The author hypothesized that there are specific practices that, if properly implemented, can lead to instantaneous controls of capital projects. It is also hypothesized that instantaneous project controls pose benefits to project performance. This research aims to find practices and identify benefits and barriers to achieving a real-time mode of control. To achieve these objectives, several lines of inquiry had to be pursued. A panel of 13 industry professionals and three academics collaborated on this research project. Two surveys were completed to map the current state of project control practices and to identify state-of-the-art or ideal processes. Ten case studies were conducted within and outside of the capital projects industry to identify practices for achieving real-time project controls. Also, statistical analyses were completed on retrospective data for completed capital projects in order to quantify the benefits of IPC. In conclusion, this research presents a framework for implementing IPC across the capital projects industry. The ultimate output from this research is procedures and recommendations that improve project controls processes.
This research study presents a life cycle assessment comparing the potential environmental impacts of two concrete construction methods used for building construction projects: Pre-cast and Cast-in-place concrete. The objective of the study was to provide a beneficial assessment of the potential environmental impacts by quantifying global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication associated with the two construction methods. Data for the two construction methods came from numerous industry reports and relatively recent journal article publications on the subject, although a majority of the data came from the Portland Cement Association’s Annual U.S. and Canadian Labor Energy Input Survey.
This article assesses the combined influence of information integration and automated data analytics on project performance. To this end, retrospective data on 78 completed projects, with a total installed value of $8 billion, was collected. The data collection effort characterized, for each project, the level of internal and external information integration. Information integration was assessed as the seamlessly interoperable sharing of data produced from a work function with other functions/stakeholders so that no manual data transfer was required. Also, the level of automated data analytics, understood as the full automation of the data analysis function after input data are entered, was also characterized on a project basis. Then, non-parametric statistical techniques were used to assess the impact of such functions on cost and schedule performance. The statistical analysis was also stratified by project type, e.g. greenfield and brownfield, additions, and modifications or shutdowns. Overall, projects with a sophisticated degree of information integration and automated data analytics can control their projects with more reliable information and in a proactive manner so that informed decisions can be timely made on behalf of the project and the organization.