CEIM open applications for August 2011 intake

We open the application for August 2011 intake for AIT Thailand campus. Limited numbers of scholarships are available for talented applicants. Some of the scholarships are Royal Thai Government scholarship, The King of Thailand scholarship, The Queen of Thailand Scholarship, Asian Development Bank scholarship etc.

What is CEIM? CEIM master and doctoral programs aim to prepare engineers to manage large construction projects starting from planning, design, tendering, construction and commissioning.

What will you learn? you will learn important knowledge and skills in project management in construction such as project planning/scheduling, project cost and financial management, organizational management, project contract, project risk, project quality management, project performance management and project financing.

Where will you work after graduation? You can work in strategic industries that highly need project management such as:

- Contractors (highway, building, oil/gas and energy)

- Consultants

- Property and real estate developers

- Bank and Invesment companies

- Public Private Partnership Consortium

- Financial and Banking institutions that lend fundings for construction projects

- hotel and apartment development

- oil and gas construction

What else will you learn during your study with us in AIT?

AIT is a very multicultural insitute. Our students and faculty members come from different parts of the world such as Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, Indonesia, China, Korea, European Union. Aside from studying knowledge, you will also learn different cultures and different ways of thinking from your friends; and develop your global international networking.

Please contact CEIM Secretary (Ms. Woranuch, phone 025246060 or email woranuch@ait.ac.th) for further information.

Visit CEIM: http://www.set.ait.ac.th/ceim

How to apply? http://www.ait.ac.th/AIT/admissions/admissions

Regards

Dr. BHW Hadikusumo

Associate Professor

CEIM Coordinator

MPM Coordinator

Contractor Prequalification Criteria, Tendering Criteria, and Tendering Procedure in Cambodia Building and Housing Construction Projects

The construction industry can be considered as one of the largest industries that can contribute significant fraction of national product in Cambodia. However, people in this business face many problems such as prequalification, tendering and selecting a contractor.

Mr. Puoy Puthitha made a research to give the suitable selection criteria whether it will be effective in building construction projects in Cambodia. The process of contractor selection can be achieved, unless the prequalification, tendering criteria and tendering process will be linked to project performance in term of time, cost, quality, and customer satisfaction. It means that different project types and objectives should have different proportion on each selection criteria.

The purpose of his research is to define contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure in Cambodia building and housing construction projects and then how the contractor prequalification, tendering criteria and tendering procedure affect the project performance. The specific objectives of his research were to: (1) study effective contractor prequalification criteria; (2) study effective contractor tendering criteria; (3) study effective contractor tendering procedure; and (4) how contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure affect project performance.

Conclusion

There are four main findings in this study such as follows:
1. The effectiveness of contractor prequalification criteria in building construction projects.
2. The effectiveness of contractor tendering criteria in building construction projects.
3. The effectiveness of contractor tendering procedure in building construction projects.
4. Contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure have different affected on project performance.

In order to get the effective or significant factors and sub-factors from contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria and tendering procedure, the results were combined the ranking by mean with the correlation analysis results.

Contractor Prequalification Criteria

1. Financial Consideration: financial stability, financial status, Bank arrangement and bonding capacity.
2. Past Performance: failure to have completed projects, schedule overruns, cost overruns, past failures, owner/contractor relationship
3. Technical Ability: technical expertise, possessed plant and equipment, experience
4. Management Capability: past performance and quality, project management organization, experience of technical personnel

Contractor Tendering Criteria

1. Price: fixed capital cost, variable tender costs during the contract period, maintenance costs
2. Technical Skills: design quality, technical expertise
3. Methodology: program of works, division of works into sub-contracts, key performance indicators, reporting and recoding systems
4. Relevant Experience: project cost
5. Past Performance: quality standards, target performance level; tender price, variations and final cost.

Contractor Tendering Procedure

1. Tender Evaluation: tender quality (technical evaluation); tender price (financial evaluation); determine lowest bid; responsiveness, and responsibility
2. Tender Submission: sealing and marking of the tenderers, tender forms and tender specification document; tender terms and condition for bid preparation; post offer negotiation
3. Prequalification and Registration: prequalification requirement

The following description in details about the conclusion of this research study will support the conformation of each objective. All the results are computerized by SPSS software in order to get the data analysis results.

Project Performance in Building Construction Projects

Most of consultant companies in Cambodia had carefully focused on the process of selecting the qualified contractors in order to get the project successfully. In addition, the project owners were spent enough time in selecting the qualified contractors, particularly running projects and the quality control. As a result, the projects were finished within the budget, the quality of construction projects was good, and the contractors could be able to satisfy to the customer’s requirements.

