Monitoring systems and their effectiveness for project cost control in construction

This paper reports on a research to investigate the effectiveness of some commonly used monitoring systems, in detecting deviations from the planned cost and performance. The monitoring systems used in this work are:\ud \ud Leading parameter technique\ud \ud Variances method\ud \ud Activity based ratios technique\ud \ud The paper describes these monitoring systems; their characteristics, the measures they use and their effectiveness for assessing performance. The systems are first evaluated on a theoretical basis and then on the basis of results from investigations carried using simulation approach. A project model has been developed which realistically simulates the progress of the project and which generates information relevant to these monitoring systems. Factors affecting the project cost and performance are represented by changes in the project plan and inflation rates. It has been found that some of the earlier monitoring systems have more response to changes than the others. The research has also shown that the Activity based ratio’s technique gives a clearer and simpler indication of the overall progress of the project than the other two techniques

A knowledge based system for linking information to support decision making in construction

This work describes the development of a project model centred on the information and knowledge generated and used by managers. It describes a knowledge-based system designed for this purpose. A knowledge acquisition exercise was undertaken to determine the tasks of project managers and the information necessary for and used by these tasks. This information was organised into a knowledge base for use by an expert system. The form of the knowledge lent itself to organisation into a link network. The structure of the knowledge-based system, which was developed, is outlined and its use described. Conclusions are drawn as to the applicability of the model and the final system. The work undertaken shows that it is feasible to benefit from the field of artificial intelligence to develop a project manager assistant computer program that utilises the benefit of information and its link

Effects of resource management regimes on project schedule

This paper deals with the problem of resource scheduling within given resource constraints on a sectionalised construction project. A computer model has been developed which realistically simulates the progress of projects. A project has been selected and divided into sections whereby section managers are allocated part of the site resources to carry out their work and are made responsible for the performance of the work on their sections. The major part of the model is a heuristic scheduler that has been run under three types of project organisations, these are; central management, section management with co-operation between the sections and independent section management. The resultant project duration under fixed resource level has been used in each of these project management regimes as a measure of the efficiency of the resource scheduling process. It has been found that the scheduling is more effective in the case of section management with co-operation between the sections than the other two cases

Proposed genetic algorithms for construction site layout

The positioning of temporary facilities on a construction site is an area of research which has been recognised as important but which has received relatively little attention. In this paper, a genetic algorithm is proposed to solve the problem in which m facilities are to be positioned to n available sites such that the total cost of construction and interactive cost due to facility layout constraints are minimised. A sequence-based genetic formulation of the problem is presented. Genetic crossover and mutation operators are developed for the problem and their performance evaluated and compared on an example project. The results obtained suggest that the different operators perform very differently but that one could be relied on to find the optimum. Overall, experiments suggest that the technique will prove useful when tackling real problems

Genetic Algorithms for Construction Site Layout in Project Planning

Construction site layout is concerned with the existence, positioning, and timing of the temporary facilities that are used to carry out a construction project. Typically these problems are very complicated to formulate and difficult to solve. They are, however, very important to virtually any construction project, since the site layout can significantly affect the cost of the project. This paper describes the general site layout problem from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. It proposes genetic algorithms as a possible solution technique and includes a theoretical example of positioning temporary facilities. This is extended to a practical problem in which the cost of movement is modeled realistically using an augmented genetic algorithm. Some preliminary conclusions are drawn for the application of genetic algorithms to construction site layout problem

Lean transformation in a modular building company: a case for implementation

Encouraged by the remarkable productivity improvements in the manufacturing sector, the construction industry has a long history of trying to garner the benefits of manufacturing technologies. Whereas industrialized construction methods, such as modular and manufactured buildings, have evolved over decades, core techniques used in prefabrication plants vary only slightly from those employed in traditional site-built construction. The objective of this research was to develop and implement a production system for the effective application of lean tools in building components prefabrication. To overcome the prevalent skepticism among middle management, the lean journey started with a pilot project involving one production line. Over a six-month period, lean tools such as 5S (sort, straighten, shine, standardize, and sustain), standardized work, takt time planning, variation management, and value stream mapping were implemented to a communication shelter production line. The implementation successfully won the support of the middle managers and established the foundation for expanding lean practices to other parts of the factory and applying relevant lean tools and technique