No description available.

No description available.

Right-of-Way (R/W) acquisition is a critical function in the project development process (PDP). Improving this acquisition process requires both a good collaboration among the functions of the PDP and a good understanding of the factors affecting R/W acquisition. This research has two phases. Phase I aims at developing a systematic method for risk and scope management using scope elements that cover the work of all functions of the entire PDP. Phase II aims at studying the inherent factors that might have significant impact on the R/W acquisition schedule. As a result, the Advance Planning Risk Analysis (APRA) was successfully developed. It contains 59 scope elements with descriptions and a mechanism to assess the project’s level of definition. The APRA can provide a platform for project participants to cooperate and coordinate project activities and responsibilities. The method provides a high level approach to improving the effective of the PDP and its functions, including R/W acquisition. In studying the R/W acquisition inherent factors in phase II, the research was able to draw conclusions on the impact of the identified inherent factors on R/W acquisition durations based on statistical analyses. The research was also successful in developing a statistically significant model for predicting the total R/W acquisition duration, from R/W Release to Possession, using inherent factors. This research provides a number of significant contributions toward the better understanding and improvement of the PDP process in general and the R/W acquisition process in particular. Further research in this area and direction was recommended and believed to be promising, productive, and highly valuable. / text

The study was conducted to establish what effect life cycle cost forecasting accuracy has on project valuations with special reference to a global mining organisation’s coal business unit in South Africa. The research stemmed from the fact that the organisation identified through its own research in 2009 that its capital projects rarely met the originally budgeted life cycle cost forecasts estimated during the project development stages. These forecasts were generally found to be underestimated. Overrunning of cost budgets in project management terms results in project failure. The study employed two main empirical research sections. The first section took a case study approach where past implemented project results were collated and analysed. The main aim was to determine how close to reality the original life cycle cost estimates were, and secondly how any variances to the originally budgeted costs impacted on the anticipated project value post implementation. Secondly, the study employed in-depth interviews with seven project specialists within the organisation that were also involved in the development stages of the investigated projects. The study concluded that life cycle cost forecasts are very important project business case inputs and that the necessary time and effort should go into developing them so as to ensure that they are as comprehensive and accurate as possible. The sensitivity analysis that was conducted revealed that a coal mining project business case is the second most sensitive to variations in life cycle costs after variations in commodity price. The results indicated that a 20% increase in life cycle costs can destroy an equivalent project value of up to 100%. Accurate life cycle cost forecasting is therefore essential in order to estimate to a certain degree of accuracy the value of a project which in turn will be used to inform capital investment decision making. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The study was conducted to establish what effect life cycle cost forecasting accuracy has on project valuations with special reference to a global mining organisation’s coal business unit in South Africa. The research stemmed from the fact that the organisation identified through its own research in 2009 that its capital projects rarely met the originally budgeted life cycle cost forecasts estimated during the project development stages. These forecasts were generally found to be underestimated. Overrunning of cost budgets in project management terms results in project failure. The study employed two main empirical research sections. The first section took a case study approach where past implemented project results were collated and analysed. The main aim was to determine how close to reality the original life cycle cost estimates were, and secondly how any variances to the originally budgeted costs impacted on the anticipated project value post implementation. Secondly, the study employed in-depth interviews with seven project specialists within the organisation that were also involved in the development stages of the investigated projects. The study concluded that life cycle cost forecasts are very important project business case inputs and that the necessary time and effort should go into developing them so as to ensure that they are as comprehensive and accurate as possible. The sensitivity analysis that was conducted revealed that a coal mining project business case is the second most sensitive to variations in life cycle costs after variations in commodity price. The results indicated that a 20% increase in life cycle costs can destroy an equivalent project value of up to 100%. Accurate life cycle cost forecasting is therefore essential in order to estimate to a certain degree of accuracy the value of a project which in turn will be used to inform capital investment decision making. