Crane overlap and operational flexibility: balancing utilization, duration, and safety
ISSN: 1471-4175
Article publication date: 28 December 2017
Issue publication date: 2 January 2018
Abstract
Purpose
With tower cranes being the site hubs, thoroughly planning and managing their operations can result in better construction performance. As urban spaces become more constricted, overlapping working radii of tower cranes becomes inevitable. While project planners are concerned with safety hazards, research has not comprehensively addressed workload distribution and synchronization of overlapping cranes. Therefore, this study aims at exploring the impact of overlapping cranes, used on high-rise buildings, on operational flexibility which is the balance between schedule duration, crane utilization and safety.
Design/methodology/approach
A simulation model was developed and applied on a real project to analyze and compare the impacts of different overlap sizes. Seven scenarios of different overlap sizes, i.e. different number of tasks falling in the overlap space, were executed in the model; their results were plotted and analyzed.
Findings
The outcomes result from several compounded factors such as the experience of planners and crane operators, the sequencing of critical versus non-critical activities and the overall effort and care taken when planning operations of overlapping cranes. Increasing overlap size can be beneficial or unfavorable depending on how properly planners allocate overlapping cranes to workload demand, keeping in mind that there are certain trade-offs while achieving operational flexibility.
Originality/value
While project planners are concerned with safety hazards associated with crane overlaps, research has not been comprehensively nor proactively addressing the workload distribution and synchronization of overlapping crane processes. This study contributes to science by addressing the need to harness the flexibility in using overlapping tower cranes while minimizing the resulting interruptions and safety risks. This study sheds light on the potential benefits of allowing cranes to overlap while considering their collision free operations. Operational flexibility is seen as the balance between achieving shorter schedule durations and higher crane utilizations while maintaining collision free motion paths.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Simulation models and experiments presented in this paper were supported by the faculty of engineering deans fund/civil engineering department at the American University of Beirut and by the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research. All support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the contributors.
Citation
Al Hattab, M., Zankoul, E., Barakat, M. and Hamzeh, F. (2019), "Crane overlap and operational flexibility: balancing utilization, duration, and safety", Construction Innovation, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 43-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-11-2016-0062
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited