Browsing by Author "Karunasena, GI"

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3R.6R extended water hierarchy model for sustainable use of water during construction
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Waidyasekara, KGAS; De Silva, L; Rameezdeen, R; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Ramachandra, T
There is a broad consensus in literature that effective utilisation of natural resources in any industry greatly influences sustainability of built environment. Hence, better management strategies of water began to emerge in all sectors; thus, different dimensions are in need to assess different industries. With this scenario, water sustainability on construction sites is one significant area, which demands the attention of construction stakeholders. Today many construction projects survive on potable water, and many strategies are available that can reduce the amount of water consumed by the construction industry. Water hierarchy is one strategy proposed for construction sites to reduce potable water consumption and encourage alternative water sources within the site. Literature and preliminary interviews further support identification of new 3R principles: Regulations, Responsibility, and Rewards that can influence on better water management on construction sites. Therefore, purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability and implementation of 3R principles in conjunction with six stages (6R) of water hierarchy to improve efficient water use on construction projects in Sri Lanka. The study adopted triangulation convergence mixed method approach, and data collection involved case studies and a structured survey. Qualitative data is presented as narratives and quotations while quantitative data is presented as descriptive statistics. The results revealed that all factors were considered as ‘applicable’ and the possibility of implementing them on construction sites. Reuse and recycle were identified as the least applicable, and are rarely practised on sites, if it is not initially identified as a mandatory process. Experience and commitment of individual staff and costs are identified as important drivers on implication of each 9R principle. New 3R principles were recognised as supportive policies to implement all six existing stages of water hierarchy. Finally, the paper discusses the extended water hierarchy model developed for construction industry.
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Adoptability of green lease in developing countries: the case of Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Hettige, NC; Perera, BAKS; Mallawaarachchi, H; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Ramachandra, T
The concept of Green Buildings is now being promoted as there is an increasing requirement for energy efficient buildings. With the boom of Green Buildings, Green Lease concept has become significant. However in Sri Lanka, presently Green Lease is not practiced very much. Nevertheless, attempts at adopting Green Lease cannot be ignored as there are clauses relevant to green buildings even in the existing lease agreements. Therefore, this research was carried out to investigate the adoptability of the Green Lease concept in Sri Lanka. Firstly, a literature synthesis was carried out to understand the Green Lease concept and its significance. Semi structured interviews and a documentary review were done thereafter to further identify the importance, and enablers and barriers of Green Lease. Subsequently, the findings were validated through expert interviews. The analysis revealed the significance of the Green Lease concept which provides a healthier work environment, lower utility charges and a good reputation for both the tenant and the landlord. However, there can be enablers and barriers of Green Lease. The contribution from the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL), the Government’s attempts to promote sustainable activities and conducting of business in Green Buildings are few of the enablers. Factors such as lack of policies and government rules, and poor awareness of the community about Green Lease are the significant barriers. The Government’s positive influence and the promotion of the Green Lease within the community will be beneficial towards adopting Green Lease. Several suggestions to minimize the identified barriers also have been made through the developmentof a framework.
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Adopting net zero energy building concept to reduce energy cost of commercial buildings in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Weerasinghe, I; Mallawaarachchi, H; De Silva, L; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Ramachandra, T
Fulfilling energy demand has become a major challenge faced by most of high rise buildings today as it creates high utility cost to the organization. Hence, most of the organisations, especially in commercial building sector seek better options to fulfil their energy demand as a major energy consumer among the other building facilities. Hence, several energy management practices have been introduced to enhance energy efficiency. In the governing concern on less energy and less environmental impact, Net Zero Energy Building concept has received attention. Net Zero Energy Buildings have a greatly reduced energy demand by an equivalent generation of energy from low-cost, locally available, non-polluting, renewable sources. However, the adaptation of this concept has become a major challenge due to various barriers. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the barriers to adopt Net Zero Energy Building concept to commercial buildings in Sri Lanka for proposing probable solutions. As this research required a detailed investigation, case study approach was selected under qualitative phenomenon. Three cases were conducted in three selected commercial buildings to collect the data. Cross-case analysis technique was applied as the appropriate data analysis technique. Nvivo and Decision-Explore software’s are used to analyse and present the data. As the focal point of the research, barriers to adopt Net Zero Energy Building concept was determined relating to five major categories, such as, financial, legal, policy, social, and technical barriers. According to case study findings, this concept is more suitable for new building constructions than the existing buildings, as it is more effective to adopt it at the early stage of the building. Further, major barriers include limitations of organisational internal policies, preference of organisations for short term profits, unawareness and government rules and regulations. Accordingly, a framework is developed to propose probable solutions. The developed framework gives a value to the research, as it could use as a firm base in both organisational and national levels to adopt Net Zero Energy Building concept to reduce energy cost of commercial buildings in Sri Lanka.