The Effectiveness of Contractor Prequalification Criteria

Financial consideration found to be the main key factor for contractor prequalification criteria in Cambodia building and housing construction project, this result is related each other, which mean in order to be successful in performing the effective contractor prequalification process, the project owners have an important role in making the right decision for selecting the main contractors for construction works based upon the financial information of the contractors.

The Effectiveness of Contractor Tendering Criteria

The Price found to be the important factor for contractor tendering criteria in Cambodia building and housing construction project. Most of the tenderers still rely on tender price which has been proven its competency to acquire the contracts. The other contractor tendering criteria also are quite significant stimulated in contractor selection?

The Tender evaluation found to be the important selection process for contractor tendering procedure in Cambodia building and housing construction project.
This process is to financially and technically evaluate the tenderers’ performance in order to acquire the projects. The other contractor tendering procedures also are quite significant stimulated in performing the construction tendering practice.

The Correlation between Contractor Prequalification Criteria and Project Performance

The result shows that past performance, technical ability, and management capability are perceived to be the dominant contractor prequalification criteria affecting all project performance in terms of cost, time, quality, and customer’s satisfaction. While, financial consideration was perceived to affect only time, quality, and customer’s satisfaction. But Contractor’s organization and Past experience did not show any correlation with project performance. It can be concluded that most of the project owners focused on these two factors as somewhat important on how to acquire the qualified contractors by regarding to the perceived impact of the other decision factors on contractor prequalification decision making; the projects were still cost overrun and overtime. That’s why the customer did not satisfy in their performance. This is due to external factors such as lack of accurate data from the contractors, imprecise information, subjective information, and subjective judgment. Furthermore, they were also suffered from the rising of construction costs because of the materials fluctuation, lack of updating their technical performance, and lack of government regulation. Particularly, the projects were stopped due to heavy rain and flooding. Therefore, the external factors need a lot of information for assessing their impacts in order to achieve the project successfully in construction industry,

The Correlation between Contractor Tendering Criteria and Project
Performance

The result indicates that Price and Methodology are perceived to be the dominant contractor tendering criteria affecting all project performance in terms of cost, time, quality, and customer’s satisfaction. While, Technical skills, Relevant experience, and Past performance were perceived to affect only cost, time, and quality. But Resources and Management skills and systems did not show any correlation with project performance.

However Resources, Management skills and systems can be considered as somewhat important. The contractor tendering criteria had the moderate mean for resources, management skills and systems, the projects were not success. This is because the project owners did not much focused on the information of resources, and management skills and systems. Even these two criteria were somewhat important in selecting the qualified tenderers, the projects were still cost overruns, over time, unqualified quality, and the client didn’t satisfy. It might be affected by other external factors which were concerned with project performance.

The Correlation between Contractor Tendering Procedure and Project
Performance

The result indicates that Tender evaluation and Tender submission are perceived to be the dominant contractor tendering procedure affecting all project performance in terms of cost, time, quality, and customer’s satisfaction. While, prequalification and registration were perceived to affect only cost, time, and quality. But Contract award/execution, Tender opening, and Invitation to tender did not show any correlation with project performance. However, the Contract award/execution, Invitation to tender, and Tender opening can be concluded as somewhat important. Even the project owners had depicted clearly their requirements in construction contracts during their contract award/execution, invitation to tender, and tender opening; the tenderers were not successful yet to receive the owner’s requirement. Furthermore, the tenderers had been considered as some part of important in these stages, but the project owners and consultants were still not accepted their performance yet as well. The reason is that it might be affected by other external factors which were concerned with project performance.

His thesis abstract is copied and posted.

Abstract

The construction industry today is a highly competitive industry with an enormous amount of risk, particularly many conflicts, problems, adversity, and uncertainty. The construction projects are usually confronted with many conflicts, problems, and uncertainty due to a result of failure in selecting a competent contractor. To perform the project success, the owner’s team has an important role to figure out these many conflicts and problems such as schedule delays, cost overrun, low productivity, and contract disputes by being able to evaluate the contractor’s performance in the proper way. This study is based on quantitative research through questionnaires and carries on to first identify the contractor performance criteria in terms of prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure and to help the project owners to assess the tenderer’s performance. Second, this study aims at describing how the contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure affect project performance.

