Industry-wide there has been recognition of the need for the incorporation of performance measure... more Industry-wide there has been recognition of the need for the incorporation of performance measurement in aiding core businesses. However, there has been a dearth of material on performance assessment to aid property management practices and a seeming lack of structured processes for carrying out the performance measurement of properties. So, it has therefore been necessary to carry out an investigation into property performance techniques and performance indicators (PIs) in literature and property management practices. Then, a postal questionnaire survey has been carried out to understand the practical process of property management and performance measurement. Besides, further drawbacks and benefits of the methods have been identified from property managers who actually undertake performance measurement of properties under their portfolio. Finally, the research work is summarised, conclusions are drawn and directions for further research are introduced.
This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decisi... more This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decision making tool in the construction industry on the parts of the client, the analyst and the industry practices. Life cycle costing encompasses a great deal of uncertainty, functions of which are data imperfection, randomness and ambiguity. The traditional use of the probability theory and statistics in LCC analyses could only deal with random uncertainty. This falls short from dealing with situations including incomplete information, human judgement and uncertainty. An integrated LCC framework is proposed. This framework is based on the simple idea that a complex problem may be deconstructed into simpler tasks. Then, the appropriate tools are assigned a subset of tasks that match their capabilities. The framework utilises statistics, fuzzy set theory and artificial neural networks to improve the quality of LCC as a decision making tool.
Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source appli... more Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source applications for the provision of electricity in Nigeria, the country has been experiencing power energy shortages for over three decades now. More than 65% of the population lack commercial electricity, particularly in the rural areas. This has caused socio-economic problems involving relocation of manufacturing companies to neighbouring countries, unemployment, and endemic rural-urban migration. The research that underpins this paper aims to investigate the potential of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the provision of sustainable electricity in Nigeria's rural areas. This has been motivated by the strategic value of RETs in identifying when and where electricity is actually required thereby eliminating/reducing the high cost of gridline network and offering a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. A systematic review method has been used to examine various RETs regarding...
This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decisi... more This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decision making tool in the construction industry on the parts of the client, the analyst and the industry practices. Life cycle costing encompasses a great deal of uncertainty, functions of which are data imperfection, randomness and ambiguity. The traditional use of the probability theory and statistics in LCC analyses could only deal with random uncertainty. This falls short from dealing with situations including incomplete information, human judgement and uncertainty. An integrated LCC framework is proposed. This framework is based on the simple idea that a complex problem may be deconstructed into simpler tasks. Then, the appropriate tools are assigned a subset of tasks that match their capabilities. The framework utilises statistics, fuzzy set theory and artificial neural networks to improve the quality of LCC as a decision making tool.
The Nigerian oil and gas industry is very active. New mega projects are coming on stream such as ... more The Nigerian oil and gas industry is very active. New mega projects are coming on stream such as the exploration and production from the deep offshore as well as the construction of a Liquefied natural gas plant to increase gas utilisation. Various contractual arrangements are in place to woo local and foreign investors for exploration and development projects. However, the number, size and complexity of these projects are increasing resulting in achieving extra operational excellence and also placing more emphasis on the assessment and management of the associated risks. Therefore, the research work that underpins this paper was carried out to identify and assess significant risks in the Nigeria Oil and gas projects and addresses their proper allocation. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to a group of experts in the local and international oil company operating in Nigeria. It has been revealed that environmental and Political risks such as Force Majeure due to...
SUMMARY Life Cycle Costing (LCC) has become increasingly important in construction over the last ... more SUMMARY Life Cycle Costing (LCC) has become increasingly important in construction over the last few years. However, despite its importance, it has found limited application so far. Two of the main barriers in its application are the shortage of LCC data and the complexity of the technique itself. This paper presents a computer-integrated environment, which aims to overcome those barriers by providing a framework/mechanism for collecting and storing the LCC data and a number of tools for assisting and simplifying the application of the technique. The main characteristic of the environment is that it provides a holistic approach to Life Cycle Costing by integrating the collection of the data and the LCC-aware design and management of buildings within a single framework. A database, which is flexible enough to accommodate the needs of any user, is used to store the LCC data. An integrated and interactive design tool is used to assist and simplify the LCC-aware design of buildings. A t...
