The Construction Industry
Research and Education Center (CIREC)
School of Planning, Design and Construction
CIREC was conceived in
June 2006 as a result of mutual interest between the Office of the Vice
President for Finance and Operations (OVPFO) and the
Construction Management Program faculty, part of the School of Planning, Design
and Construction at Michigan State University.
The center provides the following three main functions:
·
Research, outreach, and education
services to all stakeholders associated with the construction industry at MSU
and beyond
·
Research experience for graduate
students in the Construction Management Program
·
Research, outreach,
and education services to all stakeholders in the construction industry.
The Center’s research
activities are guided by the tenants of Lean Construction, which views
construction projects as project-based production systems. Our definition of Lean Construction is: “the pursuit of concurrent and continuous
improvements in the entire supply chain (design, procurement, construction, operations,
and maintenance) to enable reliable workflow on a construction site and the
delivery of value to owners, as agreed upon by all project participants”
The Center’s
overarching aim is to investigate and develop efficient and effective
construction processes that result in a built environment with maximum value to
both the construction client and participants.
Specifically, this refers to value viewed as follows:
1. Product Value: Client satisfied with performance on the
time, cost, and quality dimensions (Zero Cost Overruns; Zero Time Slippages;
Zero Punch List Items; Zero RFIs, Zero Design-Error
Change Orders;)
2. Process Value: Participants leaving
the project healthier, with a sense of accomplishment and learning, and
with a positive outlook to next job with the same or a different client.
3. Sustainable Value: The facility and its construction process
leave a positive impact on the environment, with first construction costs that
are equal or lower than those used in conventional construction.
The center research
activities focus on developing and implementing the Lean Project Delivery
System™, as introduced by the Lean Construction Institute. Examples of what we broadly focus on are as
follows:
§ Assessment
of adopted project and production management processes and construction
administration procedures, with recommendation for improvements.
§ Development
of forms of contract, management tools, processes, and techniques for
maximizing value, increasing the reliability of performance to budgets
and schedules, and eliminating the unproductive use of resources
(defects, rework, idle time, and accidents), and
§ Benchmarking
to validate the benefits of new developments in integrated project
delivery systems such as lean project delivery as well as changes in the
market, including new projects, price trends, and capacity constraints.
Professor Tim
Mrozowski is the Outreach Director and leads the outreach/service/educational
engagements of the center. Dr. Tariq
Abdelhamid is the Research Director and leads the research engagements of the
center. The center Lead Investigator is Mr Don Schafer.
Center Investigators
include: 1. Current: Naveen Nerwal, Ali
Lahouti, Jeremiah Williams, Kim Nguyen, Ankur Desai, and Federico
Steinvorth. 2. Former: Samarth Jain,
Sagata Bhawani, Yash Singh, Surabhi Rao, and Steve Lung.
Faculty Affiliates
§ Dr.
Mohamed El-Gafy – School of Planning, Design
and Construction, Michigan
State University
§ Dr.
Sinem Korkmaz – School of Planning, Design and Construction, Michigan State University
§ Professor
Matt Syal – School of Planning,
Design and Construction, Michigan
State University
§ Dr.
Ossama (Sam) Salem – Yabroudi
Chair of Sustainable Civil Infrastructures at Syracuse University, Professor of
Infrastructure Systems and Construction Engineering
§
Dr. Panagiotis (Takis) Mitropoulos –
Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University
Founding Sponsor
§ Michigan State University - Office of the Vice
President for Finance and Operations
-
Ongoing support of $100,000 per year
since September 2006
Partners and
Affiliates
§ Lean Construction Institute
§ Project Production Systems Laboratory –
University of California – Berkeley
§ AIA Mid-Michigan
§ Walbridge
Joining CIREC
During its early
years, the center activities will be funded by the OVPFO.
Selection of projects, through research or outreach/service engagements, will
be made collaboratively with OVPFO staff (and with
future member contributors).
We invite you to
become a contributing member of the center.
