Proceedings of the First Makassar International Conference on Civil

Engineering (MICCE2010), March 9-10, 2010, ISBN 978-602-95227-0-9

SIMULATION OF CONSTRUCTION OPERATION: SEARCH FOR A PRACTICAL AND

EFFECTIVE SIMULATION SYSTEM FOR CONSTRUCTION PRACTITIONERS

M. Abduh 1, F. Shanti 2 and A. Pratama 2

ABSTRACT: In searching for efficiency improvement, i.e., to reduce the construction operation’s cycle time and
variability, the construction firms should have effective tools for planning, designing, implementing, monitoring, and
evaluating their construction operations. The simulation has been well known as an effective technique that enables
planning and analysis of a construction operation to be performed in advance anticipating problems of efficiencies that
would occur in the field. The implementation problems of the available simulation systems have been identified and
resolved by the system developers. However, adoption of the simulation systems by practitioners in their businesses has
been slow. This paper discusses the available simulation systems’ development approaches, and explains two research
activities, i.e., survey and workshop, that have been conducted to determine a practical and effective simulation system
for construction practitioners that could improve the utilization of the simulation technique of construction operations.
The results of the research led to the development of a spreadsheet application to accommodate the usability and utility
of simulating routine and cyclic construction operations. The development of an add-in spreadsheet application for
simulating construction operations is introduced as well in this paper.

Keywords: Construction operation, modeling, simulation.

INTRODUCTION is caused not only by the inadequacy of planning

It becomes a well-known phenomenon that many
construction firms are facing the problem of
inefficiencies in their construction operations. The
inefficiencies found in the Indonesian contractor’s
operations were mostly in the forms of delays, repairs on
finishing works, damaged materials on site, waiting for
equipment repair and to arrive, and equipment frequently
breaks down. In order to reduce such wastes, many
innovations have been introduced to the construction
Industry.
Meanwhile, construction industry is still considered
as an industry that contributes significantly to the growth
of the economics of a country, e.g., in 2008, Indonesian
construction industry’s growth has reached 7.76% and it
was higher than the growth of Indonesian GDP, i.e.,
6.1%. It means that construction industry could
contribute more to the growth of the country’s economic
and prosperity if the inefficiency, which is also
considered as waste, could be reduced.
One of the most frequently found problems in the
Indonesian construction projects is inadequate planning
of the construction operations. Due to this problem, lots
of change order and late completion become a common
characteristic of the projects. Eventually, late completion
itself,but also a combination of the complexity of the
works, and poor monitoring.
In order to create a lean construction operation that
could give maximal values and generate minimal waste,
efforts conducted by construction firms should be to
reduce the cycle time and variability of their construction
operations (Abduh and Roza 2006). Therefore, the
construction firms should have effective tools for
planning, designing, implementing, monitoring, and
evaluating their construction operations.
Simulation has been well known as an effective
technique that enables planning and analysis of a
construction operation to be performed in advance
anticipating problems of efficiencies that would occur in
the implementation phase. Therefore, simulation
technique could be used to design resources associated
with a construction operation to be optimal and to
analyze an ongoing operation to be evaluated and refined.
Yet, the implementation problems of the available
simulation systems have been identified and the adoption
of the simulation systems by practitioners in their
businesses has been limited. This is partly due to the
complexity of the construction process itself and partly
due to the effort required to prepare a model for the
simulation. Simulation programs based on processnot

1
Associate Professor, Institute of Technology Bandung, Bandung 40132, INDONESIA,
2
Student, Institute of Technology Bandung, Bandung 40132, INDONESIA

1311
modeling require the construction practitioners to model
and build a representation of this abstraction using
symbols. Although many modeling techniques available
made the modeling process relatively easy, practitioners
are still required to invest time and effort into putting the
model together on a specific language that would not be
familiar to them (AbouRizk and Hajjar 1998).
SIMULATION OF CONSTRUCTION OPERATIONS
Simulation Methods
Simulation is modeling a system by reproducing
processes or behavior of the real system. Simulation
could be differentiated as follow:
a. Based on time, simulation could be static or dynamic.
b. Based on whether the input variables are random or
not, the simulation could be deterministic or
stochastic.
c. Based on the happening of the events, simulation
could be discrete or continuous.
