BIM-based Lift Planning Workflow for On-site Assembly in Modular Construction Projects

The assembly of modular construction requires a series of thoroughly-considered decisions for crane lifting including the crane model selection, crane location planning, and lift path planning. Traditionally, this decision-making process is empirical and time-consuming, requiring significant human inputs. Recently, research efforts have been dedicated to improving lift planning practices by leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as automated data acquisition, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and computational algorithms. It has been demonstrated that these technologies have advanced lift planning to some degree. However, the advancements tend to be fragmented and isolated. There are two hurdles prevented a systematic improvement of lift planning practices. First, the lack of formalized lift planning workflow, outlining the procedure and necessary information. Secondly, there is also an absence of a shared information environment, enabling storages, updates and the distribution of information to stakeholders in a timely manner. Thus, this paper aims to overcome the hurdles. The study starts with a literature review in combination with document analysis, enabling the initial workflow and information flow. These were contextualised through a series of interviews with Australian practitioners in the crane-related industry, and systematically analysed and schematically validated through an expert panel. Findings included formalized workflow and corresponding information exchanges in a traditional lift planning practice via a Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). The traditional practice is thus reviewed to identify opportunities for further enhancements. Finally, a BIM-based lift planning workflow is proposed, which integrates the scattered technologies (e.g. BIM and computational algorithms) with the aim of supporting lift planning automation. The resulting framework is setting out procedures that need to be developed and the potential obstacles towards automated lift planning are identified.