scholarly journals Evaluation of Existing Layout Improvement and Creation Algorithms for Use in the Offsite Construction Industry

Author(s):  
Chelsea Ritter ◽  
Beda Barkokebas ◽  
Mohamed Al-Hussein

Construction is traditionally depicted as a labor-intensive industry which involves considerable inefficiency inherent to the common practices. Offsite construction offers a change to the current stigma, in which most of the work is transferred to a facility with a controlled environment and later transported to its destination, considerably reducing the amount of movement required by people and materials. Proper planning for such a facility is crucial for the success of offsite construction operations, since the effectiveness of such a space will determine the efficiency of the process and the quality of the final product. Several methods exist for layout creation and improvement in the manufacturing industry; however, there are advantages and disadvantages to using the different methods in an offsite construction facility. A review of the literature is conducted to summarize commonly used methods and respective considerations of each. The identified methods are then applied to an existing case study plant to create the optimized layout for each. The resulting layouts are then compared and evaluated based on the ease of transporting modules and components within the facility, and the estimated waste reduction and productivity increase. This evaluation will identify the usefulness of each method and identify common issues related to facility layouts that should be taken into consideration in future layout planning for offsite construction facilities.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7300
Author(s):  
Anna Maria Colavitti ◽  
Alessio Floris ◽  
Sergio Serra

In Italy, after the introduction of the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape in 2004, the Regional Landscape Plan (RLP) has acquired a coordination role in the urban planning system, for the implementation of policies for landscape protection and valorisation. The case study of the RLP of Sardinia is a paradigmatic application to the coastal area of the island, which is considered most vulnerable and subject to settlement pressure. The objectives of preservation and valorisation of the territorial resources should be transferred into local planning instruments by adopting strategies aimed at the preservation of the consolidated urban fabric, at the requalification and completion of the existing built-up areas according to the principles of land take limitation and increase in urban quality. The paper investigates the state of implementation and the level of integration of landscape contents in the local plans that have been adapted to the RLP, using a qualitative comparative method. In addition, the results of the plan coherence checks, elaborated by the regional monitoring bodies after the adaptation process, have been analysed to identify the common criticalities and weaknesses. The results highlight the lack of effectiveness of the RLP, after more than a decade since its approval, considering the limited number of adequate local plans and the poor quality of their analytical and regulative contents in terms of landscape protection and valorisation. Conclusions suggest some possible ways to revise the RLP, focusing on the participation of local communities and the development of a new landscape culture.


2022 ◽  
pp. 338-349
Author(s):  
Theodoros Galanis ◽  
Ploutarhos Kerpelis

Humans in addition with other factors have increased the environmental pollution of the planet. Many highly populated cities like Athens have problems with air quality due to the poor quality of construction, high temperatures in summer, noise, no existence of city plans, etc. The scope of this study is the investigation of urban towns' benefits using planted roofs. All types of planted roofs have many environmental, constructional, social, and financial benefits. The research suggests a method from the design, the study until the construction, using decision making, informing the citizens, and taking into account their opinion. The original design of buildings must have adopted an integrated energy strategy such as the solution of planted roofs so as to maximize the benefits to the environment and human beings. The research is specialized using a case study about a planted roof of an existing school building in Athens. The advantages and disadvantages of the usage are shown focusing on environmental, social, and construction aspects.


2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. H. Che Hasim ◽  
A. Akhavan Tabassi

Malaysia is a developing country with various projects and it can generate new economy and can also provide benefit to firms and protection to the residents. However, there are some firms have acted unprofessionally by not using the correct specification. Therefore, there have been many complaints about defects on the home purchased, in terms of quality of work and materials used. Defects liability period (DLP) is a term that the contractor is obliged to remedy the defects occurs in this period. The research presented in this paper aims to broaden previous research on defects by analyzing the defects during DLP, which usually lasts 12 months after the handover period, and aimed to identify the common contribution cause of defects to buildings. The data were obtained from site observation and questionnaire from various players in the construction industry of Malaysia. The finding of this study can be used for future references andcan improve the effectiveness of managing defects in the future of the industry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Trafialek ◽  
Ewa Czarniecka-Skubina ◽  
Jurgita Kulaitiené ◽  
Nijolė Vaitkevičienė

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze consumer choices and evaluate the restaurant service quality, including quality of meals and services, and sustainability practices in restaurants in Warsaw and Kaunas. Our research was conducted using a sample of 1200 adult Poles and Lithuanians. Polish and Lithuanian consumers used catering services with varying frequencies. Different elements influenced their choice of restaurant. However, the common feature was the quality of meals, which in Lithuania was compared only with the price of meals, and with other elements in Poland. In the context of restaurant’s sustainable practices, it has been revealed that surveyed consumers had only partially fit into the contemporary consumption trends. In both countries, consumers have appreciated the use of reusable cutlery and crockery, as well as local and seasonal ingredients, while they did not pay attention to sustainable restaurant practices, such as the use of alternative sources of protein, environmentally friendly forms of energy, and reducing waste and minimization of food losses. The use of cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) allowed a comprehensive assessment of consumer opinions on restaurants in terms of meal quality and service as well as sustainable practices. Restaurateurs should monitor the satisfaction of their customers and recognize the changing needs and habits of consumers.


Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alatefi ◽  
Ahmad ◽  
Alkahtani

Process capability indices (PCIs) have always been used to improve the quality of products and services. Traditional PCIs are based on the assumption that the data obtained from the quality characteristic (QC) under consideration are normally distributed. However, most data on manufacturing processes violate this assumption. Furthermore, the products and services of the manufacturing industry usually have more than one QC; these QCs are functionally correlated and, thus, should be evaluated together to evaluate the overall quality of a product. This study investigates and extends the existing multivariate non-normal PCIs. First, a multivariate non-normal PCI model from the literature is modeled and validated. An algorithm to generate non-normal multivariate data with the desired correlations is also modeled. Then, this model is extended using two different approaches that depend on the well-known Box–Cox and Johnson transformations. The skewness reduction is further improved by applying heuristics algorithms. These two approaches outperform the investigated model from the literature because they can provide more precise results regardless of the skewness type. The comparison is made based on the generated data and a case study from the literature.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mahbubur Rahman ◽  
Farjana Nur ◽  
Subrata Talapatra

For every manufacturing organization, price of the product primarily comprises of manufacturing cost and desired profit. If a company wishes to increase its profit, one way is to reduce the manufacturing cost with maintaining the quality of the product. Waste reduction, especially the (wait) time waste, is an important factor to shrink the manufacturing cost. The purpose of this paper is to identify and address the way to reduce idle time in the apparel manufacturing organization using various line balancing technique to improve productivity and efficiency in domestic context. Line balancing job has been done through the ‘Largest Candidate Rule’ and ‘Ranked Positional Weight Technique’. Using these techniques, a software has been developed to arrange the elemental tasks in the workstation, and to show the balancing efficiencies of each method and other important information. The overall job may be very helpful in some decision making process of the organization. At last an efficient and balanced line has been proposed through the study.


Tehnika ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 646-653
Author(s):  
Ivana Buzdovan ◽  
Marko Asanović ◽  
Nataša Gospić

This study elaborates the elements which are important in the development of the smart city strategy, both at national and local level. They should provide a good foundation for the development of a longterm sustainable and comprehensive smart city concept. When developing the strategy itself, it is necessary to follow the examples of the smart cities in Europe, Region and based on their experience, to identify advantages and disadvantages in order to form clear goals and vision. This study also gives the proposal for defining the elements necessary for establishing the smart cities development strategy as a solution for improving the quality of life in cities, and therewith overall social and economic sustainable development of a country. Montenegro and the city of Budva have been developed as a case study. Montenegro is keeping pace with technological development and therewith the need to define a development strategy for its smart cities. This study emphasizes the role of state bodies, institutions and citizens themselves in that process.


Author(s):  
Raju Narwade ◽  
◽  
Karthik Nagarajan ◽  
Rajnish Singh ◽  
◽  
...  

The construction industry is considered to be one of the rapidly growing industries of India. So, to fulfil such a vast and constantly increasing construction demand the labour productivity is the key factor to maintain client satisfaction, attract investment, and contribute by helping the nation with its economic growth. Aluminium system formwork is one economical and technical approach to effectively maintain productivity of labours on site. Various research studies have been conducted to compare different types of formwork system and the advantages and disadvantages of each type of formwork system are examined in terms of cost, duration, quality etc. There is no standard procedure to put a number on the efficiency of the site labour, using aluminium formwork system in the industry. So, the primary objective of this study is to find the practical labour productivity in aluminium formwork system and the factors affecting the labour productivity. For this, research is performed on Purva Silversands project, Pune, Maharashtra (Residential Project). Labour productivity and its variations could generate a greater impact on the project economy and project duration. Low productivity can decrease profitability and increases construction cost. This case study shows that the actual productivity observed is less than the target productivity in some of the months, the reasons for variation in target and actual productivity is examined and the factors that hamper the productivity mostly are natural (rain), improper management and any breakdown of machinery. Whereas, the maximum productivity achieved in a month is 10.36 sqm per man per day.


Author(s):  
Kim Jensen ◽  
◽  
Kjeld Nielson ◽  
Thomas Brunoe ◽  
Jesper Larsen ◽  
...  

Research demonstrate that productivity in the Danish building and construction industry has only doubled over the last fifty years, whereas the manufacturing industry has increased six times. Utilisation of mass customization as a strategy has achieved results in the manufacturing industry in terms of increasing productivity and competitiveness, so the strategy might have potentials in the building and construction industry as well. However, mass customization as a strategy for improving the productivity of the building and construction industry has not been explored as much as in the manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to analysethe assumptions and possibilities for applying the principles of masscustomisation related to establishing an adaptable integrated system of entities in the value chain of the building and construction industry.The outset of the paper is a literature review concerning the utilisation of mass customization as a strategy in terms of increasing productivity within the building and construction industry. An essential part of the paper is a case study of 11 building and construction companies and an analysis of the conditions for cooperation between the entities in the value chain of the building and construction industry. The paper induces to which extent it makes sense to talk about utilisation of mass customisation by applying the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and standardisation initiatives of the construction industry provided by buildingSMART, and at the same time harvesting the benefits of the mass customization.


Electronics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Rybarczyk ◽  
Jorge Luis Pérez Medina ◽  
Louis Leconte ◽  
Karina Jimenes ◽  
Mario González ◽  
...  

Over the past few years, software applications for medical assistance, including tele-rehabilitation, have known an increasing presence in the health arena. Despite the several therapeutic and economic advantages of this new paradigm, it is important to follow certain guidelines, in order to build a safe, useful, scalable, and ergonomic tool. This work proposes to address all these points, through the case study of a physical tele-rehabilitation platform for patients after hip replacement surgery. The scalability and versatility of the system is handled by the implementation of a modular architecture. The safeness and effectiveness of the tool is ensured by an artificial intelligence module that assesses the quality of the movements performed by the user. The usability of the application is evaluated by a cognitive walkthrough method. Results show that the system (i) is able to properly assess the correctness of the human’s motion through two possible methods (Dynamic Time Warping and Hidden Markov Model), and (ii) provides a good user experience. The discussion addresses (i) the advantages and disadvantages of the main approaches for a gesture recognition of therapeutic movements, and (ii) critical aspects to provide the patient with the best usability of a tele-rehabilitation platform.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document