21st Century Technologies for Construction Industry

Chapter 4 Construction Industry (for Tomorrow) Today A successful future for the construction industry depends upon the incorporation of modern technology into the construction industry. This will lessen the time spent, inaccuracy, and money spent on each phase of a construction project. Phase I. Client Request The client can make his request through the telephone or Internet; he can call his prime consultant, usually an architect. The architect and the client can liaise on the client’s request through the same media for a sketch design to be produced. Both the client and the consultant can alter the design over the Internet, through a computer, to get a satisfactory outcome. This process can link the client to the services of any other consultants, depending on the scope of the project and the client’s requirement. Phase II. Project Planning, Designing, and Engineering With the help of design software, architects and engineers produce their work in a less stressful way, taking less time, spending less money, and having enhanced output. Several designers can have access to a particular design project on their computers with authorized rights to alter the design as it concerns their areas of professional jurisdiction. The designers can retrieve online specifications of materials to confirm the quality assurance of their designs as well as to get formal approval. Construction cost management: The completed design can be routed through the Internet to the construction manager or thequantity surveyor, who then imports the design onto his personal computer. With the help of an estimating software application and the online cost information about resources, he/she produces standard bills of quantities (BOQ) for the design. The construction manager or quantity surveyor (QS), on completion of the BOQ, will then prepare the contract document for bidding. (The contract document comes mostly in templates.) Engineering: Computer software applications have made their way into the construction engineering profession. With the advent of this software, most engineering jobs are simplified. This software is readily available on demand. (Refer to computer- aided engineering analysis – chapter 3.38). Project planning and scheduling: With the BOQ produced by the QS, the project manager (PM) can easily import the document into his computer system and prepare the schedule of resources required for the project, to keep them for the time and duration that they will be required. Phase III. Bidding and Contracting Phase An invitation to tender can be published in a unified website for qualified bidders to access. Bidders can fill out an online form with certain required parameters and submit it immediately. On the other hand, the QS will be saddled with the responsibility of downloading these filled-in forms and running them through his compilation and analysis software, which selects the most eligible bidder in a couple of minutes/seconds. Thereafter, the successful bidder will be published on same website and will be contacted. Phase IV. Construction Phase With the advent of voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), a pre-construction conference with the architect, engineer, contractor construction manager/quantity surveyor, and subcontractors can be held remotely through Internet-connected computers at intervals. The client can remotely monitor all construction processes, attend regularly scheduled meetings, and make changes in conjunction with his taste. The contractor, on his part, can prepare bid packages for fixed equipment, movable equipment, and materials and furniture. He can also monitor his work to induce discipline in his workers and to ascertain that his work’s progress conforms to the work plan. Using software applications—e.g., an operations simulator—the contractor has been able to envisage flaws and avoid them by the use of alternative means within his budget. Phase V. Move-In Period The aid of twenty-first-century technology here is minimal, but it could help in monitoring installations and securing against theft, in addition to being used for documentation purposes. Phase VI. Post-Construction Here, Facilities Management collects all the available information about maintenance schedules, stores it in the computer, and collates it according to the expected life expectancy of the various construction components. With the versatile nature of computer technology, certain parameters can be made to create alerts, which will trigger at a specified time to remind Facilities Management about the maintenance plans.