Matching Items (27)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: engineering
- Creators: Sullivan, Kenneth
Description
Identifying the hindrances to performing effective talent acquisition within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics field is an important topic for technical hiring managers. Top candidates have multiple options during highly competitive market conditions requiring managers to look for unique solutions which diverge from competition. Prior to this study there has been very little research considering national laboratory research and development challenges from a technical hiring manager’s talent acquisition perspective. Utilizing a unique combination of national laboratory multi-organization survey, pilot study, Human Resource (HR) tracking data and trust based business strategy to enhance partnering this research finds hiring managers can leverage out of the box techniques to improve internal processes while developing industry support to target highly qualified individuals. This methodology could be utilized by technical hiring managers across federal national laboratory enterprise to effectively capture next generation staff and leadership talent who align with their organization professionally as well as social culture.
ContributorsBane, Scott C. (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Hurtado, Kristen (Committee member) / Standage, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The world faces significant environmental and social challenges due to high economic development, population growth, industrialization, rapid urbanization, and unsustainable consumption. Global communities are taking the necessary measures to confront these international challenges and applying sustainable development principles across all sectors. Construction is a critical driving instrument of economic activity, and to achieve sustainable development, it is vital to transform conventional construction into a more sustainable model. The research investigated sustainable construction perceptions in Kuwait, a rapidly growing country with a high volume of construction activities. Kuwait has ambitious plans to transition into a more sustainable economic development model, and the construction industry needs to align with these plans. This research aims to identify the characteristics of sustainable construction applications in the Kuwaiti construction market, such as awareness, current perceptions, drivers and barriers, and the construction regulations' impact. The research utilized a qualitative approach to answer research questions and deliver research objectives by conducting eleven Semi-structured interviews with experienced professionals in the Kuwaiti construction market to collect rich data that reflects insights and understandings of the Kuwaiti construction industry. The Thematic analysis of the data resulted in six themes and one sub-theme that presented reflections, insights, and perspectives on sustainable construction perceptions in the Kuwaiti construction market. The research findings reflected poor sustainable construction awareness and poor environmental and social application in the construction industry, the determinant role of construction regulations in promoting sustainable construction. and barriers and drivers to sustainable construction applications. The research concluded with answers to research questions, delivery of research objectives, and an explanation of sustainable construction perceptions in the Kuwaiti construction market.
Contributorsalsalem, mohammad salem (Author) / Duran, Melanie (Thesis advisor) / Chong, Oswald (Committee member) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Grau, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The price based marketplace has dominated the construction industry. The majority of owners use price based practices of management (expectation and decision making, control, direction, and inspection.) The price based/management and control paradigm has not worked. Clients have now been moving toward the best value environment (hire contractors who know what they are doing, who preplan, and manage and minimize risk and deviation.) Owners are trying to move from client direction and control to hiring an expert and allowing them to do the quality control/risk management. The movement of environments changes the paradigm for the contractors from a reactive to a proactive, from a bureaucratic
on-accountable to an accountable position, from a relationship based
on-measuring to a measuring entity, and to a contractor who manages and minimizes the risk that they do not control. Years of price based practices have caused poor quality and low performance in the construction industry. This research identifies what is a best value contractor or vendor, what factors make up a best value vendor, and the methodology to transform a vendor to a best value vendor. It will use deductive logic, a case study to confirm the logic and the proposed methodology.
on-accountable to an accountable position, from a relationship based
on-measuring to a measuring entity, and to a contractor who manages and minimizes the risk that they do not control. Years of price based practices have caused poor quality and low performance in the construction industry. This research identifies what is a best value contractor or vendor, what factors make up a best value vendor, and the methodology to transform a vendor to a best value vendor. It will use deductive logic, a case study to confirm the logic and the proposed methodology.
ContributorsPauli, Michele (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT Facility managers have an important job in today's competitive business world by caring for the backbone of the corporation's capital. Maintaining assets and the support efforts cause facility managers to fight an uphill battle to prove the worth of their organizations. This thesis will discuss the important and flexible use of measurement and leadership reports and the benefits of justifying the work required to maintain or upgrade a facility. The task is streamlined by invoking accountability to subject experts. The facility manager must trust in the ability of his or her work force to get the job done. However, with accountability comes increased risk. Even though accountability may not alleviate total control or cease reactionary actions, facility managers can develop key leadership based reports to reassign accountability and measure subject matter experts while simultaneously reducing reactionary actions leading to increased cost. Identifying and reassigning risk that are not controlled to subject matter experts is imperative for effective facility management leadership and allows facility managers to create an accurate and solid facility management plan, supports the organization's succession plan, and allows the organization to focus on key competencies.
ContributorsTellefsen, Thor (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Over the past couple of decades, quality has been an area of increased focus. Multiple models and approaches have been proposed to measure the quality in the construction industry. This paper focuses on determining the quality of one of the types of roofing systems used in the construction industry, i.e. Sprayed Polyurethane Foam Roofs (SPF roofs). Thirty seven urethane coated SPF roofs that were installed in 2005 / 2006 were visually inspected to measure the percentage of blisters and repairs three times over a period of 4 year, 6 year and 7 year marks. A repairing criteria was established after a 6 year mark based on the data that were reported to contractors as vulnerable roofs. Furthermore, the relation between four possible contributing time of installation factors i.e. contractor, demographics, season, and difficulty (number of penetrations and size of the roof in square feet) that could affect the quality of the roof was determined. Demographics and difficulty did not affect the quality of the roofs whereas the contractor and the season when the roof was installed did affect the quality of the roofs.
