"Soft" considerations in equipment selection for building construction projects

This paper raises the issue of "soft" considerations in the selection of equipment for building construction projects. The paper aims at increasing the awareness: (1) to the nature, variety, and richness of soft factors; (2) to their significant role and potential impact on the outcome of decision making; and (3) to the inherent difficulty of evaluating them and integrating them within a comprehensive selection process. Existing state-of-the-art equipment selection models were analyzed and found to be inadequate in terms of both considering soft factors and providing mechanisms for their systematic evaluation. Six cases of large-size, complex construction projects were investigated to obtain an extensive list of typical soft factors. This investigation revealed that the consideration of soft factors in current practices is essentially unstructured and is not integrated within the selection process in a systematic manner. A desirable selection process is outlined that generally responds to the needs identified in the study. The proposition of a specific method for the quantitative treatment of soft factors and their tradeoff with cost factors is the subject of another paper.