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Increasing the percentage of wind power in the United States electricity generation mix would facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable, low-pollution, and environmentally-conscious electricity grid. However, this effort is not without cost. Wind power generation is time-variable and typically not synchronized with electricity demand (i.e., load). In addition, the highest-output wind resources are often located in remote locations, necessitating transmission investment between generation sites and load. Furthermore, negative public perceptions of wind projects could prevent widespread wind development, especially for projects close to densely-populated communities. The work presented in my dissertation seeks to understand where it’s best to locate wind energy projects while considering these various factors. First, in Chapter 2, I examine whether energy storage technologies, such as grid-scale batteries, could help reduce the transmission upgrade costs incurred when siting wind projects in distant locations. For a case study of a hypothetical 200 MW wind project in North Dakota that delivers power to Illinois, I present an optimization model that estimates the optimal size of transmission and energy storage capacity that yields the lowest average cost of generation and transmission ($/MWh). I find that for this application of storage to be economical, energy storage costs would have to be $100/kWh or lower, which is well below current costs for available technologies. I conclude that there are likely better ways to use energy storage than for accessing distant wind projects. Following from this work, in Chapter 3, I present an optimization model to estimate the economics of accessing high quality wind resources in remote areas to comply with renewable energy policy targets. I include temporal aspects of wind power (variability costs and correlation to market prices) as well as total wind power produced from different farms. I assess the goal of providing 40 TWh of new wind generation in the Midwestern transmission system (MISO) while minimizing system costs. Results show that building wind farms in North/South Dakota (windiest states) compared to Illinois (less windy, but close to population centers) would only be economical if the incremental transmission costs to access them were below $360/kW of wind capacity (break-even value). Historically, the incremental transmission costs for wind development in North/South Dakota compared to in Illinois are about twice this value. However, the break-even incremental transmission cost for wind farms in Minnesota/Iowa (also windy states) is $250/kW, which is consistent with historical costs. I conclude that for the case in MISO, building wind projects in more distant locations (i.e., Minnesota/Iowa) is most economical. My two final chapters use semi-structured interviews (Chapter 4) and conjoint-based surveys (Chapter 5) to understand public perceptions and preferences for different wind project siting characteristics such as the distance between the project and a person’s home (i.e., “not-in-my-backyard” or NIMBY) and offshore vs. onshore locations. The semi-structured interviews, conducted with members of a community in Massachusetts, revealed that economic benefit to the community is the most important factor driving perceptions about projects, along with aesthetics, noise impacts, environmental benefits, hazard to wildlife, and safety concerns. In Chapter 5, I show the results from the conjoint survey. The study’s sample included participants from a coastal community in Massachusetts and a U.S.-wide sample from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Results show that participants in the U.S.-wide sample perceived a small reduction in utility, equivalent to $1 per month, for living within 1 mile of a project. Surprisingly, I find no evidence of this effect for participants in the coastal community. The most important characteristic to both samples was the economic benefits from the project – both to their community through increased tax revenue, and to individuals through reduced monthly energy bills. Further, participants in both samples preferred onshore to offshore projects, but that preference was much stronger in the coastal community. I also find that participants from the coastal community preferred expanding an existing wind projects rather than building an entirely new one, whereas those in the U.S.-wide sample were indifferent, and equally supportive of the two options. These differences are likely driven by the prior positive experience the coastal community has had with an existing onshore wind project as well as their strong cultural identity that favors ocean views. I conclude that preference for increased distance from a wind project (NIMBY) is likely small or non-existent and that offshore wind projects within 5 miles from shore could cause large welfare losses to coastal communities. Finally, in Chapter 6, I provide a discussion and policy recommendations from my work. Importantly, I recommend that future research should combine the various topics throughout my chapters (i.e., transmission requirements, hourly power production, variability impacts to the grid, and public preferences) into a comprehensive model that identifies optimal locations for wind projects across the United States.

