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Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering, Volume 9, No. 2, 2015
- 185 -
© 2015 JUST. All Rights Reserved.
A Suggested Solution to Improve the Traditional Construction
Planning Approach
Modar SaadP
1)
P, Shukri BabaP
2)
P and Omar AmoudiP
3)
P
1)
P Postgraduate Student, The Department of Engineering Management and Construction, Faculty of Civil Engineering,
Damascus University, Damascus, Syria, E-Mail: modarsaad@hotmail.com
P
2)
P Associate Professor, The Department of Engineering Management and Construction, Faculty of Civil Engineering,
Damascus University, Damascus, Syria, E-Mail: shukribaba@hotmail.com
P
3)
P Assistant Professor, The Department of Engineering Management and Construction, Faculty of Civil Engineering,
Damascus University, Damascus, Syria, E-Mail: amudi75@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
Construction Project Planning, as one of the key processes in the project lifecycle, shapes the empirical
foundation of the project success and plays a primary role in optimizing and managing construction
operation. Dependence on the traditional techniques and documents in construction planning and scheduling
still faces numerous difficulties and obstacles.
Recently, research efforts have tried to enhance planning capabilities with improved and even new methods
and techniques.
This paper reviews the current planning techniques utilized in the construction industry, inspects the current
construction planning approach challenges and suggests an integrated solution for better construction plans.
This research paper is divided into three main stages. In the first stage, a comprehensive literature review was
conducted to identify the construction planning processes, construction planning techniques and the major
limitations and challenges facing the current planning process. Then, a survey was carried out in order to
verify the construction planning challenges found throughout the literature review. Based on the extracted
facts from the survey, the suggestions were introduced as an integrated approach starting from adopting new
project delivery methods toward using improved planning techniques.
KEYWORDS: Construction planning, Building Information Modeling (BIM), 4-D modeling.
INTRODUCTION
The construction planning process is considered as the
most substantial part of construction management (Najjar
et al., 2004). Preparing appropriate construction plans is
one of the most important experiments within the
construction industry. The traditional planning approach
still faces several challenges, including the fragmentation
nature of the construction industry and the dependence on
the traditional planning techniques which have proven a
disability to deal with the spatial constraints in the
construction site and to communicate the construction
plan effectively among the construction team (Sriprasert
and Dawood, 2004). Planners have to rely on their
imagination and experience to explore the construction
sequence and come up with an appropriate construction
method. Therefore, there is an essential necessity to have
high planning capabilities form the broard activity to the
detailed one in order to deal with all changes occurring
Accepted for Publication on 1/7/2014.
A Suggested Solution… Modar Saad, Shukri Baba and Omar Amoudi
- 186 -
through the construction project cycle. Many researches
have been carried out in order to categorize construction
planning problems, challenges and possible methods to
improve/optimize planning processes.
This research aims to:
1- Study the current construction planning approach
and its techniques.
2- Define the limitations and challenges of the current
planning processes and techniques.
3- Highlight the areas which need to be improved and
recommend a supportive technology to enhance the
construction planning.
4- Introduce an integrated approach to improve the
planning process in order to produce more qualified
construction plans.
Traditional Construction Planning Techniques
0TPlanning techniques could be classified according
to the basis of each. As indicated by Kenley and
Seppanen (2005), there are two types of planning
techniques: 1) Location-based planning techniques. 2)
Activity-based planning techniques.
1- Location-based Planning Techniques
As the construction project is characterized by
continuous work where construction 0Tactivities0T are
performed in different locations of a building,
construction schedules appear to be a group of
repetitive activities. Liner scheduling methods have
proven to be a successful scheduling technique of a
project with repetitive nature. Adopting liner
scheduling method could assist in ensuring the
uninterrupted usage of construction resources in order
to improve the resource performance and productivity.
Schedules prepared by such techniques are represented
graphically as a series of production lines with each
line representing a repetitive activity.
