Identifying Contractors’ Planned Quality Time in Egyptian Irrigation Projects

During an extremely competitive infrastructure sector such as irrigation projects, quality time (QT) must be determined to can recognize probable quality crisis parts and to direct mind on schedule enhancement chances. The consciousness of planners on the significance of QT could be reflected in their project schedule. This study appears a measurement of planned QT in five infrastructure irrigation projects performed by different five contractors in Egypt. The aim is to aid the contractors to develop their QT preparation and thus enhance their project time based on the results. QT is fundamental classified into two classes: conformance time (CT), and nonconformance time (NCT). Based on many studies, a register of quality proceedings that would be enclosed in every QT groups are then generated. The QT records for every group are recognized and gathered via questions and questionnaire designs. QT is calculated as a proportion of the project duration. It is uncovered that while enormous companies previously have clear information on QT in construction sector, these times are not scheduled in a defined method during a study of regular QT details. During time classification it is also appeared that greater conformance time (CT) lead to lesser nonconformance time (NCT). It is then ended that a lot of effort is still to be made by the contractors to establish a QT documenting procedure which be able to act as a base for their project enhancement planning.

Determinants of crowdfunding success in central and eastern European countries

As an alternative way of financing, crowdfunding has been growing rapidly since the last financial crisis in 2008. The number of launched projects has increased, but the number of successful projects remains low. Little is known about what leads to success in this field, especially in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries where the determinants of crowdfunding campaign success for projects are not identified. Therefore, the article focuses on identifying determinants of crowdfunding campaign success for projects from CEE countries. Based on the dataset from Kickstarter, consisting of 473 projects from CEE countries, I examine factors influencing the probability of project success. The analyzed sample of projects shows that the number of backers and mean contribution are positively correlated with the probability of campaign success, while a higher project goal lowers the probability of success. Project duration is not a statistically significant success factor.

Identifying The Factors Affecting The Performance Of Construction Projects In Wolaita Zone-Ethiopia

Performance indicators of construction project are used to measure overall performance in construction projects. These indicators can then be used for benchmarking purposes, and will be a key element of any organization’s move towards attaining quality practice in order to overcome performance problem. The results of a questionnaire survey done to determine factors affecting the performance of construction projects in Ethiopia’s Wolaita zone are presented in this paper. Personnel from consultants, owners, and contractors involved in construction projects were among the survey’s respondents. The outcome of the study outlines Availability of personnel with high experience and qualification, Availability of resources as planned through project duration, Average delay because of closures and materials shortage, Conformance to specification and Leadership skills for project manager as the top ranked key factors that affect performance of construction project.

A partition-based branch-and-bound algorithm for the project duration problem with partially renewable resources and general temporal constraints

The concept of partially renewable resources provides a general modeling framework that can be used for a wide range of different real-life applications. In this paper, we consider a resource-constrained project duration problem with partially renewable resources, where the temporal constraints between the activities are given by minimum and maximum time lags. We present a new branch-and-bound algorithm for this problem, which is based on a stepwise decomposition of the possible resource consumptions by the activities of the project. It is shown that the new approach results in a polynomially bounded depth of the enumeration tree, which is obtained by kind of a binary search. In a comprehensive experimental performance analysis, we compare our exact solution procedure with all branch-and-bound algorithms and state-of-the-art heuristics from the literature on different benchmark sets. The results of the performance study reveal that our branch-and-bound algorithm clearly outperforms all exact solution procedures. Furthermore, it is shown that our new approach dominates the state-of-the-art heuristics on well known benchmark instances.

