While many residential contractors, architects, and home-buyers today are concerned about the environment and interested in sustainable construction technologies, the perceived higher initial costs of innovative materials and methodologies and a lack of life-cycle cost and performance data present significant barriers in the implementation of such techniques. Research regarding an integrated design process has suggested that performance based decision making is key to the successful implementation of sustainable building practices. Therefore, a need exists for the development of whole building design and evaluation models to allow decision making in all phases of a building project. This research seeks information regarding residential framing systems and the corresponding expected energy performance, as well as to present a case-study utilizing the integration of building information modeling and energy simulation. The primary goals of this research are 1) assess the ability of BIM integrated energy simulation modeling to accurately predict the energy performance of a building and 2) compare the predicted energy performance for four different residential framing systems through the integration of BIM, energy simulation and performance monitoring. These research goals will be accomplished through a case-study approach utilizing the Louisiana State University Agricultural Centers showcase home, known as the LaHouse, which serves as a display of sustainable construction materials and technologies. This research focuses on the integration of design software Autodesk® Revit Architecture with energy simulation modeling. Models based on the LaHouse were created in Autodesk® Revit Architecture and will be used to simulate the energy utilization of four different framing systems: insulated concrete forms, structural insulated panels, advanced framing and standard framing, all of which were used in the construction of LaHouse. The energy utilization obtained by the performance monitoring systems installed in the LaHouse Garage will be compared with simulation results.

One of the common goals which most companies have is to maximize profits. There are two way to increase profit: increasing revenue or reducing cost. Lacking of ability to keep the cost down could potentially drive the companies out of the business. In recent years, many researchers have been paying more attention on improving supply chain system due to high potential of creating cost savings. The supply chain network considered in this research is a tree-type, three-echelon single producer, multiple distributors, and multiple retailers system. The goal of this research is to develop a replenishment policy which satisfies customers demand and minimizes the total production-inventory system cost. Three inventory models are developed here. First, tree-type, three-echelon distribution (producer, distributor and retailers) model with end customers backorders (TDB) at retailers level is developed. Second, the variation of downstream holding cost (DHV) is studied and a model is developed to investigate the effect downstream holding cost structure. Third, a model is developed to improve the retailers service rate (ISR). This model combines the features of TDB and DHV models together (allowable backorder and reduced delivery interval at retailers level). Operational schedules of TDB are constructed and the limitations of DHV model are established. The improvement in the ISR model is confirmed and demonstrated through numerical examples. Significance and conclusions of this research are highlighted along with an indication of future research.

Lean strategies in healthcare aim at improving patient throughput, reducing medication errors, redesigning work flow, improving patient safety, and reducing cycle time. Documented studies to improve healthcares warehouse operation are not common in the literature. Managing types of medical supplies has always been a priority due to demand uncertainties and the risk of shortages that would profoundly affect patient safety. This study showcases two implementation approaches for the Lean tool 5S (Hybrid and Traditional) conducted in three different hospitals central warehouses at Ochsner Health System. These warehouses store similar medical products with over 1000 types of supplies (e.g. syringes, gloves, primary IV) that supply different departments within hospitals and clinics. The participating warehouses faced similar problems due to over/under stocked inventories, space constraints, and poor layouts. The objective of this study was to compare the impact of implementing a Hybrid 5S (integrated with inventory management techniques and process improvement tools) along with two Traditional 5Ss to improve healthcare warehouse operations. Although the two approaches improved the baseline warehouse process, the warehouse that used the Hybrid 5S showed the greatest improvement with an increase of 59.5% in inventory turnover, 15.7% space saved, and least number of non-conformities in the 5S audit tool.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emitted from vehicle exhaust are associated with negative health impacts and are a precursor to ozone. Self-cleaning, air-purifying concrete pavement is a rapidly emerging technology that can degrade pollutants such as NOx through heterogeneous photocatalysis. Although this technology has the potential to support environmentally friendly road infrastructure, a number of design and operational parameters may affect its effectiveness and thus need to be evaluated. The goal of this study was to measure the NOx reduction efficiencies from photocatalytic pavements under various environmental conditions common to highways. To achieve this goal, the objectives were to: (a) evaluate the influence of photocatalytic layer design and operating parameters on the efficiency of photocatalytic concrete pavement; (b) measure the impact of mixed pollutants on NOx reduction efficiency; and (c) measure the impact of roadway contaminants on NOx reduction. To achieve the first objective, the effects of relative humidity level, pollutants flow rate, and photocatalytic layer design parameters, including titanium dioxide (TiO2) percent content and aggregate sizes, were investigated. The environmental efficiency of the samples to remove NOx from the atmosphere was measured using a newly developed laboratory setup. The photocatalytic layer designs without fines achieved the highest photodegradation rates. In addition, the increase from 3% to 5% TiO2 resulted in minimal improvement to the NOx removal efficiency. To achieve the second objective, NOx reduction efficiencies were measured for various NO2/NOx ratios at various flow rates and humidity levels. Increasing the flow rate and NO2/NOx ratio negatively affects the effectiveness of the photocatalytic process. The highest photodegradation rate was observed at 25% relative humidity, which balances the availability of hydroxyl radicals at the surface with NOx contact with the photocatalytic surface. To achieve the third objective, three common roadway contaminants were tested - dirt, de-icing salt, and motor oil - at two contrasting coverage levels. The contaminants had a strong, negative impact on the photocatalytic NOx removal efficiency. The impact of contaminants coverage was largely dependent on the soilure type, with oil having the largest negative impact. An increase in the flow rate and air relative humidity also resulted in lower NOx efficiencies.

