Life-cycle management of construction projects based on virtual prototyping technology

Life-cycle management (LCM) has been employed in the management of construction projects for many years in order to reduce whole life cost, time, risk and improve the service to owners. However, owing to lack of an effective information sharing platform, the current LCM of construction projects is not effectively used in the construction industry. Based upon the analysis of the information flow of LCM, a virutal prototyping (VP)-based communication and collaboration information platform is proposed. Following this, the platform is customized using DASSAULT sofware. The whole process of implementing the VP-based LCM are also discussed and, from a simple case study, it is demonstrated that the VP-based communication and collaboration information platform is an effective tool to support the LCM of construction projects.

Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal.

Each stage in the life cycle of coal-extraction, transport, processing, and combustion-generates a waste stream and carries multiple hazards for health and the environment. These costs are external to the coal industry and are thus often considered "externalities." We estimate that the life cycle effects of coal and the waste stream generated are costing the U.S. public a third to over one-half of a trillion dollars annually. Many of these so-called externalities are, moreover, cumulative. Accounting for the damages conservatively doubles to triples the price of electricity from coal per kWh generated, making wind, solar, and other forms of nonfossil fuel power generation, along with investments in efficiency and electricity conservation methods, economically competitive. We focus on Appalachia, though coal is mined in other regions of the United States and is burned throughout the world.

Case study on the whole life carbon cycle in buildings

Global temperatures are expected to rise by between 1.1 and 6.4oC this century, depending, to a large extent, on the amount of carbon we emit to the atmosphere from now onwards. This warming is expected to have very negative effects on many peoples and ecosystems and, therefore, minimising our carbon emissions is a priority. Buildings are estimated to be responsible for around 50% of carbon emissions in the UK. Potential reductions involve both operational emissions, produced during use, and embodied emissions, produced during manufacture of materials and components, and during construction, refurbishments and demolition. To date the major effort has focused on reducing the, apparently, larger operational element, which is more readily quantifiable and reduction measures are relatively straightforward to identify and implement. Various studies have compared the magnitude of embodied and operational emissions, but have shown considerable variation in the relative values. This illustrates the difficulties in quantifying embodied, as it requires a detailed knowledge of the processes involved in the different life cycle phases, and requires the use of consistent system boundaries. However, other studies have established the interaction between operational and embodied, which demonstrates the importance of considering both elements together in order to maximise potential reductions. This is borne out in statements from both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and The Low Carbon Construction Innovation and Growth Team of the UK Government. In terms of meeting the 2020 and 2050 timeframes for carbon reductions it appears to be equally, if not more, important to consider early embodied carbon reductions, rather than just future operational reductions. Future decarbonisation of energy supply and more efficient lighting and M&E equipment installed in future refits is likely to significantly reduce operational emissions, lending further weight to this argument. A method of discounting to evaluate the present value of future carbon emissions would allow more realistic comparisons to be made on the relative importance of the embodied and operational elements. This paper describes the results of case studies on carbon emissions over the whole lifecycle of three buildings in the UK, compares four available software packages for determining embodied carbon and suggests a method of carbon discounting to obtain present values for future emissions. These form the initial stages of a research project aimed at producing information on embodied carbon for different types of building, components and forms of construction, in a simplified form, which can be readily used by building designers in optimising building design in terms of minimising overall carbon emissions. Keywords: Embodied carbon; carbon emission; building; operational carbon.

Sustainability evaluation, life cycle assessment and facilities management for Geelong Retail Development

Value management is a technique used during the design stage to justify cost and worth of a proposal. Designer must never center only to save capital expenditure but consider holistically the whole building life which will be sustainable. Therefore, sustainability evaluation must adopt a long term view and will properly include three crucial elements: economic, social and environmental. Lack of awareness of value management during the design stage of a building project will adversely impact on the life cycle assessment (LCA) and facilities management (FM). This paper provides a review of the sustainable elements that must be considered when designing and costing a new retail development in the Geelong region of Australia and how these factors influence the whole building life. The result of this research helps to create a greater understanding of the different attributes that will affect the LCA and FM decisions made on sustainable development in this and other regional Australian cities that are undergoing major population growth.

