Productivity improvement of precast shop drawings generation through BIM-based process re-engineering

• Applied Lean Principles to identify the issues for present shop drawing generation
• Developed parametric BIM components for precast elements across three BIM platforms
• Identified activities for BIM implementation to improve productivity
• Proposed BIM-based technologically-enhanced workflow for shop drawing generation
• Early involvement of MEP services leads to elimination of repetitive activities.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been identified as a key computer aided technology that facilitates construction productivity enhancements through the elimination of various construction inefficiencies. Identifying these inefficiencies, their source, and their potential remedies offers a foundation for process re-engineering. The objective of this research was to identify the constraints in the present workflow for precast shop drawing generation and to propose a BIM-based technologically-enhanced workflow that would address those constraints. In order to facilitate in shortening the shop drawings generation process, (1) key precast elements were developed as set of parametric BIM components; and (2) value stream maps spanning the construction disciplines were used to recognize the mechanisms that drive the prospective changes leading to potential productivity enhancement through the implementation of lean construction principles. The value-added, non-value added, and queue times for the present and the proposed future workflows were determined from the analysis of the value maps. Through the implementation of the proposed future workflow, for the generation of precast shop drawings, the research concluded that there would be a significant overall productivity improvement for processing time and total time.