Attaining Cost Efficiency in Constructing Sports Facilities for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by use of Operations Simulation

To maximize the cost efficiency in constructing the sports facilities for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, we applied the state-of-the-art construction operations simulation modeling to plan the operations of installing the steel structure, find the proper installation sequence and formulate the assembling area use schedule. The SDESA platform resulting from in-house research was utilized as the simulation tool for evaluating how the construction time for the steel structure of the "bird\´s nest" (the main stadium) would change subject to different steel installation sequences combined with varied schedules for assembling area use. The simulation outputs and the process animation - obtained from SDESA - not only validated the SDESA model, but also convinced the site management of the effectiveness of SDESA modeling and aided the site engineers in designing the optimum construction method