governance demands, with many stating that people involved are the most critical element to tendering success. A new way of presenting the ITP of contractors is assessed using a soft systems methodology (SSM) approach. SSM offers an alternative way of considering human interaction challenges within the ITP of contractors, which needs to be tested with the industry. The format graphics of SSM guidelines are presented as a way of offering contractors a different approach, which may assist individuals who are looking to re-structure their tendering activities in a more humanistic and less rigid procedural approach

Value management in infrastructure projects in Western Australia: techniques and staging

Infrastructure projects to service the mining industry in Western Australia (WA) are on the increase, somewhat in contrast to a stalling of projects nationally and globally. It remains important therefore for WA companies to be competitive in the realisation of a client's brief. Value management (VM) has long been regarded as an effective means to eliminate unnecessary capital and life-cycle costs, however, whilst many are familiar with the underlying theory, its use locally is perceived to be less widespread. The research presented here investigates the extent to which value management is implemented by Western Australian engineering and construction companies in both the design and construction fields; exploring, the various value management techniques used in practice and, VM staging. This study documents benefits achieved by means of value management and, the attitudes of industry professionals towards the feasibility or need in establishing a compulsory value management procedure for all (civil engineering) developments. To investigate current value management implementation in WA a pilot-study research methodology embraced a qualitative semi-structured interview approach of ten respondents from organisations involved in design and construction of civil engineering work. Straw poll project results suggest WA industry to be well aware of both, the concept of value management and, the benefits that may arise from its use to address the life-cycle of a project; case-study specification analysis is then presented to explore VM benefits/disbenefits explicitly.The research presented here concludes that industry does have formal value management procedures within a preliminary design phase. Findings show however that industry is resistant to a statutory requirement for value management and, argue that in WA competition is enough to drive the uptake and utilisation of VM