The purpose of this study is to determine whether all costs over the life cycle of metallurgical research projects are included in the initial cost estimate, whether these costs are estimated accurately and whether they are managed throughout the project’s life cycle. The impetus for this study came from the observation that costs in metallurgical research projects are often not accurately estimated and are not managed over the entire life cycle of these projects. Cost estimation and cost management over the life cycle of a project were an integral part of the project and crucial to its success. The initial cost estimate can seal a project’s financial fate. Projects often overrun estimated costs because the costs are not estimated accurately enough and not well managed. The project leaders of metallurgical research projects are engineers and not always trained to estimate and manage costs effectively. Project management textbooks are of little assistance in this regard because they tend to focus on timeous delivery, and fail to include enough information on cost estimation and cost management. To facilitate an effective and objective analysis of the survey, an extensive literature review was conducted. Life cycle costing, methods of cost estimation and cost management techniques were examined in detail. An empirical study was conducted to determine whether these methods of cost estimation and cost management are being used over the entire life cycle of metallurgical research projects, and whether all costs are being included in the initial estimates of costs. It was deemed that results of the empirical study would provide useful information on the factors contributing to the success, failure or early termination of these projects. This study is a descriptive research study. The research methods used in the research design were structured and quantitative. A survey was used to gather information by way of face-to-face and telephonic interviews as well as an e-mail questionnaire. The population was small and consisted of the entities involved in metallurgical research projects in South Africa. There were only 12 entities in the population. The 10 largest entities in terms of project size were selected. A nonprobability sampling approach was used. The e-mail questionnaires were analysed manually by means of spread sheets to obtain graphical information. The processed data were used to draw conclusions. The answers to the questions were linked to the theoretical framework by means of interpretation. It was concluded that all costs over the life cycle of metallurgical research projects are not taken into account in the initial cost estimate of a project, and the cost estimates may therefore not be accurate. The final costs, including discontinuation costs, are often not included in the cost estimates. The costs are mainly managed during the growth phase of a project and not during the introduction phase when 80% of the costs are normally committed. This study emphasises the importance of including all costs during a project’s life cycle, and introduces engineers to modern cost management techniques. Copyright / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Financial Management / unrestricted

Estimating the construction time and cost of a building project is an essential task of construction manager, which benefits owners, engineers and contractors. Construction duration and cost, in particular, have profound influence on the outcome of a project at the conceptual stage of its life. The conventional methods used to estimate the time and costs of construction projects are based on 2D models, which need much time and effort from engineers, estimators and schedulers who are involved in preparing them because all of this process is done manually, especially when the project has several design alternatives. Considering that, Building Information Modelling (BIM), which is a technology that enhances data transfer and ensures cooperation among designers, engineers, and contractors, can provide an efficient way for cost estimating and schedule planning. On the other hand, sustainability has drawn more and more attention by the construction industry, this is because a project’s construction process has crucial impacts on society, the environment, and the economy. Modular Construction has been proven to ensure sustainable construction by reducing the negative impacts on the environment, reducing construction time, and improving manpower productivity. This research aims at developing an integrated model that interrelates BIM with construction cost estimation, scheduling, and sustainability at the conceptual design stage of projects. The aim is to reduce the preparation time and increase the efficiency of making major decisions for both conventional construction and modular construction. The proposed model consists of five modules, including a data collection module, a cost estimation module, a scheduling module, a sustainability evaluation module, and a 5D integrated module. Plug-ins were developed in the model to link BIM tool (i.e., Autodesk Revit) with Microsoft Excel to ensure automatic data transfer among these modules all within a BIM platform so that owners and designers can quickly generate a reliable construction cost estimate, construction schedule, preliminary sustainability evaluation, as well as construction process simulation.

Challenges associated with ensuring the accuracy and reliability of cost estimation of highway bid items, especially during the conceptual phase of a project, are of significant interest to state highway agencies. Even with the existing research undertaken on the subject, the problem of inaccurate estimation of highway bid items still exists. A systematic literature review was performed to determine research trends, identify, categorize the factors influencing highway unit prices, and assess the performance of conceptual cost prediction models. This research proposes a geographic information system (GIS)?based methodology that leverages vast historical bid data for unit-price estimation and the robust GIS capabilities with consideration of the effects of project-specific location and variations due to cost escalation on different bid items. A comparison of the three spatial interpolation techniques operationalized in this research revealed that disjunctive and empirical Bayesian kriging models led to more accurate cost prediction than ordinary kriging algorithms.

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Adopting new technologies is a relatively slow process in the construction industry due to the nature of activities involved in construction projects. However, with the current evolution in Information Technology (IT) and other computing technologies it is essential to incorporate them into the construction world to enhance and upgrade some critical activities to yield higher accuracy and productivity. The current literature provides a good overview of the construction industry's modern technology. Still, it lacks specific details about the factors that contribute the most in the two pre-construction processes, i.e., cost estimation and contracts. Therefore, this dissertation expands the current literature and provides a more detailed analysis of each factor affecting the pre-construction planning process. It investigates incorporating modern innovative technology in two of the most critical aspects of the pre-construction processes, i.e., cost estimation and construction contracts. Currently, both aspects are mostly done using traditional manual or 2D (two-dimensional) approaches; however, this dissertation aims to integrate automated or 3D (three-dimensional) processes to ensure accuracy, enhance efficient stakeholders’ collaboration, upgrade the details, and reduce conflicts among project participants. This dissertation further identifies the factors in each pre-construction process to investigate how the contributing factors can be enhanced using innovative technology. For the cost estimation, the Building Information Modeling (BIM) 3D quantity takeoff (QTO) method has been introduced and compared with the manual or 2D process. Subsequently, smart contracts using blockchain technology (BCT) have been introduced for construction contracts to automate the current manual agreement process. A BCT?SmContract model has been developed, which utilizes blockchain to define contractual obligations among stakeholders without centralized administrative authority. A comparison between manual and automated contracts was drawn to identify the significant differences. In addition, for both the pre-construction processes, i.e., cost estimation and construction contracts, case studies have been performed using construction projects to ensure the validity and reliability of the new techniques. The findings indicated that incorporating innovative technology in the pre-construction processes achieved significant benefits regarding accuracy, efficiency, collaboration, and reducing conflicts. This dissertation has contributed to upgrading the traditional methods by developing an automated system to enhance operations and achieve higher productivity.