In general, the method to conduct simulation begins
with the definition of simulation objective, scope, and
needs. Afterward, data collection is needed for all input
variables. In the meantime, the development of the
model should be done using any modeling tools.
Validation of the model is needed to make sure that the
model represents the real situation adequately.
Simulation itself could be done afterward using any
computer simulation programs.
Modeling Construction Operations
One of the important steps in simulation is to build a
model representing the real system. For construction
operation application, the model plays an important part
as well. In principle, there are three strategies to model
an operation that could conceptually guide the model
development and determine how the modeler views the
system being modeled. They are:
a. Process Interaction (PI); this strategy is made from
the point of view of the entities (transactions) that
flow through the system. These entities will arrive,
undergo some processing where they capture and
release resources, and then they exit.
b. Activity Scanning (AS), this strategy is made from
the point of view of the activities that are performed
and focuses on how to identify those activities and
their conditions under which they will take place.
c. Event Scheduled (ES); the ES models the point of
view of events that will occur or are scheduled to
happen.
1312
The mixture of those three modeling strategies is
usually implemented in order to alleviate their
weaknesses. The third simulation strategy (ES) is often
combined with PI or AS. The combination of ES and PI
is widely used for simulating productions in
manufacturing industry. For modeling construction
operation, combination of ES and AS was chosen since
this combination is more suitable for the construction
operations; this combination is fatherly known as the
Three-Phase Activity Scanning method (Martinez 1996).
Modeling the simulation by the three-phase AS could
be done using Wheel Chart or Activity Cycle Diagram
(ACD). This ACD consists of alternating circles and
rectangles that are connected with links. The rectangles
are called activities and represent tasks performed by one
or more resources. The circles are called queues and
represent inactive. Halpin (1973) developed the CYclic
Construction Operation NEtwork (CYCLONE)
modeling based on this ACD method. The modeling
elements of the CYCLONE could be seen in Table 1.
Table 1. Elements of CYCLONE Modeling (Halpin and
Riggs 1992)
SIMULATION SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS
The CYCLONE modeling technique, furthermore,
initiated the beginning of the development of simulation
systems. Halpin (1990) himself developed a software
running on mainframes, i.e., Mainframe CYCLONE
Halpin (1977), and also on PCs, i.e. MicroCYCLO
(Halpin 1990).
To implement the CYCLONE models of cyclic
construction operations. Many other simulation
programs, e.g., DISCO, PROSIDYC, STROBOSCOPE,
SIMPHONY, COST, and WebCYCLONE, that have
been available since then were based on the CYCLONE
modeling and its advancement. The historical
development of simulation programs is depicted in Fig.1.
Fig. 1. Historical development of simulation Programs
(Abduh 2007)
The CYCLONE modeling itself has been
implemented to any types of construction operations,
from a very simple one, such as a masonry supply
system as depicted in Fig. 2, to a very complex
construction operation of a cable stayed bridge. An
example of the simulation program output, i.e.,
MicroCYCLONE, can be seen in Fig. 3.
Fig. 2 Example of cyclone model
Fig. 3. Simulation output of the microcyclone
The applications of simulation techniques have been
known and used by practitioners. One of the cases is the
1313
extensive use of simulation system called PROSIDYC
by a Spanish large construction company, Dragados y
Construcciones. The simulation system was customized
and enhanced based on the MicroCYCLONE to fulfill
internal needs of the company in planning and analyzing
its construction operations. It was found that the use of
simulation could increase the productivity of its
construction operations from 30% to 200%. The
company has gained the real benefit in term of saving as
much as US $2,000 for each hour spent by its engineer to
model and simulate a complex construction operation
(Halpin and Martinez 1999).
In Indonesian academia, simulation techniques for
planning and analyzing construction operations have
been introduced and utilized for education and research.
Abduh and Ginting (2003) used the STROBOSCOPE to
select the optimal construction method for constructing
the Pasupati elevated highway in Bandung. Moreover,
Wirahadikusumah and Abduh (2006) have tried to use
MicroCYCLONE for analyzing the productivity of a
ready-mixed concrete batching plant in Bandung, and
recommended alternatives of its operation improvement
and future investment.
