Application of Operations Science to Design a Project Production System: A Case Study

Managers of construction projects have been focusing on cost, schedule, quality, and safety to measure project performance using conventional metrics from administration management. These conventional metrics have led them to underestimate or overlook how variability, prerequisites for starting work, and work-in-process (WIP) affect project performance, which is a problem. To tackle this problem, concepts from Operations Science (OS) can be applied to construction production system design (PSD), focusing on metrics pertaining to throughput, work-in-process, cycle time, and capacity utilization. While the application of these concepts in building construction is still uncommon, this paper demonstrates by means of an example case study (a healthcare building in Northern California) how this may be done. Since OS has its foundation in a manufacturing industry context, this paper will comment on the assumptions necessary to apply it in a construction industry context and the implications of these assumptions. The methodology used in the case study leverages the use of an OS-based production analytical model. This case study illustrates the use of OS metrics at the project level, given certain assumptions (i.e., steady-state production system, no matching problem). As a conclusion, the use of OS for PSD provides a basis for understanding the “behavior” of a construction project and its performance regarding interrelated OS metrics.