ABSTRACT
Difficulties in managing the construction design process are strongly related to its nature, as a large number of interdependent decisions are involved, which need to be made by many different stakeholders, in an environment that has a high degree of uncertainty. Moreover, there is a growing use of digital tools to support design. Traditional communication approaches used in design management only partially comply with the requirements of digital contexts, and new methods and tools are necessary to address these challenges. Visual Management (VM) has the potential to increase process transparency in the design stage, in order to support collaboration and communication and facilitate the transfer of information. However, the literature on the implementation of VM to support design management is still scarce. Moreover, there is limited understanding of the connection between VM and information and communication technologies (ICT). This investigation aims to propose a set of requirements to support VM applications for design planning and control within digital contexts, which can potentially contribute to improving the effectiveness of VM. This set of requirements were initially identified within the literature, considering different fields of knowledge, and then refined in an empirical study that was developed in collaboration with an infrastructure design and consultancy company in the UK. The Design Science Research approach was the methodological approach adopted in this investigation, which involved incremental learning cycles for devising the artefact, carried out in three different projects. The main findings include (i) the definition of a set of VM requirements that are applicable to the context investigated in this research study;(ii) an assessment of the relevance of the requirements for different types of visual practices, hierarchical planning levels, and stakeholders that are involved;(iii) the identification of some current limitations and challenges of implementing digital VM in construction design. From a practical perspective, this set of requirements may guide practitioners and academics in devising and assessing digital VM practices.
ABSTRACT
During the year 2020, the sanitary emergency norm forced universities to teach under the remote learning method, representing a challenge of designing courses that require high effectiveness. The purpose of this work is to present the strategies that were successfully applied during the teaching of design management tools for a building project, implemented in a course part of the Civil Engineering master of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. The methodology considered the effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic and had as objective to develop soft skills and employability, for which a balanced use of virtual platforms as well as software was proposed for videoconference and laboratories. On the other hand, during this course, students developed a proposal for integrated planning and management of the design phase using tools of norms and guidelines of project management systems such as ISO 21500, Lean Construction, Building Information Modeling, PMBOK of the Project Management Institute, Integrated Project Delivery, among others. Under this framework, the participation of stakeholders, multicriteria decision making, development of project design deliverables and project sequence was analyzed, which presented an important change under the collaborative contracts. The success of this methodology is reflected in the high quality of final papers and expositions, the result of surveys taken - effectiveness of 99%-, and in the improvement opportunities detected. This paper presents important information that may be adapted by academic and practitioners during the phases of the pandemic and post-pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Education in the United States (US) has come a long way over the past few decades. Now, learning institutions are combining traditional educational tools with newer technology such as virtual reality (VR) as well as augmented learning spaces. In light of the recent COVID-19 global pandemic, internet-assisted virtual classrooms are often preferred over traditional teaching - this reduces in-person contact while delivering lessons on time in a safe space. The construction industry has adopted virtual reality (VR) in safety training, design, and field management, and to coordinate installations as it helps in visualizing decisions. Despite the benefits, it has found limited application in construction management (CM) education. This study introduces CM undergraduates to a virtual jobsite and investigates the efficacy of VR as a knowledge transfer pedagogy. Using data and construction documents from an ongoing project, we deploy state of the art technology to convert them into a virtual space using TwinMotion, which in turn is viewed by students with the help of Oculus Rift headsets in a controlled environment. This research propels the learner into an immersive environment to learn about building systems through VR instead of using two-dimensional construction drawings. The subjects' understanding of the materials is gauged using an online pre- post quiz. With a design-based research approach, we assess the impact of VR tools on construction student knowledge, how students respond to this hybrid model of instruction, and whether it holds any value compared to other traditional methods of instruction. Incorporating such educational tools and practices can increase the prevalence of more focused educational knowledge transfer while protecting the students' health by reducing personal contact at the same time. We plan to further investigate VR across several course iterations and are optimistic that these immersive tools will help to better train young construction professionals before they join the industry. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021