Master of Science in Building Construction and Facility Management

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Master of Science in Building Construction and Facility Management

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/72867

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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 13

Mitigation of Business Risk Exposure in Public Higher Education Facilities Management Using Key Performance Indicators: Analysis of the University System of Georgia

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-25) Maddox, Anthony J.

The post-secondary education sector has sustained significant student growth, which has led to the expansion of institutional buildings and infrastructure. With increased growth and expansion experienced in previous years, appropriate operational funding has not always matched growth. This lack of funding can cause an increase of deferred maintenance and capital renewal, which results in an increase in Business Risk Exposure (BRE) to the organization. The objective of this study is to examine the facilities operational and capital funding of the University System of Georgia institutions. Funding will be compared to counterparts within a Facilities Performance Indicator (FPI) report in order to understand if operational funding is adequate or below comparable institutions. This report is comprised of educational institutions across the United States volunteering current facility information, created annually by the Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA).
Conceptual framework for incorporating access for maintainability considerations in BIM coordination

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-05-05) Sierra Aparicio, Monica Viviana

Access to perform maintainability tasks has been addressed by facility managers as one of the common struggles they face once the construction project is delivered. The development of Building Information Modeling (BIM) has proved the potential to foresee, identify, and remove the physical barriers for maintenance teams in order to allow a better compliance of their tasks and to ensure that equipment is timely and effectively reviewed. Also, rule-based software might enhance the revision of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance checks, easing the decision-making process in regard to end-user accessibility. Tools such as Solibri have rule templates for a few ADA checks. Yet, there is not a framework that can provide complete operational constraints and foresees the avoidance of accessibility concerns during the design phase. The objective of this study is to develop a proof of concept that addresses access for maintainability requirements during the coordination procedure, ensuring a welcoming and equitable environment for everybody. In order to introduce accessibility preconditions to an automated rule generator, the interpretation and reduction of the regulation needs to be done first. Afterward, the decoded restrictions are introduced into a Dynamo script, which will make them visible on the clash detection tool during the coordination procedure. Later on, the proposed framework will be tested on a case study. The proposal might contribute to the reduction of the project’s lifecycle costs by considering maintainability restrictions earlier in the design process. Moreover, inputs related to disabled individuals’ daily struggles might be further developed by fining tune the proof of concept. Therefore, those issues might be included as a driver, following a human-centered design process. Furthermore, the incorporation of those constraints will contribute to the execution of a resilient building, capable of satisfying its occupants displacement requirements.
The effect of military construction transformation on project cost and schedule within the United States Army Corps of Engineers South Atlantic Division

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2017-11-07) Westcott, Matthew

The United States Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been the primary Construction Agent of the United States Army and Air Force. Its members are considered the experts in project delivery for the Department of Defense (DoD). In 2006, the Base Realignment and Closure Program (BRAC) and the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) led to increased workload which caused the USACE to adopt the Design-Build project delivery process as a primary means of project delivery in an effort to leverage the method’s ability to deliver projects at a lower cost and faster delivery time as compared to conventional methods. The focused use of the Design-Build process was to become the primary business practice of USACE after the BRAC/GWOT period, replacing the traditional Design-Bid-Build process that had dominated the USACE landscape for 50 years. The USACE Commander’s intent behind the Design-Build incorporation was to realize a 15% cost savings and a 30% reduction in delivery time over the traditional method. This measure of success would serve as a guide to the USACE for future business practices. Military Construction Transformation, or MILCON Transformation, was the name designated to the Design-Build process when it was approved as the primary form of project delivery in the USACE in 2006. Since then, the four-year spike in project workload brought about during the BRAC and initial GWOT period has been diminished, and the business practice has taken some time to incorporate refinements based on lessons learned during the BRAC/GWOT period. In 2009 the Engineer Inspector General (EIG) was commissioned to measure the performance standards given by the USACE Commander, but after conducting only interviews of district chiefs across the USACE, the EIG was unable to quantify any project data that was relatable to the Commander’s metric (EIG, 2009). Independent studies evaluating the performance of Design-Build in various domains of the public sector have been conducted in the past, however a measurement of this specificity has yet to be conducted. The scope of this thesis is to evaluate the MILCON Transformation performance of the of the South Atlantic Division during 2002-2014. Project data was gathered from the USACE-internal automated information system, Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). Only MILCON, vertical construction project data was collected from EDW, and four hypothesis based off cost and time were developed for testing. Five project milestones for 304 projects that qualified for evaluation were evaluated using 180 separate Welch’s T-tests to test for a statistically significant difference between Design-Bid-Build and Design-Build. Of the 180 T-tests conducted, 37 were in support of the alternate hypothesis, which stated that there was a statistically significant difference with 95% confidence between the two project delivery models. Projects were analyzed in three different ways. First, projects were distributed between the two project delivery populations and all performance metrics regarding cost and time were analyzed from the Division level. Next, projects were analyzed by building type, to find out if there were any specific types of buildings where Design-Build performed better than Design-Bid-Build. Finally, projects were analyzed by District, where projects from each of the 5 Districts within the South Atlantic Division were analyzed to determine if any one District executed Design-Build more successfully than another District. From this analysis, it was found that the 15% reduction of cost by use of Design-Build was realized from a Division level. However, in no circumstance was the target 30% reduction in time realized for the Division, any District, or any specific building type. Results were then presented to a focus group of leaders within the USACE South Atlantic Division to gather insight on why the USACE Commanders goals were not completely met. Since literature pointed to Design-Build as being a source of lower cost and time in the public sector, data results warranted further insight as to why the USACE struggled to gain full value from the Design-Build delivery model. The focus group validated the data and findings while attributing discovered performance metrics to operational tempo, manpower, and conservative management. From these results, the researcher submits recommendations on how the USACE can realize greater value from the use of Design-Build.
Change order insurance policy (COIP) in the U.S. design and construction industry: Is there any likelihood of acceptance?