Contributing members are essential to the Center’s efforts and
activities. Funding provides the means
for CIREC personnel to conduct research and outreach
programs that benefit the construction industry. Contributors will provide insight and
assistance for current and future research projects. Having industry input is imperative for the
research and educational agendas at CIREC. Several benefits come from being a part of
our organization. As a contributing
member of CIREC, you will:
§ Serve
on the Center Advisory Board (CAB) to develop guidelines and plans to operate
the Center and its research and outreach endeavors.
§ Have
member-only access to the results of core research programs, technology
reviews, market studies and overall activities of the Center.
§ Listing on CIREC’s website with
a link to member site along with contact person.
Selection of Lean
Construction related research projects will be made collaboratively with
contributing companies. We expect
our members to be full participants in the research projects we conduct. Members will provide input on projects
they wish to see launched. One of the
primary responsibilities of members is to provide data concerning
practices and outcomes, and also provide us access so data can be verified. Members will also be a primary source for
data concerning future changes in the regional construction market.
Contributions may be
made as unrestricted gifts to CIREC by making checks
out to Michigan State University and sending it to Dr. Tariq
Abdelhamid, 116 Human Ecology, School of Planning, Design and Construction,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.
Contributor
Categories
Ø Corporate
Contributor- $10,000 per year
Ø Research
Sponsor - $17,500 for each research initiative in which a company wishes to
directly participate and engage the center
Ongoing Research
Projects
§ Post
Occupancy Evaluation of Educational Buildings
§ An
MSU Construction Project Procurement Manual – The MSU Way
§ Development
of a Benchmarking System for Project Management Performance at Institutions of
Higher Education
§ Phase
II: MSU Performance Scorecards
Assessments
§ Construction
Management Project Delivery Model at EAS
§ Understanding
Cost Overruns on MSU Construction Projects.
CIREC Funded Master Thesis
and PhD Dissertations (ongoing)
§ Don
Schafer: PhD Candidate; dissertation
title: " Managing The Unexpected in the Built Environment – A Resilience
Engineering Approach" - Expected
graduation Summer 2010.
Publications and
presentations – in Progress:
i. El-Gafy,
M. and Abdelhamid, T.S. (2008). “Lean Work Structuring Using System
Dynamics Modeling.” Submitted
to the Housing and Building National Research Center, Cairo,
Egypt.
ii. El-Gafy,
M. and Abdelhamid, T.S. (2008).
"Construction site layout Using Simulated Annealing.” Submitted to the Construction Research
Journal.
iii. Singh,
Y., Abdelhamid, T.S., Mrozowski, T., and El-Gafy, M. (2008). “Investigation of
State-of-the-art Performance Measurement Systems for Production
Management of Renovation Projects.” Submitted to the Lean Construction
Journal.
Completed Research
Projects
·
Wood Staging Area Design Project for
Bio Fuel Production Facility at Michigan State University (2008) - (download
report)
·
Assessment and Improvement of
Construction Project Closeout (2006 – 2008) – (download
report)
·
Construction
Vendors Performance Evaluation (2006-2009) –
(download
report)
·
Construction
Vendors Performance Evaluation (2010) – (download
report)
·
Development
of a Change Order Management Process for Use on Construction Projects at
Michigan State University – (download report)
·
White paper series
ii. Lean
Construction – A Promising Future for MSU
iv. Building Information
Modeling at MSU
v. Implementation
of Post-occupancy Evaluation at MSU
·
Master thesis dissertations:
i. A
Production Management Framework for Renovation Projects (Dec 2007) – Yash Singh
ii. Influence
of Organizational Behavior on Construction Project Closeout (August 2008) – Surabhi Rao
iii. Percent
Plan Complete: Exploring the
Relationship between Production Delay Factors and
Construction Site Performance (December 2009) – Samarth Jain
iv. Post
Occupancy Evaluation: An Investigation Instrument
to Improve Performance and Indoor Environment Design and Operation of
Buildings- (December 2009) – Sagata Bhawani
·
Journal Publications:
i. Mitropoulos,
P., Nichita, T., and Abdelhamid, T.S. (2008). “Sources of Workflow Uncertainty and
Variation in Residential Construction Projects.” HBRC Journal
(April), Housing and
ii. Abdelhamid,
T. S., El-Gafy, M.A., and Salem, O. (2008).
“Lean Construction: Fundamentals
And Principles.” The American
Professional Constructor Journal, American Institute of Constructors – Fall
2008.
