Developing a fuzzy risk assessment model for guaranteed maximum price and target cost contracts in South Australia

Facilities ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (11/12) ◽  
pp. 624-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W.M. Chan ◽  
Joseph H.L. Chan ◽  
Tony Ma

Purpose – This paper aims to develop a fuzzy risk assessment model for construction projects procured with target cost contracts and guaranteed maximum price contracts (TCC/GMP) using the fuzzy synthetic evaluation method, based on an empirical questionnaire survey with relevant industrial practitioners in South Australia. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 34 major risk factors inherent with TCC/GMP contracts were identified through an extensive literature review and a series of structured interviews. A questionnaire survey was then launched to solicit the opinions of industrial practitioners on risk assessment of such risk factors. Findings – The most important 14 key risk factors after the computation of normalised values were selected for undertaking fuzzy evaluation analysis. Five key risk groups (KRGs) were then generated in descending order of importance as: physical risks, lack of experience of contracting parties throughout TCC/GMP procurement process, design risks, contractual risks and delayed payment on contracts. These survey findings also revealed that physical risks may be the major hurdle to the success of TCC/GMP projects in South Australia. Practical implications – Although the fuzzy risk assessment model was developed for those new-build construction projects procured by TCC/GMP contracts in this paper, the same research methodology may be applied to other contracts within the wide spectrum of facilities management or building maintenance services under the target cost-based model. Therefore, the contribution from this paper could be extended to the discipline of facilities management as well. Originality/value – An overall risk index associated with TCC/GMP construction projects and the risk indices of individual KRGs can be generated from the model for reference. An objective and a holistic assessment can be achieved. The model has provided a solid platform to measure, evaluate and reduce the risk levels of TCC/GMP projects based on objective evidence instead of subjective judgements. The research methodology could be replicated in other countries or regions to produce similar models for international comparisons, and the assessment of risk levels for different types of TCC/GMP projects (including new-build or maintenance) worldwide.

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 1813-1833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenpei Xu ◽  
Ting-Kwei Wang

PurposeThis study provides a safety prewarning mechanism, which includes a comprehensive risk assessment model and a safety prewarning system. The comprehensive risk assessment model is capable of assessing nine safety indicators, which can be categorised into workers’ behaviour, environment and machine-related safety indicators, and the model is embedded in the safety prewarning system. The safety prewarning system can automatically extract safety information from surveillance cameras based on computer vision, assess risks based on the embedded comprehensive risk assessment model, categorise risks into five levels and provide timely suggestions.Design/methodology/approachFirstly, the comprehensive risk assessment model is constructed by adopting grey multihierarchical analysis method. The method combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the grey clustering evaluation in the grey theory. Expert knowledge, obtained through the questionnaire approach, contributes to set weights of risk indicators and evaluate risks. Secondly, a safety prewarning system is developed, including data acquisition layer, data processing layer and prewarning layer. Computer vision is applied in the system to automatically extract real-time safety information from the surveillance cameras. The safety information is then processed through the comprehensive risk assessment model and categorized into five risk levels. A case study is presented to verify the proposed mechanism.FindingsThrough a case study, the result shows that the proposed mechanism is capable of analyzing integrated human-machine-environment risk, timely categorising risks into five risk levels and providing potential suggestions.Originality/valueThe comprehensive risk assessment model is capable of assessing nine risk indicators, identifying three types of entities, workers, environment and machine on the construction site, presenting the integrated risk based on nine indicators. The proposed mechanism, which adopts expert knowledge through Building Information Modeling (BIM) safety simulation and extracts safety information based on computer vision, can perform a dynamic real-time risk analysis, categorize risks into five risk levels and provide potential suggestions to corresponding risk owners. The proposed mechanism can allow the project manager to take timely actions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 694-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalampos Apostolopoulos ◽  
George Halikias ◽  
Krikor Maroukian ◽  
Georgios Tsaramirsis

