| Effective construction planning and scheduling is the first and crucial step towards a successful and efficient construction project. All succeeding tasks should follow the planning stage. The planning and scheduling process is arduous, complex and time-consuming. Even experienced construction planners find it impossible to construct a comprehensive and faultless master construction plan, and during construction operations make reviews and updates as necessary. These reviews and updates bring waste and increase the project duration and cost.;For this study, 4D computer aided design (CAD), Building Information Modelling (BIM) and virtual prototyping (VP) are investigated. The aim being to find potential technologies to help to optimize and visualize the construction plans in order to reduce the number of review and update frequency.;The core of the research methodology for this study is action research which helps to develop a solution framework for integrated planning using VP technology enabled resource analysis. The cyclic process of action research is adopted 1) identification of critical issues of construction plan, 2) development of the framework, 3) implementation and 4) feedback. Site validation was held during the implementation of the VP technology. Also, focus group meetings were held at which feedback were collected to enable modifications of the developed VP system to better achieve optimized plans and schedules.;A framework was implemented for two case studies representing two different types of project. The first implementation was conducted on a building site to demonstrate the use of VP enabled resource analysis to reallocate space and logistics on an access road and also to arrange tower cranes to achieve a 6-day floor construction cycle. The second implementation applied to a bridge project which demonstrated the use of VP in the design and location of a temporary working platform on a difficult steeply sloping site to generate different construction simulate construction scenarios to avoid any collisions.;The results of this research study encourage planners to test the various construction plans using VP system. Better understanding of the construction process and prediction of possible mistakes is enabled. As a result, planners are more able to identify the optimal construction plan. |
