Singularity Functions to Enhance Monitoring in the Last Planner System

Abstract

Many traditionally managed construction projects suffer from schedule delays. However, in Lean Construction, the Last Planner System TM (LPS) stipulates planning tasks first at the macro (Master Schedule and Phase Schedule) and then at the micro levels (Look-ahead Planning and Weekly Work Plan, WWP) when the week of execution approaches. This paper aims to enhance the control aspect of LPS before the end of the execution in order to finish on schedule. Its objective is to improve the WWP by monitoring project progress on a daily basis to have enough time for corrective measures, catch up to the planned schedule, and minimize wastes in time and resources. The approach allows project participants to compare planned to actual progress, calculate required improvement if needed, and be alerted if cascading delays may occur. It calculates the Process Reliability Index (PRI) to check whether extra allocation of labor is needed to finish the required work, checks for congestion in work areas, and predicts the possible Percent Plan Complete (PPC) before the end of the execution week. Moreover, this paper proposes a new metric that shows the reliability of the team in applying the recommended improvements. This metric allows more realistic improvement plans compared to prior attempts. The monitoring approach can be applied to linear, repetitive, and location-based projects. Singularity functions are used as the core model because they are suitable for such schedules. They can be implemented in various computer applications. An example is used to evaluate the approach and finds it to be reliable.

Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation of Construction Crew Performance

“…The fourth and last metric used in the Percent Improved Complete (PIC), which is obtained by dividing the number of activities that required improvement in their production rates during the WWP and were able to implement this improvement, over the total number of activities that required improvement. PIC shows the reliability and commitment of teams at the WWP level to implement required improvements (Ezzeddine et al 2019;Shehab et al 2019). Table 1 summarizes the aforementioned metrics, their formulae, and their usages.…”

Construction Control Room for Project Monitoring and Control

“…A simulation model is developed to simulate and analyze the workflow within the control room showing the collaboration of different entities present in a construction project. Moreover, various technologies and tools that can be used within the control room are discussed, such as: (1) Obtaining live feed from the actual project construction site through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and static cameras in order to stay updated with the progress, faced constraints, delays etc., (2) using Building Information Modeling (BIM) to track the progress of the project and to obtain updated models of the actual project, and (3) incorporating the Metrics Prediction Tool developed earlier by the authors [12,13] into the proposed control room. The tool is fed inputs directly from the site and gives metrics that are crucial for project monitoring and progress prediction.…”