| Construction of medical laboratories is prone to budget overruns due to a number of unique characteristics such as small demands, highly customized features, high standard of equipment and facilities, and multiple technical requirement changes during the process. Builders are expected to accurately estimate the construction costs during the feasibility and design phase of the project, however significant variances may arise during construction due to several factors. For example, cost engineers require the design drawings from designers to be of sufficient depth in order to produce accurate estimates, whereas designers require detailed technical requirements from medical researchers in order to produce comprehensive drawings. However, it is often difficult for the researchers to provide these technical requirements in such an early stage of the project and for the project management team, they have to face the varying expectations of stakeholders and high staff turnover, the managers also do not have enough analysis for the history data.In order to provide viable solutions to the cost estimation issues at the feasibility and design stage of the medical laboratory construction projects, this paper proposes the Modularized Cost Estimation method. This method adopts the modular management approach and is built on the advanced studies of domestic and international cost indices, with the unique characteristics of medical labs integrated, focusing in particular on the installation of specialized systems, using the detailed data from actual cases.The Modularized Cost Estimation method calculates the cost indices according to the as-built drawings and audited final accounts at the project completion. The cost indices are used to build the historical database which provides references for future projects. When forecasting the costs of a new project, similar modules are selected from the historical database, actual unit costs are used as inputs, and then the different modules are grouped according to the requirement of the new project to arrive at the total costs. The Modularized Cost Estimation method provides the benefit of avoiding previously necessary adjustments due to year-over-year price volatility and regional price differences, and therefore is simple and practical to be employed in the field, which also helps the project owners to build the historical project database with less input.This study divides the laboratories of W building into 3 modules including pharmacy, radiology, and cleanrooms. The laboratories of S building are divided into modules of a pharmacy with standard layout and a pharmacy consisting of seven floors. Each module is treated as individual projects when calculating the cost indices of the electrical and ventilation systems. In order to calculate the cost indices, inputs are proposed from five sections including the as-built drawings, the module division, the modular cost index, the main materials table, the consolidated materials table, and the non-standard materials table. This study reduces the cost items on the electrical and ventilation systems of W building from 1,030 items to 51. This study also demonstrates how to calculate the cost indices of complex non-standard materials using power distribution box as an example, and concludes that power, total switching capacity, the number and specifications of circuits, and the installation and size requirements are the only four elements required for the calculation.This study also analyzes other factors that may affect the construction costs. The calculation shows that variances caused by the price volatility of labor and materials in the initial construction stage of the W building amounts to 13.76% of the total costs. This result can be used as reference for new projects when building the reserve fund to address price volatility.Lastly, the accuracy of the estimates is tested by running trails in similar projects using the identified cost indices, and the results prove that this method is viable for cost estimation. |
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