ANALISIS PENGARUH PEMILIHAN JENIS BEKISTING TERHADAP DURASI DAN BIAYA PELAKSANAAN PEKERJAAN STRUKTUR PROYEK X

ABSTRACTThe planed duration of construction Project X was 730 days with the upper structure targeted to be finished in July 2020. There was delay in the beginning of project implementation and the expected duration became 745 days, the upper structure completion date pushed back to October 2020. In order to keep in line with target, one of the alternatives was to change the formwork material from conventional to aluminium. By applying this change, there was a need to study the effects to the project duration, the upper structure finish date, and the additional cost. To calculate the project duration, and the labour coefficient of productivity using the motion and time study method, the completion time of aluminium formwork work is required. From the calculation, it can be concluded that it was more effective to apply an 8-zone of formwork division in every storey, which will result in 711 days of project duration and the upper structure finish date will be in August 2020. The costs for the aluminium formwork which consisted of materials and labour fees amounted to Rp 7,991,548,555 or higher by Rp 1,000,000,000 compared to conventional formwork. ABSTRAKTarget durasi pekerjaan konstruksi proyek X adalah 730 hari dengan target waktu selesai pekerjaan struktur atas pada bulan Juli 2020. Pada awal pelaksanaan proyek terjadi keterlambatan sehingga diperkirakan menghasilkan durasi proyek 745 hari dan waktu selesai pekerjaan struktur atas menjadi Oktober 2020. Untuk mengejar target proyek, salah satu alternatif yang dapat dilakukan adalah dengan mengganti jenis material bekisting dari konvensional menjadi aluminium. Sehingga dengan penggantian tersebut perlu dilakukan studi pengaruh penggantian jenis bekisting terhadap durasi proyek, waktu selesai pekerjaan struktur atas, dan biaya pekerjaan bekisting. Untuk menghitung durasi proyek, dan koefisien tenaga kerja yang dilakukan dengan metode motion and time study diperlukan waktu pekerjaan bekisting aluminium. Dari perhitungan durasi proyek diperoleh waktu yang lebih efektif adalah dengan pembagian 8 zona yang menghasilkan durasi proyek 711 hari dan waktu selesai pekerjaan struktur atas adalah Agustus 2020. Untuk biaya pekerjaan bekisting aluminium yang terdiri dari biaya material dan biaya upah tenaga kerja didapatkan total biaya adalah Rp 7,991,548,555 atau lebih besar sekitar Rp 1,000,000,000 dibandingkan dengan bekisting konvensional.

Annulus Perforate, Wash and Cement : Establishing Barrier Verification Process for Deepwater Subsea Wells Abandonment and Its Lessons Learnt

Wells plug & abandonment was carried out in a deepwater field (Field C) offshore West Africa. There were 15 deepwater subsea wells, in this field. Thirteen of the wells were completed with Open Water Vertical Xmas Tree (OXT) while remaining two were completed with Enhanced Vertical Xmas Tree (EVXT). All the wells were permanently abandoned with permanent barriers established in accordance to Norsok D-010, rev. 2013. This involved establishing well barriers which would both horizontally and vertically effective. The operator evaluated several methods in establishing well barriers for the permanent abandonment purpose of these 15 wells. The barriers placement for areas with good annulus cement were straightforward as an internal cement plug could be spotted as a permanent barrier. For this particular field, it is noted that all of the 15 wells have hydrocarbon bearing and permeable formations above the top of expected annulus lead cement which is designed basically to manage ECD during cementing job rather than giving good annular isolation. Due to this, it is important for the operator to employ the best technique that could establish a permanent cement barrier both inside the casing and in the annulus at the same time. Operator learned that Section Milling was the widely accepted method to establish barrier in cases where there is poor cement or the annulus cement is not present particularly in land and offshore wells. However, this technique poses severe operational risk especially in a deepwater operation mode. Upon review, it was determined that Perforate, Wash and Cement (PWC) technology has been proven and it would become a valuable technique in establishing well barrier which complies with abandonment requirement as per the industry guidelines. High risk activities for deepwater operations such as section milling could be avoided by employing this method. Nonetheless, the Perforate, Wash and Cement (PWC) technology has its own set of risks especially with its method of establishing the well barrier immediately upon setting it. This involves drilling and re-logging the well immediately after setting the cement in annulus to prove the barrier. Upon discussion with PWC contractor, it was agreed that the verification technique may create additional hazards as it could jeopardize the integrity of the installed barrier in the annulus. The additional requirement for cement verification process will also prolong the project duration, hence is an additional cost to the project too. Operator worked together with the Perforate Wash and Cement (PWC) Contractor and Well Examiner to determine the best verification method for PWC plugs with the objective to comply with regulation on cement verification while at the same time, resulting in most cost-efficient and time-efficient operation. The establishment of Element Acceptance Criteria as an alternative Barrier Verification Process for PWC technology is necessary to improve the reliability of the system as well as reducing associated risks. In total, 18 PWC operations were successfully carried out throughout the campaign. An extensive after action review was conducted at the completion of each job to capture the valuable lessons learnt. These lessons learnt are shared in this paper as well which could add value for future operations with similar settings. It is expected that this paper will serve as a reference in the establishment of Element Acceptance Criteria as well as its implementation during the P&A campaign. It is hoped that the lessons learnt shared in the paper could assist other Operators on planning for similar campaigns in the future.