This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded ... more This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded project. This project aims to develop an integrated System for the Optimal Selection of Hospital Finishes. Motivated by the lack of effective tools that would facilitate the effective choice of hospital finishes; a methodological framework for the optimal selection of hospital finishes is proposed. The development of the framework involved three main steps. First, published methodologies are critically reviewed to identify their desirable features and limitations. Secondly, other crucial requirements for effective decision-making are identified. Thirdly, the framework logic is outlined and a practical implementation mechanism is proposed. The proposed framework utilizes desirable features of a number of existing welldeveloped methods. Besides, it employs a phased approach in the identification of decision criteria and alternatives where each phase results in a more specific list of crite...
Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) in general, and biomass source in particular, remains one of ... more Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) in general, and biomass source in particular, remains one of the means of providing sustainable electricity to rural areas in developing countries. This is because of its strategic value in identifying when and where electricity is really required thus, reducing/eliminating the high cost of grid network. The majority of Nigeria's rural dwellers are farmers and use little or none of their residues at the end of the farming season. Nigeria has also been experiencing dwindling power supply at both national and rural level with accessibility representing only 35% and 10% respectively. The rural areas are the most affected causing significant disruption of their socio-economic settings. Considering the enormous biomass resources in these communities, and they constitute approximately 65% of the country's total population, it is feasible to provide sustainable electricity to these communities through Biomass Gasification Technology (BGT). Cost h...
Maintenance optimization is indispensable to the core business objectives of industries that util... more Maintenance optimization is indispensable to the core business objectives of industries that utilizes physical assets. A quantitative maintenance optimization technique known as the Modelling System Failures (MSF) is critically reviewed to identify its relevance to industries that employs physical assets. Practical application of the approach to optimize the maintenance activities of wind turbines is explored and discussed in a case study. The analysis is based maximum likelihood parameter estimation in the Weibull distribution. Shape and scale parameters for a gearbox and its components are estimated. The estimated parameters are used to design Reliability Block Diagrams to model the failures of the gearbox of a selected wind turbine. The models are simulated using Monte Carlo simulation software to assess the reliability, availability and maintainability of the gearbox, and the resultant effects on the wind turbine operation. The methodology presented in the paper is sufficiently ...
Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source appli... more Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source applications for the provision of electricity in Nigeria, the country has been experiencing power energy shortages for over three decades now. More than 65% of the population lack commercial electricity, particularly in the rural areas. This has caused socio-economic problems involving relocation of manufacturing companies to neighbouring countries, unemployment, and endemic rural-urban migration. The research that underpins this paper aims to investigate the potential of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the provision of sustainable electricity in Nigeria's rural areas. This has been motivated by the strategic value of RETs in identifying when and where electricity is actually required thereby eliminating/reducing the high cost of gridline network and offering a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. A systematic review method has been used to examine various RETs regarding ...
Hospital refurbishment has taken a secondary role in the last decade, in favour of new build faci... more Hospital refurbishment has taken a secondary role in the last decade, in favour of new build facilities. This has allowed the Client and the Design Team to build and specify with greater flexibility and from essentially a 'blank canvas'. Correspondingly, sustainability as an issue has been easier to plan and implement from the earliest briefing and design stage. The changing economic landscape has necessitated that the focus has now shifted to the refurbishment of the existing healthcare estate. Refurbishment is widely recognised as presenting unique challenges in its own right. Add to this the institutional and statutory requirements in the arena of sustainability and the unique functional characteristics of an operational hospital and these challenges are increased. Given the practical and economic challenges of refurbishment as an activity, weighed against a facility as multi-faceted and complicated as a hospital, a structured and prioritised process of decision making is...
