Abstract

Value Engineering (VE) is frequently applied to construction projects for better recognition of project scope and for elimination of unnecessary cost without impacting the functional requirements of individual components of constructed facilities. A critical phase in the application of value engineering is the multi-attributed evaluation of generated alternatives in the speculative phase. Cost is an essential criterion that plays an important role in the selection of the optimum or near optimum alternative that guarantees best value based on the criteria used in this process.

Limited work has been carried out for automation of this process but yet without adequate visualization for the components being considered. This thesis presents an integrated model for building construction that provides professionals, owners and members of VE teams with automation capabilities to evaluate and compare different design alternatives of project components. A BIM model, allowing 4D presentation of the project alternatives is implemented in the proposed model to automate data extraction for project cost estimating and to facilitate and support the visualization capabilities. The model is expected to assist members of VE teams not only in costing each alternative being considered, but also in ranking competing alternative using multi-attributed criteria in a timely manner.

A prototype model that integrates the project BIM model with RSMeans cost data and AHP has been developed. Cost estimates are generated making use of direct link with RSMeans and the ranking of alternatives is performed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The model has been applied to a case project to demonstrate its use and capabilities. The model evaluates and ranks generated alternatives in its output report.