Halim A. Boussabaine

A neural network bid/no bid model: the case for contractors in Syria

Despite the crucial importance of the ‘bid/no bid’ decision in the construction industry, it has been given little attention by researchers. This paper describes the development and testing of a novel bid/no bid model using the artificial neural network (ANN) technique. A back‐propagation network consisting of an input buffer with 18 input nodes, two hidden layers and one output node was developed. This model is based on the findings of a formal questionnaire through which key factors that affect the ‘bid/no bid’ decision were identified and ranked according to their importance to contractors operating in Syria. Data on 157 real‐life bidding situations in Syria were used in training. The model was tested on another 20 new projects. The model wrongly predicted the actual bid/no bid decision only in two projects (10%) of the test sample. This demonstrates a high accuracy of the proposed model and the viability of neural network as a powerful tool for modelling the bid/no bid decision‐making process. The model offers a simple and easy‐to‐use tool to help contractors consider the most influential bidding variables and to improve the consistency of the bid/no bid decision‐making process. Although the model is based on data from the Syrian construction industry, the methodology would suggest a much broader geographical applicability of the ANN technique on bid/no bid decisions.

Benchmarking operation and maintenance costs of French healthcare facilities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a benchmarking study of operation and maintenance costs of French healthcare facilities between 2008 and 2009. The investigation presents findings using quantitative methods, including cumulative frequency and descriptive statistics. The purpose also is to highlight and capture the performance profile of long‐term hospitals, using several operational cost drivers.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review revealed that there are no studies on the benchmarking of operation or maintenance costs of health facilities in France. Operational cost drivers reported in literature from other countries were used as the underlying constructs for this research, with a view to generating a benchmarking framework for the health assets in the data sample. The data were extracted from the databases of the hospitals concerned. Some of the data were collected via interviews and questionnaires. Statistical analysis was carried out to investigate and generate potential ...

Quantifying environmental impacts and eco-costs from brick waste

Abstract The construction industry has historically consumed large quantities of raw materials. Waste generation from the use of these materials can have a significant impact on the environment. Major potential sources of pollution from construction processes are waste materials, emissions from vehicles, noise and release of contaminants to the atmosphere, ground and water. In order to minimize the impact of waste generated by construction activities, a methodology to estimate the eco-costing of construction waste is proposed by this work. The article presents the results of quantifying the ecological cost and impact of brick waste from construction sites on the environment. Life-cycle assessment methodology and Eco-indicator 95 are used to calculate the impact of brick waste. This article provides a first attempt to conceptualize eco-costing issues in relation to waste from construction activities. Generally, the results show that the impact is mainly due to the burning of diesel from machinery during dismantling processes and the use of vehicles for transportation of brick waste.

Schools design quality: A user perspective

The Building Schools for the Future was launched by the Government in 2004. The aim of the programme was, under the last Labour Government, to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England by 2020. It represented the biggest capital investment in schools since the 1960s and was designed to explicitly integrate the design quality of schools with the quality of education. It was therefore of the utmost importance for architects, and the construction industry as a whole, to design buildings that were fit for their purpose as 21st century learning environments. Doubts were raised particularly by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), in 2006, about whether the quality of these new schools met the educational aspirations of then Government. It was speculated that some of these new schools lacked the inspiring, innovative and flexible spaces the Labour Government was aiming for, leaving a concern that many of these new schools would exhibit the same problems as the schools that they have replaced. Hence, it was the aim of this study to understand the successes and failures of the Building Schools for the Future programme since the CABE review, with regard to the quality of design in recently completed secondary schools. This was undertaken principally through a questionnaire survey of schools completed between 2006 and 2009. Analysis of the data indicated that there are improvements on some aspects of design quality. Particularly there are improvements in relation to building envelope, public presence, circulation patterns, acoustic, lighting and ventilation strategies. However, the issues of inadequacy of resilient materials specification and a lack of storage are still unresolved.

Using life cycle assessment for estimating environmental impacts and eco-costs from the metal waste in the construction industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to estimate the ecological costs form metal waste based on life cycle assessment (LCA) environmental impacts generated from the management of the construction waste. Design/methodology/approach – LCA methodology and eco-indicators 95 were used to calculate the impact from metal waste based on three waste management strategies. Findings – The results of this study establish that the ecological impact from metal waste management is mainly due to the burning of diesel from machinery during the dismantling processes and the use of vehicles for transportation. The results proposed equations and curves for estimating the ecological cost from metal waste based on waste management strategies. Research limitations/implications – The research could affect members of the engineering and construction industry, since it provides methods for costing the ecological impact from construction waste. The eco-costs will assist in implementing sustainable strategies th...

