On July 1, the official kick-off event in Berlin marked the start of the MEFISTO research project, which is funded with a total of 9.4 million euros. For an initial period of three years, twelve partners from industry and science will be working on the development of a management platform for the planning and execution of construction projects.

The core elements Management-Führ-Information-Simulation (MEFISTO) represent the processes in the construction industry: Awarding and order processing, cost and financial planning, schedule coordination, and performance recording. Up to now, management systems have been used for this purpose, which can only represent partial areas and do not guarantee an overall view for contractors and clients. MEFISTO is an innovative tool for the German construction industry that contributes significantly to streamlining processes and thus to saving resources. This applies to small and medium-sized companies as well as to large enterprises.

Within the scope of this comprehensive project, the simulation service provider SimPlan is dealing specifically with the simulation of construction site logistics and construction scheduling. The aim is to simulate construction site processes quickly and efficiently. In construction scheduling, dynamically limited resources such as construction equipment or construction aids are to be taken into account. The required data comes directly from the systems of other project partners. SimPlan’s experience in the areas of production and logistics ensures that a simulation solution is created that ideally combines experience from stationary industry with the special challenges of the construction industry.

The overall coordination of the project has been taken over by the TU Dresden. The Institute for Construction Informatics at the Faculty of Civil Engineering is in charge of the project. Another university partner is the Bauhaus University Weimar with two institutes. Ed. Züblin AG and Max Bögl Bauservice GmbH are involved as representatives of the construction industry. In addition to Solidpro GmbH as the CAD house, the RIB Group and gibGreiner GmbH have been entrusted with the development of the software systems. The consulting company AEC3 GmbH and the Max Bögl subsidiary KompetenzZentrum Bau Neumarkt GmbH – responsible for public relations – complete the list of partner companies.