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-11-15) Ghaziri, Louay

Throughout the construction industry and for a long period of time, the issue of change orders poses as an undesirable problem in maintaining the efficiency and cost of construction projects. This research study will investigate a new mechanism for dealing with such problems. Accordingly, it will propose sharing the risk of cost overrun as a consequence of change orders, with a third-party insurance company, which can also be known as Change Order Insurance Policy (COIP). In order to check for the possibility of implementing such a policy in the U.S. market, this study will primarily test for the acceptance rate of design and construction professionals spanning the industry. Accordingly, participants were chosen from a list of 25 top construction firms found in The Atlanta Business Chronicle. Two anonymous surveys were then administered to assess the extent to which construction-affiliated professionals accept the concept of using COIP. Accordingly, results showed that the majority of participants do not accept the idea of using such a policy. However, program managers and owners did portray higher acceptance rates, as opposed to architects and contractors.
Assessing the effects of augmented reality on the spatial skills of postsecondary construction management students in the U.S.

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-04-18) Kim, Jeff

There is a continual challenge within the construction industry to meet schedule, budget, and quality expectations. At the same time, there is an underlying problem where the older and more experienced workforce is retiring from industry at a faster rate than the newer workforce can replace them. As the more experienced workforce departs from the industry, they are taking with them much-needed skills and experience that fail to get transitioned to the newer and less experienced workforce. Among these skills are spatial skills. The construction industry has already caught on that this is a serious problem that they must contend with, and so, they have looked to the postsecondary institutions to help resolve it. However, the postsecondary institutions have a problem of their own, whereby they commonly default to passive teaching techniques that are not well suited to teaching spatial skills. So, therefore, there is a need to graduate construction management students with better spatial skills in order to meet the necessities of industry. Along with this, is the need for academia to reconsider teaching styles to better train spatial skills. Spatial skills, it has been found, are better retained when active and collaborative teaching engagements are arranged. Therefore, identifying and testing a practical and non-interfering classroom tool that students can easily use, would be the most favorable way to overcome academia’s tendency towards passive teaching. Spatial skills are needed in every part of the construction industry. In fact, everyday simple tasks require spatial skills and while these skills are honed over time, more refined skills, capable of interpreting abstract space, are required to assemble a complex construction project. Construction projects are getting more complex and often the design involves some measure of abstract thinking. Teaching these abstract-based spatial skills in postsecondary institutions has typically been done through drafting and plan reading courses, with some success. However, the need from industry is not being fully met with these skills and so an alternative solution is recommended. While Building Information Modeling (BIM) has become an adequate solution to aid in the understanding and planning of highly abstract designs, successfully using it requires excellent spatial skills. Consequently, it would be advantageous if those spatial skills were developed before students were introduced to BIM. Augmented reality is a collection of technologies that allows a user to view the “real” world with additional information that is intended to provide a better understanding of what is being observed. Augmented reality already has applications in many industries and is fast becoming a proven technology. With the availability of smaller and more powerful consumer mobile devices, augmented reality has the potential of becoming a more ubiquitous and practical tool. Recognizing that this technology can be practical, non-interfering, and known by the masses makes it an excellent solution for the classroom. Therefore, this research will study the use of an augmented reality tool to determine if there is an improvement of spatial skills in terms of accuracy, time to execute, and the retention of concepts over time. Furthermore, a separate analysis will be conducted to determine if the teaching tool is a benefit or disruption to the overall learning experience.
Feasibility of implementing prefabricated U.S. products and methods for residential construction in Thailand

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-06-24) Ngoenchuklin, Chawin

