In the construction industry, there is a necessity for innovative methods to improve the construction efficiency that proves to be true happening now and for soon expected changes. The given paper studies information and communication technologies concerning their usage within the construction industry with purposes to increase construction efficiency and solve the special challenges such as sustainable design and construction.
About ICT in construction
Information and Communication Technology in Construction Industry Combination of site positioning, design requirements, materials selection, budget constraints and the availability of specialized skills makes each building project absolutely unique. Also, the construction industry is well-known for its highly fragmented and competitive environment. Nowadays the majority of building projects are hardly treated without traditional communication means, such as face-to-face meetings and the exchange of paper documents. Despite it there is a huge potential for increasing of volume, speed, quality and efficiency of information transfer.
The Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry shows huge interest in accepting of new technologies in the sphere of nD visualization, data analysis, information sharing, communications and collaboration. Following this way it is possible to improve communication, increase client satisfaction, reduce coordination errors in construction, provide a greater understanding between project participants, create fewer ambiguities and discrepancies in documentation and generally increase awareness and recognition of issues and requirements by all project participants. The main destination of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is providing construction stakeholders with information and analytical tools for the best control.
It is essential that each team member receives the right documents at the right time such as the latest version of drawings, specifications requirements among others. ICT softwares are used at this stage to:
- Improve efficiency of work
- reduce the risk of errors and rework by ensuring that everyone in the project team is working with the most current drawings and other documents;
- save time in the query (request for information, RFI) and approval process, by allowing the design team to mark up and comment on drawings online;
- eliminate the risk of losing important files, by maintaining all current and past versions in one central location;
- improve team communication by enabling team members to raise and respond to queries in a structured way;
- maintain a complete log of all communications for tracking purposes (audit trail facility); provide clients and other participants with a view of the project as it is built;
- as some software have incorporated virtual reality models to denote the status of a project at any point in time (a snap shot view of a project);
- Provide a collaborative environment whereby the diverse participants can perform online collaboration via the web.
- The real exchange of information takes place via other, informal channels, where other forms of information and communication technology such as e-mail, SMS messaging and mobile telephones, which enable direct contacts between project 25 members in network-like cooperation.