Purpose This paper aims to take the challenge to propose a novel modelling approach named Change Risk Assessment Model (CRAM), which will contribute significantly to the missing formality of business models especially in the change risk assessment area and decision-making. Organisational change risks are assessed with the aid of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in an attempt to define the internal dynamics of organisational change management within project management eliciting also risk cause-and-effect relationships. Design/methodology/approach The study discusses interviews/survey/AHP. Findings The study presents the following findings. Change risk factors assessment (identification and prioritisation) recommendations (see Case Study) integration of change management; project management; risk management top four risk factors, namely, leadership, communication, project management team and culture. Research limitations/implications As projects can be different in a variety of factors (quality, scope), an exhaustive list of risk factors cannot be identified. There is a continuous risk identification process throughout the projects’ life cycle. For example, many risks can be classified initially as unknown and can be refined after the initiation phase of the project. AHP factors limitation (eight per level) possible bias (survey analysis). Practical implications With the aid of modelling and especially CRAM, business change risks can be assessed numerically and prioritised. Several risk factors and related attributes were identified and categorised. This empowers project managers or other stakeholders to make proper decisions about whether to take on or abandon respective organisational or project changes. Social implications One of the values of CRAM is that it can be regarded as a global change risk assessment method that can be applied regardless of project type, size or organisation. Moreover, it has the advantage that it can be used by any kind of project, as the method is designed to be tailored to specific needs, taking significant environmental change risk factors into account. AHP has numerous uses in operational research, in project management and in general in areas where decisions (evaluation and selection) have to be made. The analysis of the case study presented, indicated that it is vital to assess the degree (impact) that each risk attribute poses to address complex organisational decisions. Originality/value CRAM aims to bridge the gap between theoretical and applied work in the integrated research field of change management, project management and risk management. Furthermore, the approach attempts to develop a novel systematic methodology (model) for assigning probabilities in attributes (criteria) pair-wise comparison and more specifically, modelling and assessing change management risks, adding a different perspective and technique to the research area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 614-634
Author(s):  
Li Guan ◽  
Qiang Liu ◽  
Alireza Abbasi ◽  
Michael J. Ryan

Reliable and efficient risk assessments are essential to deal effectively with potential risks in international construction projects. However, most conventional risk modeling methods are based on the hypothesis that risk factors are independent, which does not account adequately for the causal relationships among risk factors. In this study, a risk assessment model for international construction projects was developed to improve the efficacy of risk management by integrating fault tree analysis and fuzzy set theory with a Bayesian belief network. The risk rating of each risk factor, expressed as the product of risk occurrence probability and impact, was incorporated into the risk assessment model to evaluate degrees of risk. Therefore, risk factors were categorized into different risk levels taking into account their inherent causal relationships, which allowed the identification of critical risk factors. The applicability of the fuzzy Bayesian belief network-based risk assessment model was verified using a case study through a comparative analysis with the results from a fuzzy synthetic evaluation method. The comparison shows that the proposed risk assessment model is able to provide guidelines for an effective risk management process and ultimately to increase project performance in a complex environment such as international construction projects.


2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph H.L. Chan ◽  
Daniel W.M. Chan ◽  
Albert P.C. Chan ◽  
Patrick T.I. Lam ◽  
John F.Y. Yeung

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 180305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanpu Xia ◽  
Ziming Xiong ◽  
Hao Lu ◽  
Zhu Wen ◽  
Chao Ma

