Reliability and Stability Buffering Approach in Concurrent Design and Construction Projects

Current construction projects often need to reduce the development time while keeping their quality and budget. This increased demand for reducing development time has introduced fast tracking and concurrent engineering into the construction industry. However, the adoption of these techniques can make the process more uncertain and complex than the traditional sequential design and construction process. In this paper, we focus on iterative cycles due to error and change as the main source of uncertainty and complexity. To deal with this issue, Reliability and Stability Buffering is presented as a mechanism to reduce the impact of iterative cycles by using a simulation-based approach and different buffer locations and sizes from those used in traditional contingency buffering. Early adoption of errors and changes identified by the proposed buffering approach can help to minimize their ripple effect on the later stages of the project.

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