• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.709-712
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• 1996

Generating a project network of a specific construction project is very time consuming and difficult task in the field. To effectiviely automate and support the planning process, we design a case-based project planning expert system inspired by the fact a human expert project planner uses previous cases for planning a new project. A construction project case consist of its specific characteristics and the corresponding project network (i.e. project plan). Using frame based representation. we represent the project features affecting the progress network and the entities composing the project plan such as the buildings, construction methods, WBS (work breakdown structure), activities, and resources. The project planning process runs through most similar case retrieval, case adaptation, and user requirement satisfaction. We represent the construction domain knowledge for each procedure using constraints and rules. We develop the methodology for constraint-based case adaption. Case adaptation process mainly consist of activity generation/deletion and predecence constraint satisfaction, for which we develop the dynamic constraint generation method and connect user-level requirement representation the system-level network modification knowledge. The methodology is being applied to the prototype for apartment construction project planning.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.1564-1569
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• 2009

Project managers play a key role in cost, time, and quality of a project. Selection of an appropriate project manager, therefore, is considered as one of the most important decisions in any construction project. It should be noted that most important decision makings are carried out by the project manager throughout the project. Traditionally, project manager selection in construction companies in Iran is through organizing an interview with candidates and selecting the most appropriate choice in accordance with the capabilities, potentials and individual specifications coupled with the requirements of the project. In the same direction, organizing interview on selection of appropriate candidate is usually carried out by senior managers of companies. Determination of the most important criteria for selection of project managers and also identification of significance coefficient of each criterion can highly help senior managers of companies to make sound selection decisions. In this paper, a numerical model has been considered for determination of significance of each criterion, details of which are submitted for selection of project manager in Iranian petrochemical, oil and gas sector companies. For this reason, all criteria- considered by senior managers of the companies under study- are first determined. Then, information obtained through 38 interviews, conducted by senior managers of the mentioned companies while selecting project manager, is analyzed. Significant coefficient of each criterion is calculated through the accumulated data using fuzzy curves method.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.145-150
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• 2013

As a recent global trend, the majority of mega-size plant projects are delivered through EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contracts, where a single contract is awarded for engineering, procurement, and construction. Under this contracting mechanism, it is challenging for contractors to carry out the projects under traditional project management processes used in design-bid-build projects. A new EPC Plant, the POSCO Special Steel Plant in Changwon, was built successfully at the beginning of 2012 and it is currently in full-scale production. The project has encountered a number of major difficulties however, with some technical and managerial issues through its development process. As summarized in this paper, the authors (as project participants with the contractor) investigated it as a post construction analysis and recorded the Lessons-learned for future project management improvement.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.16-32
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• 2020

Cost and time control of projects is important in preventing project failure. However, achieving effective cost and time control in practice is often challenging. The challenges of project cost and time control in practice are investigated by carrying out a questionnaire survey on the top 150 construction contractors in the UK followed by in-depth semi-structured interviews of practitioners from 15 construction companies in the country. Quantitative analysis reveals that design change is the most important factor inhibiting the ability of UK contractors from effectively controlling both the cost and time of construction projects. Four of the top five factors inhibiting effective cost control are also the top factors inhibiting effective time control albeit in a different order. These top factors-design changes, inaccurate evaluation of project time/duration, risk and uncertainty, non-performance of subcontractors and nominated suppliers were also found to be endogenous factors to the project. Additionally, qualitative analysis of the interviews reveals 16 key challenges to prevent for effective project cost and time control in practice. These are classified into four categorised based on where they stem from as follows; from the organisation (1. Lack of integration of cost and time during project control, 2. lack of management buy-in, 3. complicated project control systems and processes, 4. lack of a project control training regime); from the construction management/project management approach (5. Lapses in integration of interfaces, 6. project control not being implemented from the early stages of a project, 7. inefficient utilisation and control of labour, 8. limited time devoted to planning how a project will be controlled at the outset); from the client; (9. Excessive authorisation gates, 10. use of adversarial and non-collaborative forms of contracts, 11. communication problems within client set-up, 12. obstructive client representatives) and; from the project team (13. Lack of detailed/complete design, 14. lack of trust among the project partners, 15. limited time devoted to project control on site, 16. non-factual reporting). The study posits that knowledge of these project control inhibiting factors and challenges is the first step at ensuring they are avoided and enable the implementation of a more effective project cost and time control process in practice.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.200-207
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• 2011

