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Abstraction of operation processes is a fundamental step for simulation modeling. To reliably abstract an operation process, modelers rely on text information to study and understand details of operations. Aiming at reducing modelers' interpretation load and ensuring the reliability of the abstracted information, this research proposes a systematic methodology to automate the abstraction of operation processes. The methodology applies rule-based information extraction to automatically extract operation process-related information from unstructured text and creates graphical representations of operation processes using the extracted information. To demonstrate the applicability and feasibility of the proposed methodology, a text description of an earthmoving operation is used to create its corresponding graphical representation. Overall, this research enhances the state-of-the-art simulation modeling through achieving automated abstraction of operation processes, which largely reduces modelers' interpretation load and ensures the reliability of the abstracted operation processes.

Measurement of operator quality performance has been challenging in the construction fabrication industry. Among various causes, the learning effect is a significant factor, which needs to be incorporated in achieving a reliable operator quality performance analysis. This research aims to enhance a previously developed operator quality performance measurement approach by incorporating the learning effect (i.e., work experience). To achieve this goal, the Plateau learning model is selected to quantitatively represent the relationship between quality performance and work experience through a beta-binomial regression approach. Based on this relationship, an informative prior determination approach, which incorporates operator work experience information, is developed to enhance the previous Bayesian-based operator quality performance measurement. Academically, this research provides a systematic approach to derive Bayesian informative priors through integrating multi-source information. Practically, the proposed approach reliably measures operator quality performance in fabrication quality control processes., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, i3CE 2019

This paper proposes an uncertain data clustering approach to quantitatively analyze the complexity of prefabricated construction components through the integration of quality performance-based measures with associated engineering design information. The proposed model is constructed in three steps, which (1) measure prefabricated construction product complexity (hereafter referred to as product complexity) by introducing a Bayesian-based nonconforming quality performance indicator; (2) score each type of product complexity by developing a Hellinger distance-based distribution similarity measurement; and (3) cluster products into homogeneous complexity groups by using the agglomerative hierarchical clustering technique. An illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the proposed approach, and a case study of an industrial company in Edmonton, Canada, is conducted to validate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed model. This research inventively defines and investigates product complexity from the perspective of product quality performance with design information associated. The research outcomes provide simplified, interpretable, and informative insights for practitioners to better analyze and manage product complexity. In addition to this practical contribution, a novel hierarchical clustering technique is devised. This technique is capable of clustering uncertain data (i.e., beta distributions) with lower computational complexity and has the potential to be generalized to cluster all types of uncertain data.