Fixing construction planning puzzle: multi-constraint technique and decision support system

In complex and concurrent construction projects, reliable planning becomes a centre for effective co-ordination across upstream supply chains and downstream operations at the work face. Thousands of literatures in construction planning have been published over the past 50 years; introducing, testing, and implementing mountain of techniques and tools. However, they are very fragmented and have yet provided a universal system that suits the industry needs. To fix this puzzle, this paper revisits and classifies available construction planning techniques into seven major groups. All of them are then differentiated based upon underlying concepts, levels of planning, sets of concerned constraints, uncertainty handling approaches, visual representations, and optimisation techniques. The results lead to a design of an innovative technique called "Multi-constraint planning system" that encourages collaborative management of four constraints regarding physical, contract, resource, and information. To enable the implementation of the proposed technique, an integrated decision support system that incorporates web-based and mobile information management system, 4D-visualisation system, and evolutionary optimisation system is successfully developed and demonstrated in this paper. It is envisaged that the discussion and the system demonstration in this paper will pave a way towards a universal research and development for the next generation of planning system in construction.