Purpose: The purpose of this article is to study the description and extension of the Industry
Foundation Classes (IFC) standard in the construction schedule management, which achieves
the information exchange and sharing among the different information systems and
stakeholders, and facilitates the collaborative construction in construction projects.
Design/methodology/approach: The schedule information processing and coordination are
difficult in complex construction projects. However, Building Information Modeling (BIM)
provides a platform for exchanging and sharing information among information systems and
stakeholders based on the IFC standard.
Through analyzing the plan, implementing, check and control, the information flow in the
schedule management is reflected based on the IDEF0. According to the IFC4, the information
models for the schedule management are established, which not only includes the each aspect
of the schedule management, but also includes the cost management, the resource
management, the quality management, the risk management and so on.
Findings: The information requirement for the construction schedule management can be
summarized into three aspects: the schedule plan information, the implementing information
and the check and control information, and three aspects can be described through the existing and extended entities of the IFC4, and different information models are established
respectively.
Originality/value: The main contribution of the article is to establish construction schedule
management information models, which achieve the information exchange and sharing in the
construction project, and facilitate the development of the application software to meet
requirements of the construction project.
