Synchronization-based model for improving on-site data collection performance

Abstract

Comprehending activity status is essential to successful project management. When construction workers report activity information, project managers understand activity progresses. This procedure forms information exchange and flow. However, the lack of up-to-date information still causes project problems (such as increasing unnecessary costs, making erroneous decisions and improper activity scheduling), and highlights the importance of on-site data collection. For improving this condition, this study integrates two managerial philosophies ("theory of constraints (TOC)" and lean construction) to propose a synchronization-based model. When this model was applied for a material management case study, asynchronous operations accompanied with unnecessary subprocesses were recognized as an influence on on-site information production and transmission. This study then applied synchronous operations based on worker cooperation to resolve these problems, and evaluated the efficiency obtained by the identified measurements. The proposed model offers not only a prototype of synchronous on-site data collection, but also a mechanism for activity performance improvement. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.