2- Activity-based Planning Techniques
These techniques rely on the construction of a
network of activities and relationships in three forms;
activities on arrows, activities on nodes and logical
dependency constraints (Dawson and Dawson, 1995).
The Critical Path Method (CPM), as an activity-
based planning technique, is a common technique for
analyzing and managing task sequences in construction
projects. Based on calculating how long it takes to
complete essential activities and analyzing how those
activities are interrelated with each other, CPM
provides a visual and mathematical technique to plan,
analyze, schedule and monitor construction projects.
Traditional Planning Approach Challenges
0TProceeding from the fact that the planning process can
be considered the backbone of construction management,
improving the credibility of planning is necessary in order
to achieve stable construction flow, high productivity and
improved quality (0TChua et al., 1999).
0TTherefore, there is a real need to determine
limitations of current planning techniques and the
challenges facing their capabilities.
1. Fragmented Nature of the Construction
Industry and the Traditional Building Process
0TThe construction industry is a fragmented industry
(0TAlashwal et al., 2011).0T The construction project is
divided into various disciplines, parties and
stakeholders working separately most of the
time. 0TThrough the traditional Design-Bid-Build, the
project is designed separately from the parties actually
constructing the project (Latham, 1994) . 0TIn light of
this fact, the main contractor can’t commence any of
the construction works unless the full design has been
already carried out by the architect/engineer. 0T
0TThe project delivery process within the construction
industry depends mainly on paper-based
communications (Arnorsson, 2012). Therefore, any
errors or conflicts within the paper documents will
cause delays, over-costs and eventually claims between
the construction project team. As the construction
industry is a project-oriented industry, improving the
coordination among the different parties of the project
will assist in reducing the negative impacts of the
fragmentation problems.
Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering, Volume 9, No. 2, 2015
- 187 -
2. Applying Constructability Concept
0TConstructability as been defined by the
Construction Industry Institute CII is “The optimum
use of construction knowledge and experience in
planning, design, procurement and field operations to
achieve overall project objectives” (Construction
Industry Institute, 1986).
0TThe achievement of a good constructability depends
on both of the designer and builder. Thus,
implementing the constructability concept requires a
continuous integration of knowledge and experience of
the construction project parties; i.e., the designer,
contractors and subcontractors. Applying
constructability has a great impact in minimizing the
gap between the design and the execution phases in the
traditional procurement method DBB, increasing the
productivity rates and reducing costs (0THijazi et al.,
2009)0T. The traditional planning approach, depending
on the CPM technique, does not assist planners to
consider constructability issues during the
preconstruction planning stage (0TDawood et al., 2006).
3. Dependency on the Personal Experience
0TGenerally, the construction planner should have
many specific skills and experiences like the ability to
liaise with different parties and imagine how the
project will be constructed, having a practical
experience in construction technologies and
construction laws and an understanding of the design
considerations. Selecting the most proper construction
method is one of the most important decisions
requiring a lot of personal experience to be made
correctly (0TTulke et al., 2008)0T. Büchmann and
Andersson (2010) stated that producing construction
plans depends basically on the personal experience of
the planner and the construction manager rather than
standards and well-founded figures. Planners and
construction managers have to imagine the
construction process in their minds during the
preparation process of the construction plans. The
overload of the construction documents, including the
2-D drawings, specifications, bill of quantity
documents, produces serious difficulties to understand
the project characteristics and extract the required
information for scheduling purpose 0T(Büchmann and
Andersson, 2010)0T.
4. Traditional Construction Planning Techniques
Critical Path Method CPM has been widely used in
the construction industry as the main tool for
construction planning and scheduling since its
invention in 1950 (O’Brien and Plotnick, 2006).
