An integrated project planning environment

The life-cycle of complex engineering products involves many disciplines, each of which is responsible for a stage, or phase, in the design-to-production process. Concurrent engineering principles are capable of bringing together the traditionally disparate groups involved. However, in order to facilitate the essential sharing of product and process information, there is a need to provide a common environment capable of supporting the various requirements of designers, production workers and managers while ensuring that communication and appropriate support is maintained. This paper describes model-based planning research in the construction industry. At the heart of the system are a central generic computer model of a certain type of construction and a knowledge-based system able to apply engineering knowledge in the constraint satisfaction process, leading to a planned sequence of construction activities. The environment comprises the central representation and reasoning mechanism, a symbolic computer-aided design facility, and a commercial project planning and management system. The paper details our experiences in developing and applying the environment in the planning of ‘real-life’ construction projects.