This paper is the fifth in a series reporting on-going research within a Department of Health (DO... more This paper is the fifth in a series reporting on-going research within a Department of Health (DOH) funded research project to develop a novel decision support system for the optimal selection of finishes for healthcare facilities. The system has been developed by integrating a recently developed extended whole-life costing (WLC) application with the resource database reported in this paper. The database has been designed and implemented in MS Access ® to accommodate finishes’ whole-life cost and time data and other data categories including quality, performance and other relevant non-financial data. The database structure has been designed on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the requirements of effective WLC decision-making during the design stage, the special needs of the healthcare environments, and the limitations of previous efforts to utilize databases to facilitate whole life costing. The database relational structure is explained and the data types and descriptions of fi...
The RICS COBRA Conference is held annually. The aim of COBRA is to provide a platform for the dis... more The RICS COBRA Conference is held annually. The aim of COBRA is to provide a platform for the dissemination of original research and new developments within the specific disciplines, sub-disciplines or field of study of: Management of the construction process • Cost and value management • Building technology • Legal aspects of construction and procurement • Public private partnerships • Health and safety • Procurement • Risk management • Project management The built asset • Property investment theory and practice • Indirect property investment • Property market forecasting • Property pricing and appraisal • Law of property, housing and land use planning • Urban development • Planning and property markets • Financial analysis of the property market and property assets • The dynamics of residential property markets • Global comparative analysis of property markets • Building occupation • Sustainability and real estate • Sustainability and environmental law • Building performance The p...
This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded ... more This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded project. This project aims to develop an integrated System for the Optimal Selection of Hospital Finishes. Motivated by the lack of effective tools that would facilitate the effective choice of hospital finishes; a methodological framework for the optimal selection of hospital finishes is proposed. The development of the framework involved three main steps. First, published methodologies are critically reviewed to identify their desirable features and limitations. Secondly, other crucial requirements for effective decision-making are identified. Thirdly, the framework logic is outlined and a practical implementation mechanism is proposed. The proposed framework utilizes desirable features of a number of existing welldeveloped methods. Besides, it employs a phased approach in the identification of decision criteria and alternatives where each phase results in a more specific list of crite...
A number of recently developed algorithms to handle uncertain information in whole life costing (... more A number of recently developed algorithms to handle uncertain information in whole life costing (WLC) are explained and validated in the context of two example applications. In the first example application, the proposed methodology is compared to the sensitivity analysis technique. The break-even point has been correctly identified in almost all cases. Furthermore, it has been shown how the employed fuzzy methodology may be seen as a generalised sensitivity approach to which has been added a measure of the precision with which input variables are known to the decision-maker. In the second example application, the proposed methodology is compared to two probabilistic techniques: the confidence index method and the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) technique. The proposed methodology correctly identified the most uncertain cost items and portrayed well the confidence in ranking. Besides, all predicted net present values were in close agreement with those obtained by the MCS technique. Thi...
The paper aims to discuss the relationships between the phenomenon of climate change, and the req... more The paper aims to discuss the relationships between the phenomenon of climate change, and the requirement for adaptation for healthcare infrastructure. It discusses the climate change debate, and demonstrates the linkages between climate change and sustainability in the context of healthcare infrastructure. Refurbishment is proposed as the only realistic opportunity to incorporate adaptation requirements within the existing healthcare estate. The paper proposes that a practical and user-friendly decision support model is required to facilitate the selection of 'best fit' options that also satisfies the mandatory requirement to demonstrate value for money in capital spending. Methods:An extensive literature review was undertaken. An integrated approach to the dimensions of climate change, adaptation, sustainability, healthcare infrastructure, and decision-making requirements of the business case process has provided the contextual framework for the paper. Results:The paper identifies the critical requirement to understand the issues of adaptation and decision-making in the context of scale. It is discussed, that there is a lack of willingness to engage on healthcare and infrastructure projects, and that preference is given almost entirely to assets in regard to commercial evaluation, as opposed to service provision requirements, and civic functionality. The success of a high-level healthcare infrastructure scale adaptation strategy, is shown as being dependent upon the success of the design and adaption decisions taken at facility level by the relevant clinical and design team actors. A simplified and integrated decision-support model is required to identify key criteria and measure preferable options. Research limitations/implications:Although beginning on a wider scale, the discussion narrows primarily, on the requirements of the UK NHS and the business case requirements of its capital investment process. Originality/value:The study recognises importance of widening the debate and research in terms of healthcare infrastructure adaptation in the context of ongoing and future climate related events. It is shown; that a clear gap exists in this area. The paper also supports the development of a decision support prototype as the physical output of a three year PhD research project.
