Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING
AND CONSTRUCTION
Attila Dikba
Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Raimar Scherer
University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
Table of Contents
Preface
xii
Organization
xv
Keynote papers
The future forces of change for the construction sectora global perspective
R.Flanagan
Vectors, visions and values
P.S.Brandon
Help wanted: project information officer
T.M.Froese
The next generation of eBusiness and eWorkwhat is needed for the systemic
innovation? An executive summary of the EU supporting research and
innovation.
B.Salmelin
2
16
29
38
41
50
58
73
92
108
123
136
144
155
167
178
191
206
222
233
249
261
270
284
296
311
326
343
358
371
384
395
408
417
432
447
463
480
495
507
Ontologies
Managing changes in the AEC industryhow can ontologies help?
Q.Y.Cai & F.F.Ng
An ontology-driven approach for monitoring collaborative design knowledge
Y-C.Lai & M.Carlsen
Setting up the open semantic infrastructure for the construction sector in
Europethe FUNSIEC project
C.Lima, B.Fis, C.Ferreira da Silva & S.Barresi
518
528
540
Practical use of the semantic web: lessons learned and opportunities found
R.V.Rees, W.V.Vegchel & F.Tolman
Supporting ontology management through self-describing concepts
T.E.El-Diraby
555
569
585
594
607
621
633
648
660
670
Collaborative working
Virtual pools of resources eliminate idle or missing equipment in AEC
companies
G.Antoniadis & K.Menzel
DIVERCITY: distributed virtual workspace for enhancing communication and
collaboration within the construction industry
Y.Arayici & G.Aouad
Cooperation and product modelling systems
S.Blokpoel, R.R.M.Jongeling & T.Olofsson
Linking early design decisions across multiple disciplines
R.Drogemuller, J.Crawford & S.Egan
State of the art of the implementation of Information Management Systems in the
construction industry in Spain
N.Forcada, M.Casals & X.Roca
Agent-enabled Peer-To-Peer infrastructure for cross-company teamwork
A.Gehre, P.Katranuschkov & R.J.Scherer
686
695
707
719
731
744
761
771
780
793
807
Mobile computing
Mapping site processes for the introduction of mobile IT
S.L.Bowden, A.Dorr, A.Thorpe & C.J.Anumba
Mobile field data entry for concrete quality control information
I.L.Kondratova
Issues of context sensitivity in mobile computing: restrictions and challenges in
the construction sector
K.Menzel, K.Eisenbltter & M.Keller
A context based communication system for construction
D.Rebolj, A.Magdi & N..Babi
MOBIKOmobile cooperation in the construction industry based on wireless
technology
R.Steinmann
817
831
843
862
873
Knowledge management
Support for requirement traceability in design computing: an integrated approach
with building data modeling
I.zkaya & .Akin
Interlinking unstructured text information with model-based project data: an
approach to product model based information mining
S.-E.Schapke & R.J.Scherer
Live capture and reuse of project knowledge in construction: a proposed strategy
C.E.Udeaja, J.M.Kamara, P.M.Carrillo, C.J.Anumba, N.Bouchlaghem & H.Tan
Development of product family structure for high-rise residential buildings using
industry foundation classes
T.Wallmark & M.M.Tseng
885
900
913
923
941
952
964
974
980
994
1004
1013
1021
1031
1042
1055
1063
1082
1101
1115
Author index
1144
1119
1133
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
Preface
The global community has stepped into the next revolutionary phase of the long-term
evolution of the information society and is now facing a new challenging phenomenon:
Ambient Intelligenceproviding and getting the right information to the right people in
the right configuration at the right time anywhere. Our business processes have started to
change. New working methods are available and asked for; new forms of organizations
have been proven to be efficient and effectivethe vision of the previous decade have
been conquering practice. Ambient intelligence is the final keystone for a breakthrough
and the industry-wide business revolution, in particular for our one-of-a-kind multishareholder and hence very complex projects.
Intelligent management of the right information has become the focus of research.
Computing power is now available on the Web and basic technologieslike P2P, Grid,
Agents and Web serviceshave been developed to ripeness by the informatics
community for application in AEC/FM. Apply it to your benefitthis is the offer of the
informatics communityand also the challenge.
Making intelligence happen requires more than solely utilizing the basic technologies
and computing power on the Web. It means algorithms, either numerical or reasoning
ones and it means enhanced semantic data structures, in which the information and
knowledge is integrated and can be retrieved on requestwhen and where and how
desired. Intelligence does not mean merely powerful numerical algorithms for solving
and simulating complex engineering systemsas understood in computational
mechanics. In this context intelligence means autonomous problem specification,
decision preparation for problem solving and to some extent even problem solving itself.
Such systems, not necessarily located on one computer and eventually distributed
throughout the Web, should be capable of recognizing, deciding, retrieving and providing
any piece of information, not only explicitly stored data, and at the same time support the
co-operation with the end-user to serve him/her intelligently and polite. Data structures
and hence product and process modelling are as important as the respective algorithms to
make this happen, in particular for recognising the context, which is the prerequisite for
any autonomous action. Data structures, i.e. data schemata must inherit meanings,
semantics must be more than an identifier. They have to encapsulate knowledge on the
objects. This knowledge must be re-usable in a flexible way and provide for reasoning to
interrelate it with knowledge on other objects and their status described by the object data
in order to build up the current context. Recognizing the effective state and crystallizing
the particular problems and various actors in an instantaneous process we are able to
finally provide the right and focused information. This makes ambient intelligence
happen.
Research on and building of ontologies besides product data models have increasingly
been the focus of research activities in AEC/FM. However, do ontologies really replace
product data models? Or if not, do they subsume them? It is neither of them. Ontologies
extend product models adding a new functionality, namely carrying knowledge, which is
simply another objective. The main objective of product models is the very generic
representation of real world objects as well as their respective general relationships to
form a generic object net from the singular units, the objects to model a very generic
skeleton for any kind of application. Other extensions to the generic product model are
already on the way. For instance, product models are favoured, being the anchor for
project documents and structuring the document information space. Data and text mining
methods are increasingly applied to identify the representative semantic items of the
documents and mapping them to the semantics of the product model in order to interpret
the meaning of the document, i.e. recognizing its information contents and further multiinterlinking it with the product model. Again, being accessible via a VR building
environment, ambient intelligence makes document information tangible. The user is no
longer required to search for the right document in order to get the right information, he
only has to identify the building object in his VR model and the information system
provides him with the right information at any place and any time. The power of the
automatic selectiveness depends upon the capacity and power of the underlying contextsensitive systemand again context-sensitivity is first of all determined by logic
reasoning on product and process models based ontologies. We can subsume generic
product models and ontologies as well as any other knowledge-related extensions of
product models to be intelligent product models.
In recent years, the quality of product models has reached a level that allows for the
design of reasoning systems to check architecture and engineering systems consistency as
well as conformity with building codes and guidelines. The few existing and very
successful examples have to be considered first attempts, looking at the great variety of
reasoning methods provided by basic informaticsthis new area has just been touched
on. However, the results gained are more than promising. The consistency checking
methods are an important pre-requisite for co-operative and concurrent working, namely
the consistency problems arising from long-term transactions in complex data bases, as it
is the case in our AEC/FM data bases. We have now the confidence that they can be
handled, but practically sufficient solutions still need valuable research and development
efforts to cope with the whole AEC/FM domain.
In this context, the numerical and reasoning algorithms are utilised in a new, separate
information process, namely the information configuration process, so that we can now
distinguish among processes on three different levels. Besides modelling the tangible
work processes such as the production, organizational as well as the planning and
controlling processes, we have to consider the intangible communication processes
supporting formal information management and information logistics as well as the
configuration processes to determine e.g. the users information needs, critical
notification events or the optimal configuration and presentation of the information. In
the future our research efforts will more and more shift from basic product and tangible
CONFERENCE CHAIR
Attila Dikba, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
STEERING COMMITTEE
Raimar Scherer, University of Technology Dresden, Germany
Ziga Turk, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Glsn Salamer, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Nzhet Dalfes, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Yildiz Sey, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
EDITORIAL BOARD
Amor, R., University of Auckland, New Zealand
Andersen, T., FMRI Consultant, Denmark
Augenbroe, G., Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Bjoerk, B-C, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland
Bhms, M., TNO, Netherlands
Cervenka, J., Cervenka Consulting, Czech Republic
Christiansson, R, Aalborg University, Denmark
ada, G., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Da, H., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Drogemuller, R., CSIRO, Australia
Ekholm, A., Lund University, Sweden
Fischer, M., Stanford University, USA
Froese, T., University of British Columbia, Canada
Fruchter, R., Stanford University, USA
Giritli, H., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Goncalves, R., Universidade Nova Lisboa, Portugal
Haas, W., Haas+Partner Ingenieurges. mbH, Germany
Kalay, Y., Berkeley University, USA
Kanolu, A., Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Katranuschkov, R, TU Dresden, Germany
Lemonnier, A., ADEI, Spain
Menzel, K., TU Dresden, Germany
Mitchell, J., Graphisoft, Hungary
Keynote papers
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The challenge for all organisations is facing, managing and implementing change, whilst
at the same time ensuring profitability and maintaining customer satisfaction.
Construction organisations need to recognise today, the oppoijunities of tomorrow.
Realism must prevail; construction is predominantly a local business using mainly local
labour and complying with local requirements. The developed countries will have
different needs to developing, and newly industrialised countries. For example, Indias
need is to have an efficient industry that can provide work for the people, whereas in the
USA, with its higher cost base, the need is to build efficiently by exploiting technology,
more mechanisation, and off site pre-fabrication wherever possible.
Our lives have been transformed by electronics and information technology but, most
of all, by the processes of change itself. Knowledge has become pivotal and globalisation
has changed the face of competition.
Local issues will always be important, but construction sectors around the world are
not immune from the global issues that impact upon the economy, demand for their
services, and quality of life. Drivers can be defined as those forces that cannot be
changed and are an inevitable result of development in the broadest sense. The drivers of
change involve social, technological, economic, environmental and political trends. Many
countries have undertaken futures studies and Foresight studies with the aim of
identifying the drivers that will influence construction in the next 20 years. Studies from
10 developed countries (Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,
Singapore, Sweden, UK and USA) were analysed, from which nine key drivers were
identified for the purposes of this paper; it is possible to identify many more drivers. Each
country is influenced by local needs and challenges, with different emphasis between the
developed and developing world. However, organisations need to consider the drivers of
change and ask: How will the drivers affect our business in the future, are they a threat
or an opportunity, how should we react to the challenge?
2 THE DRIVERS
1 Urbanisation, growth of cities, and transportation
2 Ageing population
3 Rapid technological and organisational change
4 Environmental and climate change
5 Shift from public to private
6 The knowledge economy and information overload
7 Technologies for tomorrow
8 People, safety and health
9 Vulnerability, security, corruption and crime
2.1 Urbanisation
The move from rural to urban communities, and the change from agricultural to industrial
societies in all parts of the world is putting pressure on infrastructure and changing
patterns of settlement. Between 1990 and 2025 the number of people living in urban
areas is projected to double to more than 5 billion (UN, 1996).
In 1800, only 2% of the worlds population was urbanised; this rose to over 30% in
1950, and 47% in 2000; a population that was growing three times faster than the
population as a whole. Figure 1 shows that the percentage of urbanisation is predicted to
be over 60% by 2030.
Growing urbanisation creates congestion, puts pressure on utilities, and results in
many social issues. In many cities built since the Industrial Revolution there is a decaying
infrastructure that is not meeting increased demand. By 1900 only 12 cities had 1 million
or more inhabitants, by 1950, this had grown to 83 cities. In 2004, there are over 410
cities with over 1 million people (UN). The current stock of infrastructure cannot cope,
and modification, modernisation and refurbishment will be required to the existing
infrastructure, with particular emphasis on the environmental impact. This dilemma is
typical of many countries around the world.
The majority of the worlds older persons reside in Asia (53%) while Europe has the next
largest share (25%). Figures 2 and 3 show the percentage of population over 60 in
different countries across the world.
regions, but the pace of ageing in developing countries is more rapid, and their transition
from a young to an old age structure will be more compressed in time.
Few facilities are built to cope with an ageing population, so infrastructure will need to
be built for an inclusive population and to meet a growing need for more healthcare
facilities. An increasing number of people with severe disabilities are living longer and
wanting to live independently. Design companies and construction organisations will
need to think and work differently to meet this demand.
2.3 Rapid technological and organisational change
The new kind of economy will create many more business opportunities, the rate of
change will make it more difficult for an organisation to profit from an investment before
a new competitor or development erodes the temporary competitive advantage. We are
more used to the idea of firms seeking an environment in which they can put down roots
and flourish, than to the idea of firms being created for an intentionally brief life to
exploit an idea before being washed away by a new wave of innovation (Chatham House
Forum, 1998).
Technology enables almost anything to be done; deciding what to do becomes the
critical skill. In the broadest sense of technology, our capacity to perform tasks, and our
ability to perceive and interact with complicated, remote, huge or tiny, abstract or
concrete things will be unprecedented. Personal computers will not be the main source of
information. Instead of buying a computer, most people will buy devices with computers
in them (embedded systems): those devices will talk to each other (interoperability). The
big breakthrough will come when all communication technologies become integrated.
Then you will have an all-in-one device that communicates.
Agile, knowledge-deploying firms may be able to build sustainable positions in the
new environment, but they will do so in an innovative way. The electronics industry talks
of copetitionco-operation merged with frenzied competition. In design consultancy
businesses, the high cost of developing the integration of CAD and visualisation will
mean that development and application costs will be shared between competitors.
2.4 Environmental and climate change
There is an increasing environmental awareness by governments, industry, clients and the
general public. Global environmental problems are high on political agendas with
increasing environmental legislation at a national, supranational and international level.
Ozone depletion, pollution, depletion of resources, and global warming are all common
topics of concern.
Climate change will affect physical and biological systems in many parts of the world.
The earths climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the
chemical composition of the atmosphere through the build-up of greenhouse gases
primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these
gases is undisputed. Although uncertainty exists about exactly how earths climate
responds to these gases, global temperatures are rising.
A change in a regional climate could alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies.
Flooding of settlements near low-lying coastal areas and rivers will be prevalent causing
severe damage to buildings and infrastructure and putting greater pressure on the repair
and maintenance sector of the industry. Energy demand is expected to increase for space
cooling and decrease of space heating, according to location. Energy supply may be
disrupted in the same way as other infrastructure.
2.5 Shift from public to private
There is an increasing trend towards private funding of public infrastructure.
Infrastructure projects such as power, telecommunications water and sewerage, and
transport facilities have a number of characteristics: they lack portability, are rarely
convertible to other uses, and investments in them are difficult to reverse. Infrastructure
projects require very large capital investments, and have long development and payback
periods.
There has been a change in the forms of financing over the last few decades with a
shift from public to private sector financing. For example, the UK government
implemented a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and there has been a major privatisation of
utilities companies. The number of BOT, BOOT, BOO, and public/private partnerships
has increased. The public good nature of infrastructure projects makes them sensitive to
public opinion and political pressure. The mechanisms to attract private finance into
infrastructure provision are becoming more complex and more acceptable with the multilateral development agencies and institutional investors embracing the BOT concept.
The message for construction is that there is no shortage of projects around the world,
there is a shortage of bankable projects. This new form of procurement will grow in size,
importance, and complexity. Ways will have to be found for large companies and SMEs
to meet the challenges of the shift from public to private.
