Analysis of the potential use of BIM for the development of the production system design (PSD)

The Production System Design (PSD) represents the final product of a process of analysis and simulation that should allow the identification of the strategy and production systems most appropriate to the project. However, this is often neglected in the construction industry. The Building Information Modeling (BIM) has established new processes of computational modeling of construction projects, as well as providing a digital project database. This article seeks to identify how BIM can facilitate the PSD development process. A review of the literature on PSD for construction and on BIM was carried out in order to identify the main characteristics of the processes, as well as interviews with professionals responsible for such activities. A matrix was then established relating the principles of PSD to BIM functionalities. From this matrix an analysis of the potential of application of the BIM to the development of the PSD was carried out, seeking also, evidences of such possibilities of application, in research already published. It has been found that there is great synergy between PSD and BIM, however, special attention is required to the need to obtain adequate data for the processes that will be analyzed