Life-cycle costing manual for the Federal Energy Management Program : a guide for evaluating the cost effectiveness of energy conservation and renewable energy projects for new and existing federally owned and leased buildings and facilities /

"Issued originally December 1980 ; revised May 1982 ; revised November 1987."

Energy conversion factors [and life cycle costing and cost analysis papers] /

Mode of access: Internet.

Whole life performance bid evaluation in the Korean public sector

Korea has increasingly adopted design-build for public construction projects in the last few years. There is a much greater awareness of the need to change a system based on ‘Value for Money’ which is high on the government's agenda. A whole life performance bid evaluation model is proposed to aid decision makers in the selection of a design-builder. This is based on the integration of a framework using an analytic hierarchy process as the bid awarding system is being changed from one based on lowest price, to one based on best value over the life-cycle. Key criteria like whole life cost, service life planning and design quality are important through the key stages of evaluation process. The model uses a systematic and holistic approach which enables a public sector to make better decisions in design-builder selection, which will deliver whole life benefits, based on long term cost-effectiveness and whole life.

Activity-based life cycle costing model for cost estimation and monitoring – Case: manned and autonomous dry bulk carrier

Recent developments in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence have given a push to a wider usage of these technologies in recent years, and nowadays, driverless transport systems are already state-of-the-art on certain legs of transportation. This has given a push for the maritime industry to join the advancement. The case organisation, AAWA initiative, is a joint industry-academia research consortium with the objective of developing readiness for the first commercial autonomous solutions, exploiting state-of-the-art autonomous and remote technology. The initiative develops both autonomous and remote operation technology for navigation, machinery, and all on-board operating systems. The aim of this study is to develop a model with which to estimate and forecast the operational costs, and thus enable comparisons between manned and autonomous cargo vessels. The building process of the model is also described and discussed. Furthermore, the model’s aim is to track and identify the critical success factors of the chosen ship design, and to enable monitoring and tracking of the incurred operational costs as the life cycle of the vessel progresses. The study adopts the constructive research approach, as the aim is to develop a construct to meet the needs of a case organisation. Data has been collected through discussions and meeting with consortium members and researchers, as well as through written and internal communications material. The model itself is built using activity-based life cycle costing, which enables both realistic cost estimation and forecasting, as well as the identification of critical success factors due to the process-orientation adopted from activity-based costing and the statistical nature of Monte Carlo simulation techniques. As the model was able to meet the multiple aims set for it, and the case organisation was satisfied with it, it could be argued that activity-based life cycle costing is the method with which to conduct cost estimation and forecasting in the case of autonomous cargo vessels. The model was able to perform the cost analysis and forecasting, as well as to trace the critical success factors. Later on, it also enabled, albeit hypothetically, monitoring and tracking of the incurred costs. By collecting costs this way, it was argued that the activity-based LCC model is able facilitate learning from and continuous improvement of the autonomous vessel. As with the building process of the model, an individual approach was chosen, while still using the implementation and model building steps presented in existing literature. This was due to two factors: the nature of the model and – perhaps even more importantly – the nature of the case organisation. Furthermore, the loosely organised network structure means that knowing the case organisation and its aims is of great importance when conducting a constructive research.

