Mokhtar, A H M (1998) An information model for managing design changes in a collaborative multidisciplinary design environment. PhD thesis, Concordia University, Canada.
Abstract
The presence of incompatibility errors in construction technical documents is a major problem for the construction industry. An analysis of the production process of these documents reveals that managing design changes constitutes a main source for incompatibilities. More specifically, failure to propagate design changes among the design team is a principal cause of problems. The large amount of design data that is generated within a multi-disciplinary design environment makes this task very complex, especially when considering the fact that the involved design disciplines are, in most cases, separated both spatially and educationally. This thesis presents the development of a model that uses information technology to address the problem. The core concept of the model is a central database that functions as a repository of active building components. Each building component in this database not only carries its design data, but is also capable of recognizing the design disciplines that are affected by any change in these data and automatically send them messages. The active building components are able to perform this task because they are equipped with the necessary linking knowledge. Such knowledge is necessary to propagate the effect of a design change by one discipline on other disciplines involved in the design of the same building. The linking knowledge is acquired from the designers and is implemented in the form of rules. A management database is also developed as part of the model's central database. This management database makes the model easily adaptable to any building configuration, an essential requirement due to the uniqueness of every building project. It also provides the model with the capability for not only tracking past design changes but also planning, and scheduling future design changes as well. The model has been successfully implemented on a client-server network environment and validated using both hypothetical and real design cases.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Bedard, C and Fazio, P |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | client; failure; information technology; multi-disciplinary; production process; scheduling |
| Index terms: | scheduling, production process, design change, design team, configuration, documents, information technology, building component, designer, database, presence, construction industry |
| Subjects: | professional development, systems engineering, industry analysis, data management, computing systems, profession, architectural elements, manufacturing engineering, professional practice, contractual arrangements, environmental science, operations research |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Digital Applications, Time Control, Research Practice, Information Management, Roles and Professions, Engineering Principles, Procurement, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here