Problems and Challenges Facing the Construction Industry

Problems and Challenges Facing the Construction IndustryThere are numerous important challenges facing todays wind industry that are motivating the adoption of modern technologies such as RFID and sensors technology. Some are new to the industry, and some are centuries old. Many of these challenges are a direct result of social organisation operations, while others a result of indirect, peripheral activities. Some of the reflexion issues include workforce considerations, safety, time constraints, and the changing nature of the work. Non- winding challenges that crook industry faces that are part of the bank line ornament include legal issues, government regulations, environmental concerns, and socio-political pressures. Also in addition to these challenges, the construction industry is highly competitive, and firms must continually improve their productivity to extend competitive. At present, a chronic problem in the construction industry that requires urgent attention is con struction supply chemical chain. The construction supply chain vane can be classified as a big and complex organisation that is difficult to manage. This is because the operations or activities involved in the construction electronic network consist of multidiscipline groups and tasks. The concept of supply chain management is about managing training and material menstruates, plant operations, and logistics through a common set of principles, strategies, policies and performance poetic rhythm throughout its developmental life cycle. As part of the back bone for the supply chain processes, the logistics play a critical role in optimizing the flow of materials, equipment and people. The construction logistics is one of the significant management factors in order to precede construction purport. If materials which are needed in construction project do non supply in right place on time, it can make problems such as delaying schedule, increasing the cost of construction and redu cing productivity. The identification of material, identifying materials contemptible flow in logistics and tracking materials location are needed for successful project management in construction.A report Improving Construction Logistics promulgated by the Strategic Forum for Construction in August 2005 revealed that quite a considerable amount of waste produced in the construction is caused by ugly management of materials delivery services (e.g. from supply logistics to come in logistics), inventory, communications and human resources. The consequences of poor construction-logistics are the following setback about 30% of losses in overall construction cost, contributing to the bad image of the industry, poor quality of product, increased project duration and added risks to workers health and safety. The use of reading Technology (IT) and reading from other industries were part of the recommendation and action plans suggested by the Strategic Forum committee for better logisti cs processes. Jang et al (2003) and Rebolj et al (2008) also suggested that a great turn to of improving the construction-logistics must be focused on the materials and learning delivery in order to achieve better productivity, avoiding delays and reducing waste. In contrast to manufacturing industries, which increase from long-lasting partnership with suppliers and guests, construction-logistics supply chains are considerably more difficult to manage and optimize due to various factors such as variegation of projects (i.e. various materials, methods, project location) and technical complexity of a project.ReferencesAhuja V. and Yang J. (2005) Towards IT Enabled Supply Chain Communications in Construction nominate Management, International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management in a Global Economy, May 2005, pp. 289-302Ribeiro F. L. And Lopes J. (2001) Construction Supply Chain Integration over the Internet and WebTechnology, 17th ARCOM annual Conference, Associati on of Researchers in Construction Management, Salford, Reading, Vol.1, pp. 241-252, September 2001.Jang H., Russell J.S. and Yi J. S. (2003) A Project Managers Level of Satisfaction in Construction Logistics, Can. J. Civ. Eng. 30, pp. 1133-1142 (2003)Rebolj D., Babic N. C., Magdic A. Podbreznik P. and Psunder M. (2008) Automated Construction Activity Monitoring schema, modern plan Informatics.Balqis Omar, Tabarak Ballal, INTELLIGENT WIRELESS WEB SERVICES CONTEXT-AWARE COMPUTING IN CONSTRUCTION-LOGISTICS SUPPLY range of a function. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, ITcon Vol. 14 (2009), pg. 289-pg. 308-Fast development in data and communication technology (ICT) has emerged as a key driver and thus provided the opportunity for construction companies to be more sensitive towards their business strategy and productivity (Ahuja and Yang, 2005, Ribeiro and Lopes, 2001). The amount of project data and information generated during construction periods are enormous and uncontrolled due to the nature of fragility in the construction processes. The traditional paper-intensive method of processing and transferring data and information is still being practised due to high investment capital cost on ICT facilities, overlook of supporting interoperability between hardware-software within organisations and culture of most construction organisations.Communication technology, materials handling, transportation and warehousing are known as the critical services that hang the logistics operation processes. These include services in facilitating Just-In- Time (JIT) operation, optimising the movement of raw materials, work in-process and finished goods, optimising the transportation mode and locating and designing facilities to meet customer service levels respectively.