Situational Awareness in Construction Using a Serious Game
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 149, Issue 3
Abstract
Production planners in construction face several problems related to the lack of information regarding construction project status, changes to resource availability, instability in production rates, design changes, and limited situational awareness (SA). Poor SA leads to uninformed and suboptimal resource allocation decisions. As a result, the construction workflow is negatively affected, degrading project performance. This study focuses specifically on possible relationships between production planners’ SA and the resulting workflow quality. Such understanding can lead to the development of measures to improve production management in construction. Interviews with diverse production planners highlighted the nature of the information needed, issues related to the lack of SA, and the effect on workflow. A serious roleplaying game was devised to measure the correlation between production planners’ SA and workflow, and 14 live simulation experiments were conducted with two teams of nine players each. Finally, a qualitative analysis of the information flow configurations applied in the experiments evaluated the expected effects of information flows in the live experiment. The study found a positive correlation between the quality of information flow and workflow in construction, indicating causation in line with theoretical expectations. Specifically, free communication among planners together with management tools such as formal weekly work planning and a digital planning tool reduced the assembly time, working time, and non-value-added time of the subcontractors in the experiments. Good information flows among production planners and an up-to-date jobsite status diminish uncertainty and increase SA, which lead to improved workflow and productivity.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request (photos, interviews, and raw data from experiments).
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 149 • Issue 3 • March 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 31, 2022
Accepted: Sep 28, 2022
Published online: Dec 27, 2022
Published in print: Mar 1, 2023
Discussion open until: May 27, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Construction engineering
- Construction industry
- Construction management
- Correlation
- Decision making
- Engineering fundamentals
- Game theory
- Lean construction
- Management methods
- Mathematics
- Personnel management
- Practice and Profession
- Project management
- Quality control
- Resource allocation
- Statistics
- Team building
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