2.6 The knowledge economy and information overload
The know-how of people is one of the critical determinants of competitiveness, both at a
company and national level. Rapid technological changes mean that the traditional skill
bases are no longer enough and the future will be characterised by skill shortages and
skill gaps. High obsolescence of knowledge will have to be tackled in the context of an
increasingly ageing workforce. There will be at least 1 billion university graduates in
2020 compared with a few million in 1920. There will be several billion more
sophisticated customers by 2020, who will be better informed and more demanding than
ever before. (Chatham House Forum, 1998)
Learning matters, for individuals, companies, industry and the economy as a whole.
The tradition has been to measure success by economic growth and by the level of
capital. In todays knowledge economy, knowledge capital is more important.
Knowledge capital is the source of economic value added by the organization, over and
above the return on its financial assets (Strassman, 1998). Investment in education and
training helps form the human capitalthe knowledge, skills, competencies, and
attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social, and
economic well-being (OECD, 2001)that is a vital element in assuring economic
growth and individual advancement and reducing inequality.
Technology gives us more and more access to information, so life gets more and more
chaotic. Information chaos prevails and we need to help people find the information that
they want, when they want it.
2.7 Technologies for tomorrow
Technology is a word that frightens some, excites others and prompts a feeling of
inevitability in the rest. There have been major advances in materials and technologies in
general. Extensive research has been undertaken into the use of composite materials,
providing lightweight, strong materials that do not rely on the earths non-renewable
resources. For example, soya and castor seed oils that are cheaper, bio-degradable and an
economic multiplier of using local products (ACRES, 2002). Many of the new/smart
materials are finding their way into the construction sector, having been first developed
for other industries such as automotive, aeronautic and defence.
These new materials, combined with the incorporation of intelligence, herald exciting
scientific advances. Smart or intelligent materials or structures are those that recognise
their environment and any changes and can adapt to meet those changes. System
integration, mass and energy reduction are just some of the benefits of using smart
materials. The technology of intelligent or smart materials uses the knowledge of a
number of different technologies such as materials science, biotechnology, biomimetics,
nanotechnology, molecular electronics, neural networks and artificial intelligence.
Four new technologies are considered in this paper:
1 Biomimetics
2 Smart materials and structures
3 Nanotechnology
4 Embedded intelligencethe application of information and communication
technologies.
2.7.1 Biomimetics
Biomimetics has been defined as the abstraction of good design from nature. This
relatively new science advocates a radical approach of copying naturebiomimicry.
Biomimetics needs the collaboration of the scientist and the engineer. The biologist
understands the organisms and systems within nature whilst the engineer looks at the
design, the strength and durability characteristics. Nature has already produced smart
materials, ones that interact with their environment, responding to changes in a number of
ways. For example, plants have the ability to respond to changes in temperature, sunlight
etc. in order to make maximum use of their environment. The feathers of a penguin are
perfectly designed to be light but able to keep the bird warm in sub-zero temperatures.
Imagine a cladding that could do the samelight and strong with efficient insulation that
adapts to the environment.
Biomimetic engineering could provide clothing that is light, responsive and strong and
could be used in harsh site conditions. Mimicking nature could produce new designs in
civil engineering that are lighter, stronger and with greater adaptability to a changing
environment. New adhesives, based on those produced in nature (the blue mussel), could
revolutionise the building process. Buildings could be glued together, giving stronger,
10
faster and cleaner construction techniques. The possibilities for the use of biomimetics
appear to be endless, but the research needed to achieve effective, efficient and viable
materials will not happen overnight.
2.7.2 Smart materials and structures
Extensive research has been undertaken into the use of composite materials, providing
lightweight, strong materials that do not rely on the earths non-renewable resources.
These new materials, combined with the incorporation of intelligence, herald exciting
scientific advances.
Smart or intelligent materials or structures are those that recognise their environment
and any changes and can adapt to meet those changes. System integration, mass and
energy reduction are just some of the benefits of using smart materials.
The technology of intelligent or smart materials uses the knowledge of a number of
different technologies such as materials science, biotechnology, biomimetics,
nanotechnology, molecular electronics, neural networks and artificial intelligence. These
technologies are inter-related. Just as stone implements triggered the Stone Age, alloys of
copper and tin triggered the Bronze Age and iron smelting triggered the Iron Age, the
new generation of materials will have a revolutionary effect.
Smart materials can be further defined as (Jane and Sirkis, 1994):
Materials functioning as both sensing and actuating.
Materials that have multiple responses to one stimulus in a co-ordinated fashion.
Passively smart materials self-repairing or standby characteristics to withstand sudden
changes.
Actively smart materials utilising feedback.
Smart materials and systems reproducing biological functions in load-bearing structural
systems.
Sensor materials should have the ability to feedback stimuli such as thermal, electrical
and magnetic signals, to the motor system in response to changes in the thermomechanical characteristics of smart structures (Jane and Sirkis, 1994). Actuators should
also react to the same stimuli, but their reaction should be to change shape, stiffhess,
position, natural frequency, damping and/or other mechanical characteristics.
2.7.3 Nanotechnology
Nano as a prefix to any measure is a one billionth. For example, a nanosecond is one
billionth of a second; a nanometre is one billionth of a metre etc. The essence of
nanotechnology is the ability to create large structures from the bottom up, that is by
starting with materials at a molecular level an building them up. The structures created
nanostructures are the smallest human-made objects whose building blocks are
understood from first principles in terms of their biological, chemical and physical
properties.
Diamonds are lightweight, very strong and have a number of materials properties that
would make an ideal choice of materials for many items, from aeroplanes to cars.
However, although its versatility and strength are ideal its cost/availability is not.
11
Nanotechnology may provide the answer to this by taking manufacturing down to atomic
scale. Manufactured products are made from atoms if the atoms in coal are rearranged,
the result is diamonds; atoms of sand are rearranged then get computer chips are born.
Rearranging the atoms in dirt, water and air produces grass (Merkle, 1997). A
shatterproof diamond could be purpose grown to provide an ideal component in the
electronics, manufacturing, and construction sectors.
2.7.4 Embedded intelligence
A number of industrial applications are beginning to emerge that exploit the newly
emerging Internet capabilities of embedded systems. Embedded systems differ markedly
from desktop systems, being fitted with just enough functionality to handle a specific
application, enabling them to be produced at low-cost. Such systems have a more limited
processing speed, CPU power, display capability and persistent storage capability. The
challenge for developers is to produce embedded systems that are able to provide
network fiinctionality within these constraints.
The future is where all electronic devices are ubiquitous and networked with every
object, whether it is physical or electronic, electronically tagged with information
pertinent to that object. The use of physical tags will allow remote, contactless
interrogation of their contents; thus, enabling all physical objects to act as nodes in a
networked physical world. This technology will benefit supply chain management and
inventory control, product tracking and location identification, and human-computer and
human-object interfaces. In the construction sector auto-ID technologies will have a huge
impact on the supply chain, the design and construction process, and facilities
management (Marsh et al., 1997).
2.8 People, safety and health
2.8.1 People in a two-speed world
We have a two-speed world with a widening gap between the haves and the havenots. Large areas of the world have missed out on the information revolution,
threatening to widen the gap between rich and poorsee Figure 4. We need to bridge the
digital divide. According to a World Bank report a global explosion of knowledge is
underway which may lift hundreds of millions of the worlds poor out of poverty, or it
may create a widening knowledge gap, in which poor countries lag further and further
behind.
The richest 20% of the worlds people consume 86% of all goods and services while
the poorest 20% consume just 1.3%. The richest 20% consume 45% of all meat and
fish, 58% of all energy used and 84% of all paper, has 74% of all telephone lines and
owns 87% of all vehicles.
The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross
domestic product of the 48 least developed countries.
2/3rds of Indias 90 million lowest-income house-holds live below the poverty line.
12
The estimated additional cost of achieving and maintaining universal access to basic
education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive health care for all women,
adequate food for all, and clean water and safe sewers for all is roughly US$40 billion
a yearor less than 4% of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world.
The message for construction organisations is that more focus will be required on
regional markets. For example, China has the knowledge and capacity to build innovative
and complex structures, but it lacks the finance and the managerial efficiency. Hence,
finance and managerial systems help to bridge the gap. The developing world needs
appropriate technology, rather than leading edge advanced technology. Local power
generation, waste water treatment, and fresh water supply will need to be designed for
local provision. Affordability is key, both of the capital plant and the communitys ability
to pay for the service.
13
New employment patterns with the old idea of the employer and employee are
becoming obsolete. No one can feel secure in the sense of lifetime employment. Only
those who learn new skills will achieve long-term employability. Service providers are
growing in importance with outsourcing to specialist providers.
2.8.2 Safety
A focus on safety from a design and construction perspective by companies is
encouraged by insurance companies and legislation, and is important to employers,
employees, and public attitudes. Ultimately, safety by design will be viewed as part of the
normal design process. Accident and illness prevention plans need to be built into
schemes at the design stage in response to design-led safety information required by
clients. Scheme safety requirements will also include information feedback reporting to
originating scheme designers and to a master industry reference database.
Training, advances and greater use of personal protective equipment and clothing, and
using technology will combine to make the construction process safer. Better safety
policies and regulations will control risks associated with construction sites and
environmental decisions.
Virtual reality will simulate site working environments for safety training and to help
minimise vehicle movements and risks in general. Modular design, offsite prefabrication,
lntelligent site vehicles and use of robotics will reduce the number of traditional
tradesmen required, leading to fewer people on-site and a reduction in accidents.
Automation will also reduce the need for scaffolding and the number of people working
at height. More off-site work could tackle the problems of quality, safety and speed of
construction.
2.8.3 Health
Over 1 billion people in the world are without safe drinking water. Almost 3 billion
people (roughly half the worlds population) are without adequate sanitation in
developing countries. Technology has the solutions to provide safe drinking water, but
cost is the issue.
2.9 Vulnerability, security corruption and crime
Different designs are being studied that minimise the impact of bomb-related threats.
Structures are being designed such that a column collapse would only result in the
collapse of a single floor or area without causing the collapse of the floors below it.
Reinforcement of the columns in existing buildings by the use of fibre glass or carbon
fibre materials is being researched and also how to minimise the impact of shattered
glass. Experts are investigating the effects of the introduction of an aerosol agent into the
heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system through the development and
installation of devices that are designed to kill microorganisms or filter harmful
chemicals.
14
2.9.1 Corruption
Levels of investment, both, foreign and domestic depend on the quality of the business
environment of a country. The business environment among others is a function of the
rule of law, in particular the stability of rules and regulations governing business
transactions, political stability and transparency. Corruption increases the uncertainty of
doing business because it erodes the rule of law and is associated with high levels of
bureaucratic red tape. Some describe corruption as a tax that adds to the cost of doing
business. Various business surveys have concerned themselves with the prevalence of
corruption in everyday business operations. An empirical analysis of transition
economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia showed that investment levels in countries
with high levels of corruption were 6% lower on average than in countries with medium
levels of corruption (21% and 27% respectively) (The World Bank, 2000).
2.9.2 Crime
Crime is a growing industry with crime and terrorism becoming increasingly important
for the built environment. The events of September 11th have highlighted the importance
of life safety. Prior to that, building protection related to terrorism primarily focused on
the threat of bombs detonated inside vehicles. There is now a more extensive range of
threats, particularly those of a biological and chemical nature.
3 THE MESSAGE
The best way to predict the fiiture is to create itignore the future at your peril!
We have enormous potential for the future. This includes technology, improvements in
communication, availability of capital, and increases in the quantity and availability of
information and knowledge. These require a capacity to invent and seize opportunities,
and innovative thinking. Innovation is the means by which firms can exploit change as an
opportunity for a different business or service and gain a competitive advantage.
The drivers above relate to a snapshot in time; they will change over time and in
importance and impact. The impact on the developing world will be different to the
developed world. For example, in the developing world the results of desertification,
deforestation, hunger and depravation will all ultimately impact the developed world. For
design and construction organisations they represent both a threat and an opportunity.
REFERENCES
ACRES (2002) Affordable composites from renewable sources, University of Delaware, Center for
Composite Materials, USA
Cabinet Office (2001) Transport: trends and challenges. Performance and innovation Unit, Cabinet
Office, Her Majestys Government 13 November 2001
Chatham House (1998) Open Horizons Report from the Chatham House Forum. Royal Institute of
International Affairs. London. ISBN 1-86203-094-4
15
Jain, A.K. and Sirkis, J.S. (1994) Continuum damage mechanics in piezoelectric ceramics, in
Adaptive structures and composite materials: analysis and application, Garcia, E., Cudney, H.
and Dasgupta, A. (Eds). Presented at ASME 1994 International Mechanical Engineering
Congress and Exposition, Chicago, November 611, pp. 4758
Marsh, L., Flanagan R. and Finch, E. (1997) Enabling technologies: a primer on bar coding for
construction. The Chartered Institute of Building, ISBN 1 85380 081 3
Merkle, RC. (1997) Its a small, small, small, small world, MIT Technology review Feb/March
issue
OECD (2001) The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital. Paris:
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD
RAC Foundation (2002) Motoring towards 2050an independent inquiry RAC Foundation for
Motoring, London
Strassmann, P.A. (1998). The value of knowledge capital. American Programmer, 11(3), pp. 310
The Population Institute (2004) Website: www.population-institute.org
Treviparkhttp://www.trevipark.co.uk
UN (1999) World Urbanization Prospects, The 1999 Revision, Population Reference Bureau, UN
UN (2004) World population trends on web site:
http://www.undp.org/popin/wdtrends/a99/a99cht.htm
UN Population Division (1996) World urbanisation prospects, New York, 1996
Urban Task Force (2000) Our Towns and Cities: the future. Urban White Paper, Office of the
Deputy Prime Minister, London, UK, 183pp
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the pre-occupations of this age is the desire to see into the future. This is
understandable because the speed of change is so great that if you do not prepare then
you begin to lose out in some way. This is particularly true of organisations and the
concept of the learning organisation (Senge, 1990) to prepare for change is now an
established metaphor for this preparatory process. We need to learn in advance in order
that when change occurs we have the tools and culture to adapt to its requirements.
This has been taken a stage further with foresight studies where the scientific and
technological base of whole countries has been marshalled to examine future possibilities
and to prepare a research agenda to match. Over thirty countries have undertaken such
exercises over the past thirty years and many have found it enormously helpful. In many
cases it has been the process that seems to have been the great benefit. To get several
hundred experts to engage in such a process begins to change the culture of the country
towards a desire for self improvement.
Within such foresight exercises there has often been sector groups looking at the needs
and possibilities for major industries and of course construction being one of the major
manufacturing industries of the world has received due attention. Flanagan and Jewell
(2003) summarise the results of such exercises (See Table 1). Some aspects need to be
interpreted because, for example, Information Technology may be assumed by some
countries to be embedded in all the various aspects and therefore it does not necessarily
require to be shown as a separate item. However it is, of course, a major issue. Likewise
17
Yes
Innovation/
R&D
Exports/
Competitive
ness
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Repair &
maintenance
existing
stock
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Integration
processes &
people
Procurement
Yes
Yes
Construction
and
production
processes
IT
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
18
and project
delivery
Service
provider
People/
workplace/
culture
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
New
technologies
Yes
Environment/ Yes
whole life/
sustainability
Yes
Urban/city
development
Yes
Governance
codes &
standards
Yes
End-user
demands
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
accepted wisdom and produces a new paradigm which the vast majority follow.
Secondly, a period where little causes can have big effects and thirdly, where change
happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment. He applies this to many instances
where social behaviour becomes revolutionary but the same can also be said of
technology.
