Resource-Based Multi-Method Simulation Model for Super-Tall Building Construction

Construction material supply on schedule is an indispensable factor for task operation and accomplishment of a successful construction project. Material flow in construction project, horizontal and vertical move and stand-by in the temporary storage, is able to incur the impact on the construction schedule. However, despite the material flow consisting of various tasks using plenty of construction resources (e.g. space, time, labor and equipment), the tasks concerning material flow have been excluded from the management domain of scheduling methods. In a super-tall building construction project whose shape is vertically long and whose site is usually located at a congested urban area, the limited material storage space and insufficient hoisting equipment are applied as critical constraints on material delivery on schedule. The characteristics of super-tall building construction - such as multi-task operation, non-repetitive operation resulting from irregular building shape, and the interaction between schedule progress and material flow - make it hard to identify the behavior pattern of material flow and to make an appropriate plan. These uncertainties remain as a critical risk and incur a schedule delay. This study aims to propose multi-method simulation model incorporating discrete event method and agent-based method in order to understand the complexity of material flow under the various constraints in super-tall building project and also to propose an optimizing model on ordering amount and time to prevent construction delay.