Even though the applications of simulation in
construction operations have been acknowledged and
have given added values to the construction operations,
wider adoption of the simulation in construction is
considered discouraging. This is partly due to the
complexity of the construction process itself and partly
due to the effort required to prepare a model for the
simulation. Simulation application that were developed
based on process modeling, e.g., CYCLONE,
STROBOSCOPE, and SYMPHONY, require the
construction practitioners to model and build a
representation of the operation. Many available
modeling techniques made the modeling process
relatively easy, but practitioners are still required to
invest their time and effort to model the operation on a
specific computer language. Moreover, it becomes a
general rule that the availability of data for input
variables is scarce in construction industry..
Some aforementioned adoption problems are
exacerbated by the attitude of construction practitioners
that are considered pragmatic, resistant to change, and
undesirable to adapt to innovations. Most of practitioners
feel that their practices in construction operations have
been the best and would not want to change them.
Therefore, the applications of simulation on construction
operations have only implemented on the ones that are
considered large, significant in term of money, and
relatively new to the practitioners. Yet, the simulations
were not conducted by the practitioners themselves; they
are outsourced to the specialist or academia instead.
UTILIZATION OF SIMULATION IN INDONESIA
Survey on the Utilization of Simulation in Indonesia
Based on the aforementioned problems of
implementation, Abduh (2007) presumed that the
utilization of simulation by the practitioners in Indonesia
is considered poor as well and it should be improved. To
prove this premise and to find the answers on how to
improve the level of simulation utilization by the
practitioners, a survey on the utilization of simulation in
Indonesia was conducted (Shanti and Abduh 2009). The
objective of the survey was to get the better picture on
the practices of large Indonesian construction companies
in implementing simulation techniques for general
purposes as well as for cyclic construction operations.
The survey was intended to identify further the problems
faced by the practitioners in utilizing the simulation for
construction operations.
The survey was conducted in 2009 based on a self-
administered questionnaire that was distributed to 15
Indonesian large construction companies located in the
cities of Bandung and Jakarta. About 21% of the
respondents were from large government-owned
construction companies, and about 79% of the
respondents represented large private construction
companies. The questionnaire was designed to get facts
and opinions from the respondents that met the following
criteria:
1. Having a position as the head or representative of
technical or operational division of a contractor firm.
2. Having experiences in handling construction
projects and field construction operations, i.e.,
engineer, site manager, or project manager.
3. Having experiences in planning and evaluating
cyclic construction operations, such as in linear or
typical construction projects.
Use of Simulation for in Construction
The result of the survey on the usage of simulation
for general purposes has been promising. In general, the
respondents stated that they have used the simulation for
their needs in construction projects. Based on the ranks
the respondents gave to several construction activities,
the following are the six most frequent activities
simulated:
1. Cost estimating for bid proposal;
2. Project implementation budgeting;
3. Project scheduling;
4. Construction operations;
5. Project risk management;
6. Design of structures.
1314
In term of level of difficulty of simulation being used
for the aforementioned activities, only small number of
respondents (7%) stated that simulation is relatively easy
to implement and they did not find any difficulties.
Meanwhile, most of the respondents (72%) found that
the level of difficulty of simulation is medium and there
were some constraints to be realized. It was also found
that about 21% of the respondents thought that
simulation is still categorized as a sophisticated tool and
it is hard to implement it for construction considering
some associated constraints.
Easy & No
Hard , 21% Constraint,
7%
Medium &
Some
Constraints,
72%
Fig. 4 Respondents’ opinion on level of difficulty of
simulation implementation (Shanti and Abduh 2009)
Even though majority of the respondents thought that
simulation is rather hard to implement in construction;
they stated that simulation could improve the
productivity of the activities in construction (93%), and
only 7% of them argued that simulation could not help
them in construction productivity improvement.
The constraints and problems faced by the
respondents in implementing simulation for construction
activities were found by the survey as well. It is found
that majority of the respondents (57%) said that the
problem of availability data for simulation was
considered as the major problem for simulation to be
successfully implemented in construction activities.
