Information Management in the Concurrent Design Process

Former achievements for integrated information management have concentrated on interoperability of applications like e.g. CAD, structural analysis or facility management, based on product models introducing additional application independent model layers (core models). In the last years it has become clear, that besides interoperability of autonomous applications, the concurrent processes of model instantiation and evolution have to be modeled, including the relationship to available project resources, persons, legal requirements and communication infrastructure. This paper discusses some basic concepts for an emerging methodology relating the fields of product modeling, project management and workflow systems by elaborating the concept of a process model, which gives a decomposition of the project goals into executable activities. Integrated information management systems should be related to process models to detect pending activities, deadlocks and alternatives of execution. According to the heterogeneous nature of project communication processes, a method for dynamic classification of ad-hoc activities is suggested, that complements predefined highlevel process definitions. In a brief outline of the system architecture, we show how sophisticated information management systems can be broadly made available by using conventional Internet technologies

A Four Layer Bayesian Network for Product Model Based Information Mining

Business and engineering knowledge in AEC/FM is captured mainly implicitly in project and corporate document repositories. Even with the increasing integration of model-based systems with project information spaces, a large percentage of the information exchange will further on rely on isolated and rather poorly structured text documents. In this paper we propose an approach enabling the use of product model data as a primary source of engineering knowledge to support information externalisation from relevant construction documents, to provide for domain-specific information retrieval, and to help in re-organising and re-contextualising documents in accordance to the user’s discipline-specific tasks and information needs. Suggested is a retrieval and mining framework combining methods for analysing text documents, filtering product models and reasoning on Bayesian networks to explicitly represent the content of text repositories in personalisable semantic content networks. We describe the proposed basic network that can be realised on short-term using minimal product model information as well as various extensions towards a full-fledged added value integration of document-based and model-based information

The preliminary design of a wearable computer for supporting Construction Progress Monitoring

Progress monitoring has become more and more important as owners have increasingly demanded shorter times for the delivery of their projects. This trend is even more evident in high technology industries, such as the computer industry and the chemical industry. Fast changing markets, such as the computer industry, force companies to have to build new facilities quickly. To make a statement about construction progress, the status of a building has to be determined and monitored over a period of time. Depicting the construction progress in a diagram over time, statements can be made about the anticipated completion of the project and delays and problems in certain areas. Having this information, measures can be taken to efficiently >catch up< on the schedule of the project. New technologies, such as wearable computers, speech recognition, touch screens and wireless networks could help to move electronic data processing to the construction site. Progress monitoring could very much take advantage of this move, as several intermediate steps of processing progress data can be made unnecessary. The processing of progress data could be entirely done by computers, which means that data for supporting decisions can be made available at the moment the construction progress is measured. This paper describes a project, that investigates how these new technologies can be linked to create a system that enhances the efficiency of progress monitoring. During the project a first prototype of a progress monitoring system was developed that allows construction companies and site supervisors to measure construction progress on site using wearable computers that are speech controlled and connected to a central database via a wireless network

ADAPTABLE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLANS USING CHANGE TEMPLATES-BASED APPROACH

The uncertainty existing in the construction industry is bigger than in other industries. Consequently, most construction projects do not go totally as planned. The project management plan needs therefore to be adapted repeatedly within the project lifecycle to suit the actual project conditions. Generally, the risks of change in the project management plan are difficult to be identified in advance, especially if these risks are caused by unexpected events such as human errors or changes in the client preferences. The knowledge acquired from different resources is essential to identify the probable deviations as well as to find proper solutions to the faced change risks. Hence, it is necessary to have a knowledge base that contains known solutions for the common exceptional cases that may cause changes in each construction domain. The ongoing research work presented in this paper uses the process modeling technique of Event-driven Process Chains to describe different patterns of structure changes in the schedule networks. This results in several so called “change templates”. Under each template different types of change risk/ response pairs can be categorized and stored in a knowledge base. This knowledge base is described as an ontology model populated with reference construction process data. The implementation of the developed approach can be seen as an iterative scheduling cycle that will be repeated within the project lifecycle as new change risks surface. This can help to check the availability of ready solutions in the knowledge base for the situation at hand. Moreover, if the solution is adopted, CPSP, “Change Project Schedule Plan „a prototype developed for the purpose of this research work, will be used to make the needed structure changes of the schedule network automatically based on the change template. What-If scenarios can be implemented using the CPSP prototype in the planning phase to study the effect of specific situations without endangering the success of the project objectives. Hence, better designed and more maintainable project schedules can be achieved