This study was conducted in Cambodia building consultant and construction companies to study effective contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure for being able to select the competent contractors. In each case, the criteria have been ranged the scores in order to facility the project owners are able to evaluate with flexibility. The result found that first financial consideration, past performance, and technical ability in contractor prequalification criteria; second price, technical skills, and methodology in contractor tendering criteria; third tender evaluation, tender submission, and contract award/execution in contractor tendering procedure respectively are important and should be applied when performing contractor prequalification and tendering systems in practice. They all are the main concern in order to achieve the successful projects.

Based on the correlation analysis result, it shows that different contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure are significantly positively and differently affected on project performance. That means different contractor prequalification criteria, tendering criteria, and tendering procedure have different affects on project performance. Furthermore, the results from the correlation analysis show that Past performance, Technical ability, Management capability, Price, Methodology, Tender evaluation, and Tender submission are perceived to be the dominant contractor prequalification criteria affecting all project performance in terms of cost, time, quality, and customer’s satisfaction. While, Financial consideration were perceived to affect only time, quality, and customer’s satisfaction. At the same analysis, Technical skills, Relevant experience, Past performance in construction tendering, and Prequalification and Registration were perceived to affect only cost, time, and quality. But Contractor’s organization, Past experience, Resources, Management skills and systems, Contract award/execution, Tender opening, and Invitation to Tender did not show any correlation with project performance. Practically, the two case studies above showed the correlated study between quantitative and qualitative study. The result indicated that the factors among the construction tendering practices above were tended to the project successfully.

Factors Affecting the Performance of The International Construction Contractors (ICCs) Doing Business in Cambodia

International construction business is the kind which embodies with serious economic, social, and political ramifications leading to the failure of the international project success in term of time, quality and cost (Walewski, 2003). The difficulties such as client communication, understanding new market, avoiding local politics and supervising the diverse group of professionals are confronted by the international construction business (Kangari and Lucas, 1997). Moreover, the inability to understand the clients’ requirement affects the project success in international business (Ling et al., 2006). The increasing of the misunderstanding, delay and costs resulting from unfamiliar environment and different institution such as regulations, norm, and cognitive-cultural belief with diverse participant are critical things (Will and Levitt, 2010). As Han et al.,(2005) stated that the risk factors associated with overseas construction projects can diminish project profitability .There are many researchers found that the delay and cost are increased due to the confusion among project participants (Flyvberg et al., 2003; Miller and Lessard, 2000; Orr, 2005), and due to dispute resulting from different cultures (Ghopshal, 1987).

Mr. Hout Venghong made a research on an international construction contractor (ICCs) doing business in Cambodia in order to: (1) investigate the current practices of the factors affecting the performance of the international construction contractors doing business in Cambodia; (2) develop the causal relationships affecting the performance of ICCs model of each investigated factors and figured out how each contractor copes with; and (3) propose the recommendation and a framework to the international construction contractors to take into account in order to do business in Cambodia.

Research Findings

Investigated factors affecting the performance of the International Construction
Contractors (ICCs) doing business in Cambodia

Based on the data gathered, there are five factors influencing the decision making of the international construction contractors doing business in Cambodia taking to the account to strategize accordingly in order to execute the project lucratively. The current practices of the factors affecting the performance of ICCs doing business in Cambodia are:
(1) condition of the host country and project owner,
(2) international construction contractors’ ability,
(3) characteristic of organization and participation,
(4) entry mode, and
(5) Uncontrollable variables with nineteen sub-factors.

Develop the causal relationships affecting the performance of ICCs model of each investigated factors and figured out how the firms response to each factor

1. Cambodian Government policy. The government does not have clear procedure for project approval and construction law and regulation for the construction projects. The tax and custom system, still, are not transparent which can affect to the project schedule and performance as well. The unethical practice, construction law and regulation should be completely addressed the firm from the beginning of the planning stage. The procured materials have to be taken with high attention in order to meet the projects’ objectives to avoid delay and cost overrun. Lack of construction law and regulation with weak legal system leads the firm hiring a legal advisor or international lawyer to prepare the legal documents related to avoid the conflict during the projects execution. The legal advisor or lawyer is asked to involve after the international construction contractors awarded the contract.

2. The unskilled labor issue in Cambodia construction sector. This is a big problem challenging the international construction contractors, especially when the project is complex and very specialized. Because construction market in Cambodia is not really attractive yet. There are quite few tall buildings and complex projects in Cambodia. Consequently, this provides less opportunity to the local laborers to experience with similar project. Even the local labor cost is cheap but the problem is unskilled laborers who are mostly farmers, so they will quite the project to go back home.