Moreover, about 50% of the respondents thought also
that the need for skillful human resources could be the
constraint for simulation implementation in construction.
About 36% of the respondents still thought that the
requirements for the users/operators to model the real
system, and then to translate the model into simulation
program are constraints too. On the other hand, the
simulation time, the cost of implementation, the
availability of simulation programs, the usability of
simulation programs, and the report of simulation
programs, were considered by the respondents as non-
constraint factors of the implementation of simulation in
construction.
Utilization of Simulation for Construction Operations purpose software for simulation or building their own
software. The spreadsheet was identified as the most
For a construction operation, simulation technique frequently used software by the practitioners and they
could be used for increasing its probability of success by thought that this software was very potential to be
planning the operation in advance, and analyzing the on- developed further for the purpose of simulating
going operation for improvements. For the day-to-day construction operations (86%). The survey also revealed
construction operations, the results of analysis produced the respondents’ expectations on the specifications of the
by simulation could be used for estimating similar special-purpose simulation software for construction
construction operations in the future. In a complex operations as depicted in Table 2.
construction operation, simulation could be used as the
learning process for individuals that have not been Table 2. Respondents’ Expectations for Simulation
exposed to the particular operation before they get into Software (Shanti and Abduh 2009)
the real situation in the field. The survey also tried to
No. Element Expectation
identify level of utilization of simulation for cyclic 1. Hardware Spec. Not specified
construction operations in the phases of pre-planning and 2. Usability User friendly
evaluation. 3. Interface Icon menu
It was found that about 79% of the respondents have 4. Type of application Spreadsheet
used simulation for pre-planning and evaluation of cyclic 5. Data Collection Data base
construction operations. The respondents that have not 6. Modeling CPM or CYCLONE
used simulation for pre-planning and evaluation 7. Modul input By form
8. Probability data Based on PDFs
processes argued that:
9. Visualization While running
1. They did not have experiences in simulation; 10. Report Customized Report
2. They lack of skillful human resources to implement 11. Update data Resourcess and duration
the simulation; 12. User of report Manager
3. They did not have any adequate simulation tools to 13. Sensitivity analysis Cost and productivity
help them;
4. They think that simulation could only add cost of
operation; SUITABILITY OF CONSTRUCTION OPERATIONS
5. They did not think that simulation was helpful. TO BE SIMULATED
Moreover, the respondents thought that data needed
for simulation still a major factor (50%) for simulation Characteristics of Suitable Construction Operation for
implementation in construction operations. The next Simulation
factor that is significant to be considered in realizing the
utilization of simulation for construction operations As identified from the survey, the level of utilization
would be the modeling technique needed in the of simulation is still low and could be improved by
simulation (36%). Furthermore, the availability of introducing more practical simulation tool as expected
skillful human resources and adequate simulation by the practitioners. Technically, it means that the
program would be others significant problems to be development of simulation systems should address the
solved in simulation adoption in construction operations. usability aspect of the application. On the other hand,
In academia, it is well known that there are many any applications should address the utility aspect as well.
special-purpose simulation systems available that could The utility aspect of an application would give the users
be used for cyclic construction operations, such as an effective tool for their activities. It means that the
MicroCYLONE. On the other hand, it was found from application should meet the purpose of its development.
the survey that majority of the respondents (71%) used a In this case, the simulation application should be able to
general-purpose simulation program, e.g., spreadsheet, determine the optimal combination of resources needed
for simulating their construction operations. Only few of in a particular construction operation, and to predict the
them (29%) that have used other software, e.g., productivity. Therefore, the simulation system should be
programming language, special-purpose simulation implemented on specific construction operations that are
system, etc., for simulating construction operations. The suitable and feasible. To address the utility aspect, a
finding from this survey seemed obvious that the workshop to identify the characteristics of construction
majority of the respondents, which are practitioners, are operation that are suitable and feasible for simulation
more pragmatic and look forward to using more user- was conducted. The workshop was attended by two large
friendly and familiar software instead of using special-

1315
construction firms that have also participated in the experienced a simulation conducted mostly on low-
previous survey. technology-content operations.
