Construction Process Simulation of Multiple Interdependent Processes

The construction of built facilities involves multiple complex and interdependent processes. To improve both the construction process and the performance of the completed facilities, innovative designs and technologies are constantly being developed and introduced into the design and construction industry. However, the uncertainty associated with the implementation and performance of the innovations, particularly with respect to other components, processes, or systems, often creates insurmountable barriers for the effective use and diffusion of these innovations. Current research at MIT by Prof. Slaughter and her research team has developed system and material-specific dynamic process simulation models of specific construction activities as a basis to analyze the impacts of design and technology innovations. As an extension of this research, the meta-models explicitly link the system-specific process models to represent the interdependent processes required to construct a complete facility, to assess the overall project impacts of innovations. The meta-models provide a context in which the state of each construction process is tracked and acts as a trigger for the performance of specific tasks in other processes as they are logically related. In this way, the research can provide a powerful tool to quickly, effectively, and accurately assess the alternatives for a specific project, and present the system and project-wide impacts of the alternatives on expected duration, cost, and worker safety.