Impact of Inspected Buffers on Production Parameters of Construction Processes
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper examines the production implications of quality control inspections conducted on the buffer between processes in a construction project by modeling the linkage between these processes. Inspection of partially completed work at the end of one activity but before the beginning of work by the next activity is fairly common. Work that is deemed to be of sufficient quality is then made available for the next activity. Work that is deemed insufficient requires rework, typically by the trade appropriate to the activity that fed into the buffer, to bring the work into compliance. This has implications for workload management for that trade, of course, as well as for the reliability of work flow to the successor or downstream processes. While such situations are common in all construction sectors, an example from the residential construction sector was examined via a simulation model augmented by field data collected from residential construction projects. The impacts of the work flow into the predecessor process, the inspection pass rate, and resource availability were examined. The inspection pass rate was found to dramatically affect the reliability of work flow, unless resources are unlimited. Furthermore, the inspection pass rate was found to be functionally related to the production parameters of the process.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation, through Grant No. NSF0333724. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily those of NSF. The writers would like to express their sincere thanks to the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which improved the quality of this paper very much.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135 • Issue 4 • April 2009
Pages: 319 - 329
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 21, 2006
Accepted: Dec 9, 2008
Published online: Apr 1, 2009
Published in print: Apr 2009
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