ABSTRACT
In conventional construction settings, head contractors often engage several trades including tilers, plasterers, carpenters, plumbers and electricians. Multi-trade prefabrication (MTP), however, coordinates trades to achieve a synchronized delivery and significantly lowers construction costs. Using Building Information Modeling (BIM) for MTP facilitates coordination and communication amongst client, head contractor, trades and supply chain members. In the long term, there will be time and cost reductions for labor and logistics along with higher quality and lower defect rates. From a system point of view, the process of BIM adoption is influenced by interactions amongst trades. Decision making on the optimum level of client investment to optimize the use of BIM for MTP is critical to prefabrication projects. Dynamic process simulation and multi-objective optimization are used in this chapter to model the use of BIM for MTP. From a system dynamics perspective, BIM adoption acts as an inflow to the BIM user population over the time. There are other parameters affecting trades’ decision to adopt the technology including peer influence and the extent to which BIM is found useful by trades. The effectiveness of training and relevant investments on BIM adoption is significant. Training can provide knowledge support for trades to overcome challenges of BIM implementation. With increasing pressure to adopt BIM in publicly funded projects, it is critical to invest in training trade contractors. Prefabrication provides an ideal setting for BIM training where interaction of multi trades supports peer learning processes. This results in optimization of investment in training so that faster BIM implementation provides maximum benefit to multi-trade prefabrication in construction.
