Research in Progress Abstracts

An undergraduate CM structures’ curriculum should provide students with the fundamental knowledge base or foundation needed in order to be successful in their profession. Practitioners were surveyed to determine what this structural knowledge base or foundation should be and how it should be taught. The results are presented in this paper. The survey was developed based on course content of structures courses in ACCE accredited CM programs and on the structural content of Constructor Qualification Examination Level I study guide. ACCE encourages accredited programs to regularly evaluate current curricula for and develop new curricula that reflect changing construction technologies and management trends. The results of this research can then be used by construction programs to evaluate current curricula or to develop new curricula.

One of the most important issues of our time is indisputably the decline in skilled workers entering the construction workforce. Understanding the relationship between management practices and employee retention is a critical piece of this delicate issue. Traditionally, management practices are a function of management’s perception of what motivates employees. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of future construction managers on the factors which employees and their management counterparts consider important. This research project replicates a study done by the AGC in the early 1990’s. For this study, construction workers and managers from across the United States were surveyed to collect data on the factors impacting worker motivation as perceived by both labor and management. Analysis of the data suggests that while labor and management continue to disagree on the priority of ten surveyed motivation factors, the trend over the last twenty years has been improving. However, of particular importance was the fact that while management continues to rank two of the top three factors the same as twenty years ago, labor has moved its thinking closer to that of the management in most all of the three top motivation factors.

Each construction jobsite has site-specific factors that affect worker productivity. Common examples include weather conditions, experience/skill of workers, over-crowding of work areas, and material delivery/storage/handling procedures. In order for site management personnel to make knowledgeable decisions about controlling these factors, they must educate themselves to the actual conditions that are currently affecting productivity on their particular jobsite. One simple, but effective method used to evaluate productivity is through the use of a work sampling study. This method provides information on worker productivity and associated problem areas through instantaneous observations of work in-progress, which are taken at random intervals over a period of time. These observations, known as samples, are compiled together to show the percentage of the day typically spent by workers performing productive and non-productive work. Study results also reflect which jobsite factors positively or adversely affect worker productivity. Information obtained from this initial research will not only be used to correct current problems, but it will also serve as a baseline to evaluate the effectiveness of any productivity improvements made by management. This poster board session will present the guidelines used to develop and implement a productivity work sampling study on an industrial construction site during June 2002.

The number of unmarked graves discovered accidentally during construction is increasing as formerly rural areas are developed. The records of the Madison County Genealogical Society indicate that over 200 cemeteries are located in the county. Many of the cemeteries are pioneer gravesites that are unmarked and not precisely located. It would be useful for developers and contractors to know the location of unmarked cemeteries far in advance of construction activities. A promising means of locating unmarked cemeteries is to use the USDA classification system of soil associations, which identifies soils based on the parent material, climate, vegetative cover, and topographic position. One way of determining the possible location of an unmarked cemetery is to consider USDA soil mapping units typically found on upland hilltops and hillsides. The proposed research will use the newly released CD-ROM version of the USDA Madison County Soil Survey to relate the topographic location of cemeteries with the USDA soil association found at that location. A database of known cemeteries will be used as a control group to study relationships between cemetery location and soil association. The results will be used to help locate unmarked cemetery sites throughout the county.

Construction is “risky business”. You hear it all the time and intuitively we know this to be true. But what is risk? How does it affect our estimates of cost? What methods have been developed in other disciplines to deal with risk? What should be the objective of risk analysis? And perhaps most importantly, is there a simple, yet effective analysis method that can be applied to our business, specifically the generation of construction estimates? This research has been conducted with these questions in mind. This study examines the multidisciplinary underpinnings of risk analysis. This includes the areas of statistics, real estate analysis, and construction management. Based on this review, the objective of this research is to provide the small contractor with tools for managing the risk inherent in lump-sum bid estimates. These tools include providing the contractor with a broad definition of risk, a basic understanding of the various types of risk, and an overview of the analytical and theoretical methods that have been suggested in various bodies of literature. Building on this foundation, this research will provide an example of a practical application of risk analysis for construction estimating.

This paper examines the area of decision support systems (DSS) development for use by professionals in the built environment. The paper traces the systematic methods employed in the recent development of one such working model. Due to increasing complexities in the real estate development process; and in light of the recent tidal wave of information now available, it is important for future professionals in this area to understand the theoretical underpinnings of decision support and be able to conceptualize the multidisciplinary synthesis that must take place for many of the current and future decision models for this field. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive example of the process that is employed in developing a decision support system; it is a detailed look at what’s in the “black box” – and why it’s there. The intent is to educate potential future developers and/or users of real estate decision support models.

