World Construction Symposium

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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
(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.
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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 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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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 software environment for projects in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Jayasena, HS; Weddikkara, C; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
The term Building Information Modelling, or BIM, is not alien to Sri Lanka anymore; yet BIM has not become a reality in its construction industry. Being a BIM infant industry, Sri Lanka may wait a long time to adopt BIM by its own initiative. But the scenario will be different if a client demands for BIM. This creates the need that industry is aware of the best strategies suite them to effectively implement a project based on BIM. One of the key questions being asked is; what software should we use? In absence of empirical local knowledge, the only option is to device a solution from published knowledge. In order to achieve this, this paper presents a literature synthesis aimed to identify a suitable BIM software environment for Sri Lanka. By reviewing various aspects such as capabilities of applications, accuracy and sharing of data, information documenting, popularity of software and affordability against the technological aspects, a Plural Software Environment based on IFC data exchange was found to be the preferred solution for Sri Lankan context.
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Carbon labelling scheme for construction products: the benchmark for low carbon materials
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Lee, JCF; Zhang, JJ; Wong, JMW; Ng, ATS; Ng, ST; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Climate change has become a global threat with worrying consequences for many countries. Among various economic sectors, the construction industry consumes 40% of materials entering the global economy and generates significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) - the main cause of climate change. Particular attention should be attributed to the embodied carbon of construction materials as it could contribute to 70% of GHG emissions at the construction stage and up to 25% of a building’s life time energy consumption. It is thus highly desirable to select and use low carbon construction products so as to minimise the GHG emissions arising from the construction industry. In view of this, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) in Hong Kong has initiated a Carbon Labelling Scheme for Construction Products as part of its mission to promote green building practices and sustainable development. This paper introduces the carbon assessment framework of the Scheme, including the product categorisation, principles and system boundary of carbon footprint quantification, benchmarking mechanism, and certification process. The paper also presents the methodology of developing a GHG quantification tools for assessing carbon footprint of products (CFP). As a voluntary scheme in Hong Kong, itaims to provide verifiable and accurate information on the carbon footprint of construction products for industry practitioners to select ‘low carbon’ materials.
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Conceptual framework for understanding construction project culture: a literature review
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Samaraweera, AUAA; Sandanayake, YG; Senaratne, S; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Complex human behaviours and thoughts bound by the complex construction activities have made the topic “construction project culture” an ambiguous area in the construction management literature. Despite of a several few attempts, definition of the construction project culture still remains as an area to be unveiled. This paper attempts to provide a conceptual framework for understanding construction project culture by highlighting few questions to be answered in the process of defining a project culture. The initial question raised is; ‘what cultural manifestations in deed represent construction project culture?’ next; ‘how does construction project culture exists: its structure?’ and, finally; ‘how does construction project culture emerges?’. These questions have been answered by an extensive literature review emphasising; underlying assumptions to give the true representation of construction project culture which is structured in sub-cultural groups that could be analysed in integrated, differentiated and fragmented perspectives and arguing its emergence to be with the project team efforts of answering internal integration and external adaptation problems of the project team itself. Further research of this paper will aim developing methodological frameworks to carry out empirical studies to answer the highlighted research questions and to bring empirical evidence to what the construction project culture is.