The participants of the workshop should give their
opinion on the characteristics of construction operations Table 3. Weights of Characteristics of Construction
that would be simulated and make the simulation worthy. Operation for Simulation
The characteristics of construction operations to be
Characteristics Weights
considered in the workshop were as follow:
Frequency High 0.444
1. Frequency; whether the construction operations are Low 0.556
frequently conducted in the project or whether the Value High 0.875
operations are new ones or seldom conducted. Low 0.125
2. Value; whether the value of the operation compared Critical/Significant Critical 0.750
to the total cost of the project is high or low. Not Critical 0.250
3. Critical/Significant; the existence of an operation in a Technology High 0.375
network of construction operations would be critical Low 0.625
or significant to determine the success of the whole
construction operations. Useful Construction Operations for Simulation
4. Technology Content; the complexity of a
construction operation is related to the technology Based on the result of the workshop, a matrix of
associated with it. Therefore, the content of weight on each characteristic of construction operation
technology in a construction operation would was developed as depicted in Table 3. The table shows
determine the feasibility of the operation to be weights of characteristics that would be used to assess
simulated. the suitability of construction operations to be simulated.
Based on those characteristics, a questionnaire was The listed weights of each characteristic of
developed and discussed with the participants. Some of construction operations would be used to determine
the results from the questionnaire are as follow: which construction operations that the practitioners
• All respondents have experienced many new usually find in their projects that would suitable to be
construction operations and they found it was very simulated. To get there, the participants of the workshop
difficult to execute such operations. Problems that made an assessment based on a list of construction
they faced during that period were related to how to operations in a typical building construction project. The
select the construction method, how to determine result of the assessment was a list of the top 10 ranked
optimal resources, and how to determine the construction operations that are suitable and feasible to
productivity for the operations. be simulated. Those operations were then regrouped and
• All respondents also agreed that the same problems modified further by the workshop participants, and
may be found in an operation that is frequently found finally, there were 7 construction operations in a
in a construction project. The respondents thought building construction project that are suitable and
that simulation could help minimizing the problems feasible to be simulated. They are:
and they have experienced the simulation for such 1. Concreting
type of operations. Yet, they tended to argue that 2. Pile driving
simulation would be more beneficial for new 3. Bored pile
construction operations. 4. Precast wall installation
• All respondents agreed to say that simulation would 5. Formwork
be beneficial for construction operations that have 6. Plafond installation
high value compared to the total cost of the project. 7. Rebar installation
• All respondents thought that simulation would be Moreover, those seven operations were defined
very significant to be used for a critical or a further to meet the requirements for simulation; the
significant operation existed in the network of resources needed, the steps of tasks associated with the
construction operations. They have frequently operation, and the duration of each task, were established
conducted simulation for this type of operations. for all seven operations. That information was needed to
• The respondents seemed not to have a preference on be inputted to the simulation system and treated as the
whether the technology content of an operation standard construction operations.
affects the feasibility of the use of simulation for the
particular operation. Eventually, they have

1316
THE PROTOTYPE OF AN ADD-IN SPREADSHEET
FOR SIMULATION
The previous research activities, i.e., the survey and
the workshop, have given conclusions to the need of a
practical and effective simulation system for
construction practitioners. Firstly, the simulation system
to be developed may need to use extensively the
usability and utility of a spreadsheet application. The
second conclusion is that the simulation system to be
developed could choose whether to accommodate new
and complex construction operations or just
accommodate frequent construction operations that have
high value and are critical or significant compared to the
others. Since more complexes the operations, more effort
is needed to model the operation in a simulation;
therefore, such system would not be practical anymore.
The authors proposed a simulation system that was
designed to accommodate only frequent construction
operations that have high value in term of money and/or
are critical or significant compared to other operations.
Fig. 5 X-CYCLONE menus and sheets
The prototype of the simulation system was
developed to extensively use the features of spreadsheet
application, i.e., Microsoft Excel version 2007, and
implemented as an add-in program. By doing this,
functions inside the spreadsheet application, e.g.,
arithmetic, logical, graphical, and statistical functions,
could be used extensively to support the algorithm of
simulation. Since the prototype was running on the
Microsoft Excel, and it basically utilizes the principles
and graphical presentations of the CYCLONE, the
prototype could be considered as a re-implementation of
MicroCYCLONE on the Microsoft Excel; therefore, it
was named as X-CYCLONE.