Evaluating the whole-life cost implication of revocability and disruption in office retrofit building projects

Retrofit buildings are becoming popular in the United Kingdom as well as many parts of the advanced economies. Existing whole-life costing models have however, not proven to be robust enough to deal with building retrofit scenarios. Recent research has made a case for the existence of revocability and disruption in building retrofit investments. This paper evaluates the whole-life cost implication of revocability and disruption in office retrofit building projects. The potential implication of revocability and disruption are evaluated based on probability and fuzzy logic principles respectively. Two case study projects are selected to appraise the economic potentials of revocability and disruption. It was found that the average cost of revocability relative to the initial capital cost can be up to 119% over a 60-year life. It was also found that the average cost of disruption relative to the initial capital cost can be up to 12%. Future studies will utilise sensitivity analysis in assessing the relative preference of building retrofit configurations in office building projects. The external validity of this work is moderate, as the intention is to establish analytical generalisation rather than statistical generalisation for office retrofit building projects.

Cost analysis error? Exploring issues relating to whole-life cost estimation in sustainable housing

Purpose: The main purpose of the study is to promote consideration of the issues and approaches available for costing sustainable buildings with a view to minimising cost overruns, occasioned by conservative whole-life cost estimates. The paper primarily looks at the impact of adopting continuity in whole-life cost models for zero carbon houses. Design/methodology/approach: The study embraces a mathematically based risk procedure based on the binomial theorem for analysing the cost implication of the Lighthouse zero-carbon house project. A practical application of the continuous whole-life cost model is developed and results are compared with existing whole-life cost techniques using finite element methods and Monte Carlo analysis. Findings: With standard whole-life costing, discounted present-value analysis tends to underestimate the cost of a project. Adopting continuity in whole-life cost models presents a clearer picture and profile of the economic realities and decision-choices confronting clients and policy-makers. It also expands the informative scope on the costs of zero-carbon housing projects. Research limitations/implications: A primary limitation in this work is its focus on just one property type as the unit of analysis. This research is also limited in its consideration of initial and running cost categories only. The capital cost figures for the Lighthouse are indicative rather than definitive. Practical implications: The continuous whole-life cost technique is a novel and innovative approach in financial appraisal [...] Benefits of an improved costing framework will be far-reaching in establishing effective policies aimed at client acceptance and optimally performing supply chain networks. Originality/value: The continuous whole-life costing pioneers an experimental departure from the stereo-typical discounting mechanism in standard whole-life costing procedures.

Integrating health and sustainability in life cycle assessment

Until now health impact assessment and environmental impact assessment are two different issues, often not addressed together. Both issues have to be dealt with for sustainable building. The aim of this paper is to link healthy and sustainable housing in life cycle assessment. Two strategies are studied: clean air as a functional unity and health as a quality indicator. The strategies are illustrated with an example on the basis of Eco-Quantum, which is a Dutch whole-building assessment tool. It turns out that both strategies do not conflict with the LCA methodology. The LCA methodology has to be refined for this purpose.

Using data mining to improve building life cycle

The building life cycle process is complex and prone to fragmentation as it moves through its various stages. The number of participants, and the diversity, specialisation and isolation both in space and time of their activities, have dramatically increased over time. The data generated within the construction industry has become increasingly overwhelming. Most currently available computer tools for the building industry have offered productivity improvement in the transmission of graphical drawings and textual specifications, without addressing more fundamental changes in building life cycle management. Facility managers and building owners are primarily concerned with highlighting areas of existing or potential maintenance problems in order to be able to improve the building performance, satisfying occupants and minimising turnover especially the operational cost of maintenance. In doing so, they collect large amounts of data that is stored in the building’s maintenance database. The work described in this paper is targeted at adding value to the design and maintenance of buildings by turning maintenance data into information and knowledge. Data mining technology presents an opportunity to increase significantly the rate at which the volumes of data generated through the maintenance process can be turned into useful information. This can be done using classification algorithms to discover patterns and correlations within a large volume of data. This paper presents how and what data mining techniques can be applied on maintenance data of buildings to identify the impediments to better performance of building assets. It demonstrates what sorts of knowledge can be found in maintenance records. The benefits to the construction industry lie in turning passive data in databases into knowledge that can improve the efficiency of the maintenance process and of future designs that incorporate that maintenance knowledge.