Developing a Risk Management Process for General Contractors in the Bidding Stage for Design–Build Projects in Vietnam

Design–build (DB) projects have become increasingly popular for construction projects in developing countries due to the cost and scheduling advantages and their design optimization ability. As a result, much research has been conducted on improving DB efficiency in terms of cost, scheduling, risk management, etc. However, the existing studies have mainly focused on the owner’s roles, whereas general contractors (GCs) must also take many risks on behalf of owners in DB projects. The adequate identification and assessment of risks before engaging a contractor can increase the likelihood of a project’s success, at least from a DB contractor’s perspective. Therefore, this study interviewed procurement experts to conduct a survey at the local level, then analyzed, developed, and proposed an additional risk management process (RMP) for use by GCs during the bidding process of DB projects. A case study was conducted with a large Vietnamese GC to evaluate the effectiveness of the process and find ways to optimize it in the future. The results of the study showed that risk management during a DB project is imperative. Nevertheless, preparing bids is time-consuming and increases the contingency costs, reducing the competitiveness of the bid prices for contractors. Therefore, depending on the specific project and risk management objectives, an RMP is recommended for adjusting the risk management target to reduce the risk, while still maintaining the competitiveness of the bid prices.

Risk management in residential projects in the United States: Implementation status, evaluation techniques and barriers

Purpose Residential projects frequently suffer from low-risk management (RM) implementation and, consequently, are more likely to fail to meet performance objectives. With RM becoming an essential requirement, the purpose of this study is to investigate RM implementation in terms of status, risk analysis techniques, barriers and impact of RM on residential projects across the USA. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 105 general contractors who had completed 3,265 residential projects in the past five years. Data collection was through a US national survey sent out through emails between August and November 2019 to residential general contractor firms. The firms were randomly selected from national organizations, such as the National Association of Home Builders, Associated General Contractors of America and Associated Builders and Contractors. Findings The analysis indicated that RM implementation is still extremely low at 22.27%. However, there was an increase in RM implementation as the cost and duration of projects increased. Direct judgment is the most used technique. Also, the one-sample t-test indicated that the barriers have a significant impact on RM implementation. Multinomial logistic regression results indicated that the impact of lack of management support, lack of money or budget, the complexity of analytical tools and lack of time to perform analysis predict the impact on the overall performance of construction projects. Overall, the results provide empirical evidence, which can influence management’s decision-making regarding RM and improve implementation in residential projects. Originality/value There is a lack of empirical evidence on the impact of barriers to RM implementation on the performance of construction projects. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by bridging this gap through a robust analysis of data collected from real residential projects.

Research on the Collaborative Application of BIM in EPC Projects: The Perspective of Cooperation between Owners and General Contractors

As an effective way to reduce costs and increase efficiency of EPC projects, BIM technology has drawn a lot of attention in numerous countries. Existing studies have failed to reveal the BIM decision-making mechanisms of owners and general contractors in EPC projects in a dynamic method. This study investigates the underlying logic of the collaboration application of BIM by analyzing the dynamic behaviors of owners and general contractors based on evolutionary game model. The results show that the most effective suggestions to promote the BIM collaboration application in EPC projects are “increasing the proportion of BIM application initially strategies,” “increasing incremental revenue of BIM collaborative application,” “reducing costs of BIM collaboration application,” “avoiding excessive hitchhiking,” and “establishing reasonable reward and punishment mechanism.” On the basis of numerical simulation to illustrate the influence of the different initial strategies and parameters on the final decision in different situations, five solutions were proposed for the effective BIM collaboration application between owners and general contractors. This article can facilitate researchers pondering the dynamics of collaboration among stakeholders in projects, and it can also facilitate participants picking up proper strategies for improved collaboration.

Construction Schedule Risk Assessment and Management Strategy for Foreign General Contractors Working in the Ethiopian Construction Industry

Construction project schedule delay is a worldwide concern and especially severe in the Ethiopian construction industry. This study developed a Construction Schedule Risk Assessment Model (CSRAM) and a management strategy for foreign general contractors (FGCs). 94 construction projects with schedule delay were collected and a questionnaire survey of 75 domain experts was conducted to systematically select 22 risk factors. In CSRAM, the artificial neural network (ANN) inference model was developed to predict the project schedule delay. Integrating it with the Garson algorithm (GA), the relative weights of risk factors with rankings were calculated and identified. For comparison, the Relative Importance Index (RII) method was also applied to rank the risk factors. Management strategies were developed to improve the three highest-ranked factors identified using the GA (change order, corruption/bribery, and delay in payment), and the RII (poor resource management, corruption/bribery, and delay in material delivery). Moreover, the improvement results were used as inputs for the trained ANN to conduct a sensitivity analysis. The findings of this study indicate that improvements in the factors that considerably affect the construction schedule can significantly reduce construction schedule delays. This study acts as an important reference for FGCs who plan to enter or work in the Ethiopian construction industry.

