INCREASING REALISM OF CONSTRUCTION SIMULATION THROUGH INTEGRATION OF OPERATIONAL AND MANAGERIAL ASPECTS

Current construction simulation approaches mostly focus on operation aspects of construction projects, ignoring managerial aspects which can radically change operational profiles (e.g., number of resources, expected productivity level, or daily working hours) during the course of construction. As a result, these approaches may mislead construction managers into unrealistic execution plans as well as make them difficult to find potential performance improvement areas. As an effort to address this issue, this paper establishes a comprehensive construction modeling framework which integrates operational and managerial aspects of construction projects. The proposed modeling framework will provide construction managers with more accurate, more reliable, and more realistic simulation results thus reducing the likelihoods of schedule delays and cost overruns.