It was the introduction of the personal computer which suddenly made the power of
that computational machine available to the masses which in turn led to changes in
communications and the way people undertook many of their normal activities whether it
be leisure, or communication with friends or purchasing travel tickets or discovering
knowledge. The world changed in the space of less than one working lifetime to
something quite new. Partly it was contagious as the word was passed on as to what this
technology could do for the everyday life of people and once imparted it was difficult to
stop. Partly it was the fact that a relatively small but significant piece of software, the
internet, enabled people to access knowledge and interact with it through the machine at
their office or their home. Partly it was the dramatic possibilities which were seen
suddenly by so many that help create a critical mass of activity which brought the
investment, intellectual capital and imagination to produce the information infrastructure
we have today. Of course there were many factors which aided and abetted the change
but viewed from a distance these major drivers created an epidemic in human behaviour
which still continues today.
19
20
of ideas and developments lurks a minor change which will revolutionise the way the
construction industry works.
Convergence: The last decade has seen a massive change in digital technologies which
has seen all forms of media whether it be visual imagery, radio, television, audio,
personal computers or telephone communications all come together in one digital
representation. Mobile phones today now have the capacity to bring most of these
aspects together. It does not end there. Society across the world is changing and
despite resistance in some quarters there is much more sharing of knowledge leading
to a common or converging viewpoint which may in the long run lead to globalisation
of values. The seduction by western values is seen by many to be one of the downsides
of such open access which is controlled by a few. Will the construction industry come
together in a way we have never seen before?
Connectivity: Alongside the convergence through technologies has been the vast
increase in communication and the access we have in the developed world to all forms
of information. We can now be connected anytime any place anywhere and with the
development of ambient computing this is going to extend still further. With
connectivity comes contact, access and the inability to hold on to and protect specialist
information for more than a short period. The hold of the professions and their
fortresses of knowledge protected by their examination systems and barriers to entry
begins to disappear and boundaries between knowledge disappear. Connectivity
allows us to change quickly and for the virus of change to move through the
population unfettered, unleashing a contagion of ideas which can tip us into a new and
unknown situation.
Culture: As the technologies converge and connectivity allows the spread of the
contagious idea then it needs a receptive culture within which it is easy to breed. The
present generation of university leavers are the first cohort of graduates who have been
through the complete school system where information technology was an integral
part of the curriculum from the very first year of entry into education. To them it is the
norm whereas to previous generations it had to be learnt and absorbed and systems
had to be re-learnt to embrace change. The information technological change is now
endemic in society as a whole and it is even stranger to be outside it than to be in it.
Creativity: Do computers release creativity or constrain it? In past generations the need
to standardise and formalise to use the machine was prevalent. Now this is changing as
the nature of the machine becomes more flexible and adaptive. There is still a long
way to go and the culture has changed so that there is mutual give and take between
machine and user to which both are becoming more accustomed. The games industry
is a leading example where the users speak the language and seldom seem to have to
read any rule book before they can participate at a high level. This natural take up
needs to extend to industries like construction.
Content improvement: As the content of what is provided through the technology
improves so it is more likely that more people will want to use it. When that content of
knowledge or access becomes indispensable for normal living then the technology also
becomes indispensable. In the developed nations we are getting close to this situation
as our financial, employment, consumerism etc is being built around electronic
processing. For the construction industry we have some way to go but the industry is a
21
laggard in the race towards electronic business and falls sharply behind transport,
banking and other sectors.
Collaborative working: When the stakeholders need to work together for maximum
efficiency and they are geographically separated then the drive for integrated
communication and sharing becomes paramount. In addition the real benefits often
arise when the stakeholders work together and it is just not possible for one
organisation to act alone. The benefits of airline booking of tickets would not be as
successful if each company developed its own system which could not speak to the
others. Where the benefit is of this nature it may be necessary for Government or a
major player in the software industry to take the lead. In addition there must be
willingness for all parties to work together in pre-competitive research to establish the
platform.
Content: With the growing developments in the hard technologies comes an increased
impetus to provide the content for users to find the technology even more usefiil. The
entertainment industry has been one of the first to realise the potential for extra
services and education is following close behind, often using the same technology. It
has been argued that the distribution networks required for the content may create a
monopoly of knowledge, not unlike the half a dozen or so global film distributors who
control the films made available to us for general viewing. This could be dangerous as
we then leave the access to knowledge and the values that the knowledge conveys in
the hands of a few.
Cost reduction: As quickly as a new refinement to the technology takes hold then an
improved version is produced. This highly competitive market creates a leap frogging
effect which sometimes leaves the purchaser bewildered and unable to invest without
substantial risk. However the overall impact is for more computing power to become
available to each individual which in turn enables him or her to do more for the same
cost and in some cases to be more flexible in their use of the technology, thus
removing some of the barriers to use.
Common Standards: This may be a temporary factor in the tipping point agenda. The
technology is moving so fast that the hurdles we see now to inter-operability are likely
to disappear and the issue will become unimportant. However for the time being the
move towards standards for inter-operability such as the Industry Foundation Classes
(IFCs) is opening the opportunity to exchange information and to integrate processes
together. This in turn allows the collaborative working around a single model which
has long been the holy grail of the IT model builders.
We may well find within the above list that key activity which will tip the balance and
bring the construction industry to the fore in e-business. It is likely to be a combination of
many of the above but one new development could well take us into a new digital
craftsmanship to replace the old. If this is about to happen and many think the time is ripe
then we need to consider future possibilities and what it might be like to live in this new
world. What will be the advantages and the pitfalls? To do this we need to consider the
manner in which we approach the subject. This can be considered under three headings
namely, vectors, visions and values. All three share a degree of inter-dependence but all
three have significant lessons to teach us.
22
4 VECTORS
A vector is defined in one dictionary as a quantity completely specifled by magnitude
and direction. It is the realm of quantitative research and the fruitful field of the PhD
student. By measuring and refining and postulating and experimenting we see how we
might change the status quo and determine what factors contribute to our understanding
of an item or aspect. Even in qualitative research we often seek the quantification of our
findings through surveys and other mechanisms although in most cases we would hesitate
to say we have completely specifled the magnitude. It is also the field of systems which
specify how things behave, often in an integrated way. It has been the mechanisms by
which scientific method has enabled us to advance. By nature it tends to be reductionist,
reducing the problem to something which we can handle and understand although often
we lose the impact on other aspects of the world we live in. It is often the field of the
short term, dealing with the problems as we see it today.
If we take the information technology developments we can see how harnessing the
technology coupled with an understanding of science to aid in imagination, manufacture
and use has produced significant developments. If we link this with the idea of direction
then we move into what will form the next research agenda.
The European Fifth Framework project called ROADCON (Strategic RTD
Roadmap for ICT in Construction, 2001) attempted to identify where we are now in
terms of IT and the roadmap of where we should be goingthe direction. This is a
summary of what was listed:
Applications
Current: These are dedicated to specific engineering functions andproject/building
life cycle stages.
Future: Total life cycle appraisal supported by user-friendly functional applications
and persistent data ensuring holistic decision making.
Products and Components
Current: Have little added value to the building operation.
Future: A mixture of high and low value components acting intelligently.
Knowledge re-use
Current: Relies on industry wide sharing of experiences and fiindamental
understanding of complex systems interacting at all levels.
Future: Experience and previous solutions are available in personal and
departmental archives but new solutions are regularly re-invented in every project.
Information access
Current Company and project data available via LANs and web based technologies.
Future: Ambient access provided, anytime, anywhere, by industry wide
communications infrastructure, distributed and embedded systems, ambient
intelligence and mobile computing.
Project Information and Communication technologies
23
Current: Based on ICTs which augment the creation and sharing of humaninterpretable information.
Future: Based on model based ICT enabling context awareness, automation,
simulation and visualisation based on computer interpretable data.
Nature of technology
Current: Invasive technology where the user has to adapt to proven and emerging
technologies.
Future: Technology is human-centred based around design and build paradigms
promoted by ICTs that enhance the social condition of individuals in the society.
Data Exchange
Current: Available at file level between different applications and companies based
mainly on proprietary formats at low semantic level.
Future: Flexible inter-operability between heterogeneous ICT systems which allows
seamless interaction between all stakeholders.
Processes
Current: Business processes are driven by lowest cost but there is a growing
awareness of customer perceived value which is not supported by prevailing
business models.
Future: Performance driven process assuring compliance with clients requirements
and emphasis on customer perceived value.
Collaborative teams
Current: Teamwork between distributed experts in participating companies is
supported by web-enabled document management systems in project web sites.
Future: Virtual teams combine distributed competences via global collaboration
environments that support cultural, linguistic, social and legal transparency.
Systems Flexibility
Current ICTs require customisation to meet the varying needs of users and has to be
tailor-made for new situations requiring manual maintenance, configuration and
support.
Future: Adaptive systems are created which learn from their own use and user
behaviour, and are able to adapt to new situations without manual maintenance,
configuration and support.
The above list suggests where development might take place to overcome some of the
difficulties we face today and provide a working environment which is more finely
attuned to the needs of human beings. It is technology centred and is looking for technical
solutions. To obtain these solutions then quantitative measures are needed for the science
to produce the tools and the technology to make use of scientific discovery. Much will be
based on an understanding of the natural sciences and the engineering necessary to make
the science useful. In this broad sense the work is in the realm of the vector, quantities
24
5. Information &
communication
technologies
6. Virtual
prototyping
process
7. Off-site
manufacture
8. Improved
manufacturing
1. Environmentally
sustainable
construction
Strong
Medium
Strong
Strong
2. Meeting client
needs
Strong
Strong
Weak
Strong
3. Improved
business
environment
Strong
Medium
Weak
Medium
4. Improvement of
labour force
Strong
Medium
Strong
Strong
9. Research and
innovation
Strong
Strong
Strong
Strong
to provide guidelines for policy makers about the directions they should follow. In one
case (forecasting) the industry asks how do I respond to these events? knowing they are
25
powerless to do anything about them and in the other (foresight) the industry asks what
do I need to achieve these goals? It is the difference between saying the future is
inevitable and we just have to predict what will happen and on the other hand saying we
can influence the future, we are not just helpless bystanders.
The most recent foresight study is the Construction 2020 Vision arranged through the
CRC Construction based at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia,
involving all the major organisations and professions in the industry. Several hundred
people attended workshops and completed questionnaires in which they identified their
vision for an improved Australian Construction industry. The final summary report of
these deliberations (Hampson & Brandon, 2004) reveals the integrated nature of the
aspirations of the industry. Table 2 shows the broad outline of the nine visions or themes
distilled from all the responses made. On one axis it can be seen that it is the
environment in which construction takes place which is the key issues. (Environment
here means the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an
individual or community). These include the needs of the workforce, a sustainable
environment, responding to clients needs, an improved business environment and
research and development. On the other axis are the technologies which might well aid
the improvement in the environments identified and these include process issues and
those related to ICTs. The strength of relationship does of course vary between the two.
What is interesting here is that it is not the technologies which dominate. In fact in the
analysis of responses it was the improved business environment and environmentally
sustainable construction which headed the list. The technologies, although considered
important, were seen as a means by which the other issues could be achieved. In other
words, it was the people issues which were really considered to be important, whether it
was now (as in the case of the business environment) or in the future (as in the case of
sustainable development).
This suggests that visions of the future as expressed in peoples aspirations are more
about quality of life rather than mere technological advance. This may well be something
we should note as we invest our time and energy into issues of self improvement. In fact
the drive is towards values rather than solutions to current technological problems. This is
also more evident as people are asked to look into the longer term future rather than the
short and medium term. What we see is a shift to values the more we leave the baggage
of the present behind.
6 VALUES
At the heart of values are the belief systems to which we hold. These in turn are arise
from or are created by the culture in which we live. In democratic societies, at least, these
are partially enshrined in the legislation and regulation which the people have determined
to represent those values. Whilst in past times these matters were largely stable and often
confined by national or other boundaries, this is not so true today. The internet and other
technologies do not recognise such boundaries and can pose a threat to those who hold
strong beliefs. We are moving into a period when values are becoming a key issue in
development and world politics as globalisation begins to be the mantra of the many.
26
When we consider the research agenda for countries the question of values is often
forgotten in our desire to improve the systems and technologies with which we work.
When the Australian community calls for a better business environment, what is it calling
for? Does it mean more profits for all and if so does this mean that someone else will
suffer? Does it mean a fairer distribution of risk, in which case who wins and who loses,
assuming the present system is unsatisfactory. Does it mean that those with technology
win and those without lose? It is a very complex issue but one that is fiindamental to the
well-being of the people we seek to serve. Our research cannot be undertaken, and a new
tool produced, without considering whether people want it, whether it has negative as
well as positive contributions to make or whether it supports or undermines the values of
the society in which it is to be used.
These matters are critical in the information sciences. Knowledge is not neutral, it
empowers some and can disempower others. At the same time the technologies used to
convey knowledge use models, which by definition, are not fiilly representative of the
object or system they try to represent. They represent the item but they do not convey it
in its entirety. We are moving to the creation of a virtual world where we aim to create
reality within a machine. As we move in this direction we begin to touch on some very
key and sensitive issues. How do we really know that this new world truly reflects our
own? Even if it doesare we interpreting it in the right way? In the real world it only
affects a small number of individuals and changes can be made and the model adapted.
Computer models on the other hand are designed to be used time and time again by many
people who do not necessarily communicate with each other. Mistakes become fossilized
and values become frozen to the point where an oppressive tool may have been created.
The author, as a programmer, many years ago was concerned by some of the knowledge
he was placing in some computer programmes. In several programming languages the
expression IFTHEN was common. IF a certain set of circumstances existed THEN a
certain action was taken. At the time we were writing into the programme well
recognised techniques and best practice but what if our knowledge increased or society
did not want to implement that action when that set of circumstances occurred? In a
simple program it could be changed but not before many had used it or still continued to
use it. In a complex program the piece of knowledge became embedded so deep that it
was often impossible to find it and extract it and change it. It became part of the system
and it was almost impossible to detect the manner in which it influenced the full model or
program.
This became even more acute when Knowledge Based Systems came into being. We
captured the knowledge of experts and we made that available to those who were less
expert. The knowledge of the expert and to some extent his or her value system was now
built into the model. We tried to devise ways round this by designating some knowledge
as stable (but who says so) and some as unstable and therefore made more explicit and
easy to change. This can work in relatively small systems dealing with focussed
applications but the trend is towards integrated systems and greater intelligence for the
machine. In other words we will be leaving more of the decision making to the machine.
What algorithms will the machine use and how many of these will represent values?
When we begin to have conversation with the machine how do we know what
mechanisms it is using to guide us towards a particular solution?
27
This is but one example of where technology is taking us into the value systems arena,
although some would argue that we have been there for some time. These are not trivial
matters. As we allow machines to intrude on our privacy and on our decision-making are
we going to be constantly challenging its reasoning powers as we do in debate and
conversation? How will we get all of us to buy in to what it is doing when the users are
not a coherent homogenous group who can exercise some kind of democratic power? We
are already talking about jacking in computers direct into the brain. This raises even
greater questions about at which point the brain leaves being human and becomes a
machine and who provides its value system, man or machine?
This must seem like science fiction to some but it is coming upon us fast. In our
research we must ask the question about what we are creating and how this really ties in
with the aspirations of our fellow human kind to have a reasonable quality of life. There
should come a point when every piece of research but particularly research in terms of
knowledge and processes should require a set of questions to be asked about how it
impacts upon the society which it seeks to serve.
7 CONCLUDING REMARKS
This paper has attempted to raise some fundamental questions about the research we do,
particularly in the field of information and communication technologies, but also in the
way we do it. It has recognised the great debt we owe to scientific method and the
reductionist approach which has provided advances from which we have all benefited.
This is the realm of the vector where measurement reigns supreme. It has also recognised
the importance of looking to the future to provide further direction to our efforts. Here
studies are finding increasingly that it is quality of life issues which now dominate, rather
than technology. Technology is seen as enabler but needs to be kept in its place. The need
to know the general direction we are heading in is a key to investment and efficient
utilisation of resources. The faster the speed of change then the greater the need to
envision where we are going. With an increase in speed, so must the headlights become
stronger! As we move toward quality of life then we begin to embrace the values of
people and their aspirations. The vision for the future must address these issues. Finally
these values need to be subject to constant debate and exploration and the technology
must be sufficiently transparent and flexible to adopt the conclusions of the debate or else
we will create a monster of horrific proportions.
Whether these approaches result in the tipping point is unknown. It is likely that it is
the combination of scientific method scenario planning and a response to values which
will provide the changes that will see Construction move in a way which has been seen
by many industries. These issues around construction are now reaching a crescendo of
movement which seems to suggest that this point is near and we need to consider what
part each of us should play.
In conclusion vectors underpin our understanding of the future and provide material
for our visions; visions allow us to provide scenarios in which we can mould events and
seek to match the aspirations of society; values underpin all that we do and unless these
are part of the foregoing processes then we may be undermining the very progress we are
trying to achieve. Values should dominate if the tipping point is to provide us with a
28
technological base which will be human centred and serve humankind and our industry
well.
REFERENCES
Flanagan, R. & Jewell, C. 2003. A Review of Recent Work on Construction Futures. London.:
CRISP Commission 02/06, Construction Research and Strategy Panel
Gehry, J. 2002. Gehry Talks. Architecture+Process. USA: Universe Press
Gladwell, M. 2001. The Tipping Point. UK: Abacus
Hampson, K. & Brandon, P. 2004. Construction 2020-A Vision for Australias Property and
Construction Industry. Australia: CRC for Construction Innovation, QUT, Brisbane
Ratcliffe, J. 2004. Imagineering the Futurethe prospective process through scenario thinking for
strategic planning and management; a tool for exploring IT futures in Designing Managing and
Supporting Construction Projects Through Innovation and IT solutions (Editors Brandon, P.
Heng Li, Shaffii, N. & Shen, Q.) Malaysia: CIDB
ROADCON: Strategic RTD Roadmap for ICT in Construction. 2001. European Fifth Framework
Project. (IST-2001-37278)
Senge, P. 1990. The Fifth Disciplinethe Art andPractice of the Learning Organisation. London:
Random House
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDlkba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Current trends in information technology (IT) are yielding a wide range of new
computer-based tools to support the architecture, engineering, construction and
facilities management (AEC/FM) industrieseverything from project collaboration
Web sites to virtual building environments. These tools promise great increases in the
effectiveness and efficiency of designing and managing construction projects. However,
no one claims that these improvements will come without cost in terms of new skills and
work tasks that will be required of many of the project participants. These new
requirements are often required of senior project designers and managers. Yet the reality
of the AEC/FM industry is that these people will rarely be in the position to take on these
new requirements. They can typically be characterized as busy, highly effective people,
and in the spirit of putting first things first (Covey 1990), taking the time to learn and
implement new IT will rarely be at the top of their priority list, regardless of the expected
benefits. Moreover, trends towards the integration of information resources create new
requirements for project-wide information coordination, which must be administered by
someone. To address these practical barriers to IT innovation, we suggest that a new role
is required for AEC/FM projectsthat of a Project Information Officer. This paper
explores the anticipated roles and requirements of the Project Information Officer in the
form of a hypothetical job description for such a person.
30
31
integration of legacy and existing technology with plans for new and ftiture
technology, and so on.
The model considers these elements across all project participants. The
information management tasks described below are carried out for each of these
project elements.
3.1.2 Analysis of information management elements
As the first step in developing the information management plan, the PIO will analyze
each element (tasks, transactions, and integration issues) to assess the overall information
requirements, as follows:
Define each task, transaction, or integration issue, including identifying participants,
project phase, etc. This should correspond largely to an overall project plan, and thus it
may not need to be done as a distinct activity.
Assess the signiflcant information requirements for each element: Determine, in general
terms, the type of information required for carrying out the tasks, the information
communicated in the transactions, or the requirements for integration issues. With
traditional information technologies, information requirements generally correspond to
specific paper or electronic documents. With newer information technologies,
however, information requirements can involve access to specific data sources (such
as shared databases) that do not correspond to traditional documents.
Assess tool requirements: Determine key software applications used in carrying out
tasks, communication technologies used for transactions, or standards used to support
integration.
32
33
Training: The PIO will organize the training necessary for project participants to carry
out the information management plan. This will be especially necessary in the case of
new information technology.
Provide project information technology resources: The PIO will be responsible for
acquiring and supporting any information technology resources (computing hardware
and software) that are best provided for the project as a whole, as opposed to
individual participants (for example, this may include a project collaboration web site,
but not specific CAD software).
Provide information management and technology support for project participants: The
PIO will act as a resource available to all key project participants on issues relating to
information management and technology.
3.2 Project systems and areas of expertise
It is anticipated that the specific types of information systems used during project will be
as described in the following list. The PIO is required to have a basic expertise in all of
these areas, and to include each of these with in the information management plan.
Project document management and collaboration web site: a web site will be
established for the project that will act as the central document management and
collaboration vehicle for the project. This will include user accounts for all project
participants, access control for project information, online forms and workflows,
messaging, contact list, etc. A commercial service will be used to create and host the
site.
Classification systems, project break downs structures and codes, and folder structures:
much of the project information will be organized according to various forms of
classification systems. These range from the use of industry-standard numbering
schemes for specification documents, to the use of a project work breakdowns
structure, to the creation of a hierarchical folder structure for documents placed on the
project web site. The PIO must have familiarity with relevant industry classification
systems such as OCCS (OCCS Development Committee 2004), and will be
responsible for establishing the project classification systems.
Model-based interoperability: many of the systems described below work with modelbased project data, and have the potential to exchange this data with other types of
systems. The project will adopt a model-based interoperability approach for data
exchange for the lifecycle of the project. The PIO must be familiar with the relevant
data exchange standards, in particular the IFCs (International Alliance for
Interoperability 2004), and must establish specific requirements and policies for
project data interoperability. The PIO must also establish a central repository for the
project modelbased data (a model server).
Requirements management system: a requirements management tool will be
used to capture significant project requirements through all phases of the project
and to assure that these requirements are satisfied during the design in execution
of the work.
Model-based architectural design: The architectural design for the building will
be carried out using model based design tools (e.g., object-based CAD). Although
this improves the effectiveness of the architectural design process, the primary
34
motivation here is the use of the resulting building information model as input to
many of the downstream activities and systems.
Visualization: using the building information model, which includes full 3-D
geometry, there will be extensive use of visualization to capture requirements and
identify issues with the users, designers, and builders. This may include high-end
virtual reality environments (e.g., immersive 3-D visualization), on-site
visualization facilities, etc.
Model-based engineering analysis and design: the building information model
will be used as preliminary input for a number of specialized engineering analysis
and design tools for structural, building systems, sustainability, etc.
Project costs and value engineering: the building information model will be
used as input to cost estimating and value engineering systems. These will be
used at numerous points through the lifecycle of the project (with varying degrees
of accuracy).
Construction planning and control. the project will make use of systems for
effective schedule planning and control, short interval planning and production
engineering, operation simulation, esource planning, etc. Again, the systems will
make use of the building information model and will link into other project
information for purposes such as 4-D simulation.
E-procurement: project participants will make use of on-line electronic systems
to support all aspects of procurement, including E-bidding/tendering, project
plans are rooms, etc.
E-transactions: on-line systems will be available for most common project
transactions, such as requests for information, progress payments claims, etc.
These will be available through the project web site.
E-legal strategy: project policies and agreements will be in place to address
legal issues relating to the electronic project transactions.
Handoff of project information to facilities management and project archives:
systems and procedures will be in place to ensure that complete and efficient
package of project information is handed off from design and construction to
ongoing facilities operation and management, as well as maintained as archives of
the project
3.3 Assist in the implementation of a unifled approach to project
management
It has been argued that there is a fundamental mismatch between emerging IT solutions
for AEC/FM and current project management practices (Froese and Staub-French 2003).
The IT solutions rely on a high degree of integration and collaboration, whereas current
practice makes heavy use of decomposition and modularization to minimize
interdependencies between project tasks and participants. IT developers must strive to
accommodate current practice, yet project management practice may also need to adapt
in order to take full advantage of the capabilities offered by emerging IT solutions.
The proposed project will adopt these modifications and use a unified approach to
project management. In this unified approach, the work is still carried out by defining
distinct work packages and assigning these to individual project participant groups.
35
4 ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE
36
The PIO may be an employee of the project owner, lead designer, or lead contractor
organizations, or may work as an independent consultant/contractor. Regardless of
employer, the PIO will be considered to be a resource to the project as a whole, not to an
individual project participant organization. The PIO will be a senior management-level
position within the project organization (i.e., not a junior technology support position).
The PIO will report to the owners project representative and will work with an
information management committee consisting of project managers and information
specialists from key project participants. Depending upon the size of the project, the PIO
will have an independent staff. In addition to the information management committee,
liaison positions will be assigned within each project participant organization.
5 SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
Candidates for the position of PIO will be required to have a thorough understanding of
the AEC/FM industry, information management and organizational issues, data
interoperability issues, and best practices for software tools and procedures for all of the
major project systems described previously. Candidates with be expected to possess a
masters degree relating to construction IT and experience with information management
on at least one similar project.
6 COMPENSATION AND EVALUATION
Advanced construction IT offers great promise for improving the project effectiveness
and efficiency while reducing risk. Not all of these benefits directly reduce costs, yet the
overall assumption is that the costs of the PIO position will be fiilly realized through
project cost savings. This will not be a direct measure, but will be assessed on an overall
qualitative basis through an information management review processes that examines the
following questions of the information management and technology for the project:
To what degree was waste (any non-value-adding activity) reduced?
What new functionality was available?
How efficient and problem-free was the informa tion management and
technology relative to projects with similar levels of IT in the past?
What was the level of service and management effectiveness offered by the
PIO?
What is the potential for future improvements gained by the information
management practices on this project (i.e., recognizing the long learning curve
that may be associated with new IT)?
37
7 CONCLUSIONS
The description of a PIO role and an overall project information management context
described in this paper is preliminary, incomplete, and overly idealistic. Many of the
tasks and technologies described here are currently in place on construction projects.
However, the position of a project information officer and information management
procedures of the nature described here could go a long way towards easing some of the
significant practical barriers that stand between emerging IT solutions and real
improvements to construction projects. Next steps would include collecting best practices
for information management on construction projects, further development and
refinement of an information management process, and greater inclusion of overall
information management practices as part of IT research and development projects.
REFERENCES
Covey, S. (1990) The 7 habits of Highly Effective People, Fireside: New York.
Froese, T. and Staub-French, S. (2003). A Unified Approach to Project Management, 4th Joint
Symposium on Information Technology in Civil Engineering, ASCE, Nashville, USA, Nov.
2003.
International Alliance for Interoperability (2004), IAI International Home Page, URL:
http://www.iai-international.org/iai_international/ (accessed June 3, 2004).
OCCS Development Committee, (2004). OCCS Net, The Omniclass Construction Classification
System, web page at: http://www.occsnet.org/ [accessed June 24, 2004].
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
39
Some key projects running in the field of new working paradigms are described to
illustrate the possibilities the technology is providing already today, not to talk about
tomorrow.
The third part of the speech continues precise information of the experiences the EU
has from past projects in the field, the achievements and also the experiences of the first
and second call of the IST programme where themes like networked business and mobile
work were present.
The third call which is closing these days is elaborated in the perspective of the longterm goals of the EU in constructing new undertakings and instruments to capture better
the whole innovation process, which has moved from sequential to strongly parallel,
more dynamic and multidisciplinary than ever before.
Here a new approach to the building of the research and innovation agenda is
described. The unit New Working Environments of DG Information Society has started a
set of research communities, interacting in a multidisciplinary way. The communities
consist of industrial and research actors, policy makers and those who are needed to
cover the whole innovation process. This set of communities, called ami@work (Ambient
Intelligence at work) are now in the start-up phase, but already encompassing more than
600 people being actively involved. The site can be found under www.amiatwork.com,
which is inviting you all to participate in those communities closest to you.
As example of supporting the innovation process on national base is also described, to
illustrate the needed interactions for full efficiency. Industrial and research community
participation is encouraged to make the interactions and thus the whole innovation
process more effective.
The fourth IST call, which is to be published at the yearly IST 2004 conference, this
year in the Hague, The Netherlands is discussed as the whole IST research work
programme 20052006, which is investing in IST research some 1,8 Billion EURO in the
forthcoming two years. New themes are approaching, and the background thinking
leading to this is described.
Last but not least the path towards the 7th EU research Framework programme is
described. The proposal from the Commission is to double the research investment to
match with the goals of 3% of research of the GDP following the Lisbon agenda goals.
New instruments like technology platforms are debated, as well as the balance
between the long-term (individual) research versus the current collaborative research
schemes. The state of the play and the rationale of the choices will be discussed. Also the
next steps opening participation possibilities for the industry and research sectors are
described to encourage the common way to meet the sustainable growth goals.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The new-construction market has been shrinking, while the renovation and refurbishment
market is rapidly expanding in the construction industry (Mahdjoubi and Ahmed, 2004).
Operating and maintaining a facility takes the biggest proportion of the lifecycle cost of a
building. The growing emphasison lifecycle considerations through new forms of project
42
43
3. Produce a system to support development planning processes and that engage citizens
in planning regeneration.
4. Show how these systems could be integrated with other city systems.
5. Report on how a holistic approach to all elements of building, refurbishment and urban
planning and design can lead to successful, sustainable cities.
The objective 5 specifically is addressed in the paper. The task, which is defined to
achieve the objective 5, is the building data capture using the laser scanner technology
and investigate this technology to enhance the refiirbishment process and maintenance.
Figure 1 illustrates the vision, which is beyond the INTELCITIES project, for the use of
3D laser scanner for maintenance and refurbishment process. In the INTELCITIES
project, the laser scanner technology is aimed at showing how it can be used for building
refurbishment and maintenance.
In figure 1, the first step centres on the creating VR models subject to the requirements
of use and usage of the VR models such as building redesign and renovation, building
survey and evaluation, reverse engineering, fabrication and construction inspection,
health and safety, and urban planning and analysis.
In the second step, integration is the main concern. Therefore, integration of the laser
scanning system will be endeavoured with the GPS systems for linking the OS
(Ordanance Survey) data or for linking the local authority data, with the GIS system for
accomplishing the full integration of VR and GIS and with the Workbench for
interactively analysing the VR models produced through laser scanning system.
44
The rest of the paper considers DSS (Decision Support System) and delves into the
integration of the 3D laser scanning technology with GIS system for building
maintenance. In the next section, the existing methods of building maintenance and their
limitations are explained in order to justify the integration of the 3D-GIS and the 3D laser
scanner systems.
3 PREVAILING METHODS OF BUILDING MAINTENANCE AND
THEIR LIMITATIONS
Planning and control of building maintenance works are commonly performed using
traditional media, such as paper-based plans and sketches. Other techniques have also
emerged as decision support systems (DSS) and integrated environments.
In recent years, major efforts were devoted to the development of decision support
systems (DSS) to address building maintenance issues. Several of these systems have
been developed to assist managers and decision-makers in planning building maintenance
activities. Each DSS has its own functionality and designed for its unique purpose. These
tools range from renovation design to initiation of renovation projects.
Rosenfeld and Shohet (1996) have developed a unique DSS, which is capable of
suggesting various building/facility-upgrading alternatives. This system was
demonstrated on a 25-year-old dining facility in a military base that had suffered serious
structural damage due to foundation problems. This system has proved valuable for the
maintenance work. It provided managers with alternatives depending on the input
criteria, including full descriptions of building evaluation and end-results. However, it
only provides information on the general condition of the facility, including costs and
subsequently life span of facility depending on how much money is available or what
alternative is chosen.
