The construction industry is facing a number of pressures to decrease costs, improve productivity and have a competitive edge in terms of quality of service and customer satisfaction. Recent advancements in mobile technology provide new avenues for addressing this situation. This paper presents the role of emerging mobile technologies and, in particular, the development of a mobile facsimile solution that assists collaborative communications between parties on or away from the construction site. This paper first identifies potential use cases for mobile technologies in the construction industry and highlights the issues that would hamper their adoption. It discusses the modelling of the problems related to the workflow of a construction process with the aid of a focus group formed with various construction industry representatives in New Zealand. The various problem-solving processes adopted by the industry practitioners at different functional levels are analysed and the findings summarised. Finally, this paper describes the development of one such mobile solution, called ClikiFax, which could address some of the issues and pressures prevailing in the context of the New Zealand construction industry.

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Role of mobile technology in the construction industry – a case study

Development of an e-business capability maturity model for construction organisations

There is a need for all stakeholders of building process to interact efficiently and effectively. However, this is not always possible due to the different knowledge background and complexity of building projects. Technologies transfer communication, leadership, democratic interaction, teamwork, social engagement and responsibility away from the instructors to the participants. Implementing social network-enabled communication can move design and production beyond its conventional realm and enables stakeholders to develop architectural, management and production knowledge that is embedded into a community of experts with their expertise both online and offline. Current media tools that are available need to be adopted and optimized to match the specific tasks of project delivery. The current single communication tools don’t allow the inclusion of all stakeholders and don’t support a social and collaborative project environment. Communication management is a crucial knowledge area for Project Managers (PMs) who are expected to effectively and efficiently communicate the four constraints (Scope, Time, Cost, Quality) of a project to other stakeholders. This thesis explores the concept of using social media (SM) for construction project management (CPM) and in supporting collaboration within construction project teams. This thesis employs the research methods of a Literature Review, Survey, and a Software Review to achieve this. The literature review identified that there was a knowledge gap regarding SM use by PMs. While construction industry professionals recognised a need for SM, there were no strategies in place to capitalise on SM use. Current tools being used by construction PMs as identified in this thesis include, web-based project management software (WPMS) and Social Software/Groupware. Both tools are used to support core PM processes while also providing a collaborative electronic workspace on the Internet. The emergence of Project Management 2.0 (PM 2.0) and Social Project Management (SPM) methodology/Software as a response to Web 2.0, has seen the adaptation of the social networking (SN) and the ‘re-tweet’ paradigm in project communities. Currently there are SPM software available which is being largely used by PMs in the information technology (IT) industry. A Survey which was administered online to industry professionals, showed that survey respondents while dubious about the use of SM for project related work were interested in using software that integrated more SM-like features. The survey further identified that survey respondents were not aware of SPM software but that they were using some semblance of Social software which were akin to SPM. The dissertation presented a review of current state-of-the-art SPM software and was also used to identify core PM features. In addition to this, ten SPM software were reviewed for features that were fundamentally Web 2.0/ SM based. The findings from the software review and literature review is finally culminated in the outline of the conceptual SPM software-Gantt 2.0 which is intended for CPM.

Social Media Platforms for Construction Project Management

Effective collaboration requires access to timely and relevant information, but this is difficult given the complexity of the architectural design process and the segmentation of the architecture, engineering and construction industry. Effective collaboration is further complicated by the quantity and density of the digital information generated within a project, and the irregular adoption of technology by different team members. Consolidating project information within Building Information Models has improved its management, but the technology’s complexity limits who can contribute to it. This is a problem, because team members are capable of collaborating more effectively when they can record and reflect upon a comprehensive record of the project’s design process. The aim of research was to identify how information technology can assist architectural project teams to collaborate by more inclusively and comprehensively recording and reflecting upon the design process. To address this problem, this research proposes that the industry adopt Hyperlinked Practice, which is the creation of a distributed cloud of interconnected information describing an architectural project’s events, activities and digital artefacts. A set of fundamental principles were identified that would be used to guide the design and deployment of digital collaboration tools capable of facilitating Hyperlinked Practice. To ensure a flexible and inclusive environment, the principles were derived from concepts proven within the World Wide Web. To validate these principles, their collaboration influence, potential, and industry applicability was tested within a software prototype utilised in a university architecture course and two thought experiments. The results from testing the software prototype suggest that the principles are capable of influencing collaboration in a manner that promotes the recording of the design process, and reflection upon it. The thought experiments demonstrated that the principles provided an excellent framework for evaluating a digital collaboration tool’s ability to facilitate Hyperlinked Practice. Based on these results, the research concluded the identified principles of Hyperlinked Practice were capable of facilitating a collaboration environment that would allow the design process to be comprehensively recorded and reflected upon.