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The adoption of integrated project delivery in public sector projects in New Zealand: the way forward
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Naismith, N; Tookey, J; Hoseini, AG; Kekreja, R; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Ramachandra, T
The construction industry in New Zealand is responsible for around 40% natural resources, 30% energy consumption, and 30% greenhouse gases. The increased costs in natural resources, and energy, together with environmental concerns have pushed the demand for green buildings. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) process has emerged as an enabler for green buildings. Successful IPD combines the partnering concept and lean thinking, it addresses the participant’s expectations, cuts costs, eliminates waste, reduces variability and generates value for all the participants. Yet many public sectors owners, do not have the authority to adopt features of IPD. However, owners can benefit from the IPD philosophy and features to take advantage of some key benefits. The purpose of paper is to examine the IPD tools and techniques appropriate for public sector organizations in New Zealand and to examine the barriers that public sectors organizations face in New Zealand while adopting those IPD features. A pilot study was conducted to examine these issues, semi structured interview were carried out with four public sector construction industry specialists. The interviews revealed that there is a gap between current and best practice in the New Zealand construction industry that is impacting on the adoption of IPD or IPD approaches. To improve the delivery of public sector projects a checklist of specific IPD tools and techniques appropriate for NZ public sector projects has been developed.
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Analysis of the anti-corruption strategies in the construction sector of China
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Shan, M; Chan, APC; Le, Y; Hu, Y; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Fernando, NG
While various anti-corruption strategies (ACSs) have been developed to curb the widespread corruption in the construction sector, effectiveness of these ACSs has seldom been investigated. This study, therefore, aims to identify and evaluate the ACSs being implemented in China. To achieve these objectives, a comprehensive literature review and a two-round Delphi survey of 14 experienced industry experts and academics were conducted. Survey results reveal that the most effective ACS is legal framework, followed by penal sanction, regulations, positive leadership, adequate institutions, transparency, economic sanction, administrative sanction, and education and training. Also, the results show that the effectiveness of raising the wage level as an anti-corruption strategy did not receive a high evaluation by the Delphi panel. Findings of this study can help enhance a better understanding of anticorruption strategies and thus improve a corruption-free environment.
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Applicability of earned value management as a performance measurement tool for Sri Lankan construction industry
Hettipathirana, HDAP; Karunasena, GI
This study is based on the Earned Value Management (EVM) performance measurement technique and its practice in Sri Lankan construction industry. Since the project success clearly depend on accuracy on evaluated performance measurement, EVM have emerged through various techniques, due to its higher degree of reliability, effectiveness, accuracy, and efficiency. Data collection was done through the case study research approach and cross case analysis was used for data analysis. Four cases were selected to extract the current practice of EVM and its suitability as a performance measurement for the industry. In traditional methods, physical progress is not taken into account when analysing cost performance. Instead, actual cost of a project up to date is simply compared to planned costs, often with misleading results. Therefore, as a mitigating measure, EVM can be applied for measuring a project's performance forecasting future trends and analysing variances in the schedule and budget as the project proceeds. EVM as a standard method can be considered more successful with better results in projects simple and direct with a detailed scope. As evidenced in the case study, projects with complex and incomplete final products show higher deviations in the use of the technique. The EVM suggests a cultural change in the process of projects control; therefore people who have experience in dealing with the tool are really necessary in this process. The way an organisation implements the tool, influences directly to the results. If it had an organisational support, provided by specialised resources, will have better results in terms of application.
