Building construction: A deterministic non-periodic flow – A case study of chaos theories in tracking production flow

TLDR: The article argues that chaos theories are a viable scientific approach and provide appropriate tools for understanding building design and construction as production that is by its systemic nature deterministic and non-periodic.

Abstract: The authors recast the definition of construction as an organization-based planning and placing of information-rich objects and systems in a co-moving patch of space–time. In short, for the purposes of this article, building construction is a deterministic non-periodic flow activated and populated by a temporary virtual organization of stakeholders and exhibits all the characteristics of a complex system. The emergence of unpredictable and sometimes unexpected situations in execution may push this complicated or complex production system into becoming chaotic. Currently, Project Management thought implies that project management (command) is identical to manufacturing (execution), a paradigm that, when applied to construction, implies that construction is predictable. In real life, the number of players and phases creates an environment where a plan may experience high levels of emergent variability in the form of accelerations and decelerations of planned work. This emergence of variability in situ may l...