Defining the major limitations and challenges facing
the Critical Path Method was a very important subject
for numerous investigations and researches in order to
achieve a development in the construction planning
field. Most of those challenges could be categorized as
follows:
I.The Interrupted Usage of Resources
Many contractors require ensuring the continuous
usage of resources during construction which is
difficult to be ensured by applying the Critical Path
Method because only resource availability constraints
are shown in the CPM network (Harris and Ioannou,
1998). Commonly, during the preparation of the CPM
schedule, the main concern is about activities and their
relations regardless the limitation of resources
available for executing the work. Ignoring the activities
flow would consequently lead to inability to succeed in
managing the construction resources (materials,
equipment, labor) which is one of the most important
elements in the planning process (Najjar et al., 2004).
The guarantee of the uninterrupted usage of the
construction resources, especially labor, would
improve the performance and the productivity of such
resources.
II. The Spatial Conflicts
Construction spaces are classified into three
categories: resource spaces, topology spaces and
process spaces (Akinci et al., 2002). Usually during the
preconstruction planning processes, the main concerns
are all about the construction durations and
construction activities constrains related to time,
A Suggested Solution… Modar Saad, Shukri Baba and Omar Amoudi
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regardless the spatial constraints (Sriprasert and
Dawood, 2002). Since the construction schedule
contains hundreds of activities requiring different
locations with different spaces, it is quite difficult for
the construction manager to illustrate the spatial
requirements for the construction resources; i.e., the
spatial locations and the physical components are not
directly related to the schedule activities.
III. Schedule Evaluation and Communication
Many construction schedules have numerous
contraries which are difficult to be found out, and the
only ones having been detected are during the
execution stage (Huhnt, 2006). Although CPM
technique has been widely adopted throughout the
construction industry, having full understanding of the
construction plan from reviewing the CPM schedule
was easier said than done even to the civil and
architectural engineering students (Messener and
Horman, 2003). It has been proven that it is difficult to
evaluate and communicate the CPM schedules among
construction project participants (Huhnt, 2006).
IV. Repetitive Construction Project
In repetitive projects, the network diagram for x
units will be established for one unit and then repeated
x times and linked together, which will result in a huge
network with a great number of activities. Although
CPM technique has a remarkable effect on complex
projects, it has been doubtlessly shown that CPM has
limitations when applied to projects with repetitive
activities such as roads and high rise building projects
(Yamin and Harmelink, 2002). As most of the
construction projects have several repetitive activities,
there will be extra advantages to deal with them in
order to produce an agile construction plan.
V. The Usage of Buffer Time
Within the CPM scheduling method, the main
attention is given to the critical activities which leads to
less efficient usage of the buffer time and causes risks
as the critical path changes during the execution stage.
PRACTICAL STUDY
Data Collection and Analysis
In order to verify the construction planning
challenges found within the literature review, a
questionnaire was designed consisting of two parts:
The first part aimed to collect general information
about the respondent’s experience and the current
planning approach including the planning methods and
software.
The second part aimed to seek the respondent’s
agreement on the derived facts from the previous
review of the construction planning approach
challenges and their impacts on the construction plan.
The questionnaire was sent as a web-page to a
group of 42 construction planners and construction
managers from 7 construction and consultation firms in
the private sector. The survey was supported by
personal interviews. The total number of respondents
was 35 with full answers for all questions.
Respondents were asked to report their agreement
on a 5- point Likert scale. For each question, the
respondents were asked whether, and how strongly,
they agree or disagree to each question using a point
rating scale.
Table 1. The Respondents' Experience in the
Construction Planning Filed
Position Frequency
Percentage
Planning engineer 26 74%
Construction manager
3 9%
Contract manager 1 3%
Site manager 1 3%
Project engineer 4 11%
Table 2. Years of experience in the construction
planning field
Years of experience Frequency
Percentage
Less than three years 4 11%
Between 3 and 6 years 20 57%
More than 6 years 11 32%
Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering, Volume 9, No. 2, 2015
- 189 -
Table 1 shows a record of the respondents'
experience in the construction planning filed.
Table 2 shows the percentage of the respondents
participating in the survey according to their
experience in the construction planning field.
Table 3. The commonly used project
delivery method
Project delivery method Frequency Percentage
Design-Bid-Build 21 60%
Design-Build 9 26%
Integrated Project
Delivery 0 0%
CM at Risk 2 6%
Other 3 9%
As shown in Table 3, Design-Bid-Build was ranked
as the common project delivery method that has been
used within the construction projects, whereas the
Design-Build method was ranked as the second one.
Figure (1) shows that 17% of the respondednts
agreed that selecting the planning method is one of the
contractor's responsibilties, whereas 43% assumed that
the client is the one who is responsible of selecting the
plannng method. Just 34% of the respondents thought
that the project manager shall decide on the used
mehtod.
Figure (1): Planning method selection
Critical Path Method CPM has been chosen as the
most utilized planning method wihtin the construction
projects (100% of the respondents agreed that they always
use the CPM for construction planning). 4-D Modeling
has not been used in construction planning within the
studied sample. Figure (2) illustrates the ranking of the
planning methods based on their utilization.
Figure (2): Planning methods ranking
Based on the extensive usage of the CPM, it has been
shown that Primavira and MS project software have been
widely used. On the other hand, the software adopting the
4-D modeling concept has been classified as not used or
unknown software. Figure (3) shows the ranking of the
planning software based on their utilization.
Figure (3): Planning software ranking
17%
43%
34%
6% Contractor
Client
Project manager
Other
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Simple Bar chart
Critical Path method (CPM)
Line of Balance
To Do List
4d Modeling
not used
occasionally
always
unknown
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Primavera
MS project
Naviswork
Schedule Simulator
Other
not used
occasionally
always
unknown
A Suggested Solution… Modar Saad, Shukri Baba and Omar Amoudi
- 190 -
The data were analyzed partly by using the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software
and Microsoft Office Excel. Average index was
calculated to reflect the effectiveness of the
aforementioned criteria. The analysis have ranked the
challenges based on the frequency analysis and the
average index. This index was calculated as follows
(Abd Al-Majid and McCaffer, 1997):
Average Index Formula:
Average Index =∑ Xn
μ = Weight given to each factor by the respondents (1
to 5);
n = Frequency of the respondents;
N = Total number of the respondents.
The application of the Average Index in the
questionnaire would be for instance:
μR1R = 1; frequency of “Strongly Disagree” response.
μR2R = 2; frequency of “Disagree” response.
μR3R = 3; frequency of “Neither agree nor disagree/
neutral” response.
μR4R = 4; frequency of “Agree” response.
μR5R = 5; frequency of “Strongly Agree” response.
With the rating scale as shown below (Abd Al-Majid
and McCaffer, 1997):
• 1 = Strongly Disagree (1.00 ≤ Average Index <
1.5).
• 2 = Disagree (1.50 ≤ Average Index < 2.5).
• 3 = Neutral (2.50 ≤ Average Index < 3.5).
• 4 = Agree (3.5 ≤ Average Index < 4.50).
• 5 = Strongly Agree (4.5 ≤ Average Index < 5.00).