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Critical analysis of alternative dispute resolution methods used in Sri Lankan construction industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Abeynayake, M; Weddikkara, C; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Construction disputes are of highly technical in nature and in fact intensive and multifaceted than other commercial disputes. The litigation method is the traditional way of dispute resolution and drawbacks of litigation have opened up the ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution’ (ADR) methods. The desirable features of ADR methods are fast, inexpensive, flexibility, confidentiality, minimum delay. This research attempts to address the issues and conflicting areas of ADR methods in the Sri Lankan construction industry. Attempts have been made to identify and analyse problematic areas which are highly influencing the ADR methods. The aim of this research is to evaluate ADR methods and suggest improvements to the ADR methods in the Sri Lankan construction industry. This research is the result of surveys that were conducted to understand the experiences and usages of ADR methods. Two rounds of Delphi method surveys were conducted in order to identify problematic areas of ADR methods. Fifteen problematic areas and twelve potential improvements of ADR methods were identified during the Delphi survey round one. They were prioritised during Delphi method survey round two. Semi-structured interviews were used to get the extended view of the panel on top eight issues which were ranked in Delphi round two. A pivotal conclusion of this research is that the stakeholders in the construction industry prefer “negotiation” method. Usages and awareness about negotiation were highly appreciated by the construction industry professionals. Professionals had a low level of satisfaction on the current practice of arbitration. Overall expectation of the construction industry by application of ADR methods is to provide best solutions within a minimal time and without damaging the reputation of involved parties. It was revealed that construction industry expects quick remedy than the less cost solution. It further revealed that the stair-step model of dispute resolution strategy is the best. The research further makes recommendations in order to make ADR methods more effective and efficient.
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A critical review of water studies in construction industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Waidyasekara, KGAS; De Silva, ML; Rameezdeen, R; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Water is not only a basic need of human beings, but also a strategic economic resource. However, the distribution of water throughout the earth is diverse. At present, water is a challengeable natural resource for many countries and some studies predicted that the world will face a water dilemma in 2025-2030, if not consumed in sustainable way. Moreover, population growth, climate change, and industrialisation are critical factors that impact on the water sector and ultimately result in freshwater shortage and continued water pollution. The current practice considers water as a separate sectoral box in many economic evaluations although water is an integrated resource in many industries. Therefore, the time has come to think out of the box with the cohesiveness of sustainable development. It is a known fact that the construction industry too uses water in almost all the activities and without water no more construction is possible. However, water management during construction is given less attention by the industry stakeholders at present. This is despite an upsurge in the demand for construction activities both in building and civil engineering projects due to speedy industrialisation to cater for the population growth. This paper is based on the literature review of an on-going PhD research. The paper critically reviews the secondary data on water studies conducted in the construction industry. The views and findings on water handling during the physical construction, and strategies towards sustainable water consumption in construction industry are also discussed. In addition, the paper identifies four critical drivers that impact on sustainable practices of water use during the physical construction phase.
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Cultural continuity as a vital factor in delivering identity, memory and sense of place: a critical study of urban transformation with special reference to Pettah in Colombo
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Pathinayaka, A; Wijesundara, J; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Fernando, NG
Most Asian cities are characterised by rapid urban metamorphosis and mostly the urban changes are based on planning mechanisms through spatial and land use methodologies and supported by globalization. In Colonial-contemporary cities, it is often seen that recent planning and development approaches undermine the cultural representation and memory of the place in their transformation process. The study is scoped within the discussion of morphology, in relation to urban transformation and planning, in the context of urban settings (places) in Pettah, Colombo. It aims to re-examine cultural continuity in relation to the memory of a place in transforming urban settings. Methodologically, urbancultural morphological study couples with spatial anthropology for field investigation and data transcoded into urban design planning schemata. Referring the literature on this subject area, certain parameters to measure the appropriate cultural transformation have been identified and the analysis of this situation is supported by the observations and personal communications. The research has identified the socio physical and socio cultural relationships of transforming urban settings which are meant to be regeneration of built masses but, mostly the renovations for irreplaceable urban settings where people celebrate the sense of place.
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Designing a whole-life cost index for non-residential buildings
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Hua, GB; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Fernando, NG
The study investigates the whole-life costs of non-residential Green Mark certified building developments in Singapore to derive useful information for teaching, research and practice. When industry stakeholders like building owners, architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, builders and facility managers have detailed information about the initial and operating costs of different types of buildings, they would be able to apply whole-life costing to their existing or new projects with the intention of achieving value for money, as well as environmental sustainability. Data is collected from Green Mark certified building projects starting from 2005. Statistical analysis is performed on the collected data to generate the information required to build the cost database. The Paasche Price Index method is used to produce a weighted composite index for Singapore’s non-residential building sector by applying 2005 as the base year.