item: Conference-Full-text
Applicability of earned value management as a performance measurement tool for Sri Lankan construction industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Hettipathirana, HDAP; Karunasena, G; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
This study is based on the Earned Value Management (EVM) performance measurement technique and its practice in Sri Lankan construction industry. Since the project success clearly depend on accuracy on evaluated performance measurement, EVM have emerged through various techniques, due to its higher degree of reliability, effectiveness, accuracy, and efficiency. Data collection was done through the case study research approach and cross case analysis was used for data analysis. Four cases were selected to extract the current practice of EVM and its suitability as a performance measurement for the industry. In traditional methods, physical progress is not taken into account when analysing cost performance. Instead, actual cost of a project up to date is simply compared to planned costs, often with misleading results. Therefore, as a mitigating measure, EVM can be applied for measuring a project's performance forecasting future trends and analysing variances in the schedule and budget as the project proceeds. EVM as a standard method can be considered more successful with better results in projects simple and direct with a detailed scope. As evidenced in the case study, projects with complex and incomplete final products show higher deviations in the use of the technique. The EVM suggests a cultural change in the process of projects control; therefore people who have experience in dealing with the tool are really necessary in this process. The way an organisation implements the tool, influences directly to the results. If it had an organisational support, provided by specialised resources, will have better results in terms of application.
item: Conference-Full-text
Applicability of ICTAD price fluctuation formula for government funded intelligent building projects
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2015-06) Jayaweera, SC; Perera, BAKS; Jayasinghe, SJARS; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
In high inflationary situations, government fiscal policies etc., have an effect on price fluctuations in Intelligent Building (IB) projects which are funded by the Government. It can increase the cost of material, plant and labour, while increasing the risks that both the contractors and the clients have to face. The use of the ICTAD price fluctuation formula in construction projects of more than three months duration, especially those of the Government, will help to recover these unforeseen costs at least to a certain extent. The formula however has its own inherent constraints. The objective of this research is to identify these constraints and suggest solutions to overcome them. An expert survey and a case study were done towards achieving the main objective. The case studies comprised a document review and semi structured interviews. Code-based content analysis was used to identify the significant conclusions that could be made from the semi-structured interviews. The QSR. NVivo computer software was used to simplify the content analysis. The results emphasised that in the case of IB projects of the Government, there is a difference between the actual price fluctuations and the corresponding figures obtained using Institute of Training and Development (ICTAD) price fluctuation formula as the formula had its own limitations. Therefore there is a need to modify the way the ‘cost adjustment’ factor is determined in IB projects of the Government. By using reliable price indices while taking steps to improve the currently available norms, it will be possible to make available to future IB projects a better operating framework.
item: Conference-Full-text
Applicability of reliability centered maintenance approach for thermal power plants in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Kalpage, GK; Konara, KMGK; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
More than 70% of entire power demand in Sri Lanka mainly caters through thermal power and oil base thermal power plants contributes to cater more than 55% of demand in the country. Even though plant reliability and efficiency should be maintained at higher value to cater this demand, sudden island wide power cuts and Ceylon electricity board (CEB) statistics has been revealed the prevailing plant performance issues of thermal power plants. Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) approach has been adopted successfully for wide range of industries including thermal power industry in considerable number of countries to overcome plant performance issues while reducing maintenance cost. Therefore the focus of this research is to study applicability of RCM approach for maintenance planning of thermal power plants in Sri Lanka to overcome current issues relating to maintenance operation. Comprehensive literature review was conducted to explore RCM concept. Through the preliminary survey current maintenance practices, issues that directly related with maintenance practice, currently available resources that necessary for RCM base analysis and attitude of industry practitioner towards RCM implementation were identified. Streamline Reliability Centered Maintenance (SRCM) was identified as ideal type of RCM analysis method for thermal power plants in Sri Lanka through findings of literature review and preliminary survey. Findings of single case study revealed criticality evaluation criteria and applicable maintenance strategies for critical and non-critical components of typical thermal power plants. A comprehensive maintenance plan was developed for fuel pre pressure system using currently available physical and human resources. Considering findings, the research suggests that thermal power industry in Sri Lanka should initiate SRCM base maintenance program to overcome existing performance issues using existing resources.