Underwood and Alshawi (2000) developed an integrated construction environment for
the UK construction industrythe Simultaneous Prototyping for an Integrated
Construction Environment (SPACE). MAINTenance ForeCASTing in an Integrated
Construction Environment (MAINCAST) (Underwood and Alshawi, 2000) is an
amplification of SPACE, which forecasts building element maintenance of a project as
part of a fully integrated environment MAINCAST and was developed to assist the
facility manager/owner (Client) in facility/project management by automatically
generating detailed maintenance valuations, outlining the required maintenance during
every operational year of the projects life, etc.
However, these media suffer from several limitations. Firstly, it is difficult to identify
the refiirbishment and renovation tasks. Secondly, it is also difficult to monitor the
various tasks, because of the complexity of the operation tasks. The Rosenfeld and
Shohet system DSS for instance is not capable of enabling managers and decision-makers
to view the facility and see the damaged elements or locate them. Overall, the main
limitation of these DSS systems is related to their output. They usually provide the results
in a text format or tables and, in some cases, bar charts. This form of output is often not
appropriate for decision-makers to visualise the results of their queries, especially when
lay-clients are involved in the communication process. These tools have yet to adopt
spatial analysis techniques such as GIS technology in their operation. A GIS enables the
45
spatial analysis and static visualisation of critical of query outputs (Enache, 1994) was
critical of the failure of current DSS systerns to make use of advances in GIS technology.
In addition, it does not allow them to visualise the final changes, before starting the
maintenance work. Clearly, there is a need to improve the management of information
and tasks about building maintenance.
4 3D-GIS AND LASER SCANNING TECHNOLOGY AS VR
EMERGING TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are collections of computing techniques and
databases that support the gathering, analysis and display of large volumes of spatially
referenced data (USEPA, 2002).
On the other hand, the innovation consists of a laser scanner controlled by a laptop
computer. The scanner is targeted to the physical objects to be scanned and the laser
beam is directed over the object in a closely spaced grid of points. By measuring the time
of laser flight, which is the time of travel of the laser from the scanner to the physical
objects and back to the scanner, the scanner determines the position in three-dimensional
space of each scanned point on the object. The result is a cloud of points thousands of
points in three-dimensional space that are a dimensionally accurate representation of the
existing object (Schofield, 2001). This information can then be converted in a 3D CAD
model that can be manipulated using CAD software, and to which the design of new
equipment can be added.
3D Laser Scanner is currently used for a variety of sectors range from industrial
applications for process automation in automotive industry, steel industry, robotics, etc,
to mining, archaeology, survey, urban planning and railway, tunnel and bridge
construction (Arayici et al, 2003).
In recent years, however, the emerging GIS systems have presented organisations and
management sectors with significant advances in making informed decisions. Ehler,
Cowen, and Mackey (1995) argued that linking GIS with DSS systems has enabled the
user to make well-informed decisions, based on the problem at hand. Also, Modis (2001)
reported that tools, which are based on GIS technology, have ofFered managers and
decision-makers substantial benefits, including usability, accuracy, and efficiency.
Consequently, organisations around the world are reaping considerable benefits by
capitalising on spatial technology solutions. GIS applications in (DSS) provide an
enhanced means of resolving complex geo-analytical problems.
Furthermore, systems based on 3D GIS technology are starting to supersede the early
GIS systems (Jordan, 2000), (Song et al, 2002, 2003). Although still in its infancy, this
emerging technology could clearly support the planning process of building maintenance
projects. 3D modelling capability of GIS could also enable managers to foresee changes
and modifications in an improved manner. However, despite the evident advantages of
3D technology to this type of planning and construction work, its fiill benefits could not
be realised without an improved visualisation of the output. Indeed, the results of 3D GIS
systems are usually displayed as a static cardboard model, which does not allow users to
explore and rapidly visualise the results of their queries.
46
Combining 3D GIS with advances in the Laser Scanner VR technology could provide
decisionmakers more robust tools to visualise in real-time the 3D GIS environment.
Verbree et al. (1999) argued that VR technology offers new and exciting opportunities to
visualise 3D GIS data that, in turn, improve DSS usability and enable users to walk
through 3D environments. It allows them to see building elements and appreciated
proposed changes in a real time environment. Sidjanin (1998) demonstrated that linking
GIS and VR oifered great capabilities for decision-making, as it could produce real-time
and realistic visualisation of spatial data. In addition, VR interface could improve
understanding of GIS spatial analyses and handling of queries on the data, as well as
navigating through the dynamic map model and for using GIS functions.
Similarly, the ability to rapidly sketch and visualise design ideas has been stressed as
an important task in urban design (Smith, 1998). Hence the VENUE Project was
conceived as a means of experimenting with links between GIS and 3D visualisation
tools (ibid). The project demonstrated that a set of urban features can be visualised as
building block outlines in 2D ArchView (based on Ordnance Survey base data).
Removing building sub-divisions and line vertex generalisation enabled the production of
3D VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) model by assigning a height attribute in
ArchView. This approach is on a macro scale in relation to buildings but can be extended
to a more detailed micro scale application suitable for building maintenance (Camara and
Raper, 1999).
In line with the foregoing, it can be established that there are several approaches that
have successfiilly linked 3D-GIS with the Laser Scanner VR technology as a means of
enhancing decision support. These successful developments further exposes the
possibility of employing this combination to enhance current building maintenance DSS.
The following section describes a proposed methodology, which is partly inspired by the
work of (Mahdjoubi and Ahmed, 2004).
5 METHODOLOGY
The aim of this section is to propose a framework which includes a series of analytical
tools that will enable various stakeholders in the building maintenance sector to make
informed decisions relating to building maintenance works. This framework, which is
depicted in Figure 2, includes:
1) The development and population of a geo-spatial project database with the digital data
of existing building captured with the laser scanning equipment.
2) The analysis of complex building information maintenance options within a
knowledge repository environment, digital building data captured by the laser scanner
is retrieved with 3D GIS system for the analysis.
3) The visualisation of the project information through a range of different interconnected
graphic windows. The laser scanner VR model can be visualised in different platforms
including workbench.
The geo-spatial project database will describe the geometries of both the building frame
and its components. Simple open geometric descriptions will be used, but each entry will
47
also be associated with data on inventory information such as name, supplier, date
installed/replaced, number of previous replacements, etc.
The procedure for the development will be based on establishing a robust objectoriented database management system (OOMS). The system will enable the capture of all
geo-spatial information of the building frame and components using laser scanner.
Inventory information relating to each frame and component will also be captured within
the relational
48
7 SUMMARY
This paper provides an overview of the e-Regeneration package of the INTELCITIES
project, which aims at helping achieve the EU policy goal of the knowledge society.
INTELCITIES project aims to bring together the combined experience and expertise of
key players from across Europe, focusing on a number of built and human environment
issues including e-Government, e-Planning and e-Inclusion, e-Land Use Information
Management, e-Regeneration, Integration and Inter-operability, Virtual Urban Planning,
etc, (http://www.intelcitiesproject.com/).
This project recognises the need for integrating visualisation techniques and systems
for building maintenance and refurbishment. In particular, the vision for the use of laser
scanner equipment for building refurbishment and maintenance is addressed (see figure
1) and a framework for integrating such 3D GIS and Laser scanner systems is developed
to assist the flow of information. Lastly, the beneficiaries of such integration are
summarised.
For the time being, the integration of 3D GIS and Laser scanner technology is being
conceptually modelled. Once this is completed, it will be implemented.
REFERENCES
Arayici, Y., Hamilton, A., Hunter, G. (2003) Reverse Engineering in Construction, the
conference of World of Geomatics 2003: Measuring, Mapping, and Managing, Telford, UK
Camara, A.S., Raper, J. (1999) spatial multimedia and virtual reality. London, Taylor & Francis.
Decision-Support Model. Application of the performance concept in buildingInternational
49
Ehler, G., Cowen, D., Mackey, H. (1995) Design and Implementation of Spatial Decision Support
System for Site Selection. ESRI, International User Conference, 1995, May 2226, 1995, Palm
Springs, (California), ESRI
Enache, M. (1994) Integrating GIS with DSS: A Research Agenda. URISA Conference,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 1994
Jordan, L. (2000) Web Accessible 3D Viewing Next Step for GIS Virtualising the 3D Real World
multi-view interface for 3D GIS. Computer & Graphics, 23, pp. 497506.
Lee, A., Marshall-Ponting, A.J., Aouad, G., Wu, S., Koh, W.W.I., Fu, C., Cooper, R., Betts, M.,
Kagioglou, M. Fisher, M. (2003) Developing a vision of nD-enabled construction, Construct IT,
University of Salford, UK
Mahdjoubi, L., Ahmed, V. (2004) Virtual Building Maintenance: Enhancing Building
Maintenance using 3D GIS and Virtual Reality (VR) Technology, Conference of Designing,
Managing, and Supporting Construction Projects through Innovation and IT solutions
(INCITE2004), February 2004, Langkawi, Malaysia
Modis (2001) IT Resource Management. <http://www. modisit.com/gis/> (accessed on 28
November)
Rosenfeld, Y. Shohet, I.M. (1996) Initiation of Renovation Projects: Techno-Economic
Sidjanin, P. (1998) Visualisation of GIS Data in VR Related to Cognitive Mapping of
Environment. IEEE Computer Society: conference on Information Visualisation, 1998, July,
London: IEEE Computer
Schofield, W. (2001) Engineering Surveying 5th Edition: Theory and Examination Problems for
Students, ISBN 07506 4987 9
Simmonds, P., Clark, J. (1999) UK Construction 2010-future trends and issuesbriefing paper
Smith, A. (1998) The Venue Project: Adding 3D Visualisation Capabilities to GIS. Society, pp.
339349.
Song, Y., Hamilton, A., Trodd, N.M., (2002) technical Design Issues of Linking Geospatial
technology for 3D Visualisation, Interaction and Analysis, in the Proceedings of the Conference
on GIS Research in the UK, pp. 256262.
Song, Y., Hamilton, A., Trodd, N. (2003) Developing an Internet based Geographic Visual
Information System, In the proceedings of the GIS Research in the UK 2003 Conference, 9th
11th April 2003, City University, London.
Underwood, J. Alshawi, M. (2000) Forecasting Building Element Maintenance within an Integrated
Construction Environment. Automation in construction 9 (2000) pp. 169184
Usepa (2002) GIS-Visualization (VIS) Integration Efforts. United States Environmental Protection
Verbree, E., Van Maren, G., Germs, R., Jansen, F. Karaak, M. (1999) interaction in virtual world
views-linking 3D GIS with VR. Geographical Information Science, 13(4), pp. 385396
Wix, J. (2003) Domain/Facilities Management within the International Alliance of Interoperability,
UK
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problem statement
The specification of a semantically correct mapping between any two standard data
models used in the A/E/C industries is an enormous task. Data models have in the order
of 500 entities and many thousands of relationships and attributes (e.g., IFC 2.x, IAI
2004). The mere task of sitting down and describing which entities are related to each
other is daunting, let alone managing to encompass the full semantic coverage of the
contents of each of these entities. Yet without some definition of a mapping to be
implemented it is basically impossible to guarantee the correctness of any implemented
translator for a standard data model.
It is clear that human experts are needed to perform this task, knowledgeable in both
schemas being mapped between. Yet even for such experts the management problem of
describing a mapping over such large schema forces a requirement for some
computerized support. This support comes in the form of notations and environments to
specify what is equivalent between two schema in a form that can then be used to
generate the code to actually perform the mapping.
In the last decade there was an active research community developing approaches to
mapping languages in engineering domains (Khedro et al 1996; Verhoef et al 1995;
Eastman 1999: Chapter 11). Several of those efforts have been pursued in the
development of the ISO mapping standard EXPRESS-X (Hardwick and Denno 2000),
and in the development of mapping tables (ISO 1993).
These mapping approaches are now being utilised on a wide range of standard data
models available from ISO 10303 STEP, ISO 13584 Parts libraries and catalogs, CIS/2
51
(Crowley and Watson, 2000) and lAIs IFCs (IAI 2002). However, every mapping
between two of these standard data models will be duplicating the work of previous
attempts. If it were possible to specify a mapping in an easily comprehensible manner,
and there were tools that industry experts could use to agree on the correctness of the
defined mapping, then a consensus on major mappings between schema could be
developed and published in much the same way that standard schema are published
today. This paper examines what tools would be required to reach this position.
2 A FRAMEWORK OF TOOLS
To manage the task of developing a mapping between two data models there is a
requirement for a range of support functions for the specifier. These include:
A graphical mapping notation to enable the specifier to visually comprehend the
mapping being described between subsets of the data models.
A mapping specification environment to enable navigation through, and partitioning of,
the space of mappings specified. Such a tool can also determine what has, or has not,
been mapped between.
Automated mapping support to enable a significant proportion of the mappings required
between two schemas to be automatically determined.
52
3 MAPPING NOTATIONS
In order to describe the equivalences which exist between data structures in two different
schema it is necessary to have a notation for the specification. A range of notations have
been developed and utilised ranging from straight specification within a standard
programming language (such as C or Java), through ISO mapping tables (ISO 1993), and
the evolving ISO mapping language EXPRESS-X (Hardwick and Denno 2000).
In many respects these approaches are analogous to the use of the EXPRESS language
to specify the conceptual data structures for a schema for a particular domain. These
approaches provide for a complete and detailed specification of how the mapping
between portions of the schemas will have to be realised.
However, they do not provide a way to gain an overview of the mappings which have
been developed between two schema or the completeness of any particular mapping.
Where schema have several hundred classes in them this is of major concern to the
specifier. In the same way that EXPRESS-G is used as a high-level notation for
describing the basic structures within a schema, and to view various subsets of a schema,
a graphical mapping formalism will allow a high-level overview of the mapping between
schemas to be presented.
A range of graphical formalisms have been developed at the University of Auckland to
represent mappings to different classes of users. Figure 1 shows a programmer level
formalism for specifying mappings between UML styled class diagrams in two schema.
The VML-G language (Amor 1997) shown in Figure 1 uses a wiring approach to
denote a mapping between attributes, or classes, in a schema and an icon representing
that particular mapping. The mapping icon provides three areas in order to separate
general mappings between attributes and classes from the specification of invariants,
which direct when the mapping is applicable, and initialisers, which describe starting
values for particular attributes of a newly created object. As can be seen in Figure 1 the
specification of the actual mapping is hidden from view and presented as a classification
to either a straight equivalence (=), an equation (eqn), a functional equivalence (func), or
a procedurally described equivalence (proc).
By examining such a graphical mapping specification it is very easy to verify that all
attributes are being handled in the mapping, and by examining the invariants across
several mappings it is possible to verify that all possible conditions are being modelled. It
also allows a high-level specification of the equivalences between portions of a schema
without concentrating on the detail of how to achieve the mapping.
The author contends that any textual mapping notation needs to be supported by a
graphical formalism which allows for a high-level overview of the mappings which are
being specified.
4 MAPPING SPECIFICATION ENVIRONMENT
If a simple textual notation is used to describe a mapping then it can be developed in any
textual editor. However, if a graphical formalism is going to be utilised to specify a
mapping then it needs to be supported
53
54
the ability to run each of the partial mappings specified and hence to view the result of
the application of the specified mappings in the other business form.
5 AUTOMATED MAPPING CREATION
While the tools highlighted in Figures 1 and 2 clearly provide for greater comprehension
and checking of the mappings which are being described it is also clear that detailing the
mappings between schema which comprise several hundred classes is going to take a
long time.
