Constructability database knowledge model and guidelines of industrial plant at construction stage

Abstract

Constructability is a common issue faced by the construction industry which is defined as the ability to construct effectively. The separation of design from procurement and construction in the traditional contracting system has led to a certain degree of isolation of the construction knowledge from design in construction projects. This contracting system has resulted in poor constructability implementation, thus exceeding time and cost of construction projects. This study aimed to provide a constructability database knowledge model and guideline for implementation of industrial plant at construction stage. The objective includes to identify the constructability problems, innovations, best practices and develop the constructability guidelines and database knowledge model. An extensive study was performed in five distinct phases including literature review, interviews, two stages of questionnaire surveys, and four case studies. The first questionnaire was distributed among headquarter of an organization and the second questionnaire was distributed among key personnel of four construction sites. Then four case studies were performed to provide a basis of constructability innovation, best practices, and method statement. Finally, a constructability guidelines and database knowledge model were developed for construction stage. The constructability model was developed based on the consideration both of United States of America and Australia Construction Industry Institute (CII) model. The guidelines developed for this research has referred to the American College of Cardiology tools and methods. Frequency, average index analysis and Wilcoxon rank test statistical techniques were used in this research to analyse the quantitative data. Two organization were selected to validate the findings. The results indicated that the lack of understanding on the overall constructability concept, the availability of lesson learned, and qualified personnel has prevented them from being more committed in implementing the constructability. Despite the above results, current constructability practices have had some benefits on projects’ performance. Not only design-construction interface and early contractor’s involvement were the main factors in improving project performance, but there are also possibilities for significant improvement at the construction stage. The application of this constructability guidelines and database knowledge model were implemented at the organization. It is recommended to improve constructability by adapting constructability concepts which have been developed in other countries but it is necessary to include the following considerations: appropriate construction methods, available resources and, optimum use of lessons learned and best practices. This research is limited on constructability problems, improvement and contracting using the traditional system of industrial plant at construction stage.