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Developing a framework to evaluate indoor environmental quality (IEQ) performance of industrial buildings in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Vijerathne, DT; Seneviratne, LDIP; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) can be considered as one of the main measure of total building performance. Even though there are various methods to evaluate IEQ of buildings, it is evident that there is no holistic approach, which considers every possible parameter which results in a more pragmatic and operational, mechanism especially for industrial buildings. Similarly in Sri Lanka, there is no comprehensive framework applied in buildings to evaluate IEQ performance and the situation is same with other countries as there is less regard to IEQ factors in measuring building performance. The industrial buildings also lacks total IEQ performance methods being utilised, however there are few which are only based on IEQ measurements such as indoor air quality, thermal, acoustic and lighting comfort. When considering the global view, are some evaluation methods or techniques which are being used. However for the industrial buildings there are no methods with a holistic approach. This creates the need to identify existing IEQ practices with respect to industrial buildings in order to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework for total IEQ performance of industrial buildings. Therefore, this paper attempts to establish the indicators and sub indicators proposed for the framework to evaluate IEQ performance of industrial buildings based on preliminary investigation and literature survey as part of an on-going research project. The available IEQ techniques have been identified which needs to be validated in the next step of this research study.
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Developing a TBPE scoring framework for assessing total building performance
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Sabrina, NZ; De Silva, N; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Fernando, NG
Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) has received an increasing attention over the past two decades among the researchers to provide a comfortable and stable internal environment to increase and provide a better human potential. To determining how well the facilities are performing in order to support the organisational goals and user requirement, it is vital to conduct regular building evaluations which provide the current status quo of the building. Aiming to this, there are various BPE approaches developed around the world, and as evidenced there are no in-depth studies on Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) in tropical countries to evaluate the building performance. However, adapting these approaches might not necessarily be applicable in the context of tropical countries due to geographical, climatic, cultural and other differences. This has been identified as the gap in this research and aimed to formulate a holistic Total Building Performance Evaluation (TBPE) scoring framework, for the assessment of performance of buildings. First, a comprehensive literature survey was carried out. This was followed by an expert survey to sieve out the most significant BP factors identified in the literature survey. With that detailed questioner survey was carried out proposing a TBPE scoring framework compromising total of two hundred and sixty five points to evaluate buildings with 7 criteria and 57 dimensions in which energy management, reachability to the building, occupational hygiene, thermal comfort, unit costs savings, load bearing capacity etc had higher contribution in evaluating building with relation to tropical context. Finally, this paper readdresses the need of evaluating the buildings and suggesting the paradigm to evaluate the buildings in an objective manner.
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Differentiating green buildings from conventional buildings: environmental performance perspective
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Mallawarachchi, H; De Silva, L; Rameezdeen, R; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Fernando, NG
In the current situation, where people concerns about sustainability environment, building occupants seek to be comfortable and productive in their workplace. Occupants with local control over their environment generally have an improvement in their work effort and productivity. However, work productivity of occupants can be de-motivated and interrupted due to poor environmental conditions. Thus, the intervention to ensure a healthy working environment should always be the first step towards improving productivity. In the governing concern on improving occupant’s working environment, Green Building movement is fast becoming a necessity. It is therefore impressive that there is already emerging national consensus on the definition of a green building and a rapidly increasing number of green projects in both the public and private sectors. Green buildings can be defined in various ways however, giving definition compared to ‘conventional’ buildings is a supplementary problem. There is no doubt that the term has a very positive connotation. Further, green buildings generate lot of benefits to people and the environment. However, no evidence that the level of occupant comfort and satisfaction are greater in ‘green’ rather than conventional buildings. Hence, this study was aimed to identify facts for differentiating green buildings from conventional buildings in terms of environmental performance. The available literature was reviewed and preliminary investigation was conducted in selected green rated and non-green buildings. The indoor environment quality criteria which is developed based on GREENSL® rating system was evaluated in selected buildings to identify differences between green and conventional buildings. According to the results of literature survey and preliminary investigation, green buildings showed high environmental performance compared to conventional buildings in terms of indoor air quality, thermal comfort and lighting quality whilst there was a less satisfaction with acoustic comfort in green buildings. However, the success of green buildings depends on the quality and efficiency of the installed green systems. The rating system can be used as the common language and standards of measurement to define green buildings, differentiating from conventional buildings.