3. Lack of local skilled engineers who are able to use English as official language, especially for technical terms in construction project. The knowledge of local engineers was considerably limited since they did not have a chance to involve with similar complex projects. The local contractors are lack of knowledge in quality control and they are mostly not qualified for either big projects or specific projects. The employment of the staffs has to be mixed because the local staffs need to coordinate at construction site between the local labors and foreign staffs. The research is also found that the entering of the international construction contractors is to consider market attractiveness with the local government support.

4. Owner delayed payment. It plays a crucial role to the quality of the project, delay payment will results to time delay.

5. No local financial institution to help the contractors or subcontractors. The lack of the big local contractors to join the international construction contractor is one constraint that the international firms do not want to do business in Cambodia. The firm has to ask for the home country contractor or the third country to execute the project. This is still riskier than joint venture with the big local contractor in case they find the suitable local contractor to make a joint venture.

6. Most of the projects are under loan or grant projects from ADB, World Bank or the other financial institution, therefore the international construction contractors did not want to bid the projects, because they are so competitive. On the other hand, the contractors who want to launch their projects with high quality to maintain their good reputation will not bid the public projects, because the project volume reflects to the skilled labors and many subcontractors to execute the project as well.

Recommendation

Based on analysis of current practices of the international construction contractors doing business in Cambodia, below is the summarized recommendation for the International Construction Contractors.




His thesis abstract is copied and pasted.
Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting the performance of the international construction contractors (ICCs) doing business in Cambodia. Five firms in Cambodia were investigated through case study approach explanation building strategy as specific analytic approach in case study. The current practice factors/sub-factors were verified with nine industry experts and practitioners experienced in Cambodia construction industry. The administered research questions developed by a researcher being conducted with seven top management level of ICCs. In addition, the secondary data and the direct observation of the construction projects are carried out to get the supportive evidence to the result from the interview session. However, the short interview with the persons who were responsible at construction site was carried out during project direct observation. The research showed that the unethical practice, unclear tax and custom system, material availability, unskilled labor issues, lack of construction law and regulation, lack of legal system, unwillingness of local government support, different practices between the contractor and designer. From the finding, the response of the international construction contractors was pointed out with the each investigated factors accordingly. Objectively, the causal relationships affecting the performance of ICCs doing business in Cambodia was developed with the recommendation for better practices in Cambodia construction industry.

Key words: Factors, Performance, International construction contractors, Business,
Cambodia

Influence of Financial Risk for Project Financing throughout Real Estate Development Process: A Case Study of a High Rise Apartment Project in Vietnam

Many risks and opportunities occur in real estate market, especially during development phases (Mou, 2007). However, in Vietnam, there is a lack of knowledge about the influence of financial risk in real estate development process. Therefore, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Trung tried to research the influence of financial risk to project financing throughout development process. Furthermore, his study tried to explore relationship between the financial risk, the development process and the project financing to reduce its influence. The objectives of his study were: (1) to investigate the real estate development process in high rise apartment project and to indentify financial risk factors in each activity of process; (2) assessment the critical factor of financial risk on the development process and the influence of these factors to project financing throughout development process; and (3) purpose the conclusion and recommendation to reducing the influence of these factors on the project financing throughout the development process.

Research findings

1. The real estate development process and financial risk factor happen on this process in high rise apartment project

The first objective of this study is to find the financial risk and development process of high rise apartment project. After analyzing the data, it was found out that financial risk has 4 categories: legal risk, leverage risk, financing risk, inflation risk and risk of construction cost. While the development process of high rise apartment project includes 4 phases, there are project allocating, feasibility study, contract – license – commitment and execution and sell. The financial risk factor in each phase of development process is verified by expert and this supports for the developer, the real estate company and who related in development process of high rise project to get the overview picture of real estate development process and the financial risk happen in each step of process.

2. Assessment the critical factor of financial risk on the development process and the influence of these factors to project financing throughout development process

Base on the frame work, the development process and financial risk happen in each step of process. The researcher assessed all financial risk factors in each step of development process throughout the case study. This assessment was done by the development team of Project A, who directly manages this project. The assessment of influence of financial risk factor in development process and database of this project is analyzed to get the critical factor of financial risk on development process. The financial model of project is integrated with the critical factor of financial risk throughout development process for analyzing influences of critical factor of financial risk to project financing model throughout development process.