This version may not include final proof corrections and does not include published layout or pag... more This version may not include final proof corrections and does not include published layout or pagination.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2015
The financial crisis in late 2008 arrested economic development in the construction sector in the... more The financial crisis in late 2008 arrested economic development in the construction sector in the Middle East, with the result that investors' confidence in the sector is severely depressed. Delays constitute one of the highest impediments to project success. In this respect, the traditional management is no longer sufficient for construction project success. The objective of this study is to conduct a literature review to identify additional effective measures for controlling the potential delays risks in construction projects in order to maximize the opportunities for success in those projects. Thirty-six scholarly articles published between 2000 and 2011 are reviewed to identify related MDRC (measures for delays risks control). This survey reveals that 60% of the studies are related to decision-making, performance, risk management variations and poor management knowledge of stakeholders and that 20% of these studies are undertaken in the Middle East. A further 25% of the studies are related to the lack of financial risk by stakeholders, and of these 14% are in the Middle East. A knowledge gap is identified in terms of project performance, stakeholder management and risk management, which are seen as significant measures of success in controlling project delay.
Industry-wide there has been recognition of the need for the incorporation of performance measure... more Industry-wide there has been recognition of the need for the incorporation of performance measurement in aiding core businesses. However, there has been a dearth of material on performance assessment to aid property management practices and a seeming lack of structured processes for carrying out the performance measurement of properties. So, it has therefore been necessary to carry out an investigation into property performance techniques and performance indicators (PIs) in literature and property management practices. Then, a postal questionnaire survey has been carried out to understand the practical process of property management and performance measurement. Besides, further drawbacks and benefits of the methods have been identified from property managers who actually undertake performance measurement of properties under their portfolio. Finally, the research work is summarised, conclusions are drawn and directions for further research are introduced.
This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decisi... more This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decision making tool in the construction industry on the parts of the client, the analyst and the industry practices. Life cycle costing encompasses a great deal of uncertainty, functions of which are data imperfection, randomness and ambiguity. The traditional use of the probability theory and statistics in LCC analyses could only deal with random uncertainty. This falls short from dealing with situations including incomplete information, human judgement and uncertainty. An integrated LCC framework is proposed. This framework is based on the simple idea that a complex problem may be deconstructed into simpler tasks. Then, the appropriate tools are assigned a subset of tasks that match their capabilities. The framework utilises statistics, fuzzy set theory and artificial neural networks to improve the quality of LCC as a decision making tool.
Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source appli... more Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source applications for the provision of electricity in Nigeria, the country has been experiencing power energy shortages for over three decades now. More than 65% of the population lack commercial electricity, particularly in the rural areas. This has caused socio-economic problems involving relocation of manufacturing companies to neighbouring countries, unemployment, and endemic rural-urban migration. The research that underpins this paper aims to investigate the potential of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the provision of sustainable electricity in Nigeria's rural areas. This has been motivated by the strategic value of RETs in identifying when and where electricity is actually required thereby eliminating/reducing the high cost of gridline network and offering a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. A systematic review method has been used to examine various RETs regarding...