Building Digital Bridges:Improving Digital Collaboration throughthe Principles of Hyperlinked Practice

The design and documentation phase of the construction process is critical. It has been calculated that on a large building project (in excess of 100 million dollars Australian) with design and construction times of typically 3 1/2 years, time savings of up to 12 weeks would be achievable through improved communications, upgraded project information flows and better coordination of the design and documentation stage, in particular. A system developed by CSIRO and Telstra and known as CAD Conferencing (combining the use of computers, communication, Computer Aided Design, e-mail and recorded and live video) is an ideal vehicle for this coordination and improved information flow, and this paper describes the experiences of implementing such a system in the first commercial trial of such techniques on a Australian design and construction project.

Collaboration on Design and Construct Projects Using Highspeed Networks: From Vision to Reality

Both nationally and internationally, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector is highly fragmented : it is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the nature of information and knowledge can be dispersed among firms and organisations, and consortia are frequently formed from geographically dispersed firms. In recognition of the potential improvements to be gained through an integrated approach to project information used throughout the design, documentation, construction and operation processes, substantial research is underway in Australia to "close the loop" of information flows between designers and constructors.
	The paper will explore and discuss both the technology platform in terms of information and communications technology (mobile, high-speed and wide area networking linking the design and engineering offices with the construction site) and the information platform in terms of the content of communications between project stakeholders and the requisite information (traditional spatial as well as non-spatial data) of key concern to the stakeholders at various stages of the project lifecycle.
	The paradigm shift that has occurred over recent years from stand-alone personal computing (which reinforced fragmentation) to mobile and Wide Area networked computing now provides a platform capable of promoting integration, accessibility and co-operation within the sector with attendant gains in efficiency. A minimum requirement to achieve these gains is access to the right information (not just simple data) at the desired level of scale and detail for a particular stakeholder’s view - information which once collected can be stored and refined and then held for use elsewhere on the project without loss and without the need for subsequent re-entry. The information needs to be available quickly and easily, that is at the right time and in the right location for maximum benefit and project efficiency.
	Demonstration collaborative systems to support interactive Computer Aided Design and information exchange between project stakeholders such as architects, various engineers (electrical, hydaulic, mechanical, structural) and project managers, in an innovative collaborative manner have become available to bring dispersed project members together electronically. Such systems allow project members attached to a network to undertake a range of information access and exchange from simple e-mail; through on-site access to central project data sources via handheld computers; right through to the use of optional live (or pre-recorded) video to enhance collaboration. Using communications infrastructure, this functionality can be shared in various ways - in a corporate-wide environment between regional and/or interstate offices within a company, or in a consortium situation (between offices of a consortium working together on a specific construction project).
	The questions then arise as to how such systems fit into industry practice, and how the industry might adapt to embrace new opportunities provided by such technological advances. Ease of access to up-to-date, accurate project information for a range of project stakeholders is being extended through research in the US and Australia to close the loop between some of the stakeholders, and this will be discussed in detail in the paper. As well, the progress of industry-based support for a level of interoperability for building and construction information by organisations such as the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI Australasian chapter) will also be discussed, plus the likely impact of the adoption of Industry Foundation Classes in the Australian building and construction industry in areas such as the design life for buildings based on durability of materials.

Yum Kwok-Keung

Papers

Information and communication in construction : closing the loop