In order to ease this workload it is useful to consider approaches which will allow for
the automated specification of the mapping (or a portion of the mapping) between two
schema. This is an area of ongoing research with many approaches being considered (see
Rahm and Bernstein 2001 for a survey of approaches).
This sort of tool is also useful to handle mapping between versions of particular
product models. For example, the IAI have produced six versions of the IFC in the last
seven years and the CIS/2 LPM is expected to be updated every year. The mapping
between consecutive versions of a particular schema tend to be fairly minor which make
for an easier problem when considering automated mapping creation. This problem is
also closely related to that of schema evolution in object-oriented databases (Banerjee et
al 1987, Lerner and Habermann 1990, Eastman 1992, Deux 1990, Zicari 1992, and
Atkinson et al 2000).
A previous student developed a hybrid mapper utilizing structure and name
comparison to automate the creation of mappings for IFC versions (Amor and Ge 2002).
This demonstrated that approximately 80% of
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8 CONCLUSIONS
The development of mappings between two schema is a large and very important process
when developing translators for the various standard schemas being used in the
construction industries. To ensure correct specifications requires not just an expert in the
various schema being manipulated, but also a range of support tools to help the specifier
through the process. A range of these support tools have been developed and described
briefly in this paper.
However, to take the industry to the next stage where they can have confidence in the
translators and mappings which exist requires that further rigor is injected into the
mapping testing process. It is also recommended that a range of certified mappings be
developed between the main standard schemas being developed for the industry as well
as between the various versions of the schema which have been produced.
REFERENCES
Amor, R.W. & Ge, C.W. 2002. Mapping IFC Versions, Proceedings of the EC-PPM Conference on
eWork and eBusiness in AEC, Portoroz, Slovenia, 911 September, 373377.
Amor, R. 1997. A Generalised Framework for the Design and Construction of Integrated Design
Systems, PhD thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New
Zealand, 350 pp.
Atkinson, M.P., Dmitriev, M., Hamilton, C. & Printezis, T. 2000. Scalable and Recoverable
Implementation of Object Evolution for the PJama1 Platform. Persistent Object Systems, 9th
International Workshop, POS-9, Lillehammer, Norway, 68 September,292314.
Banerjee, J., Kim, W., Kim, H. & Korth, H. 1987. Semantics and Implementation of Schema
Evolution in Object-Oriented Databases, Proceedings of the 1987 ACM SIGMOD international
conference on Management of data. San Francisco, USA, 311322.
Bossung, S. 2003. Semi-automatic discovery of mapping rules to match XML Schemas,
Department of Computer Science, The University of Auckland, NewZealand, 71 pp.
Crowley, A. & Watson, A. 2000. CIMsteel Integration Standards, Release Two, 5 Volumes, Steel
Construction Institute and Leeds University, UK.
Deux, O. 1990. The story of O2. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE),
2(1), March, 91108.
Eastman, C.M. 1999. Building Product Models, CRC Press, Orlando, FL, USA.
Eastman, C.M. 1992. A data model analysis of modularity and extensibility in building databases,
Building and Environment, 27(2), 135148.
Hardwick, M. & Denno, P. 2000. The EXPRESS-X Language Reference Manual, ISO
TC184/SC4/WGH N117, 20000628.
IAI. 2002. International Alliance for Interoperability, web site last accessed 18/6/2004,
http://www.iai-international.org/.
ISO 1993. Guidelines for the documentation of mapping tables, ISO TC184/SC4/WG4 M105,
19930910.
Khedro, T., Eastman, C., Junge, R. & Liebich, T. 1996. Translation Methods for Integrated
Building Engineering, ASCE Conference on Computing, Anaheim, CA, June.
Lerner, B.S. & Habermann, A.N. 1990. Beyond schema evolution to database reorganization,
Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA), Ottawa,
Canada, October, 6776.
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Li, Y., Grundy, J.C., Amor, R. & Hosking, J.G. 2002. A data mapping specification environment
using a concrete business form-based metaphor, In Proceedings of the 2002 International
Conference on Human-Centric Computing, IEEECS Press, 158167.
Rahm E. & Bernstein, P.A. 2001. A survey of approaches to automatic schema matching, The
International Journal on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 10(4), 334350.
Verhoef, M., Liebich, T. & Amor, R. 1995. A Multi-Paradigm Mapping Method Survey, CIB
W78TGIO Workshop on Modeling of Buildings through their Life-cycle, Stanford University,
California, USA, 2123 August, 233247.
Zicari, R. 1992. A Framework for schema updates in an object-oriented database systems. Morgan
Kaufmann Series In Data Management Systems, 146182.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Most manufacturers thoroughly test their products before delivering them to the market.
In some industries the testing is done on physical prototypes, in other it is done virtually;
in many industries it is done both ways. Manufacturers know exactly how their products
are going to perform or hold up before these products are built and sold. For example, car
manufacturers extensively test prototypes (both virtually and on the track) and know how
the new models will perform before they start manufacturing them, even if they do not
disclose all information in public. NASA thoroughly tested all new space vehicles in the
Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs in simulation and launched them only after
all problems were proven in simulation to have been solved; when unforeseen problems
developed later (such as during the Apollo 13 mission), NASA was able to analyze and
resolve problems in simulation.
In most developed countries the buildings construction industry, sometimes called the
Architecture-Engineering-Construction-Operations (AECO) or Architecture-EngineeringConstruction-Facilities Management (AEC/FM) industry, is the second largest industry.
Yet, virtually no testing of the primary product of the industrythe buildingis done
before irrevocable and often very costly decisions are made. True, pre-manufactured
components are often tested at least in some ways before delivery; mock-ups of critical
parts of a building are built and tested at times; various types of the buildings
performance are occasionally simulated; and extensive visual simulations (including
walk-throughs and fly-bys) are becoming the norm. But no testing of the whole
building in all of its aspects of performance is performed before the building is delivered.
Commissioning constitutes only a partial substitute for testing and is of little help if the
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clients query for and extract only data needed by a particular application. The extracted
data, given proper authorization, can come from any part of the BIM: a specific
individual datum or data sets that represent a particular view (or a set of views) of the
building. Depending on the location of the model server, the data can be accessed directly
or via web services.
File exchange usually requires implementation of the same version of the building
data model by both the generating and receiving software. Data model versioning is
typically irrelevant to model servers.
4 VIRTUAL BUILDING ENVIRONMENTS
Despite recent eiforts by the leading CAD vendors and the new industry organizations to
promote building information modeling as the way to define buildings, an overwhelming
majority of building procurement projects is still done the same old way by defining
and representing buildings in dumb 2-D and text documents and with little, if any, use
of contemporary IT technology. This is true even though technology exists now that can
make professional work in most of the industry disciplines much more efficient and
effective than it is today. The industry in general is resisting efforts to change toward
information modeling and creation and use of virtual buildings. The causes for this
resistance are found in several pragmatic reasons: steep learning curves, lack of time and
adequate funding, and shortcomings of software.
Most software applications that are specific to the AECO industry share a common
characteristic: Their proper use requires intricate knowledge of the application and
expertise in the corresponding industry discipline. Obtaining such level of knowledge and
expertise for all industry software that is used for a given project is very difficult and
often prohibitively expensive. End users that have the task to create a real life project
BIM and use interoperable and non-interoperable software with it can face very steep
learning curves and software that is sometimes at best in beta status and cannot easily do
what the user expects it to do. They are under pressure to meet tight regular deadlines,
and seldom have any meaningful additional resources to do their work on a given project
in a way different than before. After briefly trying information modeling, their typical
response is: This does not work (for me/for this project/for my office/at all). They then
revert to the old ways of working and using dumb software.
Often overlooked is the impact of the old way of procuring buildings on
multidisciplinary teams that are assembled to work on a given project. As currently
practiced, their work is unnecessarily difficult: Communication is far from efficient, data
exchange is costly and ridden with errors and omissions, data sharing is not practiced and
is often practically impossible, and their work is behind schedule almost by definition.
In addition, their group experience and knowledge is seldom reused in another project
and is usually lost after the project is over. The work of multidisciplinary teams could
become much more efficient and effective with the use of BIM and virtual buildings.
BIM development and the use of virtual buildings today usually require help. This
help is now beginning to be available in the form of Virtual Building Environments that
are designed to assist end users of industry software and serve as a break through
63
mechanism to get building information modeling and virtual buildings deployed in the
industry.
4.1 What is a virtual building environment?
A Virtual Building Environment (VBE) is a place where a group of industry software is
operated by industry experts who are also experts in the use of that software. The primary
purpose of a VBE is to facilitate expert use of appropriate software applications in
conjunction with each other. A VBE employs software applications that, as a group,
define a building, its parts, its behavior and its performance. It involves simultaneous or
near-simultaneous simulation and display of data generated by multiple sources. A VBE
facilitates the manipulation of data that are used in the planning, design, construction and
operation of a building. It makes it possible to conduct experiments on the building or its
parts, without first erecting them. In summary, a VBE is a physical place (i.e. a location)
that facilitates expert creation of and use of virtual buildings.
Ideally, a VBE follows a buildings entire life cycle, and the selection of software
changes correspondingly from that related to design, to that related to construction, to
that related to commissioning, to that related to operation and maintenance, and
eventually to that related to demolition. The selection of software and participating
experts supports broad definitions of design, construction and operations. For example,
the construction and maintenance processes can be planned and modeled along with the
building itself to evaluate constructability and maintainability early in a project.
Similar to a selected group of software, a VBE involves a group of experts. Group
members have the experience, expert knowledge and skills in both software applications
and industry disciplines the software is related to. They understand the relevance, the
meaning and the quality of data used in a particular industry project, as well as the
implications of decisions made in the use of software. They can solve problems and
define tasks appropriate to specific applications, and can create work-arounds within a
particular application if the application cannot deal with the problem or data as defined.
When a VBE is employed in a specific industry project, the group of experts contains
those that have expertise, knowledge and skills relevant to the particular project. From
the VBE perspective this group of experts is temporarily extended (for the duration of the
project) by staff or others from organization(s) that are working on the particular project
or are involved with it. From the project perspective these experts join the project team
temporarily to assist the team so it can more effectively use software needed for the
project, create the BIM and test its designs, solutions and/or plans in a virtual building.
4.2 VBE objectives
Other industries, such as automotive and aero-space, have reaped significant benefits
from the use of IT. Virtual building environments should help experience and
demonstrate explicit benefits from the use of contemporary IT in the building
procurement process: the use of groups of software to solve multidisciplinary problems,
the use of comprehensive project data depositories that contain all project data (including
historical), the automation and semi-automation of repetitive tasks, prompt access to
expert knowledge, instantaneous distribution of complete data sets to all who need them,
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that started earlier than others the first phase of work has been completed (both dealt with
the schematic phase of architectural design).
Aurora II VBE project at the Tampere University of Technology compared two design
alternatives (Fig. 1) at the project development stage when conventional methods of
analysis, based on schedules of spaces and some qualitative information from the
building program, yield construction cost estimates expected to be within 20% and life
cycle cost estimates within 25% of later actual costs. By creating virtual buildings for
the two alternatives and discussing them simultaneously with the project client in an iRoom (a three-screen interactive workspace originally developed at Stanford University),
VBE experts decreased the inaccuracy of the early construction cost estimate to within
3% and the life cycle cost estimate to within 5% (Laitinen & Hietanen 2004).
70
large numbers of pencil and paper draftspersons with fewer (albeit somewhat higher
paid) CAD operators, who produced more drawings faster. This increased the volume of
work and output per payroll unit and soon made offices who switched to CAD more
competitive in the market. Information modeling and virtual buildings will inevitably
change the office landscape once again.
The most important new job position will be the Virtual Building Coordinator. This
position will require substantial knowledge in modeling and software use relevant to the
different industry disciplines that are part of that offices business. Qualified candidates
will be often hard to find and pricey; this role may have to be filled by special
consultants.
The CAD draftsperson will be replaced by a BIM modeler. This position will require
skills in the use of computers and BIM authoring software.
The current VBE experts will evolve into high power consultants: cost estimators,
energy performance analysts, construction managers, etc. They will have the ability to
determine the right course of action to resolve a specific project issue, modify and/or
interpret information in external data bases, create work-arounds for software in their
specialties, effectively communicate and explain information, and more.
Another new job position will be that of a BIM keeper. Holder of this job will be
responsible for the maintenance, safeguarding and administration of a BIM through the
life time of the BIM. This position will require at least modest skills in information
modeling and substantial knowledge of collaborative engineering.
8 PRESSING VBE ISSUES
Some of the technical issues that surfaced in initial BIM authoring and the use BIM
accessing software, such as data incompatibility, data model and software limitations, and
problems in file based exchange, were reported earlier (Bazjanac 2002).
It is now becoming increasingly clear that there are other major obstacles that are
slowing down the process of moving toward industry wide use of information modeling
and virtual buildings. These include poor quality of some of the BIM authoring and
accessing software (that is buggy, immature and/or not robust), difficulties in reaching
industry wide agreements in the definition of BIM views and/or in implementation of
standard data model definitions in software, the small number of interoperable industry
specific software, issues in data sequencing when populating a BIM, problems in
managing different resolution of the same data as needed by different software, and
more.
The complete lack of aids for end users is glaring: there are no manuals, templates,
case studies published in sufficient detail, nor anything else to guide a newcomer in the
initial use of this technology. Missing also is a better understanding of measurable
benefits from the use of information modeling and virtual buildings, and of ways to
measure them. Recent work at CIFE (Fischer & Ju 2004) is beginning to address these
issues.
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9 CONCLUSIONS
The AECO industry is finally beginning to use IT, BIM and virtual buildings more
effectively. Virtual building environments are a strategy to spread the use of this
technology throughout the industry. A VBE provides opportunities to organizations in the
industry to get help: a structure (an organized way to do it), software, facilities and
experts who can guide the work related to building information modeling and virtual
buildings required by real life industry projects.
It is now up to industry organizations to bring their projects to VBE centers and take
advantage of these opportunities. The VBE Initiative represents the beginning of a global
VBE network that will hopefully help the entire industry take advantage of the new
technology. That will lead to different sets of industry processes, thorough testing before
building, and (eventually) much better designed, built and working buildings.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank Ari Ahonen from Tekes (the Finnish National Technology
Agency), Prof. Martin Fischer from Stanford University, Jiri Hietanen from the Tampere
University of Technology, Arto Kiviniemi and Tapio Koivu from VTT and Stephen E.
Selkowitz from LBNL for their ideas and direct and indirect contributions in the
formulation of virtual building environments.
This work was partly supported by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, Office of Building Technology, Building Technologies Program of
the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.
REFERENCES
Bazjanac, V. 2001. Acquisition of building geometry in the simulation of energy performance. In
R.Lamberts et al. (eds), Building Simulation 2001, Proc. intern. conf., Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 1:
305311.ISBN 85-901939-2-6.
Bazjanac, V. 2002. Early lessons from deployment of IFC compatible software. In .Turk&
R.Scherer (eds), eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Proc.
fourth Euro. conf. product process modelling, Portoro, SLO: 916. Balkema. ISBN 90-5809507-X.