This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decisi... more This paper summarises the difficulties in the application of life cycle costing (LCC) as a decision making tool in the construction industry on the parts of the client, the analyst and the industry practices. Life cycle costing encompasses a great deal of uncertainty, functions of which are data imperfection, randomness and ambiguity. The traditional use of the probability theory and statistics in LCC analyses could only deal with random uncertainty. This falls short from dealing with situations including incomplete information, human judgement and uncertainty. An integrated LCC framework is proposed. This framework is based on the simple idea that a complex problem may be deconstructed into simpler tasks. Then, the appropriate tools are assigned a subset of tasks that match their capabilities. The framework utilises statistics, fuzzy set theory and artificial neural networks to improve the quality of LCC as a decision making tool.
The Nigerian oil and gas industry is very active. New mega projects are coming on stream such as ... more The Nigerian oil and gas industry is very active. New mega projects are coming on stream such as the exploration and production from the deep offshore as well as the construction of a Liquefied natural gas plant to increase gas utilisation. Various contractual arrangements are in place to woo local and foreign investors for exploration and development projects. However, the number, size and complexity of these projects are increasing resulting in achieving extra operational excellence and also placing more emphasis on the assessment and management of the associated risks. Therefore, the research work that underpins this paper was carried out to identify and assess significant risks in the Nigeria Oil and gas projects and addresses their proper allocation. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to a group of experts in the local and international oil company operating in Nigeria. It has been revealed that environmental and Political risks such as Force Majeure due to...
SUMMARY Life Cycle Costing (LCC) has become increasingly important in construction over the last ... more SUMMARY Life Cycle Costing (LCC) has become increasingly important in construction over the last few years. However, despite its importance, it has found limited application so far. Two of the main barriers in its application are the shortage of LCC data and the complexity of the technique itself. This paper presents a computer-integrated environment, which aims to overcome those barriers by providing a framework/mechanism for collecting and storing the LCC data and a number of tools for assisting and simplifying the application of the technique. The main characteristic of the environment is that it provides a holistic approach to Life Cycle Costing by integrating the collection of the data and the LCC-aware design and management of buildings within a single framework. A database, which is flexible enough to accommodate the needs of any user, is used to store the LCC data. An integrated and interactive design tool is used to assist and simplify the LCC-aware design of buildings. A t...
This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded ... more This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded project. This project aims to develop an integrated System for the Optimal Selection of Hospital Finishes. Motivated by the lack of effective tools that would facilitate the effective choice of hospital finishes; a methodological framework for the optimal selection of hospital finishes is proposed. The development of the framework involved three main steps. First, published methodologies are critically reviewed to identify their desirable features and limitations. Secondly, other crucial requirements for effective decision-making are identified. Thirdly, the framework logic is outlined and a practical implementation mechanism is proposed. The proposed framework utilizes desirable features of a number of existing welldeveloped methods. Besides, it employs a phased approach in the identification of decision criteria and alternatives where each phase results in a more specific list of crite...
Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) in general, and biomass source in particular, remains one of ... more Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) in general, and biomass source in particular, remains one of the means of providing sustainable electricity to rural areas in developing countries. This is because of its strategic value in identifying when and where electricity is really required thus, reducing/eliminating the high cost of grid network. The majority of Nigeria's rural dwellers are farmers and use little or none of their residues at the end of the farming season. Nigeria has also been experiencing dwindling power supply at both national and rural level with accessibility representing only 35% and 10% respectively. The rural areas are the most affected causing significant disruption of their socio-economic settings. Considering the enormous biomass resources in these communities, and they constitute approximately 65% of the country's total population, it is feasible to provide sustainable electricity to these communities through Biomass Gasification Technology (BGT). Cost h...
