Automation of schedule of values process for subcontractors using technological tools in residential building projects

Abstract

A common and well-established practice in residential building projects is for main contractors to resort to subcontracting, that is outsourcing the execution of specific project activities to another party, generally more specialized. The purpose is to achieve the quality standards of assigned activities and reduce costs of work execution by transferring the risk. However, it increases supervision workload for main contractor, which reflects in control and coordination issues, since monitoring and controlling project work as well as schedule of values are processes performed manually. This becomes more relevant during the finishing phase, where there are at least ten subcontractors working simultaneously and since there is not an efficient progress tracking method, it results in a time consuming and error-prone task for project team. For this reason, this paper proposes to automate part of the schedule of values process for subcontractors by implementing BIM methodology, using modeling software and programming tools. Thus, repetitive tasks are optimized in order to reduce the time associated with this process. The proposal does not intend to be disruptive, allowing it to adapt to the current workflow. By implementing the proposal, a reduction in time average spent by the project members involved in the schedule of values process is achieved.