Production Planners' Scope of Action in the Context of Digital Twin Construction

Production planning in construction requires numerous agents, or production planners, to make operational decisions that affect the project outcomes. Decisions are based on information collected on the job site and in the project supply chain. However, difficulties accessing real-time information, the numerous production planners involved, and limitations on the planners' degree of freedom of action can hinder decision-making. Digital Twin Construction (DTC) has emerged as a paradigm for systems that increase the situational awareness of the construction project among production planners and reduce uncertainty in the decision-making process. Under the DTC frame, this research seeks to determine the scope of action of production planners. To accomplish the research goal, semi-structured interviews and a literature review were carried out to identify production planners' degree of freedom in decision-making when faced with the need for product or process changes. First, the research identifies the operational decisions that production planners make during a construction project in response to developments (as-built, as-performed information). Second, it presents a detailed analysis of production planners' main limitations during decision-making. Finally, the freedom of action of production planners was defined according to their roles. The findings are summarized in a matrix that associates operational decisions, degree of freedom, and professional roles in the context of DTC. The study results showed that production planners' scope of action is limited by the lack of real-time information concerning the construction project status and technical and legal limitations that affect their decision-making process.