Maintenance optimization is indispensable to the core business objectives of industries that util... more Maintenance optimization is indispensable to the core business objectives of industries that utilizes physical assets. A quantitative maintenance optimization technique known as the Modelling System Failures (MSF) is critically reviewed to identify its relevance to industries that employs physical assets. Practical application of the approach to optimize the maintenance activities of wind turbines is explored and discussed in a case study. The analysis is based maximum likelihood parameter estimation in the Weibull distribution. Shape and scale parameters for a gearbox and its components are estimated. The estimated parameters are used to design Reliability Block Diagrams to model the failures of the gearbox of a selected wind turbine. The models are simulated using Monte Carlo simulation software to assess the reliability, availability and maintainability of the gearbox, and the resultant effects on the wind turbine operation. The methodology presented in the paper is sufficiently ...
Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source appli... more Following the failure of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and fossil fuel source applications for the provision of electricity in Nigeria, the country has been experiencing power energy shortages for over three decades now. More than 65% of the population lack commercial electricity, particularly in the rural areas. This has caused socio-economic problems involving relocation of manufacturing companies to neighbouring countries, unemployment, and endemic rural-urban migration. The research that underpins this paper aims to investigate the potential of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the provision of sustainable electricity in Nigeria's rural areas. This has been motivated by the strategic value of RETs in identifying when and where electricity is actually required thereby eliminating/reducing the high cost of gridline network and offering a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. A systematic review method has been used to examine various RETs regarding ...
Hospital refurbishment has taken a secondary role in the last decade, in favour of new build faci... more Hospital refurbishment has taken a secondary role in the last decade, in favour of new build facilities. This has allowed the Client and the Design Team to build and specify with greater flexibility and from essentially a 'blank canvas'. Correspondingly, sustainability as an issue has been easier to plan and implement from the earliest briefing and design stage. The changing economic landscape has necessitated that the focus has now shifted to the refurbishment of the existing healthcare estate. Refurbishment is widely recognised as presenting unique challenges in its own right. Add to this the institutional and statutory requirements in the arena of sustainability and the unique functional characteristics of an operational hospital and these challenges are increased. Given the practical and economic challenges of refurbishment as an activity, weighed against a facility as multi-faceted and complicated as a hospital, a structured and prioritised process of decision making is...
This paper is the fifth in a series reporting on-going research within a Department of Health (DO... more This paper is the fifth in a series reporting on-going research within a Department of Health (DOH) funded research project to develop a novel decision support system for the optimal selection of finishes for healthcare facilities. The system has been developed by integrating a recently developed extended whole-life costing (WLC) application with the resource database reported in this paper. The database has been designed and implemented in MS Access ® to accommodate finishes’ whole-life cost and time data and other data categories including quality, performance and other relevant non-financial data. The database structure has been designed on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the requirements of effective WLC decision-making during the design stage, the special needs of the healthcare environments, and the limitations of previous efforts to utilize databases to facilitate whole life costing. The database relational structure is explained and the data types and descriptions of fi...
The RICS COBRA Conference is held annually. The aim of COBRA is to provide a platform for the dis... more The RICS COBRA Conference is held annually. The aim of COBRA is to provide a platform for the dissemination of original research and new developments within the specific disciplines, sub-disciplines or field of study of: Management of the construction process • Cost and value management • Building technology • Legal aspects of construction and procurement • Public private partnerships • Health and safety • Procurement • Risk management • Project management The built asset • Property investment theory and practice • Indirect property investment • Property market forecasting • Property pricing and appraisal • Law of property, housing and land use planning • Urban development • Planning and property markets • Financial analysis of the property market and property assets • The dynamics of residential property markets • Global comparative analysis of property markets • Building occupation • Sustainability and real estate • Sustainability and environmental law • Building performance The p...
This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded ... more This paper is the second in a series reporting on on-going research within an NHS-Estates funded project. This project aims to develop an integrated System for the Optimal Selection of Hospital Finishes. Motivated by the lack of effective tools that would facilitate the effective choice of hospital finishes; a methodological framework for the optimal selection of hospital finishes is proposed. The development of the framework involved three main steps. First, published methodologies are critically reviewed to identify their desirable features and limitations. Secondly, other crucial requirements for effective decision-making are identified. Thirdly, the framework logic is outlined and a practical implementation mechanism is proposed. The proposed framework utilizes desirable features of a number of existing welldeveloped methods. Besides, it employs a phased approach in the identification of decision criteria and alternatives where each phase results in a more specific list of crite...
