A Discrete‐Event Simulation‐Based Approach to Manage Production and/or Environmental Waste in Construction

Abstract

This research started with the aim of reducing production and environmental waste from construction operations. Extensive literature review resulted in the following two major problems. (1) Traditionally, the focus of lean construction has been on production waste (a component of production that does not add value to the system) while environmental waste (unnecessary use of resources or a substance released into the air, water, or land) has been the focus of sustainable construction. Production and environmental wastes are dependent. However, they are separately assessed in construction. The first research question is how to simultaneously assess production and environmental performance of construction projects. Accordingly, the objective is to explore the impact of lean production on the environmental performance in order to propose a framework for simultaneous assessment of production and environmental waste. (2) Improving decision making mechanisms has been proved to be effective in reducing production and environmental waste from construction operations. Lean construction seeks decision making mechanisms to reduce production waste. Sustainable construction also seeks decision making mechanisms to minimize environmental waste. Nevertheless, construction industry lacks a framework that enables evaluation of different decision making mechanisms in reducing production and environmental waste. The second research question is how to evaluate the effect of different decision making mechanisms on production and environmental performance. Accordingly, the objective is to propose a conceptual modelling framework that enables evaluation of different decision making mechanisms in order to identify the decision making mechanisms with the least generation of production and environmental waste. The frameworks proposed for the first and second objectives are both based on Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) - an event-driven simulation approach in which a real dynamic process is imitated as it progresses over time.