Immersive visualization intervention on pull planning

Pull-Planning is considered a brainstorming process conducted by stakeholders in construction projects. It encourages collaboration by making a stakeholder communicate and visualize the work plan for the next few weeks so that other stakeholders are aware of what activity is happening on the jobsite. This allows project stakeholders to carefully plan their work and minimize conflicts that arise from miscommunication during the project. However, as a tool in lean construction, pull planning has a learning curve and some documents may be needed to help stakeholders in completing the process. Throughout the years, several tools may have been used, whether it is a floor plan or a 3-D models, to help the pull plan process.This study aimed to explore what alternative visualization tool may be possible to be introduced to the pull planning processes. Virtual Reality was considered because the technology has been advanced enough to be implemented economically. Combined with BIM models, the VR was expected to provide the stakeholders an immersive environment in the pull planning process, which should enhance their communication process. The study also looked at how the intervention would help with the learning process to help people with less knowledge on pull planning be able participate in the process.A prototype and several studies were conducted both on professional and students. It was concluded that professionals were more akin to using a shared screen with the virtual reality screen mirrored in it. Meanwhile, as a learning tool, VR intervention can be implemented on a smaller scale such as a classroom setting with simplified scenarios to help the learning process.This study results also enforced the notion that the implementation of VR contributed to identification of errors or problem related to the model, which had been suggested by other studies. In the real of pull plan itself, study results indicated the possibility of accelerating the conflict resolution process between stakeholders through the model visualization by having the stakeholders use VR model as a visual aid tool.In a long term, this study is expected to be a point of departure for other studies that seek to further implement VR/AR/XR in a project beyond using them as a design review tool. With more developed model and hardware, the industry can potentially implement the technology in a more economical way to help stakeholders in the pull planning process.