This finding shows the practice of development process in high rise apartment project and the influence of financial risk on development process. In this finding, the legal risk and leverage risk can lead to financing risk, inflation risk and risk of construction cost on the development process. Every activity of development process has relationship to each other. So, in each phase of project, the financial risk factor has impact to each other. This finding also shows the gap of perception of Real Estate Company about the influence of financial risk on development process. The Real Estate Company always wants to control the cost of the construction project but the real estate company forgets that the more important is the maximum profit of project. With this reason, the real estate company does not understand the demand of housing characteristic for project design of each segment in market. They always focus on the cost if this project is mid end or low end project. The delay for project operation increases the inflation cost and construction cost but decrease the profit of project.

3. Recommendation to reducing the influence of financial risk to project financing throughout development process.

The project financing in real estate development process is the key for successful project. To reduce the influence of financial risk in each phase of development process is the key for making decision for risk management. In order to achieve the maximum profit of project and control the cost of project, all of financial risk need to reduced and controlled. The recommendation to reducing the influence of financial risk to project financing model throughout development process is summarized in the table below.


His thesis abstract is copied andposted.

ABSTRACT

The real estate company always want maximum the profit and minimum the cost of project. With this purpose, the real estate company manages the financial risk to get the profit and control the cost. The real estate development process is complex project and very risky. In this process, the financial risk impact to project financing dramatically. With this reason, the influence of financial risk to project financing throughout development process is studied to support the real estate company and actor related in development process in order to make solution reducing the influence of financial risk to achieve objective of project.

This research was conducted to fulfill the three objectives. (1) to investigate the real estate development process in high rise apartment project and to identify financial risk factor in each step of development process; (2) to assess the critical factor of financial risk on the development process and the influence of these factors to project financing throughout development process; (3) to purpose the conclusion and recommendation to reducing the influence of these factors on project financing throughout the development process.

The result of this study found that the perception of Real Estate Company do not correspond with the influence of financial risk. The financial risk factor impact the both source of fund and use of f

und of project which is included the project financing model throughout each phase of development process. All of consequence of risk factor is show in execution and sale phase. This makes profit of project decrease dramatically and increase the construction cost. This study also shows that Vietnam has not yet created a convenience environment for the real estate business.

Key words: Real estate, development process, project financing, financial risk, risk factor, case study, Vietnam

Life Cycle Cost Analysis for Hydropower Projects

Life cycle cost is a key economic figure resulted from condensing an almost overwhelmingly large quantity of data (Pelzeter et al, 2007). The accuracy and sensitivity of these data can be difficult to analyze to become reasonable inputs for life cycle costs assessment.

For hydropower projects, there is a master plan to develop these projects in almost every country. However, because of the available budgets, the projects are needed to be ranked in order to decide which projects are necessary, economical and beneficial more than others. Life cycle cost analysis is one of the useful ways in decision making process and long term planning of the project. So, different projects are needed to compare their life cycle costs and incomes. Because of the various factors that can affect on hydropower projects, the uncertainty and the risks are high and difficult to predict.

Mr. Kyaw Min Thu made a case study which major objectives were to: (1) compare the life cycle costs and net present values of hydropower projects/plants with different types of turbine; and (2) identify the major cost contributors in life cycle cost of each project,
Conclusions

In this research, life cycle cost analysis of hydropower projects installed different types of turbine are conducted on the costs incurred in the hydropower plants to determine the most beneficial technology in terms of cost effectiveness. The hydropower plants for this research are selected among the hydropower plants in Thailand which are operating under management of EGAT. To conduct the analysis, all accessible cost data are collected and the researcher followed the cost categories of responsible agencies. All the costs incurred in the selected hydropower plants that can be accessed are considered and then converted into the same period to analyze. The costs data are converted in the same unit (thousand baht per year) at the end of each year within the analysis period.

Moreover, the energy generated data from each selected hydropower plant are collected and calculated the incomes of the power plants each year using the average energy sales price. The incomes getting from the energy generation are considered and calculated as one of the parameters in life cycle cost analysis for wider perspective to determine the outputs. The net present values of the hydropower plants are achieved from the costs and incomes incurred each operation year in the hydropower plants. The analysis’s results are converted into cost per capacity and cost per energy as the capacity of the hydropower plants can affect the results of the analysis.

Among factors influencing the selection of the turbine types of hydropower plants, the result of life cycle cost analysis can be just one of those factors. A final decision may include a number of additional factors outside the LCCA process, such as availability of funding, capability to perform the required construction, expertise and experiences with a particular turbine type and so on.

1. Comparison of Life Cycle Costs of Hydropower Plants

As the capacities of the hydropower plants that can get enough data to conduct analysis are different, the analysis is performed to get the values for unit capacity and unit energy generated for each hydropower plants.