Prefabricated construction has been a common construction method for American construction for more than a century. The concept of build it fast in the most economical way has not changed since the beginning; however, the new technologies have been developed to suit the modern world prefabricated construction. The new technologies are not only help contractors and owners get their building faster and more economical but they also help reduce construction waste and produce high energy efficiency buildings which result in a long term benefit to projects. On the other hand, prefabrication for residential construction has been used in Thailand for only less than two decades. However, the prefabrication construction in Thailand has grown rapidly from the past five years. Recently, there are many new developers, and contractors who have switched from a traditional construction to prefabrication to keep up the rising in Thai residential market. Moreover, the new minimum wage policy from Thai government has hit Thai construction business very hard. The labor cost has raised more than 40% in some area (Thai Department of labor, 2013) since 2012. Thai developers see prefabrication as a future and ready to invest more in this type of construction. (Krunthep Thurakit, 2013) Currently, there are many construction products from the U.S. which have been using in Thai construction. Thai people are familiar with American product, therefore, U.S. prefabricated products and methods can easily make a quick transition to Thai prefabricated construction. The intention of this research is to find the prefabricated residential construction products or method from the U.S. that can be used for developing the new or similar products that compatible with Thai market. There are a lot of strong potential prefabricated construction products and method in the U.S. which can be very useful in Thailand. Those can be benefit to both American investors and Thai construction. The selected products or method will be review and investigate in the categories such as performance, compatibility, availability, price and ability to adapt to Thai market.
Decision support system for building construction product selection using life-cycle management (lcm)

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-06-09) Quinones, Maria Cecilia

As the green movement begins to sweep through the construction industry, decision-makers are beginning to include a sustainable aspect to their purchase decisions. Selecting a product solely based on its sustainability, however, is not enough to drive product selection in the construction industry. Cost still dominates the selection of building products. The level of sustainability of a product and its cost are not interconnected as market prices do not reflect the cost of environmental impacts, such as the cost of global warming or fossil fuel depletion. Having two distinct aspects to consider adds complexity in the product selection process. Typically, it constrains decision-makers to perform a trade-off analysis that does not necessarily guarantee the most environmentally preferable purchase decision. This study proposes a life-cycle management (LCM) system that reinforces the choices made by decision-makers by providing a scientific justification for those decisions. The proposed system analyses the environmental and economic performance of building product through life-cycle analysis and purchase price analysis. It operates on tools publicly available in the market and state-of-the-art analysis, assessment, and interpretation methods. The LCM system combines two distinct product attributes into a single performance score that can be easily interpreted. It allows decision-makers to compare product scores and ultimately make the most environmentally responsible and financially viable selection. A comprehensive approach is used to refine and test the LCM system using case studies comprised of an environmental and economic performance evaluation of flooring products. The contribution of this research includes the consideration of a holistic approach to product selection based on environmental and cost performance. Pre-construction estimators and construction managers could improve their estimating and product selection practices using the proposed system. Material suppliers can also benefit from this approach, as they can use it to enhance their pricing strategies, marketing plans, and overall product competitiveness.
Use of lean and building information modeling (bim) in the construction process; does bim make it leaner?

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04-08) Ningappa, Geetanjali Ningappa

Construction productivity lags behind most industries. In general, the process of construction is carried out in several smaller processes. For the overall construction process to be successful, continuity between these smaller processes must be achieved. This has been the persistent goal of construction productivity improvement for decades now. Waste is generated between the continuing activities by the unpredicted release of work and the arrival of resources. However, in recent decades the construction industry has a great need to improve its productivity, quality and incorporate new technologies to the industry due to increased foreign competition. In the late 1980s, researchers started looking at solving this problem in a more general and structured way based on the philosophy and ideology of lean production. In lean, adopting waste identification/reduction, or meeting the client's needs with minimal resources addresses the performance improvement. With recent developments in the construction industry, introduction of building information modeling (BIM) has had a significant influence on leaner construction. They are both complementary in several important ways. Various studies conducted exhibit that BIM is very crucial in reducing the project cost, site conflicts, project duration, error reduction, better and faster design development, and so on. This brings the question; can BIM be used as a tool for leaner construction? The objective of this thesis is to determine how BIM is helping achieve a leaner construction. More and more companies are adopting BIM as an acceptable waste reduction tool. A comprehensive study of lean theory and BIM was conducted, underscoring ways for BIM to help achieve leaner construction. The research was broadly conducted in three different parts. In the first part, a synthesis is drawn from a literature study to show that BIM helps reduce waste, helps in implementing lean techniques, and achieves lean principles. The second part focuses on the data acquired from a construction company to show that BIM helps reduce project cost, duration and conflicts. The third and the last part focused on getting the perspective view of different professionals in the construction industry on BIM by conducting focus interviews. A comprehensive conclusion was derived based on the findings from the three methods adopted.
Measuring sustainability perceptions of construction materials

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-05-24) Florez, Laura

As more owners seek to develop sustainable buildings, the construction industry is adapting to new requirements in order to meet owner's concerns. Material selection has been identified as an area where designers and contractors can have a significant impact on the sustainable performance of a building. Objective factors such as design considerations and cost constraints can play a role in the selection of materials. However, there may be subjective factors that could also impact the selection of materials. Building upon the potential impact of sustainability perceptions in an optimization model that can be used to help decision makers to select materials, this study defines and tests an instrument to identify and measure such perceptions. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a conceptual instrument that measures the user-based assessment of product sustainability and validates decision-maker's perceptions in order to evaluate the contribution of subjective characteristics in materials selection. A survey of design and construction students and practitioners is carried out to capture the subjective factors included in the instrument. A Factor Analysis approach is used to refine and validate the measurement instrument and predict decision-makers' sustainability appraisal due to the factors considered.
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.