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Effects of varying recycled fine aggregate content and water/cement ratio in bedding mortar
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Karunarathne, S; Subasinghe, IS; Madusanka, VPS; Jayasinghe, VRDK; Sundarapperuma, SMAP; Fernando, WSSR; Chandrasiri, SAKN; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Fernando, NG
This paper presents the results from a research carried out with the aim of analysing the usability of Recycled Fine Aggregates (RFA) produced from Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW), in bedding mortar. Properties of RFA were compared to that of the Natural Fine Aggregates (NFA) in terms of Bulk Density, Fine Fraction, Particle Size Distribution, Water Absorption and Chloride Content and were tested for five mixed proportion scenarios of RFA and NFA at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% RFA contents. RFA indicated a water absorption of 6.33% when compared to that of 0.71% for NFA (ordinary river sand). Mortar testing was further divided under three water/cement ratios at 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. Bulk density gradually decreased with increased RFA content yet recorded an exceptional highest of 1476Kg/m3 at 75%RFA. Results from fine fraction and particle size distribution indicated compatibility of RFA to replace NFA up to 50% RFA. Chloride content analysis indicated allowable RFA replacement levels up to 99% and 44% for bedding mortar and plastering mortar applications, respectively. Though higher water absorption demanded for higher water content, Compressive Strength increased with the increasing RFA content, even above NFA values, reaching a maximum of 15.2 ± 0.50 N/mm2 at 75% RFA for 0.7 water/cement ratio while workability was within the acceptable range at 50% RFA at the same water content. The analysis in terms of fine aggregate properties and mortar properties showed that up to 50%, NFA can be substituted with RFA at water/cement ratio of 0.7 in bedding mortar which will also attribute to a cost reduction of minimum 50%, as well as to greatly reduce the disastrous environmental impacts from sand mining and waste disposal thus enhancing sustainability.
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Enhancing the value in construction via integration of sustainable construction to value planning
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Senarathne, D; Karunasena, G; Rathnayake, U; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Sustainable Concept (SC) has shed a spotlight towards the rapidly developing construction sector since concerns on SC principles are widely emerged recently which focused to ensure both present and future generations a good quality of life. Currently Sri Lanka is on construction boom which feeds the requirement of establishing sustainable concept to the construction projects. This paper aims to investigate the current situation of Value Planning (VP) and SC in local construction sector and to present a framework for integrating concept of value for money in sustainable construction. A comprehensive literature survey was carried to observe the existing knowledge on SC and VP concepts to develop a conceptual linkage between the two disciplines. This was followed by an expert semi structured interview survey among experts having considerable knowledge on both aspects to ascertain the current situation of those concepts in Sri Lankan construction industry. Findings of the research revealed that the application, knowledge and experience of experts are not satisfactory in both of these concepts. It is established that there is a huge requirement of applying these concepts in local construction projects. In order to overcome the issues identified, a Framework has been developed to integrate SC and VP in Sri Lankan construction projects.
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Environmental management system (EMS) planning in manufacturing: facilities management prospects
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Gunaratne, U; Senaratne, S; Samarakoon, SBRGK; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
The increasing consciousness of sustainable development and reconciling production with ecosystem conservation have fostered the adoption and implementation of Environmental Management System (EMS). This study investigates the process and factors that affect in EMS planning. Previous research mainly focuses on environmental management practices and its performance towards different sectors. It was identified that minimum attention is given to planning of EMS at corporate level. Thus, this study explored the corporate EMS planning process in Sri Lankan manufacturing industry. This is an area where facilities managers can contribute in manufacturing facilities. This paper reports on case studies of three private sector manufacturing industries, which were using up to date environmental management practices. Data was collected by interviewing three participants from each of selected manufacturing firms. Based on the case study findings, a framework was developed for EMS planning. This includes six stages starting from strategy formulation to system implementation and evaluation. The developed framework will lead to an effective EMS planning practice that could be used in Sri Lankan manufacturing industry.
