Benefit of Cooperation among Subcontractors in Performing High-Reliable Planning

Abstract

As construction projects get larger and more complex, subcontractors can benefit from cooperation and by forming an alliance, such as partnering. Previous studies have discussed the benefit of cooperation or partnering among subcontractors and between them and other project stakeholders. However, there has been limited research to quantify the benefit of cooperation among subcontractors in performing high-reliable planning (HRP). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to quantify the benefit of cooperation among subcontractors in increasing their planning reliability at an operational level. Although HRP reduces the variability in a production system that significantly benefits the downstream subcontractors, it requires every subcontractor to put more time, cost, and effort into the planning stage, which may not be cost-effective for upstream subcontractors. To model the described situation, a simulation model (built by simulation software) was integrated with a cost model that identifies the relationship between cost and work-plan reliability (WPR) level. By utilizing different benefit-allocation models and evaluating their solutions, the paper demonstrates that a contribution-based benefit-allocation (CBBA) model using a game theory framework can provide the most acceptable and incentivizing solutions for the benefit-allocation problem. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in lean construction by quantifying the benefit of subcontractors’ cooperation in increasing their planning reliability.