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Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533

Creative Construction Conference 2016, CCC 2016, 25-28 June 2016

A BIM-based dynamic model for site material supply

Qunzhou Yua, Kaiman Lia *, Hanbin Luoa,
a
School of Civil Engineering &Mechanics, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

Abstract

Construction site conditions are dynamic in nature, involving numerous activities and resources scattered on a usually congested
site. Planning and availability of material laydown area on construction sites is an essential activity for every project. This paper
presents the development of a BIM-based dynamic model for site material supply that is capable of identifying optimal dynamic
scheme for the solution of this problem—what (material), how many, when, and where. The method of 4D modelling is
investigated, as well as the acquisition method of site information, and the optimal scheme generation method. Contributions
include the development of the BIM-based model for site material supply management, and a case study for the process of the
site supply scheme implementation.
©©2016
2016TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Ltd. This
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility ofthe organizing committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2016
Keywords:BIM; dynamic model; material supply; construction site

1. Introduction

Site material supply is one of the major issues in construction planning. Due to the space inadequacy of
construction site in downtown area, material supply problems exist in almost every construction site regarding how
to manage material quantity, delivery time and storage area in construction activities[1][2]. For example,
inappropriate storage area will lead to repositioning of materials. Repositioning misplaced materials wastes
significant amount of time, and reduces construction efficiency. The objective is to assure that the right materials in
the right quantities and at the right locations are provided at the right time to the construction crews on the project.
Moreover, most construction site layout planning for construction sites is based upon contractors’ prior experience
[3], and it is designed only once before construction starts without consideration of the dynamic nature of the supply

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +15927109961; fax: +02787557124.

E-mail address:lkm_panna@163.com

1877-7058 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2016
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.654
 Qunzhou Yu et al. / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533 527

problems, such as dynamic changes of the material requirement and available site information in consecutive
construction project phases.
The current research on the construction quality problems can be divided into two categories. One is about the
site material management, Lee, J. H. [4] used the RFID technology to track the site material to confirm the
requirement of material; Young, D. A. [5] presented the development of a new Congested Construction Logistics
Planning (C2LP) system that facilitates the optimal utilization of interior building spaces by considering shifting
some of the non-critical activities in order to generate sufficient interior space for material storage areas; Georgy, M.
[6] developed a systematic procedure and a computerized tool for optimizing the delivery and inventory of materials,
as part of a comprehensive material management system in construction projects; the other is about optimizing the
site material layout, Song, J.[7] developed a RFID and DPS based construction material management system, and
realizes the material management in real time; Su, X. [8] proposed a material layout evaluation model (MLEM)
based on the material accessibility grade concept to integrate space and time in order to improve material
accessibility and reduce time waste; Said, H. [9] presented the development of a new congested construction
logistics planning (C2LP) model that is capable of modeling and utilizing interior spaces of buildings under
construction to generate optimal logistics plans; Jang, H. [10] used Genetic Algorithm (GA) to efficiently position
the construction materials and minimize excessive repositioning of construction materials.
Prior studies have focused on one or two issues of the three among material quantity, delivery time, and storage
area. Though they proposed relevant solutions, a project-level scheme requires a simultaneous consideration of these
issues. Existing solutions are based on one-time optimization of an assumed scenario without consideration of the
dynamic changes within construction schedule. The reason for these difficulties lies in the fact that there is no
information integration tool as the basis of information sharing in site material supply management.
BIM technology provides a potentially valuable tool for the solution of site material supply problems [11]. BIM
is a highly integrated project information tool, and it has been used to date to build a project data model with a
variety of project related information, and then to use the information model to support project design, construction
and operation [12]. A suitable site supply model can realize the reasonable arrangement of materials and help
improve production efficiency. This paper describes the use of BIM technology to establish a dynamic model for
site material supply in regard to material quantity, delivery time, and storage area on the basis of construction
schedule.

2. Research objective and methodology

Research described in this paper aims to develop a comprehensive, informative and practical model based on
BIM for site material supply. Figure 1 illustrates its framework, in which the model integrates the Material
Requirements Dynamic Model with the Site Layout Dynamic Model, and generates construction site drawings at all
levels, as well as the material supply plan. Information about material requirement dynamic model (4D model) is
extracted from construction schedule and from building design information. Construction schedule, the core of the
whole model, is required for determining the material delivery time. At the same time, it can support the building
design process in order to confirm the quantity of the required materials in each construction phase. Site layout
model comes from the link of 4D model and field information. The site information includes static information and
dynamic information, and it is the basis of confirming the material storage area. Static information refer to site
drawings (includes building location, access ways, major equipment location, and work spots, etc.) of each phase
generated by building design, and it converts the site drawings into polygons to represent the total site area.
A case study approach was adopted to explain the dynamic site material supply model that was developed from a
comprehensive review of the literature and site investigation. In the case study, the design and construction data
were acquired from the project general contractor and CAD drawings and the construction schedule were obtained
from the project owner and from contractors.
The research consists of two major sections: (1) Requirements for material supply management for construction
sites; (2) Creation of a BIM-based dynamic model. Validation of the proposed model is obtained through a case
study of the curtain wall construction at the Wuhan International Conference Center. The curtain wall work was
completed with no delay due to site material supply control. A brief explanation and application of the two-step
approach of this research is presented in the following sections.
528 Qunzhou Yu et al. / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533

Material

M
3D model

re
ta
ali
quantity Demand list

m
Site-

iu
nte

qe
er

r
Report

le m
level

do

d ny
o d
le

a
Construction xMaterial quantity 3D layout

ci

m
Specification

D
xDelivery time

(4

)
Construction drawing Floor-
Delivery activities level
time BIM-based
dynamic Report Every
Requirement model for construction Name
Link
analysis site activity
material Quantity
supply Site material
supply plan

S
tu
yoa
table

l
et
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Storage Time
Field information Update

am
od

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Location

Figure 1. The concept of BIM-based materials supply to construction project sites

3. Requirements for material supply management for construction sites

3.1. Function analysis

The main functions of site material supply management include the following parts:
x Material delivery time management is to determine the material delivery time of each construction stage and
allocate materials for orderly delivery based on construction schedule;
x Material quantity management is to determine the quantity of materials used in each construction phase and
delivery a certain quantity of materials into the site according to the building design and construction schedule
information;
x Material storage area management is to assure that the exact location of materials in a storage yard can be
arranged according to site condition.

3.2. Information analysis

The role of material supply management in the completion of various functions is shown in Table 1:

Table 1. Required information in site material supply management

Function Information requirement Instance

Material delivery time management Scheduling information Construction activities, duration

Static information on site Site division; storage lot number; area size
Material storage area management
Dynamic information on site Area status (whether or not to be occupied)

Material quantity management Design information Material name, material dosage of each phase

4. Creation of a BIM-based dynamic model

On the basis of requirement information analysis about the site material supply management, this paper presents a
BIM-based dynamic model of site material supply comprised all the required information. The dynamic model is
shown in Figure 2.
 Qunzhou Yu et al. / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533 529

Figure 2.The dynamic model of site material supply

4.1. Material requirements dynamic model

The material requirements dynamic model is to confirm the delivery time and quantity of materials according to
the building design information and construction schedule information. The building design information is
expressed by Autodesk RevitTM, and generates the 3D model. RevitTM serves as a tool to create different divided
areas. And then every divided area is labeled with length, width and other properties, which is convenient for later
identification. Finally, the 3D model is derived for a model file, and shared to the next phase.
Schedule information should be integrated with the 3D model, and form the 4D model. The construction schedule
created in the MS ProjectTM is added to the 3D model by linking each component of the 3D model to the correlative
work breakdown structure node. The process of material requirement dynamic model is shown in Figure 3. In
addition, the construction process can be virtually presented in time sequence by attaching start and finish times to
every construction activity. According to construction specification, construction process can be divided into
construction foundation, the main structure, building decoration, the roof of the building, drainage, and heating.

Figure 3.The process of material requirement dynamic model

530 Qunzhou Yu et al. / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533

4.2. Site layout dynamic model

After confirming material quantity and delivery time, storage area of material is required to be determined. With
the change of construction schedule, construction site information is constantly changing. So there are different
optimal storage areas for the material in different construction phase. And site information includes static
information and dynamic information.
Site division, area label and area size belong to static information. Site area attributes are created in the above 4D
model, and every divided area has the specific size, location, and application. Meanwhile, the area for stacking will
have the label information. The information above is aggregated to generate the basic model of the site for each
construction stage. To determine storage area also requires site dynamic information such as area status (whether it
is occupied), material status (type and location). Collect site information to obtain the area status and material status.
Then, relate the status information to the site basic model as attributes.

4.3. The generation of optimal material layout

Evolutionary algorithms are a set of optimization algorithms that seek to improve performance by sampling areas
of the parameters space, and they are more likely to lead to better solutions. In this paper, a genetic algorithm is
examined as a possible method for solving construction site material storage layout as a combination of optimization
problems. The primary advantage of GA lies in its capacity to move randomly from one feasible layout to another,
without being drawn into local optima in which other algorithms are often trapped, and its flexibility to construct
objective function for special problem.
A genetic algorithm (GA) is used to assist the storage area on the basis of site basic model. The essence of the
problem described in this paper is to build a relationship between material labels and area labels. In the above model,
site is divided into many appropriate locations except the build, facilities, road and other usage. Materials and areas
have been assigned specific labels. Then, reproduce new populations through choose, crossover and mutation.
Figure 4 presents the GA operation flow. The objective function and constraint condition are as follows.
Minimum transport distance of workers: MinisizeTD=σni=1 σnj=1 Ɂij wij dij , (1)
Constraint conditions:σni=1 Ɂij = 1, {L «Q`DQG^LIįij=1 then (i‫ ב‬R or j ‫ ב‬M)} (2)
Where n is the number of materials; ߜ݆݅ is the permutation matrix variable. W is the priority weight of a material j
relative to an area i. d is the distances between an area i and a material j.

5. Implementation

Wuhan International Conference Center is the largest facility of this type in Midwest China. Aggregated
construction area of the building is approximately 100,000 m2. The structure of the conference center is a shell shape,
and the whole space is complex. The curtain wall project uses glasses, aluminum plates, honeycomb panels, roof
panels and other curtain wall materials, and its engineering quantity has 18000 square meters. The site space is very
limited, so materials for the curtain wall need to be divided into batches delivered consecutively to the site as the
project progressed. It brings difficulties for site material management, and requires the support of accurate and
timely information. Taking two parts of curtain wall of the same size in construction first and second stage, the first
part used observation, and the second part used our model. The application processes are described in detail as
follows.
In order to verify the effectiveness of the BIM-based dynamic model for site material supply, the proposed model
was applied to the construction process of curtain wall project of Wuhan International Conference Center. To
evaluate the following: (1) whether the model can dynamically generate the site material supply scheme including
material quantity, delivery time, and storage area to solve the dynamic change of material requirement and (2)
whether the algorithm process in the model is effective to improve the waste of time and low construction efficiency.
 Qunzhou Yu et al. / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533 531

5.1. Establishment of 4D BIM model of curtain wall

An existing structure model was built by architects and engineers in Revit ArchitecturalTM. On the basis of the
structure model, a curtain wall 3D model was built, and then related construction schedule information divided in
accordance with floor. Figure 4 shows the establishment process of curtain wall 4D model. This model can be used
to confirm the quantity and delivery time of curtain wall materials (panel, handle bar, curtain wall frame and
accessories) in every construction phase.

Structure model

Schedule

Figure 4. The establishment process of curtain wall 4D model

5.2. Preparation for material storage layout

Preparation for material storage layout has three parts. First, several assumptions were made, for example,
storage areas and materials are rectangular form, and together with the 4D model as the basis of the next part.
Second, we set storage area followed by the flow diagram. The first part is to identify the partial model in phase one
or two from the 4D model. Second, one must select the suitable area as the alternative storage area. The most
important process is to collect the field dynamic information by digital collection technology to identify the real-
time status of the storage area. Finally, the selected storage areas were numbered, and got the distance between
storage area and warehouse. The specific process of preparation for material storage layout is shown in Figure 5.
Third, this part was to group the materials required by the construction process and get the priority weight between
material and area.

