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In a decision making study, design alternatives are compared with respect to cost, performance, and reliability, and the best is selected. Often, due to the time constraints imposed by the design schedule and budget restrictions, the number of design alternatives considered is limited. This research focuses on composite flooring systems for multi-story buildings and the application of value techniques to the construction industry. The study uses data that obtained from the RSMeans Assemblies Books for the period 1997 to 2019. The data obtained from RSMeans consists of assemblies cost ($/sf of floor) as the dependent variable; and the structural span (ft.), superimposed load (p.s.f), unit cost of sheet metal ($/LF of sheet), unit cost of concrete ($/CY), unit cost of steel structural ($/ton), and total load (p.s.f) as the independent variables. A simple computer model is designed for recommending the optimal composite flooring system of a multi-story building, during the preliminary design stage. The value engineering (VE) team to achieve the VE goals mentioned above can use the model.

Purpose The purpose of this study is how to use the quality function deployment (QFD) in the construction industry. The study was performed for the owners and decision-makers of a construction company in Egypt, as a sample, and the owners’ requirements. Design/methodology/approach The data collection process and the type of data collected are described in this section. The data used in this study was collected from a questionnaire survey and was quantitatively analyzed using statistical analysis to identify the practices that have a statistically significant correlation with the performance of the design in the structural system of multistory buildings. A structured questionnaire five points Likert scaled based was adopted in this study; the questionnaires were distributed to experts, managers in real estate companies, construction industry-academic experts and advisors. The resulting list of factors, issues and knowledge gaps was subjected to a questionnaire survey for quantitative confirmation and identification of the most important factors, issues and knowledge gaps by distributing the questionnaires to experts, managers in real estate companies, construction industry-academic experts, and advisor to identify ambiguous questions/items and to test the techniques used to collect data. Findings The effect of many internal and external factors that affect on value engineering and decision support systems, such as schedule time, cost, the purpose of the building, availability of materials and environmental, needs to be considered in the structural system for multi-story buildings. The final proposal for the house of quality-chart helps designers and decision-makers in the preliminary phase and feasibility study stage for choosing the structural system using value engineering analysis for multi-story buildings. Also, construction and engineering industries can use the findings from this study as a basis for selecting the optimal structural system for multi-story buildings. The estimating team will be able to accurately make decisions and give recommendations regarding an optimal structural system for multi-story buildings for different activities. Practical implications The proposed approach enables decision-makers and designers to select the optimum system for multi-story buildings according to the key performance indicators (KPIs) toward client satisfaction and conduct analytical investigations to facilitate decision-making in a structural system for the multi-story building in Egypt. The proposed approach enables decision-makers and designers to select the optimum system for multi-story buildings according to the KPIs toward client satisfaction and conduct analytical investigations to facilitate decision-making in the structural system for the multi-story building in Egypt. Originality/value QFD is a technique that availed in many industries and it is used in evaluating the customer expectations, reflecting this evidence on the product specifications. In recent years, this technique is used also in construction industry projects. It is will help designers and decision-makers in the preliminary phase and feasibility study stage for choosing the structural system using value engineering analysis for multi-story buildings.

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This paper aims at developing a model to measure and evaluate the performance and productivity of the construction of steel structure projects (SSPs). Practitioners and experts comprising a statistically representative sample were invited to participate in a structured questionnaire survey to achieve the objective. The questionnaire consisted of 17 factors that were classified under the following four primary categories, with terms such as feasibility study stage, planning stage, design, and engineering stage, and construction stage. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used for designing a model on MATLAB for measuring and evaluating the projects’ performance of the Construction of SSP based on the 14 factors that affect the steel structure process. The results suggest that the proposed ANN model for SSP can produce measures and evaluate the projects’ performance quickly and accurately when actual data is available for model training. The user can enter the values of main factors that affect their projects’ performance to produce an accurate output of the evaluation for the projects’ performance and productivity. The construction industry can use the findings of this paper as a basis for improving the projects’ performance of the construction for SSP.

This paper attempts to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the construction industry under different investment and economic scenarios in Egypt. The survey was conducted to assess the cost impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the construction industry, considering essential aspects, such as manpower, plant and machinery, and material, and their net effect on overall construction cost. The recommendations covered in this paper address many such measures under short, medium, and long-term categories. These measures underline the need to improve systems and processes for adequately responding to the current changing environment and effectively confronting such disruptions in the future. In addition, the paper serves as a start to thinking about the study of procedures during a future pandemic to inhibit any impact on the project timeline or personnel health.

Water reuse can contribute to reducing pressures on water resources, as an important approach and practice, reducing the demand for potable water for purposes not requiring high quality water. With water resources being depleted and the demand for water increased, grey water reuse becomes more popular in order to preserve water worldwide. This paper presents a comprehensive review of all significant research and reviews existing case studies to review the present knowledge with respect to the characteristics of grey water. The main summary table covers 63 works that focus on the application of these methods to different fields of sustainable building design. Key fields are reviewed in detail: grey water, including water reuse; grey water recycling; water sustainability; building design optimization; and wastewater of several areas simultaneously, with particular focus on buildings. This research aims to introduce the review of the researches that covered the grey water management. Various engineering databases, international journals, and conference proceedings were searched. International journals were searched for relevant research papers. This paper provides perspectives on grey water context in order to frame the breadth and multiple dimensions it encompasses, to summarize recent activities on selected relevant topics, and to highlight possible future directions in research and implementations.