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Lean design management practices associated with stakeholder management during pre-construction stage in Sri Lanka
No full textLean Design Management (LDM) is a concept, which ensures efficiency and effectiveness of the design stage of a construction project to reduce uncertainty and improve the quality of the final product. Stakeholder Management (SM) is an effective approach for coordinating and managing stakeholders who involve with a construction project to ensure better relationships and reduce the complexity of the project. The integration of LDM and SM concepts together into the pre-construction phase provides a positive impact on the project performance. This paper aims to investigate the lean design management practices associated with stakeholder management in the pre-construction phase of construction projects in Sri Lanka. The research has used mixed method research approach to achieve the aforementioned aim. The research concluded that twenty-nine lean design management practices and eight stakeholder management practices can be integrated into the pre-construction phase in Sri Lanka. The findings further revealed that waste reduction, product performance enhancement, and functionality enhancement can be achieved by integrating LDM and SM practices together into the pre-construction phase in Sri Lanka
Life cycle costing in construction : current trends and emerging directions
No full textThe current construction climate in the UK is moving forward with a much greater attention on cost certainty, sustainability and adoption of innovative technologies. The UK Construction Strategy 2025 provides a clear direction towards achieving such goals by 2025. Life Cycle Costing (LCC) is one of successful techniques for identifying the total cost of ownership in construction assets. Even though the technique has 50 years of history, the application and the diffusion of the technique within the construction domain is comparatively limited. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the evolution and current status of LCC within construction context through Bibliometric Analysis of journal publications indexed in Web of Science database (1970-2020). A series of Contents Analyses was performed and visualisation maps were generated via VOSviewer. The findings proved that LCC has been absorbed into construction in late 90’s and there is a continuous rise in the global uptake from 2013 onwards. With limited budgets and growing demand for sustainability, an integrated methodology linking LCC, Life Cycle Assessment and Performance optimisation is apparently the way forward for LCC
Waste heat generation and potential recovery systems used in Sri Lankan hotels
No full textThe waste heat recovery concept can be used as a solution to optimise energy consumption while reducing the waste heat in energy generation systems. However, its application in Sri Lankan hotels is still in the infancy stage even though the hotel sector accounts for high energy consumption. Therefore, this research aimed to assess the amount of waste heat generated from the different sources in hotel buildings and thereby identify the most appropriate waste heat recovery systems to the hotel buildings in Sri Lanka through a comparative case study analysis of three similar natured hotel buildings. The required data to perform waste heat calculation were extracted through document reviews and site visits. This study identified the three main waste heat generating sources in hotel buildings: HVAC condenser out, boiler exhaust, and kitchen exhaust. The analysis shows that the condenser out of the HVAC system is the highest waste heat generating source which accounts for an average of 41,823GJ per year while boiler exhaust and kitchen exhaust generate the waste heat of an average of 11,000GJ and 8GJ per year. It is further found that the quality of waste heat generated from the boiler exhaust is higher than the condenser out of the HVAC system and kitchen exhaust. Hence, this study concludes that the boiler has the highest potential of using the waste heat recovery system than the condenser out of the HVAC
Comparison of skills between Sri Lankan and foreign construction labour
No full textConstruction significantly influences a country’s economy. The labour efforts are the lifeblood of construction operations. The construction industry has been facing many challenges due to skill shortages in many countries. This study aimed to compare the work-related skills of Sri Lankan labour against foreign labour forces. A qualitative study methodology was adopted through literature reviews and expert interviews to identify the labour skills which influence the productivity of construction operations. The interviews were conducted in two categories. The first category focused on identifying significant labour skills, the second category was conducted to compare the labour skills between Sri Lankan and foreign labour. Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Saudi Arabian, Malaysian and Korean labour forces were considered in the pair-wise comparison process. Statement categories and codes were developed to perform this qualitative comparison. The overall results show the need of developing cognitive and self-management skills of Sri Lankan labourers, where the transferable skills are not much important. The study pointed up the importance of developing technical skills of Sri Lankan labour in concreting, bar bending, plastering, tiling, welding, electrical work and equipment handling, to reach the levels of leading foreign labour forces. Labourers’ commitment, punctuality, participation, self-motivation and problem solving were the significant self-management skills in this regard. Kappa statistics resulted in the inter-rater reliability of these findings at a substantial level. The study outcomes can be helpful for the skills development authorities to take actions for filling the skills gap, and also for some foreign construction sectors in similar scenario
Increasing the political involvement and political literacy of Sri Lankan youth – A communication design aspect
No full textMajority of the younger generation of Sri Lanka in particular have a very low regard for the whole subject of politics. The reason for this has been the political dysfunction that they witness in their day-to-day lives. The most common dialogue they hear concerning politics is one where the older generations acknowledge that the political landscape is an utter mess