Table 4. The Traditional planning approach challenges classification
Level of Consideration Strongly
agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
disagree Average
Index Rating Description
Respondent's frequency % f % f % f % f % f
The
fragmented
nature of the
construction
industry
The utter separation
between the design and
the construction stages
28% 10 60% 21 9% 3 3% 1 0% 0 4.14 4 Agree
Sharing information
with the contractor and
sub-contractors during
the design stage
51% 18 43% 15 6% 2 0% 0 0% 0 4.46 4 Agree
Dependency
just on the
personal
experience of
the planner
Selecting the
construction method
43% 15 40% 14 11%
4 3% 1 3% 1 4.17 4 Agree
Estimating the activities
durations 51% 18 43% 15 6% 2 0% 0 0% 0 4.46 4 Agree
Defining the
construction activities
sequence 14% 5 74% 26 6% 2 6% 2 0% 0 3.97 4 Agree
Extracting the required
information for
scheduling purposes
from the construction
documents
20% 7 43% 15 31%
11 6% 2 0% 3.77 4 Agree
Obtaining all the
required information for
scheduling purposes
from the construction
documents
48% 17 37% 13 9% 3 6% 2 0% 4.29 4 Agree
Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering, Volume 9, No. 2, 2015
- 191 -
The used
construction
planning
method
The disability to provide
uninterrupted usage of
resources 69% 24 11% 4 14%
5 6% 2 0% 4.43 4 Agree
The main concern is
about activities and their
relations
26% 9 60% 21 11%
4 3% 1 0% 4.09 4 Agree
Disregarding the spatial
and resources
constraints
36% 13 46% 16 9% 3 9% 3 0% 4.11 4 Agree
Disability to represent
the spatial and temporal
aspects of construction 20% 7 77% 27 3% 1 0% 0% 4.17 4 Agree
Difficulty to evaluate
the construction plan 43% 15 28% 10 23%
8 6% 2 0% 4.09 4 Agree
Difficulty to
communicate the
schedule to the client
and other stakeholders
11% 4 54% 19 26%
9 9% 3 0% 0 3.69 4 Agree
Difficulty to
communicate the
schedule to the project
team and foremen
37% 13 54% 19 6% 2 3% 1 0% 4.26 4 Agree
Weakness to deal with
repetitive projects 14% 5 46% 16 28%
10 11% 4 0% 0 3.63 4 Agree
The
reliability of
the
construction
documents
The reliability of bill of
quantity BOQ
documents
66% 23 28% 10 6% 2 0% 0 0% 0 4.6 5 Strongly agree
The reliability of the
construction drawings 23% 8 68% 24 6% 2 3% 1 0% 0 4.11 4 Agree
The level of detail of the
construction drawings 22% 8 46% 16 26%
9 6% 2 0% 3.86 4 Agree
The coordination
between the design
disciplines
34% 12 40% 14 23%
8 3% 1 0% 4.06 4 Agree
The availability of a 3-D
model of the building 17% 6 46% 16 26%
9 9% 3 3% 1 3.66 4 Agree
All possible challenges that affect the traditional
construction planning approach were listed and ranked
according to the rating scale by the respondents. These
challenges were divided into 4 categories:
1) Fragmented nature of the construction industry.
2) Dependency just on the personal experience.
3) The construction planning method.
4) The reliability of the construction documents.
The Proposed Integrated Solution
As in Table 4, there were an explicit agreement that
the traditional construction planning approach is faced
by several challenges.
Based on the found facts in Table 4, suggestions
were developed to produce an integrated solution in
order to improve the traditional planning approach.
1. Moving toward the BIM- Based Scheduling
BIM (Building Information Modeling) is defined as
a “Digital representation of physical and functional
characteristics of a facility. As such, it serves as a
shared knowledge resource for information about a
A Suggested Solution… Modar Saad, Shukri Baba and Omar Amoudi
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facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its
lifecycle from inception onward” (The National
Building Information Modeling Standards, 2007).
Building information modeling has the capacity to
comprise all construction documents, which facilitates
construction managers' responsibilities, detects errors
and avoids extra costs resulting from such errors.
Many studies have discussed the contribution of the
Virtual Reality (VR) in general and the BIM concept in
particular for better visualizing and analyzing the
building design through its construction. Beside the
support provided by BIM during the design stages,
there were many areas that BIM could assist like the
construction planning and monitoring, as well as cost
estimation.
Figure (4): The 4-D model, autodesk navisworks
In CPM schedule, the listed activities are linked to
each other with assigned duration and the longest path
is defined as the critical path which represents the
predicted duration of the project. In contrast, LoB uses
locations as basis for scheduling which could be
helpful within projects with repetitive nature.
