Browsing by Author "Mourgues, Claudio"

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    Identifying waste in virtual design and construction practice from a Lean Thinking perspective: A meta-analysis of the literature
    (PONTIFICIA UNIV CATOLICA CHILE, ESCUELA CONSTRUCCION CIVIL, 2016) Mandujano, Maria G.; Alarcon, Luis F.; Kunz, John; Mourgues, Claudio
    In recent years, the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry has broadly expanded the use of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), particularly Lean Construction methods, to deliver value to their customers. VDC includes the use of Production Management using Lean methods as an integral part of the defining theory and method, and multiple case studies have concluded that the greatest performance improvement is achieved by implementing both initiatives together. This paper reviews extensive literature of VDC and Lean Construction with the intent to show benefits in the application of Lean Construction in the actual practice of VDC and to provide examples of waste and opportunities for improvement in projects if Lean methods are applied. This study found that use of Lean methods can help to reduce waste within the VDC process, in the phase of information flow (process view). Specifically, our main finding from this study was that only five types of waste represent 80% of the referenced occurrence of waste in VDC processes, which suggests that if teams use Lean Methods and focus on elimination of these types of waste (i.e., motion (excess), inventory (excess), overproduction, waiting and employee knowledge (unused)), teams can improve VDC practices dramatically.
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    Impact of Machine-Failure Costs on Equipment Replacement Policies: Tunneling Company Case Study
    (ASCE-AMER SOC CIVIL ENGINEERS, 2012) Alarcon, Luis F.; Rodriguez, Andres; Mourgues, Claudio
    For those construction companies engaged in projects where production is controlled by equipment availability, with tunneling as maybe the most extreme example, equipment replacement policies affect not just the cost of a machine but have a decisive effect on overall project cost and achieved profit. Although equipment replacement models described in the literature suggest that the consequential costs of equipment failure are significant and should be considered in replacement decisions, most fail to explicitly include consequential costs or fail to provide methods to calculate the consequential cost in complex systems. This lack of consequential cost in a model seriously diminishes the effectiveness of a company's equipment replacement policies and the company's ability to earn a project. This work describes a case study that used simulation to quantify the consequential costs of equipment availability for a company engaged in tunnel-construction. The study includes the simulation of activities of the drill-and-blast method for five tunnel types. The simulation proved to be very valuable when seeking to evaluate consequential costs. The results indicate that consequential costs are very relevant to the replacement decision of the most expensive equipment. Also, the results show a significant effect of the consequential costs on the company's equipment replacement policies. Therefore, changes in existing policies to consider consequential costs have the potential of providing important future benefits for such companies. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000480. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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    Method to produce field instructions from product and process models for cast-in-place concrete operations
    (ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, 2012) Mourgues, Claudio; Fischer, Martin; Kunz, John
    The state-of-practice method to produce good and formal work instructions for construction laborers takes time, is error prone and produces outcomes with inconsistent format and content. That is why contractors rely on verbal work instructions in spite of the field mistakes and inefficiencies that this poor communication produces. Our research addresses the underlying scientific problem of this practical quandary: the lack of a formal method that defines the steps and information needed to produce good work instructions from a company's best practices and a project's 3D product model.
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    Quantitative analysis of workflow, temporary structure usage, and productivity using 4D models
    (ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, 2008) Jongeling, Rogier; Kim, Jonghoon; Fischer, Martin; Mourgues, Claudio; Olofsson, Thomas
    This paper presents time-space analyses of construction operations supported by quantitative information extracted from 4D CAD models. The application of 4D models is a promising approach to help introduce construction innovations and to evaluate construction alternatives. Current analyses of 4D models are mainly visual and provide project stakeholders with a clear, but limited, insight of construction planning information. This practice does not take advantage of the quantitative data contained in 4D models. We use two 4D models of an industry test case to illustrate how to analyze, compare, and present 4D content quantitatively (i.e., workspace areas, work locations, and distances between concurrent activities). This paper shows how different types of 4D content can be extracted from 4D models to support 4D-content-based analyses and novel presentation of construction planning information. We suggest further research aimed at formalizing the contents in 4D models to enable comparative quantitative analyses of construction planning alternatives. Formalized 4D content can enable the development of reasoning mechanisms that automate 4D-model-based analyses and provide the data content for presentations of construction planning information. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    Value assessment in the traditional housing design: Case studies applying a value analysis model
    (2023) Gimenez, Zulay; Mourgues, Claudio; Alarcon Cardenas, Luis Fernando; Mesa, Harrison; Pellicer, Eugenio