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Construction managers confront many problems. Still, this industry plays a vital role in the healthy growth of the economy of many countries throughout the developed and developing world. Effective management of construction projects has been a major research subject in the last century due to the importance of this industry and the amount of money it attracts. One critical problem facing construction managers is inefficient cost control procedures, particularly in developing regions of the world. Since the end of the Second World War, the use of sophisticated cost control procedures in managing and controlling project costs have been accepted and applied widely in many parts of the world such as the United States and the United Kingdom. These procedures are important in a growing economy to ensure delivery of projects on time and within budget, but they are equally important during an economic recession when project viability becomes marginal. In the early 1990s, the construction industry in Thailand played a critical role during a period of strong economic growth. Construction cost control was not a major concern as developers rushed to capitalize on the booming market. In the late 1990s, the economy of Southeast Asia sank into recession. Project cost control became a critical issue for the developers as well as the construction companies in managing construction projects. A significant number of projects in Thailand in the late 1990s had significant cost overruns. Cost overruns had been a problem during the high growth period in the early 1990s, but demand overcame the problems created by poor cost control. The use of good project cost control procedures has become a concern of project investors and construction companies in Thailand since the recession of the late 1990s. Project managers and developers are now aware that the failure of a cost control system or use of a poor system can lead to project failure. Project cost control methods need to be improved in Thailand to ensure that owners and contractors manage construction costs and meet project goals on time and within budget. In this study, project cost controls in the United States and Thailand will be examined. These procedures will be analyzed to identify their similarities and differences. The causes and solutions for cost overruns in the two countries will also be examined. The results from the study will illustrate how the project cost control procedures used in the United States can be applied to the construction industry in Thailand to improve the procedures used by Thai contractors.

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The sources of construction business for local firms have been shifted gradually to oversea market over years due to domestic economic recession. Nevertheless, the revenue seems standstill against to the growing contract amounts since the cost has been encroached on the present cost estimation procedure which based on personal instincts, experiences and simple formula that out of ability to identify the future uncertainties and frame the flexible management in advance under drastic business environment. To enhance the managerial insight and flexibility of evaluation process for the future uncertainties, we proposed and constructed a real optional model of risk cost upon traditional cost evaluation process. As a result of experiment, the sources of uncertainties and the flexibilities for management could be observed and directed clearly to against the risk without subjective or instinctive recognization anymore. Seveal occasions of application of real option value have been suggested in this study several important key points should be emphasized before using it: neither profit/loss nor price for accounting can be promised with the real option value; rather an expectable goal for managers to achieve. Appropriate flexible activities should be studied and approached before making decisions to acquire real option value. Maximized overall real option value could be a powerful competition tool for any company that tries to adopt real option approach to profit estimation if the interaction and synergy of real option among individual projects could be integrated effectively. Under the support of authority and interorganization commitment, the real option process should be learned and modified evolutionary according to dynamic business environment then becomes a strategic advantage.

This article adopt ¡¨nonlinear cointegrating regression¡¨ model, which was published by Bae and DE Jong in 2007, to conduct related empirical research on one of the pricing theories of futures-Cost of carry theory. Since cost of carry theory is based on the assumption that the market belongs to ¡¨perfect market¡¨, the test for cost of carry theory is accompanied by the test of the efficiency of the market. This article takes Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index ¡BTaiwan Stock Exchange Electronic Sector Index and Taiwan Stock Exchange Finance Sector Index as our researching target and the final result exhibits that the cost of carry theory is mostly significant in the future market of Taiwan .

The role of gambling industry in Macao's economic development has become more and more important, and has been irreplaceable position. Therefore, this study examines the history of Macao's economic development as well as the history of the gambling industry development. It is found that the gambling industry to bring economic benefits to only part of local residents, but to bring many social cost for all local resident. Therefore, through the experience of Macao, when Taiwan open the casino required to concern economic, social advantages and disadvantages of the two levels in order to obtain the greatest benefits of our residents.

