Author: Jae Ho Lee

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

Abstract: Construction is one of the most information-dependent industries compared to other sectors. Computers have been used to improve the efficiency of management in most businesses including the construction industry. Treating information efficiently is the key to maintaining an edge over competitors and for success in business. However, in order to succeed, companies must choose a management system that is most suited to their operations. The difficulty about computerization in civil engineering is that the construction industry does not have trained IT experts with Civil engineering or Management background. Although there are many computer applications for project management, almost all the applications required some form of manual modification for updating information. -- In a construction project, time and accurate information is vitally important in order to accomplish scheduled completion. A small change in plan costs money and time in both the traditional methods as well as current IT applications. The main reason is that there is no direct link between the head office and the regional site office and there is no "quick" link between site office and site engineers who are out in the field for most of the time. This study proposes the design of an information transfer system to improve construction site management. A Web-based Construction Site Management system called "WCSM" will be developed. WCSM incorporates some major features including: Integration of Web technology and mobile computing into construction site management and automatic project schedule updates. -- The performance of WCSM is evaluated through virtual simulations, and comparisons with other relevant applications are reported. These evaluations showed that WCSM required significantly less time, for initial project set up and modifications during project implementation, when compared to MS Project and Micro Planner.^ V.