Prediction Methods for the Actual Duration of Greek Highway Projects

This study presents an overview of estimation methods to predict the actual project duration of Greek highway projects. Emphasis is given to the selection of the appropriate parameters that correlate with the actual project duration and to compare the performances of the main two methods, the linear regression (LR) with the neural network models (NN) based on data available at the bidding stage. In the context of the current research, thirty-seven highway projects were examined, constructed in Greece with similar available data like the extent, the type of work packages and the significance. Selection and ranking variables through correlation analyses using SPSS 25 has been carried on, in order to identify the most significant project variables. These include archeological findings, type of terrain, land expropriation, the existence of bridge, tunnel and embankment. Next step was the use of WEKA application, that highlighted the most efficient subset of variables. After the definition and grouping of the variables for actual duration prediction, these were used as input data for linear regression models (LR) and neural network models (NN). Various models have been created from each investigated method. While their performance and the comparison of linear regression and neural network models to estimate the actual duration of Greek highway projects are presented in this paper. Results’ discussion and conclusions along with limitations and further research are appropriately analyzed.

Analysis of Labour Productivity and Determining the Parameters Which Affects it in Aluminium Formwork System

The construction industry is considered to be one of the rapidly growing industries of India. So, to fulfil such a vast and constantly increasing construction demand the labour productivity is the key factor to maintain client satisfaction, attract investment, and contribute by helping the nation with its economic growth. Aluminium system formwork is one economical and technical approach to effectively maintain productivity of labours on site. Various research studies have been conducted to compare different types of formwork system and the advantages and disadvantages of each type of formwork system are examined in terms of cost, duration, quality etc. There is no standard procedure to put a number on the efficiency of the site labour, using aluminium formwork system in the industry. So, the primary objective of this study is to find the practical labour productivity in aluminium formwork system and the factors affecting the labour productivity. For this, research is performed on Purva Silversands project, Pune, Maharashtra (Residential Project). Labour productivity and its variations could generate a greater impact on the project economy and project duration. Low productivity can decrease profitability and increases construction cost. This case study shows that the actual productivity observed is less than the target productivity in some of the months, the reasons for variation in target and actual productivity is examined and the factors that hamper the productivity mostly are natural (rain), improper management and any breakdown of machinery. Whereas, the maximum productivity achieved in a month is 10.36 sqm per man per day.

Distance with Customers Effects on Green Product Innovation in SMEs: A Way Through Green Value Co-creation

Based on the perspective of multidimensional proximity, this paper examined the relationships between cognitive and social proximities with key customers and green product innovation performance via the mediation of green value co-creation by using data from 211 fine chemical small and medium-sized enterprises in clusters in China. Moderating effects of geographical distance and green project duration were assessed to further explore the relationship. The results revealed that social and cognitive proximities can promote green co-production and enhance green product innovation performance. Moreover, the relationship between social proximity and green co-production is hindered when customers are geographically distant or short duration partners of green projects. Eventually, this study was quite different from previous research by relating proximities to green value co-creation and green innovation performance in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets. The study provides a research framework for related research on green innovation.