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Application of green building concept to enhance indoor environmental quality in hospital buildings in Sri Lank
Dilrukshi, H; Mallawarachchi, H; Karunasena, GI
Through the number of factors, which can attract the occupants to the building, “quality” gets a predominant situate. Among the other buildings, hospitals are most important place which has to maintain quality in high standard. Hence, most of the countries are initiating various strategies to improve quality of hospitals because, it directly affects to the occupant satisfaction of the hospital. Further, hospital is mostly a public place which is extremely noisy, crowded and less indoor environment quality. It causes serious impacts on patient and staff outcomes ranging from sleep loss and elevates blood pressure among patients to emotional exhaustion and burnout among staff. Henceforth, poorly designed hospital environments pose a serious threat on building occupants. Literature findings further said that in current scenario, the majority of occupants are not satisfied with their indoor environment quality in a hospital. Nowadays, most of hospitals are following various strategies to improve quality of indoor environment. Among those strategies, green building concept becomes most prominent which is easy to adapt to improve the indoor environment quality. Moreover, green hospital design has been linked to better patient outcomes and staff retention. Even though, in past few years many newly constructed and renovated buildings moved towards green, buildings in hospital sector in Sri Lanka has not much familiar with the green building concept. Therefore, this study is mainly focused on presenting the importance of applying green building concept in hospital buildings to improve indoor environmental quality. Two case studies consisting private and public hospitals were conducted to collect the data. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted who have caught up in operational and maintenance management process of selected hospitals. As revealed by research findings, there was no special attention to enhance indoor environment quality in Sri Lankan hospitals especially in public sector. Therefore, several issues were identified comply with the indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, visual comfort and spatial comfort. Indoor Air quality is one of the major challenges faced by many hospital buildings as it creates several issues within hospital environment. Accordingly, probable green strategies were proposed to overcome identified indoor environment quality issues in hospital buildings to facilitate high quality indoor environment for building occupants in hospital buildings in Sri Lanka.
item: Conference-Full-text
Application of green building concept to enhance indoor environmental quality in hospital buildings in Sri Lanka.
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Dilrukshi, H; Mallawarachchi, H; Karunasena, G; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Through the number of factors, which can attract the occupants to the building, “quality” gets a predominant situate. Among the other buildings, hospitals are most important place which has to maintain quality in high standard. Hence, most of the countries are initiating various strategies to improve quality of hospitals because, it directly affects to the occupant satisfaction of the hospital. Further, hospital is mostly a public place which is extremely noisy, crowded and less indoor environment quality. It causes serious impacts on patient and staff outcomes ranging from sleep loss and elevates blood pressure among patients to emotional exhaustion and burnout among staff. Henceforth, poorly designed hospital environments pose a serious threat on building occupants. Literature findings further said that in current scenario, the majority of occupants are not satisfied with their indoor environment quality in a hospital. Nowadays, most of hospitals are following various strategies to improve quality of indoor environment. Among those strategies, green building concept becomes most prominent which is easy to adapt to improve the indoor environment quality. Moreover, green hospital design has been linked to better patient outcomes and staff retention. Even though, in past few years many newly constructed and renovated buildings moved towards green, buildings in hospital sector in Sri Lanka has not much familiar with the green building concept. Therefore, this study is mainly focused on presenting the importance of applying green building concept in hospital buildings to improve indoor environmental quality. Two case studies consisting private and public hospitals were conducted to collect the data. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted who have caught up in operational and maintenance management process of selected hospitals. As revealed by research findings, there was no special attention to enhance indoor environment quality in Sri Lankan hospitals especially in public sector. Therefore, several issues were identified comply with the indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, visual comfort and spatial comfort. Indoor Air quality is one of the major challenges faced by many hospital buildings as it creates several issues within hospital environment. Accordingly, probable green strategies were proposed to overcome identified indoor environment quality issues in hospital buildings to facilitate high quality indoor environment for building occupants in hospital buildings in Sri Lanka.
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Application of lean construction principles and practices to enhance the construction performance and flow
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2015-06) Madanayake, UH; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Lean thinking has now become a radical philosophy that has permeated and expanded in to several sectors other than just manufacturing. The concept of Lean thinking evolves the optimization of work flow related functions and the possible outcomes with its contribution to sustainable construction. Correspondingly, application of lean theories and principles in to construction sector has the potential to improve the quality of work, aggravate the function related effectiveness, minimize the cost components/ waste and increase the overall profit in both strategic and operational levels. Apparently, it appears that the lean techniques have immensely contributed for many possible cost reductions compared with the traditional project management techniques. However, few barriers for the implementation of lean principles are also on the contrary. The research aims to investigate the effects of Lean Construction applications while identifying the prevailing barriers related to the same. The research has exploited qualitative methods to explore the aforementioned research question. This paper presents an exploratory study from extent literature, predominantly based on a case study of a project management organisation whereas the arguments were strengthened and underpinned by the formation of a conceptual framework to explore the contribution of implementing lean construction techniques in sustainable construction. The research findings would ultimately help different stakeholders on applying lean theories in to practice.
