Discrete Event Simulation Analysis of the Effect of Labor Absenteeism on the Duration of Construction Activities in Housing Projects

摘要

Labor absenteeism has been identified as one of the main factors delaying construction projects. This paper reports an approach to quantitatively estimate the effect of labor absenteeism on the duration of construction activities in housing projects, using discrete event simulation. Absenteeism and productivity data from fourteen housing projects were used to estimate the effect of absenteeism on four construction activities from three different projects. Moreover, four different absenteeism scenarios were analyzed with this methodology: no absences of skilled or unskilled workers; with absences of unskilled workers only; with absences of skilled workers only; and with absences of both skilled and unskilled workers at the same time.