This presentation discusses the role of digitalization in supporting construction process management.

1. Increasing Control in
Construction Processes
The Role of Digitalization
Mehtab Alam Syed, Elisa Marengo, Werner Nutt
Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy
Arif Ur Rahman , Patrick Dallasega
Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

2. • Research project: COCkPiT
Collaborative Construction Process Management
• Partners:
Computer scientists, construction companies (SMEs),
industrial and construction engineers
• Obj:
Improve Construction Process Management
• Motivation:
Construction processes are
wasteful (material, time, labor, ...)
A Bit of Context
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Increase digitalization
 Develop methodologies
 Design tools
Increase the usage of data
to increase control over processes

3. Construction Process Management:
SMEs Current Practice
Bidding
Time
Execution
Time
Gantt
Chart
Project Phases
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4. Gantt Charts
• Are well established and easy to understand
• Tools supporting them (CPM, resource usage,…)
• Overall view of the process
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They capture construction processes in a coarse manner
• Too abstract (w.r.t. daily activities)
• Lack of proper abstraction (e.g., for locations)
• Don’t support analysis, actual progress and updates
 Not suitable for “Operative Management”

5. Construction Process Management:
SMEs Current Practice
Bidding
Time
Execution
Time
Gantt
Chart
Project Phases
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6. Construction Process Management:
SMEs Current Practice
Bidding
Time
Execution
Time
Gantt
Chart
ForemanPM
emails
phone
spreadsheets
Project Phases
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7. Operative Planning
Done “On the Fly” by the foreman without
proper support
• Trade-off between details and time span
• No medium-term planning
• Difficult to evaluate alternatives
• Difficult to synchronize with the supply chain
• No explicit definition of process requirements
• Commitment to one way of doing the work
• FM as a single point of failure
• Difficult to record the current project state
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8. Bidding
Time
Execution
Time
Gantt
Chart
ForemanPM
emails
phone
spreadsheets
Project Phases
Waste
Delays
Cost Overruns
….
Digitalization as:
“Enabler of New Processes”
Mendling et al. European
Journal of Information
Systems 29(2020)
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9. Digitalization: Enabler of New Processes
Digitalization allow one to
handle more details
• Increase control
(performed vs planned)
• Decrease waste
Details Control
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Modelling
Short-
Medium-
Term
Planning
Monitoring
Analysis

10. Process models to collect
process requirements
• Solving the
single point of failure
• Introducing the right
abstractions and details
• Automatically compute
alternatives
Digitalization: Process Modeling
CoPMod
Marengo et al.
Information Systems (2019)
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11. Digitalization:
Short- Medium-Term Execution Planning
Supports:
• Detailed planning for
medium time-span
• Synchronization
(e.g., supply chain)
• Identification and
reaction to problems
• Evaluation of
alternatives
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CoSMos
Weekly scheduling

12. Digitalization: Monitoring and Analysis
Measure the project state
• Current progress
• Execution plan
actualization &
rescheduling
• Planned vs performed
analysis
• Reliable forecasts
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CoSMos
Weekly monitoring
Weekly scheduling

13. Details Control
Conclusion
• Construction processes are wasteful
• Increase the usage of data in construction process
management to increase control
• Increase details requires digitalization
• We propose a methodology consisting of
• Process modeling
• Short- and medium-term planning
• Monitoring and
• Analysis
• Demonstrator tools: CoPMod & CoSMos
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14. elisa.marengo@unibz.it
www.cockpit-project.com
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