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Application of supply chain management in building construction process
Karunasena, GI; Sanjeewa, BVP
As Supply Chain Management (SCM) concepts originated in the manufacturing industry, application of those concepts in construction is a challenging task. Although there are some implications of SCM in manufacturing and apparel industries, it is not sufficiently visible in the construction industry in Sri Lanka. Thus, this study aims to identify critical success factors affecting construction supply chains by implementing the concepts of SCM. A questionnaire survey was carried out among experts in the construction industry to formulate critical success factors. Thereafter, case study approach was used to evaluate formulated critical success factors in real time projects to identify strengths and weaknesses. It established fewer activities - greater effect, activity rotation and controlling, strategic management, managing inputs, information communication technology supported decision making and organizational behavior as critical success factors which need to be addressed in managing supply chain operations. Case study revealed that critical success factors are highly complementary and joint use of these factors provide a comprehensive view on how construction project supply chains can be optimized.
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Approaches to foster green building constructions in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Thalpage, R; Karunasena, G; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Ramachandra, T
With world’s trend, though the Sri Lankan government has taken a substantial effort for local green building movement, still it has not become as a major and pressing concept in Sri Lanka due to several barriers. Those barriers could be identified under five key areas as financial barriers, regulatory barriers, social barriers, knowledge/skills barriers and industrial barriers. Thus, the purpose of this study is to recommend the probable approaches to foster green building constructions in Sri Lanka by overcoming the existing barriers. A qualitative research approach was adopted for attaining the research aim while conducting semi structured interviews with 15 local professionals who are in local regulatory bodies for green buildings and sustainable constructions, who are involving with green building constructions as well as who have not still involved with green constructions but expect it in future. The findings were analyzed with content analysis technique. It was recommended to follow simple and primary green strategies, take the correct consultation, implement mandatory regulations, make collaboration between existing authorities, increase public awareness, correct common misconceptions, provide knowledge and education, promote research and development, government takes the leadership and take the support from organizational managements as few major approaches to overcome the identified barriers for Sri Lankan green building constructions. The recommended approaches can be followed by industry players in order to foster green building constructions in national level, local level or organizational level and it will provide a basis to achieve the sustainability goal of Sri Lanka.
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Assessing the impact of experienced project team members in green building projects
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2015-06) Venkataraman, V; Cheng, JCP; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Project experience is generally regarded as highly valuable in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. This is also true for green building projects, which often need to deal with new building technologies and processes. This paper attempts to study the importance of experienced project team members for successful planning and executing of green building projects. Certified LEED green building projects in Canada were studied in this research. Project information, project team information, green building certification grade, and certification year were collected and analyzed using a link analysis technique. Organisations that have been involved in multiple green building projects and their inter-organisational interactions were identified. The results show that projects certified with higher green building certification grades often involve more experienced project team members, and that working with experienced team members can reinforce mutual experience as compared with working with less experienced member.
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Awareness on insurance principles in construction industry
(2016-08-31) Karunasena, GI; Alwis, P
Unique characteristics of the construction industry from beginning to end in production process create, many uncertainties about its final products. Due to these uncertainties, emergence of risks is unavoidable. Dealing with these risks is a major area of concern in construction industry. One method to deal with these risks is to transfer it to a third party known as an insurer through an insurance contract. Purpose of this paper is to identify the degree of knowledge on insurance principles among the construction industry professionals. This paper covers the areas of insurance principles, knowledge on it and issues of application of them in insurance contracts. Questionnaire surveys and interviews were used as main data collection methods and descriptive analysis and narrative analysis was used to analyses data. The results suggest that awareness on insurance principles is inadequate among Sri Lankan construction professionals. It is also emphasized that knowledge gap between construction industry professionals and insurance providers lead to unpleasant situations at later stages of an insurance contract. These findings are limited to six major principles of insurance namely insurable interest, utmost good faith, proximate cause, indemnity, subrogation and contribution. This paper enhances knowledge among construction industry practitioners on principles of insurance and areas of application of them to reduce unsettled claims to optimize insurance as a risk transferring mechanism in Sri Lankan construction sector.
