Identifying Significant Factors of Brick Laying Process through Design of Experiment and Computer Simulation: A Case Study

Authors: M. H. Zarei, A. Nikakhtar, A. H. Roudsari, N. Madadi, K. Y. Wong

Abstract:

Improving performance measures in the construction processes has been a major concern for managers and decision makers in the industry. They seek for ways to recognize the key factors which have the largest effect on the process. Identifying such factors can guide them to focus on the right parts of the process in order to gain the best possible result. In the present study design of experiment (DOE) has been applied to a computer simulation model of brick laying process to determine significant factors while productivity has been chosen as the response of the experiment. To this end, four controllable factors and their interaction have been experimented and the best factor level has been calculated for each one. The results indicate that three factors, namely, labor of brick, labor of mortar and inter arrival time of mortar along with interaction of labor of brick and labor of mortar are significant.

Keywords: Brick laying process, computer simulation, design of experiment, significant factors.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1082447

References:

[1] S. Wang and D.W. Halpin, Simulation Experiment for Improving Construction Processes, Proceedings of the 2004 Winter Simulation Conference, 2004.
[2] H. Taghaddos, S. AbouRizk and Y. Mohamed, Simulation-based Scheduling of Modular Construction using Multi-agent Resource Allocation, 2010 Second International Conference on Advances in System Simulation, 2010.
[3] E. Alkoc and F. Erbatur, Productivity Improvement in Concreting Operations through Simulation Models, Building Research and Information, Vol.25, No.2, pp. 82-91, 1997.
[4] A. Nikakhtar, A. Abbasian Hosseini and K.Y. Wong, Sensitivity Analysis of Construction Processes using Computer Simulation: A Case Study, Advanced Science Letters, Vol.13, pp. 680-684, 2012.
[5] E.V. Gijo and G. Ravindran, Quality in the Construction Industry: An application of DOE with Goal Programming, Total Quality Management, Vol.19, No.12, pp. 1249-1255, 2008.
[6] N. Alagumurthi, K. Palaniradja and V. Soundararajan, Optimization of Grinding Process through Design of Experiment (DOE)-A Comparative Study, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, Vol.21, No.1, pp. 19-21, 2006.
[7] H.-S. Jacob Tsao and I. Wibowo, A Method for Identifying A Minimal Set of Test Conditions in 2k Experimental Design, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol.48, No.1, pp. 141-151, 2005.
[8] M. Hassan and S. Gruber, Simulation of Concrete Paving Operations on Interstate, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol.134, No.1, pp. 2-9, 2005.
[9] G. Zakaria, Z. Guan, X. Shao, Y. Riaz and U. Hameed, Selection of Simulation Software for Manufacturing System: Application of Analytical Hierarchy Approach in Multi Criteria Decision Making, Advanced Science Letters, Vol.4, No.6-7, pp. 2152-2158, 2011.
[10] A. Al-Sudairi, Evaluating the effect of construction process characteristics to the applicability of lean principles, Construction Innovation, Vol.7, No.1, pp. 99-121, 2007.
[11] M. M. Hassan, and S. Gruber., Simulation of Concrete Paving Operations on Interstate-74, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol.134, No.1, pp. 2-9, 2008.
[12] A. M. Law, and W. D. Kelton, Simulation modeling and analysis, 3rd Ed., McGraw-Hill, 2000.
[13] D.C. Montgomery, Statistical Quality Control, A Modern Introduction, John Wily and Sons, 2009, ch. 13.