Development of a Methodological Base for Assessing the Validity of Choice of an Outsourcing Organization in JSC «Russian Railways»

The issues of methodological support of interaction between a large transport company and its general contractors are becoming more significant due to the increasing number of types of activities transferred to outsourcing. The article investigated the main methodological approaches that determine the procedure for justifying the choice of an outsourcing organization and the relevant methods applied in practice, in particular, an assessment of the methodological basis for judging the effectiveness of the choice of infrastructure repair workflow was carried out. The analysis of the methods for justifying the choice of a third-party organization, performing railway infrastructure repair work, made it possible to form the author's methodological approach to the choice of a repair technology and an organization to perform it best on outsourcing basis. The specifics of the object, namely, JSC «Russian Railways», which provides strategically important services for the economy, allows us to recommend the proposed author's methodological approach to justifying the choice of a third-party organization performing work for other transport companies.

Introducing a fuzzy MCDM model for financial management in multiple project environments

Purpose Statistics in the construction industry show that lack of timely injection of funds to projects by clients is one of the common problems confronted by contractors. This problem is intensified when contractors construct multiple projects simultaneously. In these situations, it is rational that contractors share their financial resources among projects according to project conditions and the firm’s vision. This study aims to propose a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model for financial management in multiple project environments. Design/methodology/approach First, the project evaluation criteria are defined using exploratory study and interviews with experts. Second, the weights of criteria are determined based on company strategies. Then, each of the projects are evaluated in each criterion. Finally, the fuzzy weighted average approach is used to determine the proportion of each project from the financial resources. Findings The proposed model is prepared as an applicable model for general contractors to assign financial recourses among the multiple projects optimally. Originality/value As a lack of applicable model assigning the financial resources among the multiple projects, this study is one of the first research studies that proposed a fuzzy MCDM model to assign financial resources to multiple projects optimally.

A Dynamic Just-in-Time Component Delivery Framework for Off-Site Construction

Off-site construction entails various advantages compared with the traditional construction method; however, the fragmentation of the prefabrication and assembly results in a complex supply chain. Both general contractors and factories often encounter production deviation, making the original component delivery plan nonoptimal. Traditionally, both parties tend to rely on internal resources or third-party resources to manage schedule changes, paying little attention to the optimisation of the component delivery process. The static compensation mechanisms reported in existing literature require factories to manage demand fluctuations but fail to encourage general contractors to control schedule deviations. Therefore, a dynamic compensation mechanism is proposed to achieve just-in-time component delivery, with which a factory shares possible changes for each component’s delivery date to its clients on an inverse Kanban system. First, unfavourable changes for the factory schedule are allocated with surcharges, and the general contractor should compensate the factory if it accepts the date changes; secondly, schedule changes that are beneficial for the factory are assigned as incentives, and the general contractor receives the factory’s incentive upon agreeing to the changes. Based on these two scenarios, genetic algorithm-based optimisation models are developed to achieve optimal delivery planning solutions. General contractors can obtain an optimal component delivery date to reduce the additional cost when they have changed the assembly schedule. General contractors can also optimise their component delivery schedule to trade their duration flexibility for incentives offered by factories. The models can help both parties to reduce component delivery waste when either side has the motivation to change the original component delivery schedules.

A Genetic Algorithm for Subcontractors Selection and Allocation in Multiple Building Projects

In construction industry general contractors (GCs) need to manage and conduct numerous projects simultaneously. To this aim, they usually have subcontractors conduct available tasks and projects. So, subcontractor management is becoming a major challenge. To deal with this challenge, GCs aim to reduce total costs of projects including employment /subcontracting costs, indirect costs, tardiness penalties, and the money which must be paid for movement of workforce from one project to another. The aim of current research study is to propose a model for selecting subcontractors and assigning available tasks in the project to them in order to reduce the costs of the GC. Then, a genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed to solve a real problem. The proposed algorithm is innovative from three points of view: (1) generation of initial population; (2) subcontractor assignment approach and (3) the objective function. The problem was also solved by means of an exact method. Then, the results of proposed algorithm were compared to the outcomes of the exact method. This comparison shows that the proposed algorithm can efficiently help GCs select subcontractors and assign available tasks to each subcontractor when several projects must be carried out simultaneously.