This paper examines the area of speculation home building within a strategic planning context. A wealth maximization model based on a strategic plan and utilizing the optimization power of a decision support system is demonstrated from a case study perspective. The Granite Falls Ranch case study project is based on a mission of achieving balance between conflicting goals in the built environment development process; specifically social stewardship, environmental sustainability and wealth maximization. Nine potential strategies, which support these goals and mission, are identified and developed to the pre-tactical level. The strategic plan is then quantified over a ten-year period and optimized utilizing a comprehensive decision support system. Internal and external data and logic models are combined to fully develop conceptual and parametric estimates; operations budgets, discounted cash flow projections, balance sheet projections, investment income, and property valuation. The quantifiable result of the strategic plan results in a “balanced” approach to speculative built environment development; specifically a home that meets or exceeds currently public health and safety standards, leverages the existing state of knowledge in value creation with an emphasis in green building practices, and projects generation of over $1,000,000 in builder wealth accumulation over the life of the project

This paper examines the area of speculation home building within a strategic planning context. Utilization of a value creation model as a strategy is demonstrated from a case study perspective. This paper is one of a series of papers based on the Granite Falls Ranch project located in northern Colorado. The case study project is based on a mission of achieving balance between multiple goals of social stewardship, environmental sustainability and wealth maximization. The focus of this paper is the wealth maximization goal and specifically the strategy of value creation. The research results demonstrate practical application of value creation as a strategy during the pre-development stage of the project. The results of this strategic planning model demonstrate that with proper planning, many value creation tactics can be incorporated into a single project; enhancing the probability that value creation synergy will occur. In addition, this study has shown that in addition to supporting the wealth maximization goal, thoughtful application of value creation can equally support the goals of environmental sustainability and social responsibility by strategically identifying material and methods that are both safe and sustainable.

This paper examines the area of speculation home building within a strategic planning context. A wealth maximization model based on a strategic plan and utilizing the optimization power of a decision support system is demonstrated from a case study perspective. This paper is one of a series of papers based on the Granite Falls Ranch project located in northern Colorado. The case study project is based on a mission of achieving balance between multiple goals of social stewardship, environmental sustainability and wealth maximization. The focus of this paper is the wealth maximization goal and specifically the strategy of maximizing the speculation homebuilder’s capture rate. The builder/developers estimated a 47% capture rate of the total project budget. This percentage represented self-performed labor, supervision, design, markups and contingency savings. Because the number was based strictly on a conceptual cost estimate made in the early stages of pre-development, this research study was undertaken to test the validity of the estimated 47%. Based on successive estimating techniques, the research supports the developers capture rate estimate and assumptions. The quantifiable result of this strategy supports the wealth maximization goal with a builder/developer net worth increase of over $700,000 projected at completion of construction.

The following work sampling productivity study was conducted to improve labor productivity for mechanical construction and general construction work activities at a bulk-pharmaceutical facility site located in the Midwest. Work sampling is a field-measurement tool used to measure worker activity proportions using random sampling over a period of time. Work samplings are an indirect measurement of productivity, because they measure time utilization. The study had four major objectives. The first objective was to identify areas within the bulk-pharmaceutical site for productivity improvement for construction activities. The second objective was to establish a benchmark model and the documentation necessary for further application of the work sampling and trade-worker questionnaires within the bulk-pharmaceutical site. The third objective was to measure worker productive time and idle time. The fourth objective was to identify other activities and their percentages of time including materials handling, layout/design, communications, position equipment, safety, cleanup/housekeeping, build clean protocol, receiving instructions, missing in action, waiting, personal needs, inspections, and rework. According to results of this study primary (productive) time was 29%, secondary time was 43%, and recoverable time was 28%. After review of the findings, the observers recommended three focus areas for improving labor productivity: (1) reducing materials handling, (2) reducing waiting time, and (3) improving communications. This poster board session will discuss the study parameters and findings.

Many construction companies install electronic cameras on job sites that can be monitored remotely through the internet. These periodic pictures could be useful for measuring construction productivity if they can be converted to some quantitative format. A person can inspect each frame and log the time at which each step was completed, but this operation is tedious and expensive. Computer vision technology can be used to interpret the images and automatically quantify the results. Steel frame construction is particularly well suited for automatic monitoring. A lab scale system is under development using wireless web cameras, a 3-D computer model of the steel frame design, and K’nexä blocks as the framing members. Cameras are placed to view the model from various angles; changes in the images are detected by multiple cameras and then compared to the location of “steel” members in the design file. The time at which each member is detected is recorded. Data of this type for actual steel construction can be reported in a format to determine the daily productivity and studied to improve estimating and efficiency. Once developed for steel frames, this inexpensive system can be used to study other construction applications of the technology.

Peer Reviewed Abstracts