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Barriers to the implementation of concurrent engineering practices within the UK construction industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2015-06) Manewa, A; Siriwardena, M; Ross, A; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Concurrent Engineering (CE) is considered as one of the emerging methods in the UK construction industry. The product and process optimisation through ‘integration’ is a key concern of CE. The integrative aspect is tri-fold, which comprises an integration of product(s), integration of process and most importantly the integration of supply chain. A correct adoption of the concepts and principles of CE into construction practice provides significant benefits to project stakeholders, such as reduced time and costs while improving the quality of products and process efficiency. However, its implementation is not optimised to its full potential within the construction industry. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the key factors that hinder the implementation of CE practices within the UK construction industry. Data were collected from an extensive literature review, observations and semistructured interviews and thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the collected data. The findings indicate that the inability of parties within the construction project settings to communicate effectively is the most significant high level barrier for achieving a wider application of CE practices within the UK construction industry. In total 4 high level barriers, 13 medium level barriers and 38 low level barriers to the implementation of CE with the UK construction practices were identified. The findings of this study will benefit construction organisations, who wish to implement CE practices within their practice.
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Behaviour change in the sustainable built environment
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Horr, YA; Katafygiotou, M; Elsarrag, E; Arif, M; Kaushik, A; Mazroei, A; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Ramachandra, T
Humans are always driven by their sensation for adequate comfort. Occupants’ behaviour is important in the built environment as it affects the building performance and the indoor comfort requirements. The built environment industry is moving towards high-performance buildings. However, highperformance buildings often fail to achieve ‘as designed performance’. It is due to occupant behaviour. The purpose of the paper was to investigate the theoretical background of behavioural economics and its relevance in developing sustainable human behaviour in a building’s lifecycle. Behaviour Economics uses the combined knowledge of psychology and economics to analyse and understand human behaviour. It has been successfully used to influence human behaviour in consumer markets, healthcare and insurance policies. This study explains six behavioural anomalies along with their applications in different industries. Behavioural anomalies such as Status Quo Bias, Incentives and Social Norms have been applied in consumer industry to create a positive impact on human behaviour. It concludes by highlighting the potential of applying behaviour economics in built environment and influencing occupant behaviour towards eco-friendly behaviour. This research study is a part of a research endeavour to develop strategies for office buildings’ operation to change human behaviour towards more eco-friendly behaviour. It will be useful for built environment professionals to use these literature findings in design and operation strategies of an office building. It also provides a good initial research note for researchers working in the field of sustainable human behaviour.
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Better values and characteristics in relationally integrated value networks to enhance total asset management
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) De Silva, N; Ranadewa, KATO; Kumaraswamy, M; Ranasinghe, M; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Construction contract types span a wide spectrum ranging from traditional contracting to relational contracting modes. Although weak collaborative supply chain networks exist even in widely practiced traditional contract modes, the potentially beneficial strong relational forces remain untapped and/or fragmented, lacking well-defined common goals among stakeholders. Apart from addressing this shortfall in the built asset planning, design and construction (project management) phase, relational contracts (RC) can also be extended to total asset management (TAM) by aiming at the relational integration of all stakeholders throughout the built asset lifecycle, by engaging them in cross linked value networks’. Such integrated networks were called ‘relationally integrated value networks’ (RIVANS) when initially proposed for the project management phase. ‘RIVANS for TAM’ were next proposed to provide a holistic approach to bridge the project management phase and the asset management phase in the lifecycle of assets. The study reported in this paper, contributes to knowledge by identifying better values through adapting RIVANS as a holistic beneficial approach to the whole built environment. A questionnaire survey was conducted to identify common better values in RIVANS. These identified better values were then clustered to form similar groups using factor analysis to establish synergetic characteristics of RIVANS. Four characteristics were extracted to identify and target embedded synergies in RIVANS, for enhanced total asset management.
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BIM as an effective information management tool for achieving key performance indicators in construction projects
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2015-06) Wijekoon, KADNC; Manewa, A; Ross, A; Marsh, D; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
The UK Government mandates the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for all centrally procured Government contracts from 2016. This of course challenged the industry to shift away from the traditional ‘silo’ practices to ‘collaborative’ working environments. BIM provides a collaborative platform to share information between project stakeholders and also guides to deliver products/processes effectively and efficiently. However, what strikes for the practitioners to move for a BIM platform is how it will support the achievement of project specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI). There are massive information generation and heterogeneous flows can be identified throughout a project lifecycle and the value of that information is enormous. From the definition itself, BIM has the capability of absorbing every benefit which can be obtained through information management. This paper explains the use of BIM as an effective information management tool for achieving the KPIs in construction projects. Initially, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify the application of BIM in construction project lifecycle and its role as an effective information management tool. In addition to six (6) numbers of interviews were conducted among the construction industry professionals to identify the practical use of BIM in construction projects and its effectiveness in achieving project KPIs. The findings of the study illustrate the BIM driven construction project KPIs and their importance in achieving project goals.