The 4-D modeling technique, as a construction
planning technique, is the link between the objects in
the 3-D model and the scheduled activities. Creating
the 4-D model with specialized 4-D tools could
enhance the production of the 4-D model and provide
the planner with multiple options to build the 4-D
model with particular specifications.
Building a 4-D Model
Building the 4-D model process depends on the
availability of the 3-D building information model and
the purpose of building the 3-D model.
If the 3-D model has been created without taking in
consideration the construction processes, some
remodeling efforts will likely be required.
Assuming that the 3-D building information model
was not being made, creating the 4-D model is
developed through:
1. Building the 3-D model based on the 2-D drawings
using the BIM software.
2. Establishing the 4-D model by linking the
construction schedule to the 3-D model.
A. Creating the 3-D Model
The 3-D model was created based on the 2-D
drawings by using the BIM software Revit
Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering, Volume 9, No. 2, 2015
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Architectural. The adopted method of transforming the
2-D drawings into a 3-D BIM model consisted of
several stages as follows:
1) Setting up the project environment.
a) Developing a custom template.
b) Setting the project information, parameters,
units and precision display.
c) Organizing the project browser.
d) Transferring standards into the project.
2) Modeling the project.
a) Importing plan layouts.
b) Building the 3-D model by using Revit built-
in elements and customized elements.
3) Modifying the model.
4) Exporting the 3-D Model to Naviswork.nwc File.
5) Static Clashes Detection.
B. Presenting the 4-D Model
1) Developing and Linking the Time Schedule.
2) Creating the Task Types.
3) Creating the Selection Set Structure.
4) Creating ‘Selection Sets’ with Respective
Geometry for ‘Tasks’.
5) Linking ‘Selection Sets’ with ‘Tasks’.
6) Creating ‘Viewpoints’ that Show the Construction
Sequences and Setting the Simulation Settings.
4-D Building Information Modeling Benefits
The usage of the 4-D building information
modeling could improve the construction planning in
many areas as follows:
I.Visualizing the Construction Process
4-D modeling provides a visual solution to illustrate
the construction works better than what could be done
with 2-D drawings and documents such as Gantt charts
and linear schedules. The 4-D model shows how the 3-
D model components are being constructed step by
step with the progression of time. There is no further
need for 2-D drawings and schedules to conceptualize
the construction process, because the 4-D model allows
presenting the two separate documents through one
single source. This visualization tool assists the
construction manager in selecting the appropriate
construction method, helps the planner to define the
right consequence of the construction activities and
provides the consultant with a powerful tool to evaluate
the construction plan provided by the contractor.
II. Communicating of the Construction Plan
As mentioned previously, the construction project
is divided into various disciplines, parties and
stakeholders. Simulation production options allow
project participants to view the planned construction,
compare construction alternatives and review the actual
status of the project (Jongeling et al., 2006). The
outputs of the 4-D modeling process do not require a
specific knowledge in the construction planning field to
be understated which could assist in communicating
the construction plan to the workers within the
construction site. As a result, the 4-D model could
reduce the time for communicating the schedule to the
sub-contractors and enhance their feedback (Norberg
and Olofsson, 2008).
III.Solving and Detecting Spatial Conflicts and
Detecting Clashes
Using the BIM technology could greatly improve
the coordination process as it has the ability to detect
the spatial conflicts within the construction plan that
are very difficult to be identified when the coordination
is performed based on the 2-D drawings (Coyne,
2008). By the implementation of the BIM tool, there
was an ability to detect clashes that couldn’t be found
by the design team when using the traditional method
of overlaid drawings on the light table (Eastman et al.,
2011). On the other hand, utilizing the 4-D modeling
technique gives support in detecting clashes resulting
from the movement of the construction equipment
within the construction site and assessing the temporal
constrains of the construction resources.
