Performance of a DSS for crane selection

Selection of cranes for heavy and/or critical lifts in construction projects involves extensive computational effort, optimization, and search through a large number of available configurations of cranes. The construction industry in this domain, however, remains experience-based, approaching problem solving primarily through trail and error. This paper presents the process utilized in developing an integrated computer system, designed to support users in the selection of appropriate cranes and in locating them on construction sites. The work is sponsored by a leading crane supplier, Guay Inc., which has allowed for interactive consultation with the company's experts throughout the development and validation of the system. This article focuses on verification, validation, and performance assessment of the developed system. During the validation process practitioners from the sponsoring company were involved in testing the system using a set of hypothetical cases with constraints that leads to one or limited number of configurations from their entire fleet of cranes. An actual case is presented to assess the performance of the developed system. In addition two scenarios are generated from the case by varying site constraints.