Review Planning and design models for construction industry: A critical survey Bhaba R. Sarker a, ⁎, Pius J. Egbelu a, 1 , T. Warren Liao a, 1 , Junfang Yu b, 2 a Department of Construction Management & Industrial Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70820, USA b Department of Engineering Management, Information & Systems, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75205, USA abstract article info Article history: Accepted 25 September 2011 Available online 22 October 2011 Keywords: Construction management Planning and design models Critical survey Large construction engineering projects involve various types of resources, such as labor, equipment and materials, which require planning and design for efficient operations and economic benefits. Any compo- nent of these types of resources demand initial investment, costs, logistics operations, scheduling and many other associated aspects of planning, design and operations of the projects. This paper studies differ- ent planning and design models developed for various aspects of construction industry. Most of these studies incorporated mathematical models and simulation based on some real life data. Applications of basic principles of operations research and industrial engineering relating to logistics and procurement have been incorporated for an effective planning and operations of these projects. A critical survey of different important aspects of planning and designing used in construction operations has been pursued here. The general behaviors of design variables and evaluative measures have been presented and discussed in general fashion. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 2. Scheduling and dispatching of RMC trucks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 3. Resources allocation and leveling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 4. Impact of buffers in construction processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 5. Production parameters and inspection pass rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 5.1. Unequal but linear production rates with unlimited output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 5.2. Linear production rates with finite output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 5.3. Nonlinear production rates with limited output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 6. Design for thickness of insulation materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 6.1. Heating load and insulation thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 6.2. Correlation between thermal conductivity and insulation material thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 6.3. Thermal emission and insulation thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 7. Scheduling linear projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 7.1. Traverse operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 7.2. Total cost estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 8. Time, cost and quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 8.1. Project risk management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 8.2. Integer programming model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 9. Large infrastructure projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 9.1. Cost escalation factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 10. General contractor–subcontractor relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 11. Building material delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Automation in Construction 22 (2012) 123–134 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 1 225 578 5370; fax: + 1 225 578 5109. E-mail addresses: bsarker@lsu.edu (B.R. Sarker), pegbelu@lsu.edu (P.J. Egbelu), ieliao@lsu.edu (T.W. Liao), yuj@lyle.smu.edu (J. Yu). 1 Tel.: +1 225 578 5370; fax: +1 225 578 5109. 2 Tel.: +1 214 768 3575; fax: +1 214 768 1112. 0926-5805/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2011.09.011 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Automation in Construction journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon