Estimating the size of temporary facilities in construction site layout planning using simulation

This paper proposes a framework for estimating size of temporary facilities, a crucial task for construction site layout planning. Underestimation of facility size can lead to facility space shortage, productivity loss, and safety problems; overestimation results in lack of space for other facilities. Some temporary facilities have fixed or predetermined sizes. For other facilities, size depends on progress of activities and may vary over project duration. This study focuses on the latter, and implements simulation as a suitable planning tool to estimate size of activity-dependent facilities. Existing studies on site layout planning do not fully address this topic, and current practice often is based on experts' experience. In this study, simulation is implemented to model the construction process, and space is considered a resource in the model. Utilization of the resource over time indicates the space requirement trend over the project time. The main contribution of this work is estimation of the maximum required size of activity-dependent facilities and its variation over time. The case study presented demonstrates practicality of the proposed approach and capability of simulation in this area.