Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Building Construction

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Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Building Construction

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/72547

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Degree Series

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Organizational Unit

School of Building Construction

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 41

Facility management during the 2009 recession: a snapshot view

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-11-17) Geierman, Joseph

In 2008 and 2009, the world was shaken by the deepest recession since the Great Depression. This event has forced changes on many industries and professions - including Facility Management. This paper provides a "snapshot view" of how Facility Managers and Facility Management departments are navigating the financial meltdown. Preliminary research focused on previous recessionary periods, and the impact that they had on the development of Facility Management. In the recessions of the eighties, nineties and two thousands, Facility Managers started professional associations and developed professional certifications for themselves. At the same time, more businesses began utilizing the Facility Management function in order to orchestrate an increasingly complicated (and potentially expensive) built environment. At the same time, the same economic pressures led both to an increase in the use of outsourcing, and a backlog of deferred maintenance. Facility Managers had to be both innovative and flexible to survive in the industry - which has seen little growth in the 2000s. The main focus of this paper was a survey answered by 119 Facility Managers. In it, they reported on both how their departments were responding to the recession, and also how they were personally managing their careers during this time. Follow-up questions were also asked of some Facility Managers, to get a more detailed understanding of their answers. The main strategy that the survey found Facility Management departments turning to during the current recession was deferred maintenance, followed by staffing cuts and contract renegotiations. Facility Managers also reported that they are continuing to shift work to outsourcers - although some FMs reported that they have either outsourced all the work they can, or that there is no way to outsource some of the tasks that they do. In those cases, they focused on doing more work in-house. Individual Facility Managers tended to have relatively long careers, with about seventy percent being in their positions for longer than three years. Also, of those FMs who reported being unemployed, the majority had only been out of work for less than six months. Many of the Facility Managers questioned in this survey stated that they believed networking was a key component of their jobs. There were some who disagreed with this, however, believing that technical knowledge has become much more important than a strong social network. About equal numbers of people who had been in their jobs for about a year reported finding those jobs through job-boards as through networking Most of the Facility Managers who responded to the survey are not aware of any initiatives devoted specifically to helping out-of-work FMs. These groups do exist, however, and some were discovered in the course of researching this paper. It's notable that many Facility Managers appeared to have much more negative view of social networking sites than they do of in-person networking. The paper concludes by speculating on what the various results mean. While Facility Management departments appear to be laying professionals off, the long tenures and short periods of unemployment may signal that Facility managers are still in demand - even in times of recession. They may actually be more in demand now than in normal times, because of the need to balance multiple needs during a time of constrained spending on both capital and operating budgets. One red flag on the horizon is the perception of new technologies by respondents to this survey. Facility Managers were originally hired to manage costly new technologies in the workplace - this is something that they must continue to do in the future, and if they are not comfortable with changes that are coming, the profession may be bypassed or become marginalized. This may be a generational issue, which will be solved as younger people enter the industry.
Statistical analysis of residential housing prices in an up and down real estate market: a general framework and study of Cobb County, GA

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-11-17) Corsini, Kenneth Richard

The recent economic recession has had a significant impact on residential real estate both nationally and regionally. Our research is focused specifically on Cobb County, Georgia and the impact that the declining economy has had on home buying and property values in this area. Specifically, this research aims to identify changes in the residential market in terms of significant characteristics of housing and their corresponding effect on home values.
Design build project delivery in the Air Force Reserve Command

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-07-01) Richardson, Kathleen

Design Build is rapidly becoming one of the most commonly used project delivery methods in the construction industry. The United States Corp of Engineers (USACE) has started implementing its own version of Design Build with the introduction of Military Transformation in April 2005. Per the Department of the Army (2008) Military Transformation is a term employed by the Corps to implement the use of alternate project delivery method as a means of achieving best value. The United States Air Force (AF) and the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) are expected to establish a target of 75% of all future Military Construction Projects (MILCONs) executed when using the Design Build method. The use of this delivery method results in significant changes to the relationships between the various parties associated with facility project delivery compared to the traditional Design Bid Build method. AFRC construction project procedures and requirements must also change.
Alternative to low bid selection in Air Force reserve military construction: approach to best value procurement

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-07-01) Garner, Birtice A.

Best value is becoming one of the most commonly used procurement methods in the facility construction industry. The Federal Government and the Air Force Reserve predominant project delivery approach has been via the low-bid award. This process has not been successful, documented by large numbers of construction modifications, as well as project cost and schedule growth over the past sixteen years. Recently, federal procurement agencies have attempted to move toward construction awards based upon best value principles relative to performance and price. The United States Army Corps of Engineers best value procurement vehicle known as Military Transformation fails to deliver true best value. This pseudo best value delivery process: (1) fails to objectively rate and apply contractor past performance; (2) lacks the means to monetarily quantify contractor proposal risks; and (3) provides no means of transferring control and responsibility for risks and risk minimization to the contractor. Only a true best value project delivery system can provide the urgently required increased efficiency necessary for Air Force Reserve Command to remain a dependable military institution capable of erecting facilities contributory to our nation's defense by perpetually adding value to the project delivery process.
An analysis regarding energy efficiency in metro Atlanta's private office buildings

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-06-12) Fore, Elizabeth K.