A number of recently developed algorithms to handle uncertain information in whole life costing (... more A number of recently developed algorithms to handle uncertain information in whole life costing (WLC) are explained and validated in the context of two example applications. In the first example application, the proposed methodology is compared to the sensitivity analysis technique. The break-even point has been correctly identified in almost all cases. Furthermore, it has been shown how the employed fuzzy methodology may be seen as a generalised sensitivity approach to which has been added a measure of the precision with which input variables are known to the decision-maker. In the second example application, the proposed methodology is compared to two probabilistic techniques: the confidence index method and the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) technique. The proposed methodology correctly identified the most uncertain cost items and portrayed well the confidence in ranking. Besides, all predicted net present values were in close agreement with those obtained by the MCS technique. Thi...
The paper aims to discuss the relationships between the phenomenon of climate change, and the req... more The paper aims to discuss the relationships between the phenomenon of climate change, and the requirement for adaptation for healthcare infrastructure. It discusses the climate change debate, and demonstrates the linkages between climate change and sustainability in the context of healthcare infrastructure. Refurbishment is proposed as the only realistic opportunity to incorporate adaptation requirements within the existing healthcare estate. The paper proposes that a practical and user-friendly decision support model is required to facilitate the selection of 'best fit' options that also satisfies the mandatory requirement to demonstrate value for money in capital spending. Methods:An extensive literature review was undertaken. An integrated approach to the dimensions of climate change, adaptation, sustainability, healthcare infrastructure, and decision-making requirements of the business case process has provided the contextual framework for the paper. Results:The paper identifies the critical requirement to understand the issues of adaptation and decision-making in the context of scale. It is discussed, that there is a lack of willingness to engage on healthcare and infrastructure projects, and that preference is given almost entirely to assets in regard to commercial evaluation, as opposed to service provision requirements, and civic functionality. The success of a high-level healthcare infrastructure scale adaptation strategy, is shown as being dependent upon the success of the design and adaption decisions taken at facility level by the relevant clinical and design team actors. A simplified and integrated decision-support model is required to identify key criteria and measure preferable options. Research limitations/implications:Although beginning on a wider scale, the discussion narrows primarily, on the requirements of the UK NHS and the business case requirements of its capital investment process. Originality/value:The study recognises importance of widening the debate and research in terms of healthcare infrastructure adaptation in the context of ongoing and future climate related events. It is shown; that a clear gap exists in this area. The paper also supports the development of a decision support prototype as the physical output of a three year PhD research project.
This version may not include final proof corrections and does not include published layout or pag... more This version may not include final proof corrections and does not include published layout or pagination.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 2015
The financial crisis in late 2008 arrested economic development in the construction sector in the... more The financial crisis in late 2008 arrested economic development in the construction sector in the Middle East, with the result that investors' confidence in the sector is severely depressed. Delays constitute one of the highest impediments to project success. In this respect, the traditional management is no longer sufficient for construction project success. The objective of this study is to conduct a literature review to identify additional effective measures for controlling the potential delays risks in construction projects in order to maximize the opportunities for success in those projects. Thirty-six scholarly articles published between 2000 and 2011 are reviewed to identify related MDRC (measures for delays risks control). This survey reveals that 60% of the studies are related to decision-making, performance, risk management variations and poor management knowledge of stakeholders and that 20% of these studies are undertaken in the Middle East. A further 25% of the studies are related to the lack of financial risk by stakeholders, and of these 14% are in the Middle East. A knowledge gap is identified in terms of project performance, stakeholder management and risk management, which are seen as significant measures of success in controlling project delay.
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