Assessment of Time and Costs of Two Formwork Methodologies in the Philippines using BIM Simulation

Abstract

In the Philippine construction industry, choices of formwork methodology is critical to contractors or client/project managers. Cost and time are the parameters commonly considered to address which method is recommended for a project. In this study, simulation using BIM was made from input parameters taken from actual project observations and data collection from five projects. Two methods were considered: method A (traditional forms) and method B (steel decks). The output parameters after the BIM simulation were processed cost and time. A statistical t-test was conducted for both process costs and time durations to differentiate between the two methods. It was found out that the process costs for overall, columns, and beams of method A were not statistically different from method B, while the slab process cost was significantly different. This indicated that only slab process cost was relatively expensive for method B. For the duration, both the columns and beams were not statistically different, while overall and slabs’ duration was significantly different. It showed that overall duration and slab process duration is relatively lower for method B. This paper showed that BIM simulation could help managers in their decision on choosing the construction methodology to balance cost and time of their project.