Paper: Profit Maximization and Strategic Management for Construction Projects
Abstract: Profit maximization is the first goal for any construction company whether it is stated directly or hidden in between the strategic management lines. At the same time construction projects are known for frequently being over budget and behind schedule. As it is known the resources are limited not only for the contractors, but also for the clients. In order to allow construction companies to make a profit on projects they need to practice intelligent approaches and find ways of minimize its costs. Traditional approaches no longer serve the industry and informed decision making is important for any construction company to be profitable and stay in the market.
In the mission of helping the industry in the process of informed decision-making and strategic management a decision-support tool is developed. The aim of the tool is to help in deciding on optimal resource allocation for any construction project with consideration of resource availability and the stakeholder guidance. The decision-support tool takes into consideration the technical aspects of projects as well its business perspectives for cash-flows and activity planning. The tool can be used for project contract management as well, since it provides the information necessary to consider for having a successful project.
Within its constraints the tool allows to analyze the sustainability compliance of projects if such imposed or pioneered. As such the decision-support tool can aid the construction management industry for optimal decision-making in strategic management.
Biography: Hakob Gevorg Avetisyan received his doctoral degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Project Management) from the University of Maryland (College Park, MD). Prior to the doctoral degree he received three MS and M.Eng degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering and in Environmental Policy and Planning. Since the first years of his academic journey he tackled research projects that addressed the real-world challenges of environmental sustainability and energy, transportation and construction management. Avetisyan, who joined the College of Engineering and Computer Science in fall 2013 as an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has garnered awards and grants for his scholarly work. He has number of publications in prestigious journals related to research in construction engineering and management, transportation and energy industries, port security and seismic analysis of bridges. In March 2014, Avetisyan with co-authors received a Best Paper Award from ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management for the paper published in 2012 for developing a decision support model for construction equipment selection. In 2015 Avetisyan proposed the idea of Construction Equipment Sustainability Index for informed decision-making. His primary research interests are construction engineering and management, operations research, economics and security with a particular emphasis on developing optimization and game-theoretic models for processes in the construction, energy, and transportation industries, environmental sustainability, civil systems engineering, water/wastewater treatment and distribution, and system resilience/recovery.