Modellbasierte Prozesskoordination für das virtueller Planungsteams

>Virtual OrganizationsVirtual EnterprisesSmart Organizations< werden immer häufiger als zukünftige Geschäftsform für des Bauwesens und insbesondere der Bauplanung gesehen. Ziel dieser Organisationsformen ist es, eine temporäre geschäftliche Zusammenarbeit zur Erschließung neuer Geschäftsfelder aufzubauen, ausgehend von einer strategischen Geschäftsverbindung. Insbesondere für kleine Planungsbüros können sich hieraus Möglichkeiten zur Durchführung größerer Projekte eröffnen, indem notwendige Ressourcen, wie z.B. Fachingenieure, jeder Zeit flexibel integriert werden können. Neben dem Auftreten als Projektmanager besteht für die Planungsbüros auch die Möglichkeit Spezialwissen sowie nicht benötigte Ressourcen in andere Projekte zu integrieren. Ziel ist es dabei, eine kontinuierliche Auslastung der Mitarbeiter sicherzustellen. Durch die Nutzung einer geeigneten und allgemein zugänglichen IT-Infrastruktur über das Internet können neue Partner ohne großen Aufwand in ein Projekt aufgenommen werden indem diesen Zugriffe auf alle notwendigen Projektinformationen gegeben wird. Mit der Bereitstellung passender IT-Werkzeuge für das Projektmanagement, Datenmanagement und Vertragsmanagement wird eine effektive Projektbearbeitung gewährleistet. In diesem Beitrag werden die konzeptionellen Grundlagen virtueller Organisation genauer betrachtet und deren Anwendbarkeit auf virtuelle Planungsteams im Bauwesen untersucht. Anschließend wird, aufbauend auf diese Erkenntnisse, der Aufbau und die Komponenten einer Softwareumgebung zur Unterstützung des virtuellen Planungsteams erörtert. Zum Schluss erfolgt eine Darstellung des durch das BmBF geförderte Projekt iCSS

A Four Layer Bayesian Network for Product Model Based Information Mining

Business and engineering knowledge in AEC/FM is captured mainly implicitly in project and corporate document repositories. Even with the increasing integration of model-based systems with project information spaces, a large percentage of the information exchange will further on rely on isolated and rather poorly structured text documents. In this paper we propose an approach enabling the use of product model data as a primary source of engineering knowledge to support information externalisation from relevant construction documents, to provide for domain-specific information retrieval, and to help in re-organising and re-contextualising documents in accordance to the user’s discipline-specific tasks and information needs. Suggested is a retrieval and mining framework combining methods for analysing text documents, filtering product models and reasoning on Bayesian networks to explicitly represent the content of text repositories in personalisable semantic content networks. We describe the proposed basic network that can be realised on short-term using minimal product model information as well as various extensions towards a full-fledged added value integration of document-based and model-based information

Multi-model-based Access Control in Construction Projects

During the execution of large scale construction projects performed by Virtual Organizations (VO), relatively complex technical models have to be exchanged between the VO members. For linking the trade and transfer of these models, a so-called multi-model container format was developed. Considering the different skills and tasks of the involved partners, it is not necessary for them to know all the models in every technical detailing. Furthermore, the model size can lead to a delay in communication. In this paper an approach is presented for defining model cut-outs according to the current project context. Dynamic dependencies to the project context as well as static dependencies on the organizational structure are mapped in a context-sensitive rule. As a result, an approach for dynamic filtering of multi-models is obtained which ensures, together with a filtering service, that the involved VO members get a simplified view of complex multi-models as well as sufficient permissions depending on their tasks.Comment: In Proceedings FAVO 2011, arXiv:1204.579

Reorganisationspotentiale im Bauwesen durch Nutzung mobiler Informations- & Kommunikationstechnologien

Die Verfügbarkeit und die sichere Beherrschung moderner und kostengünstiger Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien gestattet es auch kleinen unternehmerischen Einheiten im Bauwesen sich in betriebsübergreifenden Netzwerken zu organisieren und sich besser in die Wertschöpfungskette am Bau zu integrieren. In sogenannten >Virtuellen OrganisationenSmart-PhonesIuK-System Bau< derzeit entwickelt werden, vorgestellt

Generic Services for the Support of Evolving Building Model Data

Many problems related to data integration in AEC can be better tackled by an approach that takes into account the heterogeneity of tasks, models and applications but does not require continuous consistency of the evolving design data, at each data management operation. Such an approach must incorporate adequate services that can facilitate reintegration of concurrently modified data at reasonably selected coordination points. In this paper we present a set of methods which, used in combination, can achieve that goal. After a description of the principal envisaged cooperative work scenario each of these methods is discussed in detail and current observations drawn from their software realisation are given. Whilst the suggested approach is valid for any EXPRESS-based data model, the practical focus of work has been on facilitating IFC-driven integration

User Requirements Capture in Distributed Project Environments: A Process-centred Approach

Efforts to define standards for representing AEC/FM data have been fairly successful. However defining a standard reference process model has not met with the same success. Yet almost every conceptual modelling or software development project starts by defining the business processes to be supported and the related requirements to be satisfied. This paper describes a new process-centred methodology for user requirements capture developed in the ICCI project (IST-2001-33022). Its essence is in recognising user requirements and use cases in the context of the real construction process, identifying the actors and roles for each individual activity and associating these activities with information, communication and standardisation requirements on the basis of a formalised specification, named the Process Matrix. In the paper we outline the history of process matrix development, introduce the basic structure of the matrix and show how it can be further extended and refined. We present also a web-based software implementation of the developed approach, describe how it has been used in ICCI and outline further perspectives