Editor’s Note

Abstract

This article focuses on issues related to project planning and design, cost and schedule, contracting, information technology and quantitative methods, published in the December 1, 2003 issue of "Journal of Construction Engineering and Management." A new approach for resource optimization is implemented by combining a flowchart-based simulation tool with a powerful genetic optimization procedure. The proposed approach determines the least costly and most productive amount of resources that achieve the highest benefit to cost ratio in individual construction operations. Construction industry owners and contractors can enhance their operations using radio frequency identification. This technology involves the use of tags or transponders, that collect data and manage it in a portable changeable database, communicate routing instructions and other control requirements to equipment.