Mapping the Practice of Site Layout Planning in the Construction Industry
Date
2023-07
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Abstract
Site Layout Planning (SLP) is a key activity for construction management and the overall success of construction projects. Past studies in this field have approached multiple techniques to solve SLP as a decision-making optimization problem. However, construction practitioners in the industry typically use intangible or subjective methods to plan the site layout, with the support of multiple tools that are not directly designed for planning construction sites. The mismatch between the available developments from research and actual methods approached in practice directed to the exploration of the practice of SLP conducted by practitioners to define the requirements needed in an SLP tool. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among forty-seven highly experienced construction practitioners who self-identified as fully responsible of SLP activities. Constructivist grounded theory and content analysis were used as the methodological basis to collect and analyze the data. From the analysis of 18635 transcript lines, 5028 codes were obtained, resulting in 190 labels, 60 categories, and 5 themes. The emergent themes describe the components of SLP as site characteristics, purpose, decision-making variables, tools and technology, and planning perspectives. The first part of the results details the practice of SLP, and the considerations and approaches taken by SLP practitioners when conducting a SLP, where the focus is to produce a functional site layout in the early stages of the project. The final part of the results presents the tools and functionalities that practitioners currently use to plan a site layout and highlights the need to integrate these functions and requirements into a single tool that can be practical for the construction industry. The requirements include resource properties and pairwise spatial relationships, planning documents and regulations, layout assessment metrics, and tool modules that facilitate addressing every stage of the planning as identified in the first part of the results. Finally, the aim of this study was to present a guideline for future developments in SLP to ensure their implementation in practical settings. This guideline was designed through the exploration of processes, needs, and requirements of the final users.
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Keywords
site layout planning, construction industry, planning tools
Citation
Marcano Pina, A. V. (2023). Mapping the practice of site layout planning in the construction industry (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.