Integration of (time-resources-cost)‎ in construction projects using simulation

Other Title(s)

تكامل (الزمن-المصادر-التكلفة)‎ في المشاريع الإنشائية باستخدام المحاكاة

Dissertant

al-Sersawi, Ali Adib Muhammad

Thesis advisor

Rustm, Rifat N.

Comitee Members

al-Hallaq, Khalid Abd al-Rauf
Ashur, Yusuf Husayn Mahmud

University

Islamic University

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering

Department

Department of Civil Engineering

University Country

Palestine (Gaza Strip)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2014

English Abstract

Scheduling is a vital tool for successful management of construction project.

The purpose of scheduling is to define activities, durations, and logic relationships among the project's activities.

There are several techniques used for scheduling construction projects, which mostly are traditional techniques.

However, simulation is more powerful tool when used as a technique for scheduling.

The construction projects have complex relationships and dependencies; this is why simulation is more effective technique for scheduling.

The aim of this study is the integration of time, resources, and cost in scheduling construction projects using simulation.

The first objective of this study is transformation of the logic relationships in construction projects from the traditional scheduling to equivalent simulation to solve the shortcoming of scheduling in terms of time, resources, and cost.

The second objective is developing a general model that simplifies the simulation of the logic relationships in order to be used in construction projects scheduling.

The third objective is verifying and validating simulation models, through simulating two different types of construction projects (multi-story building and infrastructure project) using the transformed logic relationships.

Finally, the fourth objective is finding the optimal number of resources in accordance with minimum cost using OptQuest optimization tool in Arena.

Five general steps were followed to accomplish these objectives.

First, the logic relationships were transformed from the traditional scheduling to the equivalent simulation and the shortcoming of simulation in terms of time, resources, and cost will be overcome.

Second, the general model that simplifies the simulation of the logic relationships was developed to be used in construction projects scheduling.

Third, simulation of two different models representing the scheduling of construction projects using simulation was done.

Fourth, the validity of the models were checked by comparing the results and the reports of the simulated projects with MS Project reports.

Finally, OptQuest in Arena software was used as an optimization tool to find the optimal number of required resources in terms of minimum cost.

As a result of this thesis a general model was formulated to simplify using simulation in construction project scheduling.

The general model was verified and validated.

The verification process was executed to ensure that the simulation model operates as intended.

The validation process was executed by applying the general simulation model to two real case studies (the two projects were GTC multi-story building, where the duration of the project was 175 days and the total cost $154010, and AlWahidi street rehabilitation project, where the duration of the project was 56 days and the total cost $150447.

The results were compared versus the MS project results (the actual results), the results of both Arena and MS Project were found equal.

Using OptQuest for Arena, the optimization process achieved decreasing in the total cost through finding the optimum number of resources.

The total cost was minimized by (2%), and the duration was minimized by (1) day only for the multi-story V building.

For AlWahidi street rehabilitation project the total cost was minimized by (2.5%) and the duration was minimized by (2) days.

Finally, it is recommended for the contractors and local construction companies to use simulation techniques in preparing time schedules to select the optimum schedule for the projects.

Also, the educational institutions are recommended to enhance the engineers' skills in simulation techniques

Main Subjects

Civil Engineering

Topics

• Management
• Costs
• Construction projects

No. of Pages

160

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-531505