Impacts of landscape architecture on outdoor insecurity in urban housing complexes
No full textHousing is one of the most essential components of life, offering shelter, protection, and comfort, as well as a place to rest. When considering the Sri Lankan housing complexes Millennium city housing complex was highlighted mainly because of the crime incidents that happened inside the housing complex. This research is done to demonstrate and to investigate the application of landscape architecture for security on urban housing complexes based on Millennium city housing complex, using landscape character to reduce outdoor insecurity. Seven places in the millennium city housing complex premises were selected to apply the crime prevention through environmental design theory and to observe its effectiveness through structured interviews and by considering the police reports that were taken through Sri Lanka police Athurugiriya. Natural surveillance, Territorial reinforcement, Maintenance, Prospect, Refuge, and Escape factors are separately discussed in the analysis regarding the selected places. A sectional survey is done for further analysis. The outcome shows that the house settings and the landscape character affect the outdoor landscape safety of the residents. The study will be a source to better understand how landscape architecture can be applied for outdoor security in urban housing complexes
Mud-concrete slab system for sustainable construction
No full textThe urgency of global climate emergency has drawn significant attention to the building industry over the last few years. Today, the building sector is responsible for 38% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to UNEP. 60% -70% of embodied carbon in a conventional column-beam reinforced concrete building is in its floor system. This paper discusses the possibility of constructing an earthen slab system using mud-concrete. It investigates a doubly curved shell structure, working predominantly in compression, to fulfil both environmental and economical demands in the construction industry; reducing the cost and labour expenses nearly 50% compared with that of traditional reinforced concrete slab systems. A 1 m x 1 m prototype mud-concrete slab was constructed to check the potential for modular construction with a square footprint. Poured mud-concrete shell of 50 mm thickness is the primary structural component, while a non-structural mud-concrete filling to a horizontal level 50 mm from apex was used to create a usable floor surface. Masonry mould method was used as the formwork system for the construction considering its cost effectiveness and ease of construction
Selecting a suitable variable combination to predict stock prices using support vector machines
No full textWith technological development, trading in stock markets has become more accessible to the general public. However, owing to the highly volatile nature of stock prices, stock price predictions remain a challenging task. Literature shows Support Vector Machines as a promising technique. This paper aims at identifying the best variable combination to predict the stock prices using Support Vector Machines along with the application of forward filling and linear interpolation as data filling methods and random search and grid search as hyper parameter optimization methods. After the individual evaluation of all models, data filling method of linear interpolation, hyper parameter optimization method of grid search and independent variable combinations with adjusted close price are found to give better results for prediction of stock prices
Quality of life (QoL) in university undergraduates in Sri Lanka
No full textQuality of Life (QoL) of university students remains an under studied topic that can raise problematic situations if not addressed properly. Many university students are immersed in an environment of high levels of stress due to academic workload and responsibility. The main objective of the study is to investigate the Quality of Life among Sri Lankan undergraduates using a cross-sectional analysis, among a sample of 165 undergraduates. The study analyzed the Quality of Life of state and non-state university undergraduates via four domains: Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Relationships, and environmental Health. Data collection was done primarily through WHOQOL-BREF scale. The regression analysis test was used to analyze the relationship between the domains. Results indicate that the higher level of QoL reported by female undergraduates, out of the four domains that were investigated in the study and overall undergraduate’s psychological health seems to be better than other studied domains. When comparing the two university categories, the highest level of QoL was reported from non-state universities. Thus, it is evident that QoL serves as a powerful mediator in the relationship between the academic and social life of undergraduates in Sri Lanka. Eventually this research paper contributes to the literature pertaining to QoL of undergraduates where policies and implications are required to sustain their future
A Study on factors influencing brand reputation: with special reference to franchised fast-food restaurants in Colombo district
No full textToday fast-food culture is a strongly uprising trend in the world. However, those fast food are unhealthy for human life and most people have proved that in various ways. Nonetheless, these fast-food restaurants have a high brand reputation in the world as same as in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the factors influencing the brand reputation of franchised fast-food restaurants in the Colombo District. The study observed food and service quality, brand effect, self-congruence, brand awareness, and brand association as the independent variables and brand reputation as the dependent variable. This is quantitative research. The questionnaire was distributed online and data were collected from 282 people who are going to the fast-food restaurants in the Colombo District under the convenience sampling method. Multiple linear regression analysis is used to analyze the hypothesis. The result is self-congruence, brand awareness, and brand association have impacted for the brand reputation and food and service quality and brand effect have not impacted on the brand reputation of franchised fast-food restaurants in Colombo District. Furthermore, this study has provided directions to the restaurants’ authority to enhance their reputation