The interface of the X-CYCLONE is the same as the
interface of the Microsoft Excel 2007 interface, i.e.,
ribbons, forms, sheets and graphics. Some of the features
of the X-CYCLONE are as follow:
1. Basically, there are five sub-menus inside the X-
CYCLONE ribbon menu. They are: ‘Network
Definition’, ‘Simulation’, ‘Report’, ‘Examples’, and
‘Refresh’ (See Fig. 5).
1317
2. Network Definition sub-menu is intended to define
the network of construction operation using graphical
modeling tools of the CYCLONE. This sub-menu is
essential to define new and more complex
construction operations that are not listed in the
Example sub-menu, i.e., standard construction
operations. This sub-menu will be assisted by
sequential forms for defining the network elements
and relationships between the elements (See Fig. 6)
3. Simulation sub-menu is designed to simulate the
defined construction operations. The simulation will
stop either by simulation time or by number of cycles
defined by the users. Technically, the simulation sub-
menu generates sheets of the event list and the
chronological list.
4. Report sub-menu will generate the report of
production for each cycle and two graphical
presentations of the productivity versus simulation
time and the productivity versus number of cycles.
5. Examples sub-menu contains 7 standard construction
operations to be simulated. Users could edit the
number of resources and duration of the tasks
associated with the standard construction operations.
6. Refresh sub-menu is used to clear all the sheets and
also memory of the X-CYCLONE
Fig. 6 Elements definition form
The X-CYCLONE has been tested for simulating a
simple case study. The case itself was adopted from
Halpin and Riggs (1992); it is called a masonry supply
system. In this case study, a laborer stockpiles the brick
pallets on scaffolding. It is assumed that the scaffolding
is large enough to allow for stacking of three 10-brick
packets. One laborer and three masons are defined in the
system. No bricks are stacked on the scaffold at the
beginning of the shift (Fig. 7).
Fig. 7. Masonry supply system (Halpin and Riggs 1992)
From Fig. 7, it can be noticed that there are three
types of resources related to the problem, i.e., laborer
(L), position on scaffolding (P), and masons (M). There
are three tasks identified, i.e., resupply stacks, remove
packet, and lay bricks. The masonry supply system was
then modeled using CYCLONE as depicted in Fig. 2.
The tasks’ durations were defined as in Table 4.
Table 4. Duration Distribution of Tasks (minute)
Work Task PDF Parameter
Laborer resupplies stack Beta Low= 0.001,
High=5.0,
a = 2.6,
b = 0.5
Mason removes packet Constant 1
Mason lays 10 bricks Beta Low= 3,
High=10,
a = 7,
b = 2.2
The simulation run for this case study was set to have
at most 50 cycles or 1,000 minutes of simulation time.
The input form and also the network definition of this
case study implemented into X-CYCLONE can be seen
in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 respectively. The result of simulation
gave the information on the production of the system as
depicted in Fig. 10.
From Fig. 10, it can be seen, the almost-steady state
of simulation gave information on the productivity of the
masonry supply system. It can be concluded that the
operation has a productivity of 23 cycle per hour or 230
bricks per hour, since there are 10 bricks for each packet
and one packet of bricks represents the production unit
of the system
Fig. 8. Simulation run of the case study
1318
Fig. 9 Network definition of the case study
The real time needed to simulate 50 cycles was 1
minute and 64 seconds. It means that simulation using
X-CYCLONE relatively took longer running time
compared to if the case was simulated using
MicroCYCLONE. This fact has actually been
anticipated, since the MicroCYCLONE is running on
and compiled directly by the operating system,
meanwhile the X-CYCLONE is running on top of other
application, i.e., Microsoft Excel. Therefore, if the
network becomes more complex, the running time to
simulate the network using X-CYCLONE would be
much longer.
Fig. 10 Graphic of productivity versus simulation cycle
For example, in this case study, there are 8 elements
of the network, and the simulation was conducted for 50
cycles. It means that there are 400 elements to be
simulated. Furthermore, it would take about 0.16 second
to simulate one element. If the network is more complex,
for instance it consists of 38 elements, then it will takes
about 5 minutes for simulating 50 cycles. In conclusion,
this would be still realistic to simulate simple to complex
construction operation using the X-CYCLONE
prototype.
