Situation Picture Through Construction Information Management

Abstract

Purpose-Low productivity in construction is typically blamed on the seemingly complex and chaotic nature of construction, which emerges as the stakeholders do not have an adequate picture of the evolving situation. The ever-increasing volume of situation data owing to the recent advances in IoT devices and reality capture platforms provide a unique opportunity to capture the actual situation data of construction projects accurately at a fraction of the cost compared to manual status tracking and reporting. This paper aims to investigate the concept of a situation picture, challenges in collecting situation data and its benefits. Design/Methodology/Approach-Empirical data is collected through interviews in California and Finland, and by organizing workshops. Findings-We contribute to literature on managing operational information by defining the concept of a situation picture in the context of construction, specifically from the blue-collar's perspective during on-site activities. We present the key components of a conceptual information model that represents a situation picture in construction. Research limitations/implications-The applicability of conceptual information model of situation picture is not tested in practice, but the model will provide a starting point for research to comprehensively integrate social and digital information exchange for improving workflow. Practical implications-The paper claims that designing and building comprehensive information management infrastructure would contribute to solving the problems of low productivity, quality and safety in construction projects. Originality/value-Research on situation picture and situation awareness is scarce in the context of construction. The study links various information management technologies and practices to actual construction productivity.

The Role of Digitalized Visual Management to Empower Selfmanaged Crews in Construction Projects

“…Throughout this phase, information about production progress is often collected manually to create status reports that are outdated, somewhat subjective and shared with the production teams during weekly (or even less frequent) meetings (Kärkkäinen et al 2019;Seppänen 2009). This often results in a team waiting for a site manager's response to a daily task problem, causing cascade effects to many other tasks and teams.…”

“…Using the search engine at the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) website to search through all published papers at the 27 international conferences, it is possible to find only three published papers mentioning the term situational awareness (Koskela et al 2016;Dror et al 2019;Reinbold et al 2019). Among the current research development linking SA with construction projects is the introduction of the term situation picture, which indicates the level of accessible workflow data to be stored, refined and distributed, and the development of a conceptual model of construction information management to achieve situation picture (Kärkkäinen et al 2019).…”

Situational Awareness in Construction Projects Using Takt Production

“…The focus of these papers has been, on the utilization of work machines and equipment, occupational safety, and the role of BIM (Building information modeling) in SA (e.g., Lonsdale, 2004) and construction logistics management (e.g., Ghanem et al, 2018). Research has also focused on establishing a more holistic picture of the situation (O'Reilly et al, 2005) and integrating decentralized information in the CI (Kärkkäinen et al, 2019). Typical SA solutions evaluate the status of the environment, analyze the current status and create forecasts and alerts for decision making.…”

Improving Street Reconstruction Projects in City Centers Through Collaborative Practices

“…Ballard 2000) have been proposed to improve the coordination process and plan reliability. In addition to LPS, digital tools may be required to achieve a shared situation picture (Kärkkäinen et al 2019). Increased transparency brought by lean and digital tools combined with more collaborative contract forms could lead to increased trust between stakeholders, contributing to innovations and reducing project buffers (Uusitalo et al 2019), thereby decreasing project duration and the harm to citizens.…”