Eliciting Constructability Knowledge for BIM-enabled Automated, Rule-based Constructability Review: A Case Study of Formwork

Abstract

The concept of "constructability" has been raised to optimize construction knowledge and experience in the design phase of construction projects to improve project performance. Previous research demonstrated the feasibility of an automated, rule-based constructability review through BIM implementation. The current work investigates the elicitation of constructability knowledge to achieve the automated process. With a case study, two frequently used knowledge elicitation methodsinterview and document analysis -were applied to collect constructability knowledge on formwork selection for a concrete building project. Advantages of each technique indicate the need for combining the two elicitation methods as a means of triangulation to establish a comprehensive and accurate knowledge base for an automated, rule-based constructability review. INTRODUCTIONThe constructability concept has been raised and provided substantial opportunities for optimizing construction knowledge into the design phase. Due to an increased awareness of the potential benefits in improving constructability, many construction companies began to conduct constructability reviews at different design stages to improve the reliability of design and facilitate the construction process. By capturing constructability knowledge from construction experts, a checklist and a lessons-learned system are frequently adopted after the design reaches a certain design stage, 30%, 60%, or 95% design (Hancher and Goodrum 2007). However, the large amount of required resources (i.e., time and manpower) largely impedes constructability implementation (Hancher and Goodrum, 2007); the rework caused by the inefficient process (Pulaski and Horman, 2005) cannot be ignored either.The idea of implementing integrated design methods to enhance project performance, notably leveraging Building Information Modeling (BIM), has been greatly pushed for project design as a shared knowledge resource of a facility among project participants (Rekola et al., 2010). A recent study of a new dormitory building at The Pennsylvania State University concluded that BIM has great potential to perform an automated, rule-based constructability review of a design model (Jiang et al., 2013). Building on previous study, this paper investigates the knowledge elicitation process to develop constructability rules and enable the automated review

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