An assessment system for measuring levels of sustainability in area development: Through preference-based decision-making modeling

The evaluation process of tender bids in area development by Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij het Nieuwe Westland (ONW) is addressed, which currently uses non-quantified selection criteria to find developers, one of them being 'Vision of Sustainability'. With sustainability gaining importance, this research aims to enhance the tender process by...

Preference and Performance Based Design & Decision Systems in Offshore & Dredging Engineering: A multi-objective design/decision optimisation approach based on sound mathematical modelling of both preference and physical design performance functions

Why do engineers often design what people don't want? And why do people often want solutions that are not feasible? This is because the current design and decision support optimisation methodologies are one-sided and ignore or fail to capture the dynamic interaction between people's preferences (desirability) and technical assets' performance ...

Network restructuring as a way to mitigate project delays: A multicriteria and optimization approach for network restructuring as a strategy to mitigate project delays in large infrastructure projects; an alternative perspective on the Mitigation Controller

Purpose - This development project is focused on the combination of project scheduling and risk mitigation for large infrastructure projects. The aim of this project is to develop a model that can automatically restructure the network schedule to enable that delay is mitigated as much as possible while the effects on multiple project criteria...

Mitigation Controller: A Multi-Criteria Optimization & Simulations Approach to Keep Construction Projects Within Budget

The construction and infrastructure industry has witnessed an increase in the need for an optimized mitigation strategy to combat schedule and cost overruns amid the rise in market competitiveness and more strict timelines and budgets. Moreover, projects nowadays are more complex in terms their scope and requirements which ultimately drives more...

Self-compacting alkali-activated slag concrete: Development of mixture designs, material properties, life-cycle analysis and market validation

Currently, Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete accounts for the world's 8-10% anthropogenic carbon/ greenhouse (GHG) emissions, where 90-95% of the emissions are due to the production of OPC. A 200% increase in OPC demand is projected by 2050 from 2010 levels. Therefore, it is urgent to reduce these emissions arising from its production....

Extension of the Mitigation Controller for construction costing on the run: Minimizing cost overruns for construction projects

Construction projects are notorious for going over budget. It is important for a project manager to have as much grip on the financial situation of the project as possible. In order to deal with the uncertainty that is prevalent in a construction project, a project manager should be able to steer project cost back towards budget. <br/>To provide...

‘Total Value for Society’ Model: Creating a Decision Making Tool for the Selection of Building Designs with the Highest True Lifecycle Value For Society

The growing need for sustainability and circularity in the construction industry has given rise to the demand for proper sustainability valorisation and evaluation methods. Investors and project owners need sound rationale for their returns on investment made into sustainability – in financial, environmental and social benefits achieved....

The application of a Fuzzy Adaptive Learning Control Network in cost estimates for road bridges

In general, costs are an important aspect long before the construction of a civil project starts. In the conceptual phase, which is the first phase of a civil construction project, little cost information is available, and the cost estimate is at that stage of project development less accurate than when the project is almost completed. When a...

Strategies towards effective emission reduction of the inland shipping industry in the port of Rotterdam: Using a mixed-integer linear programming model

Currently, the inland shipping industry is not sufficiently incentivised to invest in sustainable technologies in order to reduce their emissions. The industry itself wants to be more sustainable, but there is insufficient financial room to invest in alternative technologies. Besides, public authorities try to achieve a reduction using command...

Urban mining in design and construction processes: A study on implementing urban mining of existing building elements in the local housing for improving the construction industry towards a circular economy

In most of the current starting construction projects, most stakeholders use virgin materials for building elements. Considering climate change, building materials are getting scarce, it is necessary to reduce the number of virgin building materials and improve circularity in the construction industry. The problem is the absence of a middle man...

Business process automation through ChatBots implementation: A case study of an IT service process at Philips

Nowadays, the term "automation" is gaining extensive interest in both industrial and business fields. There is also a trend of achieving deeper automation in the business processes, which is a part of Business Process Automation (BPA). Among various BPA technologies, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has attracted increasing research attention....

Predicting the added value of smart systems in a building: A decision model approach

Purpose – One of the long-standing issues in the field of real estate management is the alignment of demand and supply. When building retrofit is initiated to comply with changing demands, the decision-maker has to deal with several, often competing, criteria. Smart systems have the potential to contribute to the process of optimally attuning...

Process improvement of Damen Shipyards Galati pre-processing: Merging two pre-processing facilities by implementing Lean Manufacturing

An improvement study to the pre-processing process of Damen Shipyards Galati (DSGa) is performed since benchmark analysis shows that the current pre-processing process underperforms, compared to industry peers. The objective is to increase DSGa’s throughput and decrease space utilisation, such that pre-processing facilities S1 and S1a can be...

The Future Value of Investing in Adaptivity in Offices: A financial decision model for an investor to value the future value of adaptivity in an office building in the Netherlands by using the Real Options Analysis

With the rapid development of real estate market, due to trends as the change in the way of working and automation/digitalisation of working processes, flexibility is one of the most important tasks for owner/investors of office buildings to invest in. Currently, 60% of the vacant offices are structural vacant. Flexibility could be used as an...

Set Based Design: An explorative research into the possible improvements in design quality in Process plants by use of Set Based Design.