Commercial office building occupants are a significant consumer of electricity, and they subsequently contribute a significant amount of greenhouse gases into the environment in the process. An opportunity exists to improve the energy efficiency in existing buildings, and the Energy Star certification program provides both tools to do so and an independent verification of a building's superior energy efficiency. However, only 16% of metro Atlanta's office space has achieved this certification. The intent of the research was to identify the current state of energy efficiency in buildings, and to identify potential obstacles to obtaining the Energy Star certification. Towards this goal, secondary research was conducted among prominent academic journals, as well as numerous professional and governmental organizations and publications. Primary research was conducted through an online survey of Facility Managers, Property Managers, and Building Engineers of Energy Star office buildings and comparable non-Energy Star office buildings in the metro Atlanta area. The survey was conducted mostly using closed-ended questions using a Likert scale so as to provide a basis for statistical analysis among responses, and open-ended questions were also included to identify the current state of energy efficiency practices. The research identified three areas which hold statistically significant differences between Energy Star and directly comparable buildings. An analysis also determined that building age does seem to play a role in the building representatives' responses. Four conclusions were found regarding characteristics of Energy Star buildings themselves. The research also identified five conclusions regarding the expected result when pursuing the Energy Star certification. These conclusions include the best method to achieve the Energy Star certification, the expected energy savings, the expected time spent to achieve the certification, the expected cost to achieve the certification, and the main reasons to recertify the building. Finally, this research highlights innovative practices in other states and cities, such as financial incentives and legislation which require commercial buildings to obtain a building rating. Such innovative practices are currently not employed in the Atlanta metro area, but would be beneficial to both the Atlanta area and individual buildings.
Comparison of module usage of project management information system and success rate of construction projects: case study

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-04-09) Sweet, Coretta A.

If construction is about delivering a built asset that is of high quality and efficiency, wouldn t most companies use all the tools and processes available at the highest organizational level possible? A major assumption is made that Prolog Manager is an effective Project Management Information System. Saying Company X will benefit from more module use with Prolog Manager system is not the same as saying they will suffer from lack of module usage. If a company has already attained success using manual systems it successes may continue. To be as successful as possible, maximum utilization of all modules of Prolog Manager at the unique project type organizational level is necessary, and correlations can be made between higher module usage and greater project successes with this type of company size and structure.
Leadership in project management

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-11-19) Xiong, Riyue

Project management is a carefully planned and organized effort to accomplish a specific one-time task. For example, constructing a building or implementing a new computer system, all need to be well-managed. Projects are conceived and completed by people, who are involved in the whole process of project execution and completion. Thus, project management not only requires an efficient project manager, but also a qualified leader who can lead the team effectively. This research will provide a clearer understanding of the concept of leadership in projects, discussing how and why it works, and the ways to make project teams more dynamic and effective. The results from the study are applied to these leadership concepts, in an effort understand the role of effective leadership in reducing costs across the whole project process and increasing the project value.
Business reasons for utilizing renewable energy applications in facilities to assist in extending the life of the heating ventilation and air conditioning systems

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-04-02) Thompson, Glendon Raymond

This research is intended to discover business reasons for utilizing renewable energy applications in buildings to help extend the life of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. It is designed to focus on gleaning information from the United States and China. These two countries differ politically, socially, economically and culturally. In history, trading and other economic activity has always been a point of common ambitions. Therefore studying business and economic reasons for applying renewable energy applications will be edifying.
Optimal Investment Strategy for Energy Performance Improvements in Existing Buildings

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-11-15) Ramkrishnan, Karthik

Current global efforts for energy conservation and optimization are focused on improvements in energy supply and production systems, and on encouraging the adoption of energy-efficient devices and equipment. However, systematic assessments of economic and technical implications when adopting energy-efficient alternative systems in buildings have not yet been explored thoroughly. The uncertainty about the consequences of investing in alternative energy-efficient systems has led to a prolonged utilization of obsolete building systems (underperforming HVAC systems, inefficient lighting systems, badly maintained and equipment, and so forth). This has led to overall poor energy efficiency, creating considerable burden on the building operation budget. This research discusses the procedure for formulating an investment strategy to improve existing building energy performance. The approach is suitable for large building portfolios where a plethora of potential refurbishment interventions can be considered. This makes our approach especially suited for use on university campuses and most of this report will focus on that particular application utilization protocols especially for use on campuses. This investment model only looks at the energy related savings versus investments; it is well understood that the ultimate selection of the optimal set of improvement options of a portfolio will be determined by additional considerations, such as overall value, occupant satisfaction, productivity improvements, aesthetics, etc. Nevertheless, many campus managers are confronted with the question how much energy they can save with a given investment amount. This is exactly what our approach helps to answer. The investment optimization strategy is implemented in software "InvEnergy," which systematically calculates the costs and benefits of all possible building-technology pairings, taking uncertainties in the saving/investment calculations and estimates into account. This tool empowers decision makers in facility management to make complex investment decisions during continuous building commissioning.
Holistic Analysis of Fuel Cells for Residential Application

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007-11-06) Ospina Alvarado, Angelica Maria

The development of an index to compare different sources of energy is presented; the index address the appraisal of the source of energy from its sustainable performance and also using the factors that influence the user's decision making process of adopting an alternative energy. The index is used to compare the fuel cell system and the traditional grid system powered by coal fired power plants, for a typical residential unit located in the rural Appalachian region in Ohio.