Manufacturing as a Subset of Construction: CEPM Research and Implications for Applied Operations Research
Event details
| Date | 09.03.2011 |
| Hour | 12:15 |
| Speaker | Dr. William J. O’Brien, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin |
| Location |
GC B3 30
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Construction activities generally comprise the range of manufacturing production disciplines in a predictable yet unique agglomeration per project. As such, the management of construction projects represents one of the most complex endeavors undertaken by mankind. Management of on-site activities in constrained spaces together with sourcing and transporting discrete units of capacity across multiple supply chains is a task that is fraught with coordination challenges that often lead to cost and schedule overruns. Established coordination procedures also restrict deployment of new approaches. Limiting discussion to production planning and operations, there are a range of optimization techniques that are potentially applicable to construction projects. However, most of these are not used. A review of construction challenges is presented along with current research related to traditional operations research solutions. The potential for application of advanced methods such as risk analysis with unstable and conditional underlying probabilities and multi-scale modeling is discussed. Based on the likelihood of improved data availability from the sensed environment that supports sophisticated analyses, we close with a vision for a decision support environment that blends optimization, scenario analysis, and visualization.
About the Speaker:
Dr. William J. O'Brien focuses his professional efforts on improving collaboration and coordination among firms in the design and construction industry. Dr. O'Brien is an expert on construction supply chain management and electronic collaboration, where he conducts research, teaches and consults on both systems design and implementation issues. He was the lead editor on the recently published Construction Supply Chain Management Handbook (CRC Press). He is the author or co-author of over 100 journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, and technical reports. Dr. O'Brien is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. O'Brien is a Specialty Editor for the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering and an Associate Editor for Advanced Engineering Informatics. Dr. O'Brien holds a Ph.D. and a M.S. degree in Civil Engineering and a M.S. degree in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Prof. Ian Smith