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Equipment selection factors of integrated building management systems (IBMSs) in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Madhurangi, MVD; Rajini, PAD; Fernando, CSPK; Samarakoon, SBRGK; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Management of facilities has become a complex task involving multitudes of disciplines. With increased awareness for efficient building operation, building owners and operators are looking for means to reduce the operational cost and to ensure the proper functionality of buildings and building services. To manage an organisation in an effective and cost-efficient way, these systems can be integrated into a single interface control solution called Integrated / Intelligent Building Management System (IBMS). Hence, in an intelligent building, IBMS acts as a complete information delivery system that monitors and controls a variety of mechanical and electrical systems and equipment such as such as lighting, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), access control, fire detection, air conditioning, water management, elevator management, cark park management, etc. at an optimal level of efficiency. However, building systems and the equipment for the IBMSs should be carefully selected as those components have major contribution towards the overall performance of an IBMS. Hence, this research was carried out with the aim of investigating the factors that should be considered in selecting systems and equipment for IBMSs. A comprehensive literature survey, a preliminary survey and case study method was adopted to achieve the aim of the research. The required data were collected through semi structured interviews conducted among IBMS contractors of selected cases. The collected data were analysed, using code based content analysis. According to the findings, ‘higher efficiency’, ‘cost, ‘improved safety’ and ‘enhanced reliability’ are the four major factors that should be considered in system and equipment selection. With the high demand and awareness of IBMS, it is fast becoming a part of facilities management and operational strategy in the organisations. Therefore, the careful consideration of above selection factors in designing would ensure the maximum performance of the IBMS.
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Establishing a positive safety culture in rubber manufacturing sector: human factors
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Dissanayake, DMPP; Fernando, NG; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Safety and health in the rubber products manufacturing sector has been a neglected subject, though this sector is still a major foreign exchange contributor to the national economy in Sri Lanka, with significant contribution of Rs 72.3 billion in 2008. The rubber industry in the Sri Lanka employs many thousands of people and as it is a heavy industry, it poses a number of safety and health risks to workers employed in that sector. Occupational safety and health concerns in rubber manufacturing facilities have always been and continue to be of the utmost importance. Often the impact of serious workplace injuries overshadows the damage associated with illnesses which may be linked to workplace exposures. Thus, establishing of a positive safety culture is most critical in rubber manufacturing environments with a high risk of health and safety concerns. The cause analysis for failings related to safety culture in rubber manufacturing sector are varied and far reaching; with each issue coming into play at one critical point in time. However, these weaknesses include human and other factors such organisational, systems and processes etc. where majority of failures come under the category of human factors. Thus, understanding of these human aspects is crucial to establish and nurturing a safety culture that suits the organisation and the individuals within it. This paper therefore aims to investigate human factors which contribute towards establishing a positive safety culture in rubber manufacturing sector. A comprehensive literature review and preliminary study were used as the research methodology for this paper. Key words; safety culture, definitions of safety culture, components of safety culture and way to establishing a good safety culture in rubber manufacturing sector were used to search the literature. Further, semi structured interviews were carried out with the industrial experts who are in charge of the concerned areas and with few shop floor level workers who are directly involved in production process. Research findings illustrated that yet, like in any other employment sector, workers in the rubber industry run an equal if not higher risk of being injured as a result of the type of work they do. Due to management and worker ignorance and rubber products manufacturing chemicals and bad work practices in some factories, serious hazards have been created and many accidents have occurred. Research findings illustrated that establishing a positive safety culture is about more than removing hazards and institutionalising safety procedures. It is about working with people of the organisation to change their attitudes, behaviours and thoughts, and improve their situational awareness. Research findings further illustrated that two key aspects under human factors to be considered when developing a safety culture in this sector namely; Psychological aspects and Behavioural aspects. These two aspects are inter-related where if something happens in one aspect it will influence the other aspect. Thus, each organisation needs to consider these aspects in establishing a positive safety culture that suits the organisation and the individuals within it. The finding of this research will be a guideline to propose a better working condition so that the safety culture can be created.