Despite documented benefits, the processes described in the new product development literature often prove difficult to follow in practice. A principal source of such difficulties is the phenomenon of fire fighting the unplanned allocation of resources to fix problems discovered late in a product's development cycle. While it has been widely criticized, fire fighting is a common occurrence in many product development organizations. To understand both its existence and persistence, in this article I develop a formal model of fire fighting in a multi-project development environment. The major contributions of this analysis are to suggest that: (1) fire fighting can be a self-reinforcing phenomenon; and (2) multi-project development systems are far more susceptible to this dynamic than is currently appreciated. These insights suggest that many of the current methods for aggregate resource and product portfolio planning, while necessary, are not sufficient to prevent fire fighting and the consequent low performance. / MIT Center for Innovation in Product Development under NSF Cooperative Agreement Number EEC-9529140, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company and the Ford Motor Company

[pt] Observar o desenvolvimento de projetos de alunos em Design é um ótimo exercício na busca afinarmos as diretrizes de uma instituição de ensino com o real processo percorrido pelos alunos. A presente pesquisa é um estudo de caso realizado com alunos da disciplina Planejamento, Projeto e Desenvolvimento - Comuicação Visual Conclusão (PPD-CV Conclusão), última disciplina de projeto do curso de Design da PUC-Rio, habilitação Comunicação Visual, pertencente ao currículo em vigor para alunos que ingressaram por vestibular até 2007. Durante o segundo semestre de 2007 e o primeiro semestre de 2008, o desenvolvimento dos projetos dos alunos da turma da professora tutora Izabel de Oliveira foi observado com o objetivo de identificar nas etapas percorridas pelos alunos, lacunas que pudessem ser trabalhadas. No processo destacamos 4 projetos que são apresentados à luz de fundamentação teórica, trazendo um olhar crítico sobre os processos percorridos pelos alunos. / [en] The development of projects by Design students is an excellent exercise when it comes to searching for the gaps to be covered in an attempt to finetune the guidelines of a teaching institution based on the real progress made by its students. This research involves a case study conducted with students of the PPD-CV Conclusion Course, the last subject in the Design course at PUC-Rio, Visual Communications Major, belonging to the curriculum prior to 2007. During the second semester of 2007 and the first semester of 2008, the researchers observed the development of the projects by students from the class of Tutor Professor Izabel de Oliveira with the objective of identifying the stages completed by the same as they develop their projects, gaps that could be worked. In order to ensure a critical perspective on the completed processes, the researchers highlight four projects that are presented based on a theoretical foundation.

Proposta: O desenvolvimento de empreendimentos mais sustentáveis no Brasil apresenta desafios para o setor da construção civil, devido à incorporação de parâmetros inovadores, que a maioria de intervenientes na cadeia produtiva dos empreendimentos não coordena adequadamente. Embora exista uma quantidade considerável de estudos que apontem as vantagens das edificações sustentáveis, poucos referem as exigências e as novas atividades na gestão desses empreendimentos, que surgem em decorrência da necessidade de atender aos objetivos de sustentabilidade propostos e da complexa interação entre eles. Ainda, uma das melhores formas para disseminar os princípios da construção sustentável, é através das instituições educativas. Assim, esta pesquisa insere-se no contexto da discussão do processo de projeto de edificações educacionais, com foco na sustentabilidade. Objetivos: O objetivo principal desta pesquisa foi: avaliar como a interação sistêmica afeta o atendimento aos objetivos de empreendimentos com foco na sustentabilidade. Esse objetivo foi desdobrado nos objetivos específicos: propor uma forma de explicitar os objetivos de sustentabilidade; identificar as interações mais importantes no atendimento aos objetivos de sustentabilidade; identificar as causas do não atendimento aos objetivos de sustentabilidade. Método: A estratégia de pesquisa adotada foi o estudo de caso, realizado sobre dois empreendimentos já executados e em operação no Rio Grande do Sul. A pesquisa foi realizada em três etapas principais: compreensão, desenvolvimento e análise. A primeira etapa teve como objetivo caracterizar os estudos de caso, entender o processo de desenvolvimento e identificar os objetivos de sustentabilidade. Nesta etapa foram empregadas técnicas de análises de documentos, visitas e entrevistas com os diferentes intervenientes. A segunda etapa teve como objetivo a avaliação dos objetivos de sustentabilidade, contando com a ajuda de especialistas externos para a validação das análises. Nesta etapa foi proposta uma ferramenta gráfica para a estruturação dos critérios de sustentabilidade. Na última etapa foram discutidas as possíveis causas que levaram ao não atendimento dos objetivos propostos, e as recomendações para o desenvolvimento de futuros projetos desse tipo. Resultados: Os resultados da avaliação mostraram uma forte semelhança entre ambos estudos de caso, expondo o baixo atendimento dos objetivos de sustentabilidade. Foi percebido que a maior ocorrência das causas está relacionada à etapa de planejamento e projeto, considerando como aspecto importante, a definição efetiva do projeto, de modo que possibilite a mudança dos objetivos e a forma como eles serão atendidos, ao longo de todo o processo de projeto. / The development of sustainable projects in Brazil introduces challenges to the construction industry, on account of new variables that most stakeholders don’t manage properly. A fair amount of studies show the green building advantages, but just a few points out the new activities and demands on the project management, emerging by the existence of sustainable targets and the complex relations between them. Moreover, educational buildings are a good way to disseminate the sustainable construction principles. Thus, this study approaches the project development process of educational buildings with sustainability focus. The main objective of this study was to assess the influence of systemic relations on the achievement of sustainable project targets. This main objective was unfolded in three secondary objectives: propose how to (a form) make explicit the sustainable targets; identify the most important relations to the sustainable targets achievement; and identify the causes of failure in the sustainable targets achievement. The strategy followed was a case study research, developed on two building projects already built and in use in the Rio Grande do Sul state. The research was divided in three main phases: the first phase comprised the cases characterization, development process understanding and sustainable targets identification. The second phase consisted of sustainable targets assessment, supported by specialist validations. In this phase was proposed a graphic tool for organize the sustainable targets. The third phase comprised the discussion of failure causes in the sustainable targets achievement, and suggestions for future projects development. The assessment results showed a strong similarity between the two cases, having a poor achievement of the sustainable targets. Was concluded that most failure causes occurs at the programming and design phase, and a key aspect in this kind of projects is an early and effective definition of sustainable targets, to allow possible modifications along the project development process.