Based on the data analysis for three types of hydropower plants with three different types of turbine, the Francis turbine power plant is more cost-effective than other two types of power plants with respect to the life cycle cost per installed capacity, life cycle cost per energy, net present value per installed capacity and net present value per energy.

The Kaplan turbine hydropower plant and Pelton turbine hydropower stand as decreasing order with respect to their life cycle costs per installed capacity, life cycle costs per energy generated and net present values per capacity and energy generated by the Pelton turbine plant has the larger values than that of Kaplan turbine plant. Thus, the Pelton turbine hydropower plant is more favorable than that of Kaplan plant in terms of cost-effectiveness.

2. Major Cost Contributors in Hydropower Plants

The present values of each cost categories involved in total costs of hydropower plants for each year are calculated to find out the contributors and their ratios in the life cycle costs. The researcher follows the responsible agencies in categorization the costs incurred in the hydropower plants.

In every plant, the life cycle costs spent for civil structures are the largest in the life cycle costs for the whole plants, in other words, life cycle costs of civil structures are major cost contributors in whole life cycle costs of hydropower plants. However, taking account only the operation and maintenance costs, the costs incurred for the electromechanical equipment are the larger than for the civil structures.

In terms of costs per capacity and energy generated, for each cost category, the hydropower plants can be arranged as Kaplan, Pelton and Francis turbine hydropower plant in decreasing order.

According to the results of the analysis, Francis turbine power plant has the least cost per energy generated in all cost categories so Francis turbine is the most favorable among hydropower plants with different types of turbine.

Thus, life cycle costs of civil structures in the analysis period are the major costs contributors in all types of plants while the operation and maintenance costs of the electromechanical equipment are major cost contributors among the total operation and maintenance costs of hydropower plants

His thesis abstract is copied and pasted.
Abstract

The hydropower projects are needed relatively large amount of investment relative to most of the other projects in construction industry. Thus, the decision making on selecting the technologies using in the hydropower plants are needed to analyzed well because of the costs incurred in the whole life of the plant come from the decisions made before starting construction and operation of the plant. Life cycle cost analysis is worth to be conducted as it can give the results not only on the initial costs but also on the costs in the whole life of the studied assets.

In this study, the objective is set to conduct the life cycle cost analysis for the hydropower plants which are installed different types of turbines. The life cycle cost analysis for each type of plant is carried out and the results are shown as per capacity and per energy generated of the plant. The main components of the inputs, which are historical data from hydropower plants, are gathered from the representative agencies. The comparisons of the results of the analysis are performed to select the most cost-effective technology for the hydropower plants in long term basis.

As the results of the analysis, it is found that Francis turbine hydropower plant is more cost effective over than other types.

Factors Affecting Operation and Maintenance Costs of Ho Chi Minh City Condominium Projects

The management of condominium project during the operation stage is an emerging problem for project owners. Normally, the owners focus on development stage and construction stage of the project. They mainly concern in problems related to planning, design, and execution (Arditi & Nawakorawit, 1999a).

In order to recommend to owners or property managers appropriate solutions to control and reduce O&M expense. Mr. Duong Quang Minh made a study which, first, will develop operation and maintenance cost system of existing condominium projects. The purpose is to identify the most important costs in this system. Second, the study will investigate the reasons that cause the cost. Thus, the three main objectives of his study were to: (1) build a generic framework for operation and maintenance cost system of existing condominium projects; (2) find out and assess factors affecting on operation and maintenance cost of existing condominium projects; and (3) recommend solutions to reduce or control the impact of the factors that influence on O&M costs.

Conclusions

For Objective 1

The study analyzed cost data from five case studies to identify the most important cost of operating condominiums. Each cost was given a brief definition, its components, and characteristic. Then, the study developed the generic framework of operation and maintenance cost of condominium projects. The framework is benchmark to compare O&M costs between condominiums.

From the benchmarking, the study found that cost for condominium management is the highest cost with about 46.42 percent of total O&M cost. In addition, energies supplying for common activities of condominium are also high with about 18.26 percent of electricity consumption and about 9.23 percent for water consumption. Also, costs of cleaning and waste disposal are high by about 9.61 percent and costs for maintaining lifts are 6.01 percent.

The reasons behind this high cost include:

1. Management cost: The reason may be inappropriate choices between in-house or out-source employment.

2. Energy consumption cost (Electricity and water supply): There are three main reasons that cause high expense for this cost center such as general facility influences, installation of an old-fashion technology in the facilities, and maintenance policy including lack of daily inspection and preventive maintenance.

