Thesis (Eng.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2009. / "Submitted to Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Engineering Doctorate. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. S.)--Building Construction, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Castro-Lacouture, Daniel; Committee Member: McElroy, James H.; Committee Member: Roper, Kathy. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A more rapid and widespread use and implementation of technology in construction often fails since its benefits and limitations remain somewhat unclear. Project control is one of the most variable and time consuming task of construction project managers and superintendents, and yet continues to be mostly a manual task. Controlling tasks such as tracking and updating project schedules can be assisted through remotely operating technology such as hi-resolution cameras that can provide construction management and other users with imaging feeds of job site activities. Although construction cameras have been around for many years the costs, benefits, and barriers of their use have not been investigated nor quantified in detail. Subsequently, definitions and understanding vary widely, making it difficult for decision makers at the organizational level to decide on the investment in camera technology. This thesis reviews the status of hi-resolution cameras and their present use in construction. Results of a multi-phased survey to industry professionals were collected in order to identify benefits and barriers and develop a cost-benefit model that can be used for implementation technology in construction.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.S.)--Marquette University, 2009. / Saeed Karshenas, Christopher M. Foley, Sriramulu Vinnakota, Advisors. Available for download on June 07, 2010.

M.Phil. / Procurement, design and construction of an engineering or building project is a process that involves the broadest range of engineering and construction skills. There are risks throughout that can lead to a strategy that cannot succeed in terms of time, cost effectiveness, quality and profitability. There are also various contracting approaches employed in both building and engineering construction projects. Each has its own advantages, disadvantages, degree of flexibility, incentives and allocation of risks. A risk profile leads to important aspects considered in selecting a suitable contracting strategy for a construction project. The risk considered includes among others the design and functionality, variations, errors and/or omissions, budget overruns, price fluctuations, project timing, change in quantities, design and construction defects, etc (Morton and Jagger, 1995). In South Africa's tradition, the responsibilities of design and construction of projects have been separated, where the contractors undertake to provide the works in accordance with employer's and/or employer's agent's design and specifications. Disadvantages of this strategy include among others the fact that the design and specifications may not suit the construction process in terms of time cost savings. More than often this approach results in an adversarial relationship between the professional team and the contractor, and between professional team members. Globally, especially in developed countries, projects were executed using design and build strategy (Construction world, April 2006). This is an arrangement whereby the contractor assumes the responsibility of producing the design and the works. Recently the construction industry has been experiencing an unprecedented high level of economic growth both locally and in the global arena. In an attempt by construction stakeholders to redefine the approach to contracting to facilitate delivery, partnering evolved to bring all parties together to form common goals, to integrate design and construction into a collaborative working by involving contractors at an earlier stage, to set up mechanisms to resolve disputes and to share the risk and rewards of projects (Gould and Joyce, 2003).