iii. El-Gafy,
M., AbdelRazig, Y., and Abdelhamid, T.S. (2009). “Environmental Impact Analysis Using Hybrid
Decision Support Framework: A Transportation Project Case Study.” Accepted to the ASCE
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
iv. Abdelhamid,
T.S., El-Gafy, M., and Mitropoulos, P. (2009). "Selection Of Roof Casting
Formwork Systems For The Bird Island Project:
A Case Study. ASCE
Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction, 14(4), pp. 224-241.
v. Sobeih, T, Salem, O., Genaidy,
A., Abdelhamid, T. and Shell, R. (2009).
“Psychosocial Factors and Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Construction
Industry.” The Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management, ASCE, 135 (2), 267-272
·
Conference presentations and papers:
i. Schafer,
D. , Abdelhamid, T.S. , Mitropoulos, P.
, and Howell, G.A (2008).
“Resilience Engineering: A
New Paradigm For Safety In Lean Construction Systems.” Proceedings of the 16th Annual
Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 16-18 July
2008, Manchester, United Kingdom.
ii. El-Gafy,
M. A., and Abdelhamid, T. S. (2008). “Using System Dynamics
Modeling AS a Lean Construction Work Structuring Tool.” Proceedings of the 16th Annual
Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 16-18 July 2008,
Manchester, United Kingdom.
iii. Ilozor, B. D., Egbu,
C. O., and Abdelhamid, T. S. (2008).
“Designing And Building To Minimize Construction
Waste.” Proceedings of the 16th Annual
Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 16-18 July
2008,
iv. Jayaraman,
V., Abdelhamid, T. S., and Ilozor, B. D (2008). “Assessment Of Uncertainty Management
Approaches In Construction Organizations.” Proceedings of the 16th Annual
Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 16-18 July
2008, Manchester, United Kingdom.
v. Abdelhamid,
T.S., and Patel, B. (2008). “Assessment
of occupational safety and health competencies using signal detection
theory”. Proceedings of the 18th Annual
Construction Safety Conference, 12-14 February 2008, Rosemont, Illinois.
vi. Abdelhamid,
T. S. and Mitropoulos, P. (2008).
"Quantifying Workers’ Hazard Identification Ability Using
Fuzzy Signal Detection Theory". Accepted,
2008 National Occupational Injury Research Symposium, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania., 21-23 October 2008.
vii. T.S.
Abdelhamid, Don Schafer, Tim Mrozowski, Jayaraman, V., Howell, G. and Mohamed
A. El-Gafy (2009). “Working through
unforeseen uncertainties using the OODA loop: an
approach for self-managed construction teams.” Proceedings of the 17th Annual
Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 15-17 July 2009,
Taipei, Taiwan.
viii. Abdelhamid,
T. S. and Xi, L. (2009). “The Validity Of Data Dependent System Modeling to
Predict Relative Physiological Workload During Construction Work.” Proceedings
of the 2009 Construction Research Congress.
ix. Schafer,
D., Abdelhamid, T.S., and Mitropoulos, P. (2009). “Resilience Engineering: A
New Approach For Safety Management.” Proceedings of the 2009 Construction
Research Congress.
x. Abdelhamid,
T.S., Narang, P., and Mitropoulos,, T.
(2009). “Hazard Identification
Using Fuzzy Signal Detection Theory”.
Proceedings of the 19th Annual Construction Safety Conference, 17-19
February 2009, Rosemont, Illinois
xi. Abdelhamid,
T.S., Xi, L., and Mitropoulos,, T.
(2009). “Predicting Relative
Workload During Construction Work Using Data Dependent Modeling”. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Construction
Safety Conference, 17-19 February 2009, Rosemont, Illinois.