Construction management services have been adopted for more than a decade and are continuously growing; however, the advantages of utilizing a construction management service are still not quite clear, regardless of many arguments can be made in their favor. The construction manager, as a coordinator, is supposed to smoothly facilitate the project teamwork in order to deliver a profitable and satisfactory project, not only for the owner's interests but also for the success of all project participants. This study has focused on the teamwork supports a construction manager can provide during project operations. This study developed a benchmarking tool to assess the construction manager's role in terms of its project teamwork supports, by utilizing the evaluation model and several case studies. In addition, this study also attempted to set the industry average and higher performance so that both the owner and the construction manager can self-assess, and more importantly, can improve project operation. The actual implementation of the benchmarking tool into on-going projects can allow the construction manager to understand the current operation and to make a better project process through teamwork.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.16-23
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• 2016

The use of inappropriate procurement methods to deliver construction projects has long been acknowledged as a major source of poor project performance and is particularly problematic for the Libyan Construction Industry. Poor procurement method selection has been recognised as a major contributory factor to frequent time and cost overruns. This paper offers a way of selecting specific procurement methods to maximize successful project performance. The methodology involves an intensive review of relevant literature, followed by a semi-structured questionnaire survey. The key findings of the study reveal that 11 out of its 12 common selection criteria exhibit a significant contribution to one or more project performance criteria (time, cost and quality). Project clients should therefore prioritise these criteria when selecting a design-bid-build method. Knowledge of the criteria that contribute positively to project performance will also enable clients to work out, prior to and during construction, the best measures and provisions for successful project outcomes.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.417-425
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• 2020

This paper investigates the potential impact of external factors on bid/no-bid decision for supervision consultant service on construction project in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. The data used in this study are secondary data taken from annual reports and sourced from the Department of Public Procurement, Ministry of Planning and Investment in Hanoi. Besides, to identify the impact of external factors on bid/no-bid decision for supervision consultant service on construction project in Hanoi, the study collected data from 272 qualified questionnaires from bidders doing business in Hanoi. Cronbach's Alpha, EFA and regression model are used to explore the impact of each independent variable on bid/no-bid decision for supervision consultant service on construction project. The results show that three external determinants, including Project characteristic (PC), Legal codes (LC) and Competition (C) are affecting bid/no-bid decision for supervision consultant service on construction project in Hanoi. Among them, Project characteristic (PC) and Legal codes (LC) have positive relationships with bid/no-bid decision for supervision consultant service on construction project, whereas Competition (C) negatively affects bid/no-bid decision for supervision consultant service on construction project. It means the more contractors actually participate in a bid, the less bid/ no-bid decisions are made.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.902-907
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• 2005

This study was undertaken to develop a comprehensive scheduling method which applied the core concept(DBR) of TOC to PERT, and to combine Monte Carlo Simulation to revise the uncertainties of activities then to eliminate project duration uncertainty. Most of the project duration overlooks the fact that in spite of minimizing the project duration, the uncertainty of constrained resources still puts the reliability of project duration in jeopardy. For the contractor, however, the most important thing is to comply the project scheduling with the planning to reduce the uncertainty of the project activities, operational interaction and project duration. In order to demonstrate that the model can be used in construction project, the scheduling of a steel-structure project was used as a case study to verify the validity of this model.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2016

Construction industry ranks as the largest industry and imparts a significant part in developing and achieving the aims of society. Due to the involvement of larger number of stakeholders, construction industry is complex in nature. The current study is designed to identify and evaluate the factors affecting the success of construction projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. To carry out the study, a questionnaire was developed in term of interview pilot study. The data from the questionnaire survey was analyzed through SPSS software in five groups to accumulate authenticity of 44 factors. Later on the ranking was done by relative importance index (RII). According to the outcome of the research, "Project Group" stood highest among the five groups with factor of "project size" at the top rank while "Contractor Group" stood lowest with the factor of "client size" at bottom rank. From the study it is concluded that the Project Group is identified as a crucial blockade in success of construction projects. By giving pivotal attention to project group, the projects could be successfully attained from factors of project size, materials and equipment, funds and resources and project planning. To focus on the factors of project group, trust of the province people could be restored in construction of projects.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.764-767
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• 2005

In the construction industry, materials management is one of the most important components in construction engineering life cycle. Materials management optimization is one of the research subjects in the field of construction management. In the materials management system of a construction project, the suitability of selecting procurement planning strategy will influence the result of project completion. This study conducts literature review at first and also refers the related issue in other industry's application. Associated with the characteristics of construction project in civil engineering and the concept of object oriented design applied in the materials management, this research is aimed to establish a construction materials requirement preliminary system.