3DUW 3DUW

Extract partial model Get a set of regional

from 4D model numbers Storage area attribute table
Location size Number
1 floor north 5x5 1
Identify the geometric Determine the status of 1 floor south 3x2 2
dimensions the next zone 1 floor south 3x2 3

Establish the three-

The region is numbered
dimensional coordinate No
1,2,3.
system
Yes

Set the midpoint and

Determine whether the
divide the primary
regional state is empty
region

Set the threshold value Install cameras in the

of the storage area defined regions
3DUW 3DUW

Figure 5. The process of identifying material storage area

532 Qunzhou Yu et al. / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533

5.3. The process of material layout

Figure 6 shows the calculation process and results of each step of GA. Taking three areas and three groups of
materials as an example. The first process was to identify the objective function and constraint conditions, and the
priority weight and distance were calculated before. Then, the GA procedure was used to randomly generate initial
population. It means that one material number correspond to one storage area labels.

Number R1 R2 R3 Fitness Percentage Select times

Material Region number
1 2 1 3 36.14 0.42 2 number
1 2 3 population size: 50
2 3 2 1 24.71 0.28 0 1 0 0  probability of crossover: 0.6
3 3 1 2 26.20 0.30 1 2 0 1 0 probability of mutation: 0.01
start
Sum 87.05 3 1 0 0

Choose the parents
according to fitness
Identify objective
Randomly generate
Set up the parameter functionˈconstraint
initial population
conditions

Mutation symmetric Yes The best layout

Stop ? Best individuals
genes exchange scheme

No

6elect a string from the population End

Material 1 2 3
2  1
Region   
Randomly select a gene , and exchange
position with its symmetric gene
  

Figure 6. The algorithm for material layout

5.4. Analysis of the results

Based on the result of the BIM-based dynamic model in phase one and phase two of two parts of curtain wall
project, project-level construction simulation was carried out. The use of proposed model dynamically produced the
site material supply scheme including material quantity, delivery time, and storage area according to the
construction schedule. After that, the site materials were arranged in an orderly manner, and stacked neatly.
Statistics of repositioning times for each job during the construction period was provided for construction
management. It reveals that the implementation of the model can reduce the rate of repositioning by 90% and
increase construction efficiency by 20%. Figure 7b presents the times of repositioning while Figure 7c shows the
analysis schedule of two jobs using a Gantt chart.

(a) Construction site (b) Times of repositioning: (c) Duration time of one job:
First one: 25; second one: 2 First one: 19; second one: 15

Figure 7. The comparative analysis of site material supply management

In summary, the experimental results proved the following: (1) the proposed model can dynamically generate the
site material supply scheme. By doing so, the managers can be in a better position to manage the actual construction
sites and processes as well as achieve an integrated analysis and management of building, schedule, and site material.
 Qunzhou Yu et al. / Procedia Engineering 164 (2016) 526 – 533 533

(2) With the help of the algorithm process, the model can reduce the waste of time and increase construction
efficiency.

6. Conclusion and future work

On the basis of requirement analysis about the material supply management on site, this study presented a BIM-
based dynamic model of site material supply, and introduces the implementation process of the optimal supply
scheme by a case study. The main conclusions are as follows.
x BIM technology is introduced into the construction site material supply management, the establishment of
dynamic model, which validates the value of BIM in the field of material supply management, is discussed;
x Material quantity, delivery time and storage area are combined to achieve the integration of multiple information;
x 4D application ensures the timely scheme generation of the whole process, which helps the project participants to
better solve the site material supply problem.
However, the research does have some limitations. Further research should be conducted to further develop the
proposed model in the following aspects. (1) The algorithm in the model is still of limited practical potential,
especially in regard to the division storage area. Therefore, the next step is to update the algorithm, and use the
topology-based model for the area division. (2) To meet the actual requirements of future project sites, a more
practical solution should be developed.

Acknowledge

We would like to express our gratitude to Wuhan International Expo Center Co. Ltd. and to project site engineers
from Huazhong University of Science and Technology for their contributions to this research project.

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