Kenneth T. Sullivan

Postoccupancy Energy Consumption Survey of Arizona’s LEED New Construction Population

AbstractExisting literature has not provided conclusive performance results for green building energy efficiency. Existing studies produced debated conclusions and failed to represent a geographic concentration of structures from hot and dry climates. This technical paper examines 47% of Arizona’s 53 building Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction (LEED NC) building population in an effort to determine if Arizona’s LEED NC buildings achieve expected energy performance, how they compare with the existing building population and whether either system or managerial variables demonstrate efficiency correlations. Data collection efforts were successful for all desired deliverables. Analysis of the LEED NC sample returned mixed results. On average, Arizona’s LEED NC medium energy intense (MEI) buildings performed better than the national average yet worse than buildings located in similar climates. Certain LEED NC MEI building types did demonstrate greater efficiencies than the corre...

Empirical study of the current United States facilities management profession

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to verify pre‐existing perceptions of the facilities management (FM) industry through the collection of empirical evidence that establishes the current state of the profession. Data collected will identify the major challenges facing the FM industry, and will be used in the development of proposed academic programs to address these challenges.Design/methodology/approach – Two online surveys of facilities managers on the national and local scale were used to produce a quantifiable description of the profession and its deficiencies. These surveys also focused on obtaining data to aid in the development of formal academic programs to train future facilities managers and measured the willingness of industry representatives to support the proposed academic programs.Findings – Results indicate that there is an insufficient number of facilities managers entering the field to account for the high rate of attrition that will occur in the next ten to 15 years. The main reason ...

The Influence of an Information Environment on Construction Organization's Culture: A Case Study

Construction professionals have identified public contract law and bureaucratic procurement/contract offices as a source of problems in the construction industry. The culture within the United States Federal Government Acquisitions is based on the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs) and its interpretation, often placing organizations/agencies in the price-based environment and continuously resulting in poor performance. The United States Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) (approximately

Source of construction industry instability and performance problems

100 M in construction renovation awards per year) attempted to overcome this obstacle through a partnership with the Performance-Based Studies Research Group (PBSRG) at Arizona State University. The MEDCOM implemented the information environment portion of the Performance Information Procurement System (PIPS) into Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts through the specifications. Without controlling the various contract/procurement processes, the developed information environment stimulated an atmosphere of accountability to all parties involved, while reducing the clients internal bureaucratic resistance. The concept has met with preliminary success, minimizing construction management issues by over 50%, raising owner satisfaction by 9%, resulting in 99% of projects ending with no contractor-generated change orders, and assisting MEDCOM leadership in measuring the performance of their infrastructure revitalization program.

Risk management system implemented at the US Army Medical Command

A ten year study of construction performance has resulted in a conclusion that construction industry performance problems are being caused by the clients delivery process. The hypothesis of the research is that the client has created a price-based environment which forces a technical solution to construction issues. Modeling has been created which deductively shows that the problem is being caused by the clients selection of contractors rather than the type of delivery process (design-bid-build, design-build, or CM@Risk). A solution is proposed in the paper which uses the concepts of outsourcing, quality control (rather than management and inspection), continuous improvement with minimal client control, and a process based upon leadership rather than management principles. One of the major design requirements for the process is that the client must receive best value (best performance at the lowest possible cost) and the contractor must maximize their profit. The deductive design is supported by test results over the past ten years.

Measuring risk management performance within a capital program

Purpose – To describe the implementation of the Performance Information Risk Management System (PIRMS) to indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) general contractors in the US Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) 26 sites, 150 projects/year, and

OVERMANNING IMPACT ON CONSTRUCTION LABOR PRODUCTIVITY

250m/year maintenance and repair construction program.Design/methodology/approach – To test the hypothesis that facility owner management, control, and decision making is a source of risk, and that the transfer of risk and control to the contractors will minimise the risk.Findings – Include minimising construction management by 33 percent, motivated contractors to regulate their own contracts, minimised unresolved issues by 50 percent, minimised contractor generated change orders by 20 percent, and moving from doing quality control to quality assurance.Research limitations/implications – The authors see no constraints in the implementation of PIRMS in other organisations. This paper reflects the perceptions of the Arizona State University research team, and publi...

The optimizing of design delivery services for facility owners

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to describe how the University of Minnesotas capital program implemented risk management metrics on 266 construction projects and to present the results of the risk metrics. Design/methodology/approach – The implementation of Weekly Risk Reports (WRR) on the university construction projects captured information on the internal and external efforts related to minimizing project risks. The report implemented captured project risks, management plans, cost changes and schedule delays. Findings – Findings reveal that the university was able to effectively capture project risk metrics through the WRR. The risk metrics identified the risks categories that impacted the 266 project costs and schedules. Through these findings, the university has a better understanding of how their internal stakeholders create the greatest risk to impacting the project cost and schedule. This paper presents the risk impacts collected from the 266 projects. Research limitations/implications – A...

Absenteeism and Turnover Impact on Labor Productivity for Electrical Contractors

This paper details the impacts of overmanning on labor productivity for labor intensive trades , namely, mechanical and sheet metal contractors. Overmanning in this research is defined as an increase of the peak number of workers of the same trade over actual average manpower during project. The paper begins by reviewing the literature on the effects of overmanning on labor productivity. A survey was used to collect data from 54 mechanical and sheet metal projects located across the United States. Various statistical analysis techniques were performed to determine a quantitative relationship between overmanning and labor productivity, including the Stepwise Method, T-Test, P-Value Tests, Analysis of Variance, and Multiple Regression. The results indicate a 0% to 41% loss of productivity depending on the level of overmanning and the peak project manpower. Cross-validation was performed to validate the final model. Finally, a case study is provided to demonstrate the application of the model.

Project Risk Distribution during the Construction Phase of Small Building Projects

Purpose – The quality and efficiency of design and design services is declining. The authors propose that the problem is a systems delivery problem and not a technical competence issue. The purpose of this paper is to use a recently developed best value delivery methodology originally created for contractors to deliver design services. The authors have tested the process resulting in increased performance.Design/methodology/approach – A deductive approach is used. Well documented, published and logical industry structure and the best value delivery model concepts are discussed. The methodology is to identify the deductive logic, and confirm it with test results. The methodology is to take a well‐proven delivery system that worked on construction, modify the existing design delivery model to match the construction model, and test the new model. Owing to the deductive nature of the methodology, the normal reliance on literature of existing practices and inductive exploratory research are not required.Findin...