3. Maintaining lift cost: Maintenance costs of lifts are costs connected to planned maintenance works to the lifts in the common areas of condominium.

4. Cleaning and waste disposal cost: Reasons that may cause cleaning service cost is lack of design specification of cleaning tasks and inappropriate choice of construction material, specially decorated material.

Objective 2

There is no significant difference between in-house and out-sourcing employment condominium managers. In general, both managers pay attention into reducing operation and maintenance costs. However, based on characteristic of each employment type, the condominium managers have different maintenance strategy to perform the maintenance task effectively. Therefore, they have different perception about the factors that influence to O&N costs.

Recommended solutions to reduce or control the impact of the factors that influence on O&M costs

For new condominium projects, property manager is usually the one that handles all the defects or design faults after the completion of construction stage. Base on accumulated experiences in handling the defects from different building projects, the property manager can feed back what they have suffered from the experiences to the project team. Besides, as the property manager's role is to manage the property, they usually meet the tenants that propose many expectations or requirements to make better living condition of condominiums. These expectations may be valuable information for the owner to make the right decision when investing in new condominium project. In order to better manage the project, property manager should:

• Select appropriate in-house or out-sourcing staff to perform maintenance tasks efficiently
• Imply conservation energy program in order to control and reduce energy consumption
• Pay attention in the management of maintenance task for lift system
• Pay attention in the management of cleaning tasks

The recommendations for the first finding are shown in the below.

There are two recommendations for condominium managers. One is for in-house employment condominium and another for out-sourcing condominium.

For in-house employment condominium, if the condominium owners decide to employ in-house staff to perform the maintenance task, they should invite maintenance specialists to give their advisories during the design stage in order to reduce the maintenance costs as well as operation costs. On the other hand, if there is no participation of maintenance experts in the design process and there are many problems occurring during the operation stage, the project owners should use external staff to perform the maintenance work.

For out-sourcing employment condominium, there is a strong wish of out-sourcing condominium manager about the provision of construction material information. In order to perform maintenance tasks efficiently, the project owner should ask the designer that provides the specification about the characteristic of construction material using for the project. Especially in the case that project owner decides to use out-sourcing staffs.

His thesis abstract is copied and pasted.

Abstract

High-rise residential property management sector in Vietnam is still staying at the early stage of development. There is lack of maintenance concept of building development because most of project owners are only attracted in completion project. Condominium managers have not appropriate maintenance policy for the completed building, and it deteriorates faster than expected service year. Maintenance issues become emerging problems that should be concerned. This study aims to investigate practical management of condominium projects in Ho Chi Minh City through management of operation and maintenance expenditures.

Around the areas of HCMC, the researcher visited many exiting condominiums that have been operating since year 2000. In achieving these objectives, opinions of in-house employment condominium managers and out-sourcing employment condominium managers were sampled through structured questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. There is a difference between condominium manager’s perception about two sub-factors affecting on operation and maintenance cost. They are “Lacking of involvement of maintenance experts during design stage” and “Materials selection does not comply with the client's activities due to inadequate accurate material information source”

On the other hand, real cost data were also collected from five condominium projects. The purpose the study was that identified the most important O&M costs of condominium by comparing costs among condominiums. Benchmarking was established to compare cost each other. The result of comparison was that found out six most important cost including management cost, electricity consumption, water consumption, cleaning and waste disposal, and lift maintenance cost. After all, the study proposed many solutions that not only help condominium managers managing their assets better but also help other participants concerning about maintenance issues for developing new projects.

Factors Affecting Constructability Practices in Hydropower Construction in Nepal

Nowadays, the construction industry lacks constructability, which causes many problems, such as increased cost and time required for constructing a project, reduced productivity of project personnel and equipment, and low-quality construction (Nima et al., 2002). In this connection, it is worthwhile to investigate the drawbacks of the existing practices and application of constructability concepts.

Systematic application of constructability concepts will enhance constructability of a project. Consequently, schedule, quality and cost are optimized and all the parties are benefitted from the project. Nepal is practicing constructability concepts in hydropower development however these concepts are not recognized with importance by the key practitioners. Mr. Mukesh Khadka made a case study which objectives were broadly divided into following three parts:

i. To find out constructability concepts and implementation barriers applicable for different phases of hydropower project namely conceptual planning, design and procurement, and construction/field operation.

ii. To identify the degree of importance, level of application and major implementation barriers of constructability concepts in hydropower construction in Nepal.

iii. To propose recommendations for the effective application of constructability concepts in the hydropower project construction in Nepal.