BLIS. 2000. Building Lifecycle Interoperable Software. http ://www.blis-proj ect.org
CABA. 2002. Continental Automated Buildings Association. http://www.caba.org/
CURT. 2003. Construction Users Round Table. http://www.curt.org/
FIATECH. 2002. http://www.fiatech.org/
Fischer, M. & G.Ju. 2004. Case studies of the implementation and valuation of Virtual Building
Modeling (VBM). CIFE SEED project (in progress), Stanford University.
http://www.stanford.edu/~fischer/ VBECIFE0604
IAI. 1995. International Alliance for Interoperability. http://www.iai-international.org/
Laiserin. 2002. Comparing pommes and naranjas. The LaiserinLetter(tm). Issue 15.
http://www.laiserin.com/
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Laitinen, J. & J.Hietanen. 2004. Aurora II project. VBE workshop. Stanford University.
http://www.stanford.edu/~fischer/ VBECIFE0604
OSCRE. 2003. Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate. http://www.oscre.org/
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Distributed processing of common planning material
The distributed synchronous and asynchronous processing of a common planning
material is in the focus of current research (DFG 2004). New publications in the field of
CAD show concepts for the distribution of the planning material abstracted as objects and
object versions (Firmenich 2002): Work starts by loading a valid structured subset of
object versions from a common project in the planners private workspace (Beer &
Firmenich 2003). Object versions of the workspace can be modified or deleted and new
object versions can be created independently from the project and the network with the
help of an integrated planning application (Beer et al. 2004). At the end of the work (long
transaction: from hours up to days) object versions are stored in the common project.
Operations to ensure consistency are described in (Firmenich 2002). A corresponding
system architecture for the distributed processing is shown in Figure 1. It is based upon a
projectworkspace approach.
1.2 Objective and content
The unversioned model of the planning application has to be stored into (loaded from)
the persistent model of the common project.
The second section describes the general stmcture of object oriented planning
application model. This is the base for the persistence mechanism. Requirements on the
persistence mechanism are deduced.
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2.2 Versioning
Most planning applications do not support versioning. The workspace manages an
unversioned model to use such applications. The transformation between unversioned
model of the workspace and versioned model of the project is described in (Beer et al.
2004).
2.3 Attributes
As shown in Figure 2, objects (a) can have attributes of different types:
Atomic values (f1) can not be decomposed anymore. Examples are strings or numbers as
well as objects that can be represented by strings, for example dates.
Objects (f2). There is a 1:1 relation to another object (b).
(Un)ordered sets of objects (f3). There is a 1:n relation to other objects belonging to a
set (s).
(Un)ordered relations of objects (f4). There is a 1:n relation to object tuples belonging
to a relation (r). To reduce complexity, only binary relations are considered in this
contribution. Relations of higher order can be treated analogously.
2.4 Inheritance
Objects can inherit attributes from a super class. This has to be considered if objects
extending a super class have to be made persistent.
3 PERSISTENT MODEL OF THE PROJECT
3.1 Versioning
Each object of the planning application model is stored as an object version in the
common project (Beer et al. 2004). The mathematical foundations of this model are
described in (Firmenich 2002). An example is given in Figure 3.
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Symbol
Description
Extraction
f(S)
Selection
f: S
Existence
f: T
Divergence
Agreement
fg
Disagreement
fg
Complement
~S
Complement of S
Union
Either R or S
Intersection
RS
R and S
Implication
RS
If R then S
Equivalence
RS
Only if R then S
Term equiv.
R=S
Equality of R and S
78
tables (Keller 1997) are known. They are discussed briefly and compared with the feature
logic schema in the following. This is done for all supported attribute types (see
Subsection 2.3).
Generally, queries against the data store are generated from feature logic terms with
the help of a interpreter (Richter et al. 2003). The feature logic persistence schema is
tuned for that purpose. Thus, the user has to speak feature logic, instead of formulating
query expressions against the data store.
Mappings for the different types of attributes, object versions and inherited attributes
are discussed briefly and compared to the feature logic persistence schema in the
following paragraphs. Advantages and disadvantages of the feature logic persistence
schema are discussed in the last paragraph of this subsection.
3.3.1 Mapping of atomic attributes
The feature logic schema is used for mapping atomic attributes (f) to tables: They are
stored with their values (x, shown by a rectangular shape) as strings in different tables
(Fig. 5). The feature type stores the type of the object.
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Mapping: The mapping is similar to variant b. The difference is that all objects
are stored in one table. Tables Atom, Domain and Feature are omitted in the
example.
3.3.3 Mapping of set attributes
A set includes a number of other objects (elements). An example is shown in Figure 7.
There are different concepts for mapping set attributes to tables:
Foreign key association (Fig. 7a) (Keller 1997)
Mapping: The identifier of the set is inserted into the set element table (attribute
own).
Advantages: The mapping schema does not collide with normal forms. Hence, it
allows reasonable maintenance cost. The space consumption is nearly optimal.
Disadvantages: Reading a set costs a join operation or two read operations.
Feature logic schema (Fig. 7b) (Firmenich 2002)
Mapping: Set elements are represented by tupels (elmc, Fig. 7c) that are included
in the set (s). They have a reference to the set element itself (c). The specific
features elm (element) and in (included) are used. Sorted sets (sequences) are
possible with the help of the specific feature i (index). Tables Atom, Domain
and Feature are omitted in the example.
3.3.4 Mapping of relation attributes
A binary relation includes a number of pairs of other objects. An example is shown in
Figure 8. The feature logic schema is used for mapping binary relations to tables:
Feature logic schema (Fig. 8a) (Firmenich 2002)
Mapping: Elements of the relations are represented by tupels (elmru, Fig. 8b) that
are included
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XML databases offer new concepts. They are very generic so that such databases are
slower than relational database management systems. XML databases do not offer a
better access to objects stored than RDBMS.
Object oriented database management systems (ODBMS). Currently available systems
do not support the flexible selection of subsets with the help of a powerful query
language.
Java Data Objects (JDO) is a persistence standard for Java objects. It defines interfaces
that allow for data store independent persistency. Different types of data stores can be
used depending on the commercial implementation that is used. However, the
selection of subsets is limited.
Specific databases for engineering applications are in the focus of current research
(Biltchouk & Pahl 2003). The objective is the straightly access to engineering objects.
Such data stores may be used in the fiiture.
A RDBMS has been used for the pilot implementation.
4 PERSISTENCE LAYER
4.1 Properties
Flexibility: Existing objects without persistency convention as well as new objects
designed for this purpose are supported (see Subsection 4.2).
Independency: The persistency layer is independent from the data store used by a pilot
implementation. The proposed system architecture (Fig. 11) shows interfaces and
adapter classes that implement general fiinctionality.
Performance: Memory access is much faster than file system access. Furthermore, the
storage of objects can be done in parallel with the running application so that the
loading of objects has to be optimised.
Maintenance: The schema used is a very simple schema for all classes. That is why
redundancy is no problem for maintenance.
4.2 Attribute access
Objects to be made persistent have to publish all necessary attributes to be stored.
Attributes have to be read for storing into project model and to be written for loading
objects from the project model. There are different concepts for implementation:
Reflection: The programming language Java (Horstmann & Cornell 2002) offers a
mechanism called reflection that delivers all public attributes. Private attributes can
not be accessed. Objects can not be made persistent completely. Public attributes may
not be sufficient to recreate the object.
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Standardised attribute names are possible by changing their original names (e.g. IFC
conform names) as well as specific context dependent named attributes.
interface PersistenceCapable {
// Atomic properties
Proplterator getAtomicProperties() ;
void setAtomicProperty(
String name, String value
);
// Aggregations
Proplterator getAggregationProperties() ;
void setAggregationProperty(
String name, String objID
);
}
interface Proplterator {
// Iteration
boolean iterate();
// Property information
String getName();
Class getType();
Object getValueO ;
boolean isChangeable ();
}
Listing
interface.
1.
PersistenceCapable
and
Proplterator
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object references (Fig. 2). Sets and binary relations are supported. They have to be
distinguished because there are different container classes (Set, Map) defined by Java. A
specific persistence schema is managed (method setPersistenceSchema). The created
persistent identifier of already decomposed objects is used for all other references of this
object. The Atomizer can store a schema (method store) and load a subset of the
persistent model described by a query (method load). The return values are void (store)
respectively pairs of persistent identifiers and associated objects (load). The class
information is stored as the value of a specific feature type to instantiate the object. The
Atomizer interface is implemented by the Atomizerlmpl class.
interface PersistenceManager {
// Registration
void registerPCClass(
Class pcCls, Class objCls
) ;
// Persistence functionality
String storeObject(Object o);
String storeSet (Set s);
void storeObjectVersionRelation(
String PIDl, String PID2
);
Map load(String query);
}
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implemented by PersistenceSchemaAdapter class. For the used feature logic schema (Fig.
4) a specific class PersistenceSchemaFL was implemented. This allows for changing the
schema used.
interface PersistenceSchema {
// Create schema from object tree
String addObjectSchema(Class type);
void addAtomicPropertySchema(
String objID, String name, String val
);
void addNonAtomicPropertySchema(
String objID, String name, String vID
);
String addSetSchema(Class type);
void addSetElementSchema(
String setlD, String elmlD
);
void addObjectVersionRelationSchema(
String PIDl, String PID2
);
// Store/ load schema to/ from database
void storeSchema();
void createSchema(String query);
// Schema information
Set getObjects();
Map getProperties(String objID);
}
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Object getValueO {
return a.getg();
}
};
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Beer, D.G.; Firmenich, B. & Beucke, K. 2003. Motivation fur eine Sprache zur Handhabung
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128135. Aachen: Shaker.
Beer, D.G.; Firmenich, B.; Richter, T. & Beucke, K. 2004. A Concept for CAD Systems with
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Firmenich, B. 2002. CAD im Bauplanungsprozess: Verteilte Bearbeitung einer strukturierten
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Horstmann, C.S. & Cornell, G. 2002. Core Java 2Expertenwissen. Miinchen: Markt+Technik.
IFC 2004. International Alliance for Interoperability: Industry foundation classes (IFC).
http://www.iai-international.org/iai_international/Technical_Documents/iai_documents.html (17
May 2004).
Jordan, D. & Russell, C. 2003. Java data objects. Beijing [u.a.]: OReilly.
Keller, W. 1997. Mapping Objects to Tables. In Proceedings of Second European Conference on
Pattern Languages of Programming (EuroPLoP 97). Siemens Technical Report 120/SWl/FB.
Munich: Siemens.
Loney, K. & Theriault, M. 2001. Oracle 8i DBA-Handbuch. Miinchen [u.a.]; Hanser.
Price, J. 2002. Oracle9i JDBC programming. New York [u.a.]: McGraw-Hill/ Osborne.
Richter, T.; Firmenich, B. & Beucke, K. 2003. Ein Java-Paket zur Verarbeitung von
Datenstrukturen in beliebigen Datenquellen. In Kaapke, K. & Wulf, A. (eds), In 15. Forum
Bauinformatik: 136146. Aachen: Shaker.
Zeller, A. 1997. Configuration Management with Version SetsA Unified Software Versioning
Model and its Applications. Braunschweig: Fachbereich Mathematik und Informatik.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The introduction of object-orientation has had a tremendous impact on the foundation and
software architectures for computer aided design systems (CAD systems). Such systems
are today mostly object-oriented and founded on built-in class hierarchies for the kinds of
objects that can be added to a design. Examples are classes of walls, ceilings, beams,
doors, and furniture. A design in this respect is a configuration of objects, and
designing is a process of composition in which objects of classes are sequentially added
to the design configuration.
Class-based languages make the majority of objectoriented languages. In class-based
languages, information is represented in objects by means of properties. Objects are
instances of classes and contain methods for representing and manipulating object data.
Classesbeing type specifications for objects group objects by definitions (Abadi and
Cardelli 1996).
An objectin object-orientationis a named record of properties. Some of these
represent intrinsic and extrinsic properties like material and position in space,
93
94
95
96
We can get a representation for visualising the I-profile by using the conceptual model as
a substitution of free terms in an AutoLISP expression like:
(command
(list
(list
(command
(list
(list
(command
(list
(command
thA)))
(list
(list
(command
(list
(list
(command
(list
(command
(list
(list
(command
(list
(list
(command
(list
(list
(command
(list
(command
thA)))
(list
(list
(command
(list
(list
line
(/ width 2) (/ height 2))
(/ width 2) (/ height 2)))
line
(/ width 2) (/ height 2))
(/ width 2) (+(/ height 2) thA)))
line
(/ width 2) (+(/ height 2) thA))
(list line (-(/ width 2) thB) (+(/ height 2)
(-(/ width 2) thB) (+(/ height 2) thA))
(-(/ width 2) thB) (-(/ height 2)thA)))
line
(-(/ width 2) thB) (-(/ height 2)thA))
(/ width 2) (-(/ height 2) thA)))
(list line (/ width 2) (-(/ height 2) thA))
(/ width 2) (/ height 2)))
line
(/ width 2) (/ height 2))
(/ width 2) (/ height 2)))
line
(/ width 2) (/ height 2))
(/ width 2) (-(/ height 2) thA)))
line
(/ width 2) (-(/ height 2) thA))
(+(/ width 2) thB) (-(/ height 2) thA)))
line
(+(/ width 2) thB) (-(/ height 2) thA))
(list line (+(/ width 2) thB) (+(/ height 2)
(+(/ width 2) thB) (+(/ height 2) thA))
(/ width 2) (+(/ height 2) thA)))
line
(/ width 2) (+(/ height 2) thA))
(/ width 2) (/ height 2)))
Applying the substitution and evaluating algebraic expressions gives what we shall call a
view on the model. The language in which it is written, we call a target language (t:j).
Entering the view in AutoCAD makes this tool display a visualisation of it, as shown on
Figure 2.
Using the substitution, we can also get a MATLAB expression of the shear stress
distribution as a function of the thickness of the flanges:
step=height/100;
S-[];
x1-height/2 : step : -height/2+thA;
51=thB/2*((height/2)~2-xl.~2);
xm=-height/2+thA : step : height/2-thA;
97
Sm=thB/2*((height/2+thA)~2-xm.~2)+
(width*thA/2)*(height+thA);
x2=height/2-thA : step : height/2;
52=thB/2*((height/2r2-x2.~2);
X=[xl xm x2];
S=[Sl Sm S2];
T=0:10 : thA;
S'*T
98
99
4 PARAMETERIZED INTERPRETATION
The class of design systems we outline in this paper relies on a principle we call semantic
parameterized interpretation. The design systems belonging to this class follow a
common structure of components and connectors between componentsthey have the
same software architecture (Bjrner 2003). This architecture is centered around an
interpretation mechanism which utilizes a semantics in order to encode the meaning of
objects from a design model, as target language expressions.
The principle is based on the assumption that design models are expressed in a formal
language. The meaning of a modeli.e. a perspective of what it may expressarises as a
function of the meanings of the objects in the model. The meaning of an object is the set
of properties ascribed to the object.
The formal design model is expressed in terms which need interpretation. In order to
do so, the meaning of the terms are specified in a semantic specif ication which binds sets
of free terms to target expressions. Interpretation is now made in two stages. The first
stage gives a target expression for each object in the model. However, such a target
100
expression may be unsaturated in the sense that it may contain free terms and
unevaluated expressions. The second stage aims at: (i) substituting such free terms with
property values to which the termsas attributesare bound, (ii) evaluating expressions,
and (iii) combining the resulting views into one. The second stage involves term rewriting and evaluation of expression. It requires what we shall call a calculus semantics
CS which basically is a canonical set of rewriting rules.
5 ARTEFACT MODELS
A conceptual model which represents an artefact in a design process, we call an artefact
model. An artefact model (:) is a mapping from object identifiers (x:X) to mappings
from property designators (attributes) (a:A) to sets of values (vs:VS). The mapping from
attributes to value sets is called a property pattern (:). Formally, we write:
An example is:
The empty set of properties corresponds to absurdum; i.e. the impossible or conflicting
value of a property. It may appear as a result of combining two conflicting design
solutions.
6 SEMANTICS
A semantics defines the meanings of sets of properties. A semantics specification states
expressions in target languages for a collection of property patterns. These are the
patterns which are used to determine which target expressions represent the meaning of
which kinds of objects.
