Developing a collaborative planning tool for construction - A Building Information Model-enhanced planning and scheduling tool for production.

Licentiate thesis, 2018

Construction projects are becoming increasingly complex with a higher degree of specialization, resulting in more sub-contractors as well as in more information needed in the project. This results in a bigger project organization with an increased need for information exchange, an area where construction has been criticized by academics. The increasing specialization is related to an increase in more technically advanced buildings. The amount of information created and managed in construction projects has been recognized as hard to manage at the construction site. This is problem since the site-management uses this information in the scheduling and planning of the production. One way to address this is to utilize the sub-contractors in the planning of the production, thus drawing upon their work-experience for their specific tasks. This creates a collaborative planning approach that somewhat addresses parts of the problem, however, the amount of information is still hard to manage, especially since it has to be coordinated between disciplines to get the full picture. Information and communication technologies, (ICT), have attempted to solve this, with potential found in building information modelling (BIM). However, most use of BIM is seen in the design phase of construction projects, with some BIM visualization appearing at the construction site. The lack of adoption at the construction site is partly attributed to lack of time to alter processes to new tools.
This thesis addresses this potential for BIM tools aligned to a collaborative planning process. Furthermore, it recognizes that prior literature lacks a focus on both the people and the social context the technology is used in as well as the development of the technology itself. Thus, a sociotechnical systems view is adopted. Design Science is used as the method to observe the current collaborative planning process, develop a BIM-system supporting the collaborative planning approach and document the research process. This is done with a strong focus on the user,
using people, processes and technology as dimension to analyze the requirements of the BIM system developed. Thus, the research’s contribution is threefold; the thesis contributes with a documentation of an existing collaborative planning process, a BIM-enabled collaborative planning tool enhancing a current work practice and an
example of how Design Science can be used as a method to support ICT development in construction.