CONCLUSSION
In general, the utilization of simulation technique for
construction operations by the practitioners has been
limited and the adoption of the simulation systems to the
construction industry has been slow. This phenomenon is
also valid for the Indonesian construction industry. This
is due to the complexity of the construction operations
and due to the effort required to prepare a model for the
simulation. Therefore, a practical and effective tool for
simulating construction operation by the practitioners
should be the answer to this problem. The usability and
utility aspects of application development would be the
issues to address this challenge.
In order to meet the utility issue, the suitability of
construction operations to be simulated was identified
first. It was found that simulation could either be used
for construction operations that are new or frequently
found in a construction project. Yet, construction
operations that have high value and critical or significant
compared to other operations are more feasible to be
simulated. Therefore, the standard construction
operations that are frequently found in construction
project, have high value, and are critical, were
accommodated in the proposed simulation system, i.e.,
the X-CYCLONE.
To address the usability issue, a simulation
application should be simple, and user-friendly. The X-
CYCLONE was developed to meet this challenge. Since
the X-CYCLONE was developed to run on top of the
Microsoft Excel, the usability issue would be
straightforwardly delivered. The case study showed that
the X-CYCLONE is potentially suitable for simulating
simple to complex construction operations. Further
development of this X-CYCLONE would focus on the
enhancement of the application to meet both utility and
usability issues of the application.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank to the Directorate
General of Higher Education, National Education
Department of Indonesia, for supporting the financial
aspect of the research through the Hibah Bersaing XVI
program. The authors would also give high appreciation
to PT. Pembangunan Perumahan and PT. Total Bangun
Persada for sending their representatives to participate in
the workshop and supporting data for the research.
REFERENCES
Abduh, M. (2007). “The Development of Simulation
Technology for Construction Operations”. (in
Indonesian). Proc. of Seminar Nasional Teknik Sipil
2007. Univ. Maranatha. Bandung, Indonesia.
1319
Abduh, M., and Roza, H.A. (2006). “Reducing the Cycle
Time and Variability of Construction Operation.” (in
Indonesian) Proc. The First ICIC. Jakarta, Indonesia.
Abduh, M., and Ginting, A.O. (2003). “Selection of the
Pasupati Bridge’s Construction Method Using
Simulation,” Proc. 9th EASEC. Bali, Indonesia.
AbouRizk, S.M. and Hajjar, D. (1998). “A Framework
for Applying Simulation in Construction.” Can. J.
Civ. Eng. NRC. Vol 25: 604–617.
Halpin, D. W. (1973). An Investigation of the Use of
Simulation Networks for Modeling Construction
Operations, Ph.D. Diss., U. of Illinois, Urbana,
Illinois, USA.
Halpin, D. W. (1977). “CYCLONE – Methods for
Modeling Job Site Processes”. Journal of Const.
Engineering and Management, ASCE. 103(3).
Halpin, D. W. (1990). MicroCYCLONE Users Manual
for Construction Operations. Learning Systems, Inc.,
West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Halpin, D. W. and Riggs, L. S. (1992). Planning and
Analysis of Construction Operations. John Wiley and
Sons, Inc., New York, NY, USA.
Halpin, D.W., dan Martinez, L. (1999). “Real World
Applications of Construction Process Simulation.”
Proceedings of the 1999 Winter Simulation
Conference. IEEE.
Martinez, J.C. (1996). STROBOSCOPE: State and
Resource Based Simulation of Construction
Processes. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Shanti, F., and Abduh, M. (2009). “Survey on Utilization
of Simulation for Construction Opearation.” (in
Indonesian) Proceedings of Konferensi Teknik Sipil 3
(Konteks 3), UPH Tangerang, Indonesia.
Wirahadikusumah, R.D., and Abduh, M. (2006), “The
Application of Management Tools for Evaluating and
Improving Production Process in a Concrete
Batching plant”, Proceedings of the 2nd ACF
International Conference, Bali – Indonesia.