Identifying reference companies using the book-to-market ratio: a minimum spanning tree approach

There is substantial evidence to suggest that the book-to-market (BM) ratio is an important factor in explaining stock market returns. Its role has proved difficult to isolate, however, due to statistical problems in its construction and to its observational equivalence to a number of risk and behavioural explanations. In addition, now widely recognised complex behaviour in financial markets has called into question modelling approaches that are limited in their ability to uncover relationships that are possibly masked during financial crises, for example. As one response, our research explores the value of a newly applied technique which examines the topological properties of minimum spanning trees as applied to both the BM ratio and market returns. Our intention is to identify and report investment signals as determined by the BM ratio and to assess the relationships of these signals to returns outcomes. The approach enables highly nonlinear behaviour to be addressed and the relationships we set out to capture to be reported in novel ways. We motivate and evidence a previously unreported role for BM as an investment signal which is effective over varying stock market conditions, including the financial crisis that began in 2008.

The impact of hospital bed use on healthcare facilities operational costs: The French perspective

– This paper aims to examine for the first time the impact of the intensity of hospital bed occupancy on healthcare facilities operational costs in France., – Research methodology is based on empirical data collection from 19 short‐stay care acute and long‐term care hospital facilities in Paris, France, carried out during 2008. Statistic analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of bed occupancy on operational cost of health facilities. The purpose of the analysis is to determine the best practices and provide recommendations to the decision makers for operational cost budgeting purposes., – The main findings are the relationship between bed usage and operational costs of acute hospital facilities in France. An analysis of annual O&M (operation and maintenance) cost clearly indicated that type of medical activities had a major impact on O&M cost when the influence of all other potential factors, particularly, morphology, quality of construction and age, were excluded., – Data sample is limited to hospitals in the Paris region. Hence, extrapolation from the generated results to other regions in France is limited. Other facilities operational cost drivers, such as conditional surveys of buildings, need to be considered alongside the performance measures included in this study., – The results will help in establishing best practices and benchmarking operational costs in heath care facilities in France. They will also assist in developing and planning strategic heath care operational budgets. One of the most important implications of the results is in assisting decision makers to develop facilities management improvement strategies., – The research described in this paper represents significantly advances in the understanding of the impact of medical activities on operation and maintenance costs of healthcare facilities in France.

Emerging climate changes and the risks to the operation of building assets in the UK

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report results from a survey on emerging climate changes and the risks to the operation of building assets in the UK. The property sector is facing major challenges as a result of projected climate change scenarios. Predictions concerning future climate change and the subsequent impact on building operations are still subject to a high degree of uncertainty. However, it is important that building stockholders consider a range of possible future risks that may influence the operation of their assets. Design/methodology/approach – The literature review and questionnaire are used to elicit and assess the likelihood of occurrence of climate change risks impacting building operations. The survey was carried out among building stockowners and professionals in the UK. Statistical methods were used to rank and compare the findings. Findings – The majority of the respondents strongly agreed that the list of risks that were elicited from the literature will have an impact o...

Factor Reduction and Clustering for Operational Risk in Software Development

Software development failures frequently emerge as a result of the failure to understand and identify risks. The aim of this paper is to identify the most salient risk factors present during a software development project’s life cycle, in terms of their occurrence likelihood and impact on cost overrun. A questionnaire was sent to 2000 software development companies, IT consultancy and management companies and web development companies in the United Kingdom, United States, mainland Europe, Canada, Australia, India, China, Japan and other Asian countries, asking respondents to evaluate a number of risk factors. Because many factors were closely related, we applied a factor reduction and clustering process to the results to allow a smaller number of crucial risk factors to be identified. The three main clusters of risk factors we identified are feasibility studies, project team management and technology requirements. While a feasibility study may be unlikely to take place, it can have a significant impact on project outcomes. In contrast, project team management is likely to occur but has a relatively small impact on outcomes in comparison with technology requirements. Professionals will need to apply checks and balances to these factors and generate risk mitigation plans to reduce the severity of project failures. Our results allow them to connect the probability of risk factor occurrence and overall impact, so they can focus their limited resources on reducing the most pertinent risks in their projects.