IV. Improving Constructability
Implementing the constructability concept within the
A Suggested Solution… Modar Saad, Shukri Baba and Omar Amoudi
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construction industry will affect advantageously the return
of investment of the construction projects. The most
appropriate way to assess constructability of a building
project is to simulate and visualize the construction
activities before they take place in reality. 4-D modeling
based on BIM technology provides a helpful tool to figure
out what will go wrong and go right before commencing
the execution (Hijazi et al., 2009).
Aranda-Mena et al. (2008) found that BIM could
improve the constructability of the design in
compliance with its functionality.
V. Providing an Uninterrupted Usage of Resources
To increase the productivity in the construction site,
it is important to ensure a continuous flow of the
allocated resources. BIM-based scheduling facilitates
preparing a suitable site layout to ease the movement of
workers and other facilities.
Also, BIM-based scheduling supports the “What if
scenarios” which is helpful in selecting the most
appropriate construction method that ensures
uninterrupted usage of resources.
VI. Creating a Consequential Data Base
Parametric modeling, adopted by the BIM software,
allows creating standards for most of the construction
objects like cost, installing duration, manufacture,
resources needed… etc.
BIM assists in developing a reliable database for
most of the construction elements which could be
updated and used continuously.
Such standards could reduce human errors and
provide a single source of data that could be used by
the planner within the construction planning process.
VII. Creating Reliable Construction Documents
The complete building information model provides
coordinated construction drawings and accurate
quantities for most of the building elements including
their counts and volumes. The specification and the
pricing data could be linked to the building information
model.
By linking the specification and pricing data to the
building elements and developing an adequate bill of
quantity, planners can produce a more credible
estimation for the activity durations and required
resources.
2. Adopting New Project Delivery Methods
Beside the traditional Design-Bid-Build delivery
method, there is an emergence of some alternative
methods in the construction industry field. The
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) method is used in
construction projects to improve team efficiency and
communication between the construction project core
stakeholders including the owners, the design team and
the contractorsP
P(The American Institute of Architects
(AIA) and AIA California Council, 2007). The
American Institute of Architects (AIA) defines IPD as
“A project delivery approach that integrates people,
systems, business structures and practices into a
process that collaboratively harnesses the talents and
insights of all participants to optimize project results,
increase value to the owner, reduce waste and
maximize efficiency through all phases of design,
fabrication and construction” (The American Institute
of Architects (AIA) and AIA California Council,
2007).
The selection of the project team in the integrated
project delivery approach is a qualification-based
selection which enhances the success chances of this
approach (An owner’s guide to project delivery
methods, 2012).
IPD provides a collaborative process that spans the
design and construction, allows for early contribution
of subcontractors and manufacturers in the master
schedule which enhances the estimation of the
construction activities durations and resources and
eases the utilization of technological capabilities and
supports.
RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The results of the survey show that the traditional
Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering, Volume 9, No. 2, 2015
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planning approach including the planning techniques
and processes faces several challenges which affect the
efficiency of the construction plan.
The reliability of the construction documents has
the most effective impacts on the construction plan, as
it is considered the corner stone in the planning
process. For example, the BOQ documents are used
basically to estimate the construction activities
durations and resources.
Also, the used planning technique has no less
important impact on the construction plan. The CPM
schedule does not provide enough information
pertaining the spatial context and complexities of the
project components. Different project members may
develop inconsistent interpretations of the schedule
when viewing the CPM schedule and 2-D drawings.
This in turn makes effective communication among
project participants difficult.
4-D modelling offers better visualization of the
construction process and better communication among
the project team assisting the client and the contractor
in developing a better understanding of the project
scope.
In summary, there are great advantages of adopting
the 4-D modelling, based on BIM concept, which are
not available in the traditional planning methods being
used.
In order to seek the maximum benefits from
applying the BIM in construction projects, it is
necessary to adopt a new project delivery method,
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), in order to achieve
more organization and govern the project team
relationships.
When IPD and BIM are used in conjunction, the
expectations for the project to be completed
successfully are considerably increased.
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