ContributorsGajjar, Dhaval (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The goal of this research study was to identify the competencies the Project Manager (PM) will need to respond to the challenges the construction industry faces in 2022 and beyond. The study revealed twenty-one emerging challenges for construction PMs grouped into four primary disruptive forces: workforce demographics, globalization, rapidly evolving technology, and changing organizational structures. The future PM will respond to these emerging challenges using a combination of fourteen competencies. The competencies are grouped into four categories: technical (multi-disciplined, practical understanding of technology), management (keen business insight, understanding of project management, knowledge network building, continuous risk monitoring), cognitive (complex decisions making, emotional maturity, effective communication), and leadership (leveraging diverse thinking, building relationships, engaging others, mentoring, building trust). Popular data collection methods used in project management research, such as surveys and interviews, have received criticism about the differences between stated responses to questions, what respondents say they will do, and revealed preferences, what they actually practice in the workplace. Rather than relying on surveys, this research study utilized information generated from games and exercises bundled into one-day training seminars conducted by Construction Industry Institute (CII) companies for current and upcoming generations of PMs. Educational games and exercises provide participants with the opportunity to apply classroom learning and workplace experience to resolve issues presented in real-world scenarios, providing responses that are more closely aligned with the actual decisions and activities occurring on projects. The future competencies were identified by combining results of the literature review with information from the games and exercises through an iterative cycle of data mining, analysis, and consolidation review sessions with CII members. This competency forecast will be used as a basis for company recruiting and to create tools for professional development programs and project management education at the university level. In addition to the competency forecast, the research identified simulation games and exercises as components of a project management development program in a classroom setting. An instrument that links the emerging challenges with the fourteen competencies and learning tools that facilitate the mastering of these competencies has also been developed.
ContributorsKing, Cynthia Joyce (Author) / Wiezel, Avi (Thesis advisor) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT There has been plenty written on the topic of process management in business. This study focuses more on the need to research and develop a model to establish "balance" in process. Reengineering process and investing capital into current technology does not improve the outcome of process alone. The actual process activity coupled with human interface combined with technology determines the outcome of processes, however they do not indicate whether it is a balanced process or not. Wherein the word balance really means sustainable for long periods of time and easily reproduced by others. This study argues for the need of new research in the topic matter and its affects on company profitability, sustainability over long periods of time and tenure with employee.
ContributorsJeffers, Anthony (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Badger, Bill (Committee member) / Okamura, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The alkali activation of aluminosilicate materials as binder systems derived from industrial byproducts have been extensively studied due to the advantages they offer in terms enhanced material properties, while increasing sustainability by the reuse of industrial waste and byproducts and reducing the adverse impacts of OPC production. Fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag are commonly used for their content of soluble silica and aluminate species that can undergo dissolution, polymerization with the alkali, condensation on particle surfaces and solidification. The following topics are the focus of this thesis: (i) the use of microwave assisted thermal processing, in addition to heat-curing as a means of alkali activation and (ii) the relative effects of alkali cations (K or Na) in the activator (powder activators) on the mechanical properties and chemical structure of these systems. Unsuitable curing conditions instigate carbonation, which in turn lowers the pH of the system causing significant reductions in the rate of fly ash activation and mechanical strength development. This study explores the effects of sealing the samples during the curing process, which effectively traps the free water in the system, and allows for increased aluminosilicate activation. The use of microwave-curing in lieu of thermal-curing is also studied in order to reduce energy consumption and for its ability to provide fast volumetric heating. Potassium-based powder activators dry blended into the slag binder system is shown to be effective in obtaining very high compressive strengths under moist curing conditions (greater than 70 MPa), whereas sodium-based powder activation is much weaker (around 25 MPa). Compressive strength decreases when fly ash is introduced into the system. Isothermal calorimetry is used to evaluate the early hydration process, and to understand the reaction kinetics of the alkali powder activated systems. A qualitative evidence of the alkali-hydroxide concentration of the paste pore solution through the use of electrical conductivity measurements is also presented, with the results indicating the ion concentration of alkali is more prevalent in the pore solution of potassium-based systems. The use of advanced spectroscopic and thermal analysis techniques to distinguish the influence of studied parameters is also discussed.
ContributorsChowdhury, Ussala (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramanium D. (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The U.S. Army Medical Command has been testing a leadership based structure to increase the performance of delivering construction and facility services in its system of $600M of construction and 26 major hospital facilities in the U.S. The organizational requirement was to minimize the management and oversight of contractors and simultaneously increase project performance. The research proposes that a leadership based structure can supplement the perception, preplanning, and risk minimization capability of a contractor's project manager, thus increasing the project performance (on time, within budget, and meeting expectations) and decreasing client management requirement. The projects were delivered in a best value and low price environment. The major impact of this research was that proactive management by contractors was more effective than traditional management such as direction, control, and inspection by client's professional representatives. The results based on data collection and date analyses validated that a leadership based structure can increase the performance of an organization and reduce its management requirement.
ContributorsMalhotra, Neha (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean T. (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
The construction industry in India suffers from major time and cost overruns. Data from government and industry reports suggest that projects suffer from 20 to 25 percent time and cost overruns. Waste of resources has been identified as a major source of inefficiency. Despite a substantial increase in the past few years, demand for professionals and contractors still exceeds supply by a large margin. The traditional methods adopted in the Indian construction industry may not suffice the needs of this dynamic environment, as they have produced large inefficiencies. Innovative ways of procurement and project management can satisfy the needs aspired to as well as bring added value. The problems faced by the Indian construction industry are very similar to those faced by other developing countries. The objective of this paper is to discuss and analyze the economic concerns, inefficiencies and investigate a model that both explains the Indian construction industry structure and provides a framework to improve efficiencies. The Best Value (BV) model is examined as an approach to be adopted in lieu of the traditional approach. This could result in efficient construction projects by minimizing cost overruns and delays, which until now have been a rarity.
ContributorsNihas, Syed (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013