-One of the recent paramount issues that have been a growing concern in the construction industry is the role of logistics in managing the supply chain (ERABUILD, 2006). Logistics, appropriat e or inappropriate, to a great extent influences the efficiency of construction activities with materials and equipment being essential building blocks of construction projects. Among the elements that comprise the construction process, construction materials whitethorn account for 50-60 per cent of the total cost of a project and most directly represent project progress (Song 2005, Song et al. 2006). Successful delivery and resultant distribution of these materials to various interconnected points where they are required is an important aspect of the overall project duration.Intensecomp (2005) reported that a wrong delivery arrangement of materials causes common disorder on construction sites. This disorder is often accompanied by a need for unplanned facilities and/or activities such as additional site storage, work interruption, extra handling, breakage, and loss. Similar challenges were also reported by the Strategic Forum for Construction in 2005. The report suggests that 50% of skilled craftsmen time is washed-out on unskilled tasks, time that they could have otherwise devoted to supervising workers. A research by BSRIA noted in this report shows that 10% of running(a) hours on site is wasted due to inefficient logistics management. The effects of the logistic related waste thus result in 30% of extra construction cost and exceeded project duration.Other industries depend on and are progressively improving efficiency in logistics to achieve smooth processes, programme certainty and cost predictability. Honda-UK Manufacturing Ltd (HUM) for instance has initiated what could be one of the largest Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) installations in the automotive industry (Bacheldor 2006). The company used the technology to track components as they continue HUMs supply chain, moving from suppliers through out Europe to HUMs manufacturing plant in England. In the similar way an RFID smart box developed by DHL in conjunction with the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation can tell users what it contents are, and with Global Positioning System (GPS) and later, Galileo where it is located. The system can identify the boxs pack and location, as well as internal environmental ensures (Wessel 2007).ReferencesSong, J. (2005). Tracking the Location of Materials on Construction Projects, Ph.D. Diss.,Graduate School, the University of Texas at Austin.Intensecomp Pte Ltd. (2004). Construction Material Tracking System Bringing ComplexTasks to Simple Routine, 5pp.Smith, H. and Konsynsky, B. (2003). Developments in Practice X Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID)-An Internet for Physical Objects. Communication Association forInformation System, 12, 301-311.Wessel, R. (2007). DHL to commercialise RFID Enabling Smart Box. RFID Journal (available athtt//www.rfidjournal/article/articlereview/2945/)Bacheldor, B. (2006). Honda UK To Track Component Through The Supply Chain. RFIDJournal (available at htt//www.rfidjournal/article/articlereview/2703/.Milan Radosavljevic , Dauda Dan-Asabe, HOW COULD CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY CHAIN BENEFIT FROM RFID/GPS INTEGRATION A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE, CIB W102 3rd International Conference 2007.Information technology (IT) is important in successfully controlling and managing construction projects, particularly in enhancing communication and coordination among participants. Communication and coordination must be maintained to support resource and competency sharing within the network of a construction chain or the construction chain network. Furthermore, integrating promising information technologies such as personal digital assistants (PDA), radio frequency identification (RFID) examine and data entry mechanisms can help improve the effectiveness and convenience of information flow in construction supply chain systems.Problem statementsProject management and control performance can be enhanced by enabling participants to share information with each other. However, two major key aspects of information sharing are information acquisition and information communication. Information acquisition problems in a construction project follow from most of the data and information being gathered from the construction site, which is an extension of the construction chain. The effectiveness of information and data acquisition influences the information flow between the office and the construction site. However, on-the-scene(prenominal) engineers generally use written documents, drawings, contracts, specifications and shop drawings for job sites. Consequently, a time and space gap between the job site and the office causes duplication of data and information, lack of data and information, and associated confusion. Restated, existing means of processing information and accumulating data are not only time-consuming and expensive, but also compromise project management performance in information acquisition.Furthermore, construction contractors normally depend on interactions via telephone or fax to communicate with suppliers, subcontractors and designers. Consequently, transactions are often lost or misunderstood. Such means of communicating information between sites and offices, and among all participants, are ineffective and inconvenient.System implementationThis section illustrates the implementation and faculty of the RFID-enabled PDAs system.Inventory management moduleThe Inventory management module is an easy-access and portable environment in which on-site engineers can trace and record all information on the status of materials in the warehouse or on the scheduled delivery list. This module enables on-site engineers to improve inventory management on construction sites.Quality and inspection moduleOn-site engineers can download the most up-to-date quality mental tests from the Internet, and can enter test results directly via PDA. Additionally, PDAs display the regulation and/or checklist for each important component and work. On-site engineers also can plot unacceptable positions on a drawing and choose relevant items from the lists in the PDA. The module has the advantage that on-site engineers can enter/edit quality and inspection test result on the construction site and all test records can be communicated between the PDA and the portal via real-time synchronization, eliminating the need to repeatedly enter the same data.Progress monitor moduleThis module is knowing to help managers and on-site engineers monitor the progress of the key components. Furthermore, managers, on-site engineers and project related participants can share the current progress or delivery condition of these critical works and components. The schedule management module provides an easy-access and portable environment in which on-site engineers can trace and record all information on the status of components delivered to the warehouse or on scheduled for delivery.ReferencesLung-Chuang Wang a, Yu-Che ng Lin a,*, Pao H. LinDynamic mobile RFID-based supply chain control and management system in construction.Advanced Engineering Informatics 21 (2007) 377-390