Historically, transportation asset management has focused on roadways and bridges, but more recently, many agencies are looking to extend their programs to ancillary assets such as traffic signs and guardrails. This thesis investigates the state of practice of managing these assets in order to assess the data and system needs for successful program implementation, and further reviews the opportunities for making a business case for formal management procedures based on quantified benefits of managing ancillary assets. The asset classes, selected from a review of asset management literature, include culverts, earth retaining structures, guardrails, mitigation features, pavement markings, sidewalks and curbs, street lights, traffic signals, traffic signs and utilities and manholes, with data as an information asset. Findings from a literature review showed that a number of agencies have made substantial efforts to manage their ancillary transportation assets; however, methods and practices vary. Specific state and municipal agencies identified from the literature review were surveyed for further details on their practices. The survey results show significant knowledge gaps in data collection cost estimates, and cost savings from the implementation of a transportation asset management program for ancillary assets. Finally, this work evaluates the opportunities to quantify the benefits of ancillary transportation asset management, indicating several challenges due to a lack of the data needed. The results obtained highlight the current state of practice, revealing opportunities and challenges for improving the management of ancillary transportation assets.

In complex aerospace system design, making effective decision requires knowledge from all disciplines, both product and process perspectives. Manufacturing knowledge integration is most valuable during the early phase of the design since designers have more freedom, and design changes are relatively inexpensive. Yet, there is still lack of structured methodology that will allow feedback from the process perspective to show the impact of the design decisions in a quantifiable manner. The major metrics in the design decision as far as process is concerned are cost, time, and manufacturability. To incorporate these considerations in the decision making process without sacrificing agility and flexibility required during conceptual and preliminary design phases, a new set of software analysis tools are proposed. To demonstrate the applicability of this concept, a Hybrid Lifecycle Cost Estimating Tool (HLCET) is developed, and integrated to existing design methodology, Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD). The ModelCenter suite is used to develop software architecture that seamlessly integrate between product and process analysis tools, and enable knowledge transfer between design phases. HLCET integrates high fidelity estimating techniques like process-based and activity-based into a hierarchical lifecycle cost model to increase the sensitivities of the top-down LCC model to changes or alternatives evaluated at the part or component level where tradeoff is required. Instead of applying arbitrary complexity factor to existing CERs to account for difference material or process selection, high fidelity tool can be used to related product and process parameters specific to the design to generate new result that can then be used to update top-level cost result. This new approach to lifecycle cost estimation allows for a tailored study of individual processes typically required for new and innovative designs. An example of a hypothetical aircraft wing redesign demonstrates the utility of HLCET.

<p><strong>Purpose</strong>- The purpose of this research is to explore the role of road transport in logistics operations, and to investigate and analyze how IKEA China does operate on road transport in logistics operations.</p><p><strong>Design/methodology/approach</strong>- A single case study has been conducted at IKEA China, including semi-structured interviews and review of internal documents. Along with the case study, literature reviews have been conducted within the areas of efficient road transport in logistics operations.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Findings</strong>- The IKEA China case suggests that the logistics operations should have strong link to the efficient road transport in a manner optimized logistics operations can provide efficient road transport with less cost.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Research limitations/implications</strong>- This thesis is limited to one representative company, and the authors just focus on a study of efficient road transport in logistics operations for narrowing down the thesis. So the solutions and proposals about efficient road transport might not be adopted by other companies or be applied to other parts of the supply chain.</p><p>Additionally, a study of efficient road transport can be discussed, analyzed and studied from a lot of different perspectives, even much better in a holistic viewpoint. Here, the authors just choose a few primary perspectives as research objectives to support this study, which concerns the data and information collected from IKEA China. Finally, because of the limitation of time and personal knowledge, the data collected from IKEA China may neither abundant enough nor deep enough in a manner without exploiting and expanding into all the issues and challenges refers to efficient road transport in logistics operations.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Practical implication</strong>- This research provides suitable solutions for a company towards efficient road transport in logistics operations. Consequently, it will facilitate companies to achieve the purpose of efficient road transport by optimizing their logistics operations in a manner improve the outcomes of insouring/outsourcing, merge-in-transit, consolidation point and packaging.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Originality/value</strong>- This research combines five theoretical fields in terms of sourcing strategy, merge-in-transit, consolidation point, packaging as well as economics scale of trucking cost to contribute proposals to efficient road transport in logistics operations.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords </strong>Efficient road transport, Logistics operations, cost</p>

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