AN INTRODUCTION OF NEW SCHEDULING SOFTWARE "BEELINER" BASED ON THE BEELINE DIAGRAMMING METHOD (BDM)

As the construction environment has been changing all the times, the techniques for managing the construction projects have been improved accordingly. The schedule management technique, one of the construction management tools, has been evolved as well in order to be adaptable to new construction environment. Most of newly proposed scheduling techniques have been based on the Critical Path Method (CPM) that was proposed in 1956. The CPM is classified into two categories, Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) and Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM). ADM is so good in the visual format but it cannot express the overlapping relationships between two consecutive activities. On the other hand, PDM can express the overlapping relationships but it is unsatisfactory in the visual format. Recently, as the construction environment becomes more complex and the role of schedule management becomes more and more important, the overlapping expression becomes one of critical factors for scheduling as well. Most of construction project participants prefer more comfortable visual format, however, the scheduling software based on the PDM cannot satisfy their basic requirement. Beeliner, new scheduling software based on the Beeline Diagramming Method (BDM) that was proposed in 2010, was developed in 2012, it can express more flexible overlapping relationships and has superior visual format as well. This paper presents major features and applications of Beeliner, and makes construction professionals understand new scheduling concept and its applications.