Conclusions

1. Identification of constructability concepts and implementation barriers

For Nepal, thirty-six constructability concepts suitable for hydropower projects are identified out of which seven concepts are suitable for implementation during conceptual and planning phase, twenty-one concepts for design and procurement phase, and last eight concepts are suitable during construction or field operation phase. In hydropower industry, 49 implementation barriers were obtained from expert review and play key role to deter the implementation of constructability concept.

2. Identification of degree of importance, level of application and major implementation barriers

The result of this study confirmed that six concepts are very important constructability concepts in overall respondents’ opinions. The very important constructability concepts are (1) provide detail and clear design information, (2) investigate the impacts of design on safety during construction, (3) documentation of works of good contractors based on quality and time, (4) carry out thorough investigation of the site, (5) evaluation, documentation and feedback of the issues of the constructability concept, and (6) technical specification. Remaining thirty constructability concepts is accepted as important constructability concepts for hydropower construction in Nepal.

The research has also revealed that none of the concepts are being highly applied in hydropower construction in Nepal. All constructability concepts are believed as concept with medium application except three concepts namely, (1) innovation on temporary construction materials/systems, (2) employ any visualization tools such as 3D CAD to avoid physical interference, and (3) design to avoid return visit by trade which fall into category of concepts with little application.

During the study, major constructability implementation barriers were identified and ranked as top ten implementation barriers. These barriers were further grouped into three dimensions named as (1) Ineffective communication and coordination, (2) Socio-political influences, and (3) Insufficient resources using factor analysis. Ineffective communication and coordination between parties may cause conflicts that could eventually impact the project constructability adversely leading to dissatisfaction of the project parties, reworks, variation orders and claims. Not following the execution plan of the project may hamper the critical path of the project thereby causing the time and cost overrun of the project. Socio-political influences are the major barriers of hampering implementation of constructability concepts. Disruption by local people and road strikes imposing various reasonable and sometimes unreasonable causes seriously hamper the project constructability. Insufficient resources due to limited project budget also hinder the implementation of constructability concept. Due to lack of incentives given to the employees, it is very difficult to implement the constructability improvement concepts as employees are the key player for applying them.

Recommendations

Further study is recommended for the following subjects:
• Further study considering large number of hydropower projects of various sizes, different financing models and identification of specific barriers for each constructability concept is necessary in milieu of developing guidelines for hydropower projects

• Further study can be extended to find the detail procedures for effective application of those constructability concepts in hydropower construction and to find the most suitable contracting approach which facilitates effective constructability application.

• A study on suitability of constructability issues in various kinds of contracting approach can be done.

His thesis abstract is copied and pasted.

Abstract

Nepal has favorable condition to develop numerous hydropower plants yet it is facing eighteen hour load shedding per day during dry season. Traditional approach adopted in Nepal for hydropower construction involves many problems such as design changes, reworks, poor safety practices, time delays, cost overruns, disputes, claims which hampers constructability of the project. In this context, it is worthwhile to conduct research which focuses on investigation of the degree of importance and level of application of constructability concepts and identifying the major barriers hindering effective implementation of those concepts. The findings would be appropriate for the preparation of baseline required in constructability improvement guideline for hydropower construction in Nepal.

Thirty-six constructability concepts and forty-nine implementation barriers related to hydropower construction in Nepal were selected for detail study after extensive literature review and expert verification. Through questionnaire survey, opinions on those constructability concepts and implementation barriers were collected from fifty-three managers/engineers associated with hydropower developers, consulting firms and construction companies involved in hydropower construction in Nepal. The quantitative data gathered were then analyzed using various statistical techniques to conclude and recommend further studies. The result of this study revealed that six constructability concepts were accepted as very important concepts by overall respondents and the remaining concepts were considered to be important. To the contrary, none of the concepts are being highly applied in hydropower construction in Nepal. Further, ten major constructability implementation barriers were identified and grouped as ineffective communication and coordination, socio-political influences, and insufficient resources using factor analysis.

The effective implementation of constructability concepts in hydropower projects in Nepal can be attained by developing guidelines for the application of those concepts. For preparation of the guidelines the concepts identified by the study need to be verified with hydropower projects of various sizes and different financing models and detail procedures for applying those concepts should be documented. Also, identification of specific barriers for each constructability concept is necessary in milieu of developing guidelines for hydropower projects.

Keywords: constructability, buidability, implementation barriers, hydropower, Nepal