Proposta: O desenvolvimento de empreendimentos mais sustentáveis no Brasil apresenta desafios para o setor da construção civil, devido à incorporação de parâmetros inovadores, que a maioria de intervenientes na cadeia produtiva dos empreendimentos não coordena adequadamente. Embora exista uma quantidade considerável de estudos que apontem as vantagens das edificações sustentáveis, poucos referem as exigências e as novas atividades na gestão desses empreendimentos, que surgem em decorrência da necessidade de atender aos objetivos de sustentabilidade propostos e da complexa interação entre eles. Ainda, uma das melhores formas para disseminar os princípios da construção sustentável, é através das instituições educativas. Assim, esta pesquisa insere-se no contexto da discussão do processo de projeto de edificações educacionais, com foco na sustentabilidade. Objetivos: O objetivo principal desta pesquisa foi: avaliar como a interação sistêmica afeta o atendimento aos objetivos de empreendimentos com foco na sustentabilidade. Esse objetivo foi desdobrado nos objetivos específicos: propor uma forma de explicitar os objetivos de sustentabilidade; identificar as interações mais importantes no atendimento aos objetivos de sustentabilidade; identificar as causas do não atendimento aos objetivos de sustentabilidade. Método: A estratégia de pesquisa adotada foi o estudo de caso, realizado sobre dois empreendimentos já executados e em operação no Rio Grande do Sul. A pesquisa foi realizada em três etapas principais: compreensão, desenvolvimento e análise. A primeira etapa teve como objetivo caracterizar os estudos de caso, entender o processo de desenvolvimento e identificar os objetivos de sustentabilidade. Nesta etapa foram empregadas técnicas de análises de documentos, visitas e entrevistas com os diferentes intervenientes. A segunda etapa teve como objetivo a avaliação dos objetivos de sustentabilidade, contando com a ajuda de especialistas externos para a validação das análises. Nesta etapa foi proposta uma ferramenta gráfica para a estruturação dos critérios de sustentabilidade. Na última etapa foram discutidas as possíveis causas que levaram ao não atendimento dos objetivos propostos, e as recomendações para o desenvolvimento de futuros projetos desse tipo. Resultados: Os resultados da avaliação mostraram uma forte semelhança entre ambos estudos de caso, expondo o baixo atendimento dos objetivos de sustentabilidade. Foi percebido que a maior ocorrência das causas está relacionada à etapa de planejamento e projeto, considerando como aspecto importante, a definição efetiva do projeto, de modo que possibilite a mudança dos objetivos e a forma como eles serão atendidos, ao longo de todo o processo de projeto. / The development of sustainable projects in Brazil introduces challenges to the construction industry, on account of new variables that most stakeholders don’t manage properly. A fair amount of studies show the green building advantages, but just a few points out the new activities and demands on the project management, emerging by the existence of sustainable targets and the complex relations between them. Moreover, educational buildings are a good way to disseminate the sustainable construction principles. Thus, this study approaches the project development process of educational buildings with sustainability focus. The main objective of this study was to assess the influence of systemic relations on the achievement of sustainable project targets. This main objective was unfolded in three secondary objectives: propose how to (a form) make explicit the sustainable targets; identify the most important relations to the sustainable targets achievement; and identify the causes of failure in the sustainable targets achievement. The strategy followed was a case study research, developed on two building projects already built and in use in the Rio Grande do Sul state. The research was divided in three main phases: the first phase comprised the cases characterization, development process understanding and sustainable targets identification. The second phase consisted of sustainable targets assessment, supported by specialist validations. In this phase was proposed a graphic tool for organize the sustainable targets. The third phase comprised the discussion of failure causes in the sustainable targets achievement, and suggestions for future projects development. The assessment results showed a strong similarity between the two cases, having a poor achievement of the sustainable targets. Was concluded that most failure causes occurs at the programming and design phase, and a key aspect in this kind of projects is an early and effective definition of sustainable targets, to allow possible modifications along the project development process.