Modeling Design Workflow: Integrating Process and Organization

Malak Al Hattab¹ & Farook Hamzeh²

Abstract

The advancement and increasing complexity of design requirements result in the rapid proliferation of information that needs to be properly integrated and coordinated among multidisciplinary parties. Inefficient planning, the ill-defined and iterative design nature, and poor communication disrupt design workflow, consequently creating waste such as increased cycle times, cost, rework, and errors. Sub-optimal design workflow has captured researchers’ interests who have developed frameworks tackling design task structuring, measuring flow, or understanding the organizational network involved. However, a formerly unexplored perspective is one that integrates both the process, i.e., flow of design information, and the social network, i.e., interactions among design teams. This integration and communication between teams enables the design intent to properly flow and be transformed into value adding output. Accordingly, this study approaches workflow at the intersection of the social and process aspects of design to understand, measure, and analyze information flow within communication networks. Agent-based modeling and social network analysis are used to dynamically capture the impacts of lean practices and Building Information Modeling (BIM) on communication. This novel design management strategy focuses, simultaneously, on interaction dynamics and information diffusion to assist design teams in enhancing design flow, knowledge transformation, and value generation while reducing wastes.

Keywords

Work flow, communication, lean design management, Building Information Modeling (BIM), Agent-based modelling (ABM).

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Reference

Al Hattab, M. & Hamzeh, F. 2016. Modeling Design Workflow: Integrating Process and Organization, 24th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , -. doi.org/

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