Traditional two-dimensional (2D) delivery systems in the construction industry can hinder the way information is communicated between owners, architects, and contractors. This hindrance exists in all phases of a project, from design and construction to the operation and maintenance of the completed facility. Building Information Management (BIM) is an emerging information technology that promotes a collaborative process for the Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Facilities Management (AECFM) industry; it can aid the exchange of information and provide improved project data accessibility to all stakeholders of a construction project. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), in conjunction with the facility management (FM) chiefs of the other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, is committed to adopting the standards and technologies used in the private sector that promote efficient and effective business and construction management practices. The AECFM industry shift to BIM is resonating to the public sector and implementation plans to accommodate the shift are being developed by many public agencies at all levels of government. NAVFAC recognizes the need to develop and adopt BIM technologies in order to keep pace with private sector advances and has drafted a BIM Road Map document (NAVFAC, 2009) to provide BIM implementation guidance to the NAVFAC organizations responsible for providing and maintaining facilities and infrastructure to Supported Commanders. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the NAVFAC BIM Road Map, analyze BIM tools and processes currently used in the construction industry, and provide recommendations for best practices and improvements to the NAVFAC BIM Road Map. The methodologies used in this research includes three phases: Phase 1- evaluate the current NAVFAC BIM Road Map, Phase 2: Case Study and Phase 3: Develop recommendations to improve BIM Road Map. The outcome of this research effort will be a set of recommendations that ensure that all parties are clearly aware of the opportunities and responsibilities associated with incorporation of BIM into the organizational workflow for naval construction projects.

The construction industry records the highest number of work-related injuries and fatalities in the United States according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers exposure to risk may be affected by implementing Lean concepts. This study describes the effects on workers safety environment after a Kaizen event, a Lean tool, conducted in three workstations within a modular home manufacturer: base-framing, sheet-rock hanging, and painting. The effects of Lean on safety hazards at each of the three workstations were determined by conducting a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) before and after each Kaizen. Based on the JSAs a risk assessment tool (questionnaire) was developed to determine the workers exposure to risk before and after each Kaizen. This study also focused on determining the reliability of the risk assessment tool. Twelve students with prior knowledge of safety and four certified safety experts completed the questionnaire by rating probability and severity of a list of hazards potentially present in each workstation. According to students there was a significant reduction in risk values for base-framing station and sheet-rock hanging station. Whereas, according to safety experts significant reduction in risk values was confined to base-framing station. Based on the reliability analysis the risk assessment tool was reliable in measuring risk at each of the three work station as per safety experts, and as per students the reliability was confined to only sheet-rock hanging station. As per the reliability analysis the finding of safety experts should be supported. The safety experts supported the finding that Lean showed significant reduction in risk values in base-framing station. Thus, it could be concluded from the study that Kaizen could occasionally reduce or eliminate specific safety hazards.

Personally observed variability among construction education internship programs prompted this investigation. The schools of construction that form the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) encourage its members to provide curricula that produces qualified professionals for the construction industry. There is agreement within ASC that a practical component along with classroom curriculum is needed for construction students?? education (Senior, 1997). Although construction programs have different ways of accomplishing this experiential component, most do have some sort of internship or cooperative program (Chapin, et al., 2003). Construction internships vary greatly from one program to the next ?? in length, supervision, academic deliverables, and whether credit is earned. No common set of internship field experience standards or best-practices guidelines have been developed for construction education. This study was divided into three subproblems. Subproblem One describes the status of construction internship programs currently administered in selected American undergraduate universities. Subproblem Two identifies elements that students, companies and schools perceive to support valuable, satisfying internship experiences. And, Subproblem Three incorporates findings from Subproblems One and Two to identify common elements to provide a structure for construction internship programs, in order to develop a set of guidelines for construction education internship programs. Three constituencies were surveyed: 1) university undergraduate construction programs, 2) construction companies, and 3) students of the respective construction programs. The school survey utilized ASC membership rosters to survey 91 schools, with 56 participating (62%). The company survey randomly sampled 200 of the Top 400 U.S. Construction Companies listed in Engineering News Record??s ENR Sourcebook 2003, with 75 participating (37.5%). The student survey had 31 students from eleven schools in nine different states voluntarily participate. Univariate analyses on only one variable at a time served to describe the survey population, and by extension, the population from which the sample was selected. The data were analyzed utilizing frequency percentages and summary averages including mode and mean. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that a set of ??best-practices?? guidelines were needed for construction education internship programs. A set of best practices guidelines for developing construction education internship programs are provided.