Risk can be described as the absence of information when a decision is to be made at any time throughout a process. The construction industry is often considered as complex and defragmented due to working in a project based format; with a unique product and a process where there are times when decisions need to be made with insufficient information. Therefore, proper risk management processes can be vital to minimizing risks, maximizing opportunities and securing a successful project process. This master thesis has been conducted at a large Swedish construction company that houses both a constructing unit and a residential development unit. Consequently, the focus of this thesis has been on analyzing the risk management process when a residential project is both developed and constructed by the same company. The purpose of this master thesis is to describe and analyze risk management in a project based organization within the construction industry. The thesis aims to provide a better understanding of how risk management is used in practice but also what underlying factors that can affect risk management processes. The study will include both the perspective of the developer and the constructor; as well as their separate and joint processes facilitating risk management. In regards to the purpose of this thesis, a general risk management model has been used to provide a framework for analysis. This model consists of four steps: risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation and risk monitoring. The results from this study indicate that risk management within residential construction heavily depends on the personal knowledge and experience of project members. In turn, this creates discrepancies between how risk management is described in internal documents and how it is utilized in practice. Furthermore, it was found that risk management is considered an important part of the overall project process. However, opinions varied to what extent risk management was actually applied in projects. A reason for this could be that there is no joint understanding within the company of what processes are considered as part of risk management – thus, project members sometimes practice risk management without being aware of it. / Risk kan definieras som avsaknaden av information när ett beslut måste tas, vid något tillfälle, under en pågående process. Byggindustrin anses ofta vara en komplex och splittrad bransch då man arbetar i projektformat och med en komplicerad slutprodukt, vilket skapar otaliga tillfällen när beslut måste fattas med otillräcklig information. Därför är en väl fungerande riskhanteringsprocess viktig för att minimera risker, maximera möjligheter och säkerställa lyckade projekt. Detta examensarbete har genomförts på ett av de större svenska byggbolagen som har både bostadsutveckling och entreprenad inom den egna verksamheten. Därmed kommer detta examensarbete att fokusera på riskhanteringsprocessen inom bostadsbyggande då ett och samma företag agerar som både beställare och byggare. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att beskriva och analysera riskhanteringsprocessen inom ett projektbaserat företag i byggbranschen. Uppsatsen har som mål att skapa en bättre förståelse för hur riskhantering används i praktiken, samt för de underliggande faktorer som påverkar riskhantering. Studien kommer att inkludera både beställarens och byggarens perspektiv, samt deras respektive, och gemensamma, processer i relation till riskhantering. Med hänseende till studiens syfte har en generell modell för riskhantering använts för att ge ett ramverk till analysen. Denna modell består av fyra steg: riskidentifiering, riskvärdering, riskhantering och riskuppföljning. Studien visar på att riskhantering inom bostadsbyggande till stor del grundar sig på projektmedlemmarnas personliga kunskap och erfarenhet. Detta leder till att det finns skillnader mellan den avsedda processen för riskhantering och hur riskhanteringsarbetet faktiskt genomförs. Vidare fann studien att riskhantering ansågs vara en viktig del av projektprocessen i sin helhet. Trots detta varierade åsikter kring hur riskhantering faktiskt genomfördes i projekt. En anledning till detta kan vara att det inte finns någon gemensam syn på vilka processer som faktiskt ingår i riskhanteringsarbetet – detta innebär i sin tur att projektmedlemmar ibland bedriver riskhantering utan att vara medvetna om det.

Submitted in fulfilment of the academic requirements for the Degree of Magister Technologiae: Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / Infrastructure project costs are being scrutinised more closely and with greater skill and accuracy as projects have become larger, more complex and more expensive, and clients have become more exacting in their requirements. These and other factors compel engineers to design with greater care and in more detail. However, public planners spend very little time generating alternative project options, often presenting decision-makers with only a few poorly differentiated alternatives borrowed ad hoc from other projects. Even more disturbing is that they often devote the greatest amount of decision making resources to the development of a single decision rather than a variety of options. A systematic and iterative analysis of the cost consequences of different design solutions is commonly suggested for infrastructure projects, but rarely happens. There is a growing need to integrate design and costs. This study concentrates on the issue of cost optimisation of infrastructure projects (particularly at the design stage of the project) and applies construction economics, cost planning, cost optimisation and value engineering techniques to the design of such projects. The methodology proposed in this study for the optimisation of cost and design planning is the Infrastructure Cost Planning Model. This model divides the planning of a project into four stages and utilises twelve Cost Report Forms across these stages. The Cost Report Forms define in a comprehensive, precise and verifiable manner the essential characteristics of a deliverable component. They are used to measure, quantify, verify and audit the different design options. By means of the Cost Report Forms, the Infrastructure Cost Planning Model enables the client to select a combination of alternatives and evaluate a number of possible design options – with their cost implications – at each stage of the design process. This i promotes transparency and accountability, and enables consultants and clients to have greater control over the planning process and overall costs. Two case studies on infrastructure related projects were conducted and confirm that the Infrastructure Cost Planning Model can reduce costs. This study demonstrates that it is possible to overcome the problem of over expenditure by introducing cost effective design decisions prior to the infrastructure design approval process. The Infrastructure Cost Planning Model can improve infrastructure standards and procure design in a cost effective, equitable, competitive and transparent manner. This study contributes to the underdeveloped area of cost planning and forecasting of infrastructure projects. The findings are relevant to the South African government's infrastructure service delivery programme and the general issue of affordable infrastructure services.