| dc.description.abstract | Engineering interface management (EIM) practices have been the focus of construction management concerns to effectively manage thousands of embedded and complicated engineering interfaces in complex capital projects. Recently, management challenges have increased since the complexity and scope of the scale of these infrastructure projects are combined with additional globalization, multiple geographical distribution and coordination among various working cultures with unforeseen construction risks among interfacing stakeholders.
Mass rapid transit (MRT) projects comprise one class of projects. This type of combined construction engineering work, which consists of numerous different trades of civil/architectural, related subworks and patent electrical and mechanical subsystems supplied by global system suppliers, is binding with tedious and complicated engineering interfaces throughout the construction life cycles. The design and construction of these MRT projects requires a sophisticated process of integration among different types of engineering work interfaces, including civil and architectural, track work, escalators/elevators, mechanical/electrical/plumbing, environmental control systems, and core electrical and mechanical systems, in which issues are frequently encountered and required for solutions in the interface management (IM) of traditional capital projects construction. Therefore, this MRT project can serve as the perfect template for developing applicable IM methodology for effectively resolving interfacing issues; it can be extended to other kinds of capital projects.
Traditionally, interface design integration for an MRT project primarily focuses on the integration needs of specific interface requirements among civil, electrical and mechanical (E&M) subsystems, such as the production of structural, electrical and mechanical drawings or combined services drawings and their construction. However, this approach does not pre-evaluate and filter all engineering necessities on subsystems’ interdependencies before considering all necessary physical interfaces between the chosen E&M specifications and designated civil designs. When the designs are completed, all engineering interfaces that are needed or unneeded are embedded and require time and resources to manage during construction. When these interfaces are not thoroughly revealed and preplanned for timely management, they generate countless disputes among project parties in the construction stage and considerably delay the total progress. Some of the conflicting outcomes may further extend their impacts to the operation stage, which induce inefficient maintenance or operation procedures and reduce the total service efficacy.
The objective of this thesis, by taking the proven advantages of the design-build (DB) type of contracting, is to propose a series of stepwise procedures in a preventive scenario for developing a completed and effective IM solution for DB MRT project design and construction, which can be easily extended and reused in other capital projects with similar complex interfaces in the future. Its core methodology is to use all as-built experiences of these IM issues, including failures in Taiwan MRT constructions, as the basis to perform a thorough and systematic review to identify the types of dependencies of recurrent interface issues. These summaries will then be applied to generalize reusable IM criteria for design and construction stages. The criteria include (1) the development of a reusable preventive design criteria to preemptively and effectively minimize the engineering interfaces during the initial design stage; (2) the design of an efficient stepwise IM solution for managing the engineering interface in the construction stage; and (3) the exploration of the potential applicability of this IM methodology to extend to other complex capital projects. This thesis has demonstrated a new way for the preventive IM concept to immediately minimize the project interfaces in the design stage to achieve effective and efficient management performance for significantly reducing the total construction time by an average of 37% and conserve project resources.
The preventive interface design criteria and construction IM procedures of this study contribute to the EIM body of knowledge and demonstrate great potential in reducing construction time and resources, as well as contract disputes for DB capital contracts.
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