Risk assessment has always been an important part of safety risk research in tunnel and underground engineering. Owing to the characteristics of tunnel construction, to achieve an expected risk control effect, it is necessary to carry out accurate risk assessment research according to the risk assessment concept based on the entire tunnel construction process. At present, because of the frequent occurrences of safety accidents, a variety of risk assessment models have been proposed for different tunnel projects such as subways and railway tunnels, which can be roughly classified into two types: probability-based and fuzzy set theories. However, the existing models may be more suitable for the construction stage, and the design stage lacks a reliable and practical fuzzy risk assessment method. Therefore, based on fuzzy set theory and similarity measure theory, a risk assessment model is proposed to adapt to the characteristics that the risk information is difficult to quantify the fuzziness in the design phase. Firstly, new ideas of fuzzy risk analysis are proposed to overcome deficiencies in existing methods; secondly, a new similarity measure is constructed; then fusing multi-source fuzzy information based on evidence theory, the relationship between similarity measure and mass function is established. Finally, the new method is applied to the Yuelongmen tunnel. Results show that the concept of risk control and the risk assessment model are feasible.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Wang ◽  
Shangde Gao ◽  
Pinchao Liao ◽  
Tsenguun Ganbat ◽  
Junhua Chen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to construct a two-stage risk management framework for international construction projects based on the meta-network analysis (MNA) approach. A plethora of international construction studies seems to assume risks as independent and therefore, risk intervention strategies are usually critiqued as ineffective. Design/methodology/approach In the risk assessment stage, a multi-tiered risk network structure was developed with the project objectives, risk events, risk factors and stakeholders, and critical risk factors were selected based on a series of calculations. In the risk intervention stage, targeted risk intervention strategies were proposed for stakeholders based on the results of the first stage. A highway construction project in Eastern Europe was selected as a case study. Findings The results showed that 17 risk factors in three categories – external, stakeholder-related and internal – are critical, and the project manager, construction management department, supplier and contract department are the most critical stakeholders that affect the entire project performance. Based on the critical risk factors and project stakeholders, targeted risk intervention strategies were proposed. The risk assessment results of MNA were found to be more reliable and consistent with the project conditions than the risk matrix method; the risk intervention strategies of MNA can effectively address project objectives. Originality/value This study modeled risk priorities based on risk associations and put forward a new method for risk management, supplementing the body of knowledge of international construction. The results of this study are of critical importance in management practices.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e13092-e13092
Author(s):  
Michiyo Yamada ◽  
Takashi Ishikawa ◽  
Sadatoshi Sugae ◽  
Kazutaka Narui ◽  
Eiji Arita ◽  
...  

e13092 Background: No comprehensive breast cancer risk assessment model for Japanese women exists. Consequently, we have collected Japanese women’s data to investigate key BC risk factors with an objective of deriving a Japanese-women specific BC risk assessment model. Methods: We conducted a retrospective case-control study (paper-based with postal survey) at 15 institutions during 2014-2015. A survey was distributed to Japanese females aged 20-80 who had BC check-up. All pertinent data of a total of 34 factors including demographic and reproductive factors, social history and eating habits was collected. Cases and controls were divided into three groups respectively, premenopausal (PRE; 20 ≤ age < 45), perimenopausal (PERI; 45 ≤ age ≤ 55) and postmenopausal group (POST; 55 < age ≤ 80). Cases and control variables were compared by t-test, chi-square test and Wilcoxon rank sum test. Preliminary BC risk was calculated by logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 3975 female Japanese datasets were collected, of which 2494 were complete (all variables present) with 1401 controls and 1093 cases were used. There were 222 cases and 332 controls for PRE, 404 cases and 537 controls for PERI, and 467 and 532 controls for POST. The univariate analysis demonstrated that BMI was significantly higher in cases than in controls in all groups (P < 0.01) as was “number of deliveries” in PRE and POST (P < 0.001) and Brinkman index in PRE and PERI (p = 0.017). Multivariate analysis revealed that BC risk was positively associated with BMI (OR 1.080, 95% CI 1.017–1.148, p = 0.012) in PRE, BMI (OR 1.121, 95% CI 1.072–1.174, p < 0.01) and brinkman index (OR 1.000005, 95% CI 1.000002–1.000008, p < 0.01) in PERI, age (OR 1.054, 95% CI 1.028–1.081, p < 0.010), BMI (OR 1.153, 95% CI 1.076-1.171, p < 0.01) and family history (OR 1.497, 95% CI 1.103–2.033, p = 0.001) in POST, while negatively associated with regular exercise (OR 0.672, 95% CI 0.517–0.873, p = 0.003) in POST. Conclusions: BMI in all groups, in addition, the Brinkman index in PERI and age and family history in POST are BC risk factors. Exercise is a protective risk factor in POST. However, the preliminary results are incomplete and further analysis will be conducted before a full risk assessment model is proposed for Japanese women.


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