A semanticsin this respectis represented by an environment (e:ENV) which maps
property patterns (a:2) to unsaturated target expressions
101
The
resulting
fiinction
takes
an
unsaturated
target
A property pattern (1:) subsumes another property pattern (2:) if and only if 2
contains at least the attributes of 1 and the value sets of 2 are subsets of the value sets of
1 for such common attributes. We say that 1 subsumes 2; written 1<: 2. E.g. the
property pattern 2=
{200,220,240}] subsumes the pattern 2=[width
100, height
102
220]. Thus, 2 is more specialized than 1. The subsumption operation <: is defined
on pairs of property patterns and pairs of properties, respectively:
6.3 Well-constrainedness
Artefact models (:) are meant for representing designs during a process of incremental
specialisation. In such a process, it is convenient to specify several allowed values for
properties. E.g. we may state that a window should be either 80 cm and 120 cm wide.
However, when interpreting models, it is convenient that all attributes of object are
only ascribed singleton value sets. For simplicity, we consider this rather strict criterion
to be necessary in order for interpretations to be defined.
We define the notion of wellconstrained design models, as introduced in (Galle
1989), by the following predicate:
6.4 Non-ambiguity
The notion of subsumption defines a partial order of property patterns. In such an
ordering, ambiguity may occur if two distinct property patterns have common properties.
In such cases, it may not be possible to determine which entry in the semantics to use.
Therefore, it is required that such problems of ambiguity are resolved by introducing
lattice meet as the combination of both entries. The most specialized property pattern
being the one we strive at findingis represented by lattice meet. We define the
following predicate for stating that a semantic environment is non-ambiguous:
103
Thus, the ordering of property patterns for a semantics must (at least) span a semilattice.
7 INTERPRETATION OF ARTEFACT MODELS
We have now presented the necessary mechanisms for performing semantic
parameterized interpretation of artefact models. The result is a view expressed in a target
language
This view is the result of interpreting each object in a model according to
the semantics. This is done by selecting a property pattern in the domain of the semantic
environment. This pattern has to comply with the properties ascribed the object. The
result is an unsaturated target expression for that object. The target expression is made
saturated by means of the calculus semantics. The target expressions, representing the
meaning of objects in the artefact model, are finally combined.
Figure 5 depicts the principle of semantic parameterized interpretation.
104
The views of the objects are combined in a compositional way by folding using a binary
operation on view pairs:
The function select picks the most specialized property pattern of those that comply with
the pattern of the current object:
105
106
defined as in object-oriented class systems. The meanings of the names are given by a
semantics which becomes a parameter to an interpreter mechanism.
Artefact models are now interpreted according to a semantics and a calculus for
evaluating expressions. The result is a view of the model which is a written specification
in some target language
It is essential to our principle that the same artefact model
can be subject to many different interpretationsa principle which is highly important in
todays distributed and many-sorted realm of construction. Thus, we have shown how
views for graphical presentation in AutoCAD and stress calculations in MATLAB, can
be defined as interpretations of the conceptual design data.
The interpretation of models is based on the properties of the objects, such that objects
with the same properties have the same meaning, if using the same semantics. However,
this induces problems if objects are described by the same set of properties even though
they are intended to be conceptually distinct. It is then convenient to introduce special
properties which aim at making such distinctions; e.g., a property with attribute sort. The
property does, however, not denote class name, as it is optional and can be eliminated if
the current distinction is not of interest.
A design tool with the presented architecture is generic in the sense that the
semanticsas a parameterdetermines the sorts of entities that can be designed. Thus, a
semantics specialises the architecture into a certain application.
It may be argued that the problem we have tried to solve is much easier solved by
means of database schemes. In such schemes, objects can be introduced as rows and
properties of objects can be introduced as columns. There are, however, two main reasons
why a database approach is not satisfactory. First, dynamically changing the attributes of
a database schemaknown as schema evolutionis hard when it comes to maintaining
such schemas consistent. Second, the result of database operations and queries are either
database schemas, tuples, or the field values of relations. It is essential to our approach
that we are able to define the meaning of artefact models as expressions in many different
incomparable target languages.
We believe that the introduction of semantic parameterized interpretation can serve as
inspiration for future research in this area, and that we have emphasized important issues
and solutions relevant in the interdisciplinary field of design and computing.
REFERENCES
Abadi, M. and Cardelli, L. (1996). A Theory of Objects. Springer.
Bjorner, D. (1997, October). Domains as a prerequisite for requirements and software: Domain
perspectives and facets, requirements aspects and software views. In Proceedings US DoD/ONR
Workshop, Bernried.
Bj0rner, D. (2003). What is a Method? An Essay on Some Aspects of Software Engineering.
Programming methodology. Monographs in Computer Science, 175203.
Eir, A. (2004a). Construction Informaticsissues in engineering, computer science and ontology.
Ph.D. thesis, Chapter 5. Informatics and Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of
Denmark, pp. 105142.
Eir, A. (2004b). Construction Informaticsissues in engineering, computer science and ontology.
Ph.D. thesis, Chapter 6. An algebraic specification of incremental, conceptual building design,
pp. 143178. Informatics and Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Denmark.
107
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
109
modelling and now with the emergence of xml-based information exchange (Tolman
2000).
The construction and facilities management sector is traditionally national and
regional in character. Today, there are two major candidates for core ontologies common
to the sector, ISO 120062:2001, Building construction-Organization of information
about construction works-Part 2: Framework for classification of information (ISO 2002),
and Industry Foundation Classes, IFC, developed by the International Alliance for
Interoperability, IAI (IAI 2000).
ISO120062 defines a framework of generic classes of interest in construction and
facilities management. It is intended to be used as a starting point for development of
detailed classification tables. Tables that adhere to the principles laid out in the standard
are assumed to be similar and possible to translate between. ISO120062, with its roots in
the SfB-system, has recently been applied in the development of building classification
systems like the British UNICLASS (RIBA 1997), The Swedish BSAB 96 (The Swedish
Building Centre 1999) and the North American OCCS (OCCS 2003).
The scope of ISO120062 is the complete lifecycle of construction works but it is not
specifically considering the needs of ICT-based interoperability. IFC addresses
interoperability requirements and has a similar scope concerning both construction and
facilities management. IFC consists of a framework of classes and models and is intended
to be used as a resource for development of schemas in model oriented information
systems. Although its aim is not to develop a generic building classification, its
framework of classes is similar to those of ISO 120062.
An ontology for the construction and facilities management sector must be common to
the worlds of classification and product modelling. Already in the introduction of product
modelling research the idea of harmonization with building classification was suggested
by Bjork in the Unified Approach Model (Bjork 1992). This model was later integrated
into the IRMA model (Luiten et al. 1993). Both are compatible with the basic structure of
ISO 120062.
Both ISO 120062 and IFC have as purpose to establish a foundation for development
of effective information systems for the construction and facilities management sector.
However, there are marked differences in semantics and structure of the systems. The
aim of this research is to compare the structure of the standards, to point at similarities
and differences, in order firstly to understand why these standards are so different, and
secondly to initiate a discussion about the need and the possibility to co-ordinate them.
The following sections analyse and compare the structure of ISO 120062 and IFC,
discusses information requirements in critical processes, compares with other standards,
and reflects on a strategy for harmonizing the FST and IFC.
2 THE STRUCTURE OF ISO 120062
The ISO 120062 standard has been developed as a step in harmonizing different
national and regional building classification systems. It is intended to be used as a
framework for developing building classification systems by organisations on a national
or regional basis. An underlying assumption is that the ISO-standard in the long run will
enable the development of common tables in an international level.
110
ISO 120062 defines a framework and a set of recommended table titles supported
by definitions, but not the detailed content of these tables (ISO 2002:6). It is based on
many years of practical experience, and is also shown to be compatible with scientific
ontology and systems theory (Ekholm 1996).
ISO 120062 identifies the main classes that are of interest to the construction sectors
building classification for purposes of CAD, specification, product information and cost
information systems (ISO 2002:4). The scope of the standard is the complete life cycle of
construction works within building and civil engineering. It lists recommended tables
according to particular views or principles of specialisation and gives
111
The FST does not suggest any classification for properties but gives examples from
the CIB Master List, e.g. composition, surface and sensory, thermal etc. Generally,
building classification systems do not handle geometrical properties, since they are
supposed to be used together with drawings or models that contain this information.
2.2 FST Construction Process
Among the processes defined by FST, Construction entity life-cycle stage is an overall
process related to
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113
represent. According to the FST, a Construction Complex is classified by function-oruser activity. A Construction Entity is classified either by form or by function-and-user
activity. Construction Entity Part is classified by function as Element, by type of
work as Work Result and as Designed Element by subdividing Element by Work
Result. Space can be classified by enclosure, e.g. outdoors or indoors, by user functionoractivity or by a combination of these. Space in the FST has no relation with
Construction Entity Part. A relation like enclose or composed of would seem
relevant according to (Ekholm and Fridqvist 2000). The subclasses based on separate
views are included in Figure 4.
From the example of Designed Element it is easy to imagine the need for other
combined classes e.g. Designed Construction Entity and Designed Space. The
Swedish BSAB 96 has a classification table for construction entities that could best be
described as Designed Construction Entity. It is a combination of Construction Entity
by Form, e.g. tunnels, bridges and buildings, and Construction Entity by Function
(The Swedish Building Centre 1999). The difference in view is motivated by the purpose
of the classification, if it is of importance to identify Construction Entities by the main
construction method, e.g. girder bridge, arch bridge, or truss bridge, or by function-oruser activity as railroad bridge, motor vehicle bridge or pedestrian bridge. A similar
subdivision is possible for Space, e.g. indoors or outdoors specify form, e.g. kind of
enclosure, and living room or kitchen specify fimction-or-user activity.
3 IFC AND THEIR RELATION TO ISO 120062
3.1 The objective of IFC
The IFC constitute a framework for sharing information between different disciplines
within the AEC/FM industry throughout the project lifecycle (IAI 2000:2). The main
purpose of the IFC is to enable effective information exchange between information
systems, so called interoperability. This concerns both semantic definitions and object
exchange formats. The semantic definitions of the IFC concern, just as ISO 120062,
objects of interest in construction and facilities management. However, IFC does not
adhere to the ISOstandard and has different definitions and general structure. The
documentation of IFC does not present a theoretical background for its structure or
choice of model classes.
IFC has gone through several practical tests that confirm its applicability and it is
integrated in an increasing amount of applications. However, with the exception of an
earlier study by the present author (Ekholm 1999), IFC has never been subject of a
detailed critical analysis concerning its relation to building classification.
3.2 Conceptual layers
The organization principle for the IFC framework provides for a modular structure of
models (ibid:5). The models are structured into conceptual layers of different scope.
There are four conceptual layers where sets of model schemata are defined (ibid:5):
114
1. Resource classes.
2. Kernel and Core Extension classes.
3. The Interoperability classes.
4. The Domain classes.
The Resource layer contains classes that are applicable to most of the classes in other
layers, e.g. geometry, date and time, material and cost. Resources could be understood as
representing generic properties of domain objects.
The Core layer consists of the Kernel and the Core Extensions. The Kernel provides
all the basic concepts required for IFC models. In an early version of the standard the
Kernel is explained as a kind of Meta Model that provides the platform for all model
extensions (IAI 1997:6). In a later version the Kernel is explained as a template model
that defines the
Figure 6. IfcObject.
form in which all other schema within the model are developed The Kernel is the
foundation of the Core Model (IAI 2000:8). The Kernel is independent of the AEC/FM
domain.
115
116
117
118
The example given above in relation to the FST described a bridge as a girder bridge,
arch bridge, or truss bridge, and as a railroad bridge, motor vehicle bridge or pedestrian
bridge, respectively. The fimctional-or-user activity view on the Construction Entity may
be of specific interest in the brief stage or in the facilities management stage. Similarly,
the compositional view may be of interest during systems design, detailed design,
production and maintenance, where knowledge of composition and constituent materials
are necessary.
There is no equivalent in IFC to the FST classes Construction Entity by Form and
Construction Entity by ftmction-or-user activity. The only IFC class in this level is the
IfcBuilding, a subclass of IfcSpatialStructureElement, a semantically spatial concept.
4.2 Views in design
The FST reflects the idea of design as a process where functional requirements are met
with technical solutions and concrete work results. There is a need for separate classes for
these views, since they concern different stages and actors in the construction process.
The FST classes for construction entitiy parts are Element, Designed Element and
Work Result.
During design, building classification supports the successive determination of
properties of the designed object. At first the designed object is identified through a
spatial view, location and geometry are determined. Next, the object is functionally
determined and can be classified as Element. When the technical solution of a part has
been determined it may be classified as
Designed Element and Work Result. In principle the sequence is the same in drawing
based design and 3D-model based CAD, the designer starts by defining design objects,
i.e. building parts, by geometry, and successively determines fimction and technical
solution. However, the main 3D-modelling CAD-applications integrate the first two steps
and require a designer to instantiate a design object from an Element class with
predefined geometry parameters, e.g. a wall as a vertical plate. In this case the
instantiated object is already determined by fimction according to the definition of the
Element class.
4.3 Views in specification and cost calculation
In order to develop a specification or cost calculation using the FST each Element is
specified by Work Results including used resources, e.g. labour and material. Table 1
illustrates a specification using the Swedish classification system BSAB 96 from a
prototype test of information transfer from product model
Element(E)
WR-code
Unit
27.G
Roof carcass
HSD.113
Beam framework
length (m)
HSD.2
length (m)
119
GSN.17
Rooftruss
amount (no)
ZSE
Angular fittings
amount (no)
to cost calculation using IFC and BSAB 96 (Nilsson & Eriksson 2002).
IFC cannot handle cost calculation in this way since it does not identify classes based
on different views. Instead, cost calculation is enabled by associating instances of
IfcProduct, e.g. IfcBuildingElement, with IfcConstructionResource and related
IfcCostltem (IAI2003). It would seem more relevant to use predefined classes like FST
Work Result to handle this.
Applications for design, specification, and cost calculation might require that objects
emerging from different views are concatenated during the processes. This requires
support for multiple inheritance. An obstacle for IFC could be that it only allows single
inheritance (IAI 2000:39).
4.4 Views in other standards
The recognition of the relevance of distinguishing classes from different views is not
unique to the FST, rather, it is common in other standards. For example, STEP AP 221
EPISTLE, used for Product Data Management separates between a functional
physical object which represents a fimctional view on an object in the domain, while the
materialized physical object includes both a functional and a compositional view
(EPISTLE 2004).
Another industry standard, IEC 61346 Industrial systems, installations and equipment
and industrial products, developed for classification of technical objects, for similar
reasons as the FST, distinguishes between objects identified from three different views,
the functional: fiinction, the compositional: product and the spatial: location (IEC
2000).
5 CONCLUSION OF THE STUDY
5.1 Classification and product modelling
As a starting point for the development of IFC, the relevance of building classification for
product modelling was questioned since it only allows a user to categorize elements
according to primary functional role or as part of a system (IAI 1997:215). The
developers of IFC intended to avoid this by defining model elements, functional roles,
and systems separately so that an element can assume multiple roles and/or be a member
of multiple systems.
The development of IFC has been guided by these principles. As a consequence the
IFC Core Extension and Interoperability classes are not intended to be equivalent to
classification classes, but should be seen as some kind of placeholders for information
about the modelled instance. The properties of the instance are determined through
associations with GeometryResources, PropertySets and other classes in IFC.
120
121
Would it be possible to integrate these standards? The FST and IFC both lack an
explicit theoretical foundation, and establishing a common ground would effectively
support an integration process. Compared with FST, the IFC:s framework is more ad hoc
which makes it harder to understand, apply and develop. A framework for information
systems in the construction and facilities management sector should be both theoretically
well founded and practically applicable. The former will increase versatility and life span
of the standard.
The FST