This research investigated whether 4D construction model effectively helps project participants on construction sites in detecting time-space conflicts in the schedule. Previous researchers on construction space management typically modeled space requirements for equipment and paths for material and focused primarily on static or dynamic layout planning. Some researchers regarded time-space conflicts as an essential aspect of construction space management. They demonstrated the use of 4D modules in time-space conflict analysis. Although these 4D prototypes have been successful in tackling time-space conflict analysis, they have been validated with only post-hoc analysis of construction projects. Also, various currently commercially available 4D visualization softwares do not take into account the workspace required during the construction of a component unless space is modeled as a separate component into the CAD application. Therefore, without modeling space as a component in the 3D model it is necessary to assess whether 4D visualization can be effectively used on construction sites to detect time-space conflicts in the schedule. In order to fulfill the research goal an experiment was conducted. A 4D construction model of an ongoing project was developed. Project participants were introduced to two different graphic representations of the schedule; namely, an overlay drawing - the conventional method used on site to detect conflicts and the 4D construction model. Analysis of the results compared the performance of the participants in detecting time-space conflicts in the schedule using the two methods. The experiment produced empirical evidence that a 4D construction model may be effective on construction sites in detecting time-space conflicts in the schedule.

Construction industry has been like a locomotive in leading Taiwan¡¦s industrial growth and influencing the development of Taiwan¡¦s economy. In facing current fierce competition and external environment, organizations not only have to strive for sustaining the business but also ensure the construction quality, project management and after-sales services for maintaining the corporate image and becoming a source of future profit. How to continuously improve the effectiveness and quality of each individual construction project has been an eventual goal to achieve Public constructions engineering have been the major business contributing to most of the civil engineering and construction companies. Once the firm wins the bidding case, quite many processes will be kicked off including material previewing, procurement, on construction and final acceptance. These processes are inherent with risks causing the obstacle in monthly payment of the engineering project fee. Government law of public procurement has been exercising for many years and creating process visibility to a certain extent with least bribery case. This research report is to elaborate the situations of citing and interpreting these Government laws of public procurement and general rules of the civil law to ensure the activities in the whole project life cycle are law-abiding. The private firms need be cautious of every detail and written notifications are compulsory to protect not only the company¡¦s own benefits but also the in-charge personnel or unit in the government agency in reciprocal. This research studies include respective bidding scenario of ¡§the-Lowest-price-gain bidding¡¨ and ¡§bidding by panel review decision¡¨ bases on cases of T-city. This report is to provide a project management framework of public construction case and personal suggestions for the existing firms or new comers from a stand point of contractors¡¦ point of view. Key words: Construction industry, public construction engineering, government law of public procurement, the-Lowest-price-gain bidding, bidding by panel review decision.

Abstract Due to the depression of domestic construction market in Taiwan in recent years and with foreign participants entering the market (such as HSR and KRT), the survival ability of many domestic companies have decreased tremendasly. Facing the rapid change of the industry and the economy, companies must have a clear set of strategies for business continuity. Most importantly, diversification is a very sinificant aspect for survival. According to the Statistics of Construction and Planning Administration, MOI in 2008, there are 9644 domestic contruction companies in Taiwan of which 760 are located in Kaohsiung. This statistic clearly presents the intensity of the competition and the challenges each company faces. Hence, the topic of exploring the blue ocean strategy becomes an important issue matter to focus. With perspectives of Resources-based View (RBV), an engineering construction company has been chosen as a case study in this thesis to investicate ways how a professional construction company can build different long-term strategies for surviving difficult circumstances. As part of this research, a six hour in-depth interview has been conducted with the CEO and two senior managers of the company. After the interview and based on some analysis, a conclusion has derived as below: First, a construction company¡¦s sustanability and core competency are structured based on the following 3 aspects: professional integrity, senses of quality and humanized management. Second, the company should implement an open system for evolution by exploring and participating other opportunity. Third, the company should re-determine its position (including its competitiveness) through building up a professional evaluation team. Finally, the company should align with its outside resources and transform into a ¡§construction projects broker.¡¨ Keywords¡G Construction Industry Strategy of Trasnform