A FRAMEWORK FOR ACTIVITY-BASED CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SIMILATION

Due to various project delivery methods and the complexity of construction projects in the construction industry, developing the framework of construction management for critical, highly complex projects in the construction industry has become problematic. Currently, a set of construction manuals play a pivotal role in planning and managing construction projects as subcontractors try to complete their scope of work according to the instructions of a general contractor. It is challenging for general contractors to write a construction management procedure manual to cover various types of project delivery methods and construction projects. In construction, the construction procedure manuals describe specific actions to be taken through the project. In reality a few contactors own such manuals and their construction schedules include more construction operation activities. Thus, it is hard to estimate the workload and productivity of construction managers because the manual and the schedule do not present the amount of management efforts required to complete a project. This paper proposes a framework to present construction management tasks according to project delivery methods which can be applied to various construction projects. Actions for management tasks were mapped and were integrated with construction activities throughout the project life cycle. The framework can then be used to give specific instructions to project participants, collect management actions, and replicate management actions throughout the project life cycle. The framework can also be can used to visualize complete construction project to analyze and manage construction management activities in each phase of a project in order to enhance productivity and efficiency. The studies of existing construction manuals were carried out to identify construction managers' responsibilities. An artificial intelligence program, CLIPS (C-Language Integrated Production System) was used to search for appropriate actions for impending tasks from a set of predefined actions to be performed for a given situation. The framework would significantly help construction managers to understand interrelations among management tasks or actions within a project. Furthermore, the framework can be embedded into Building Information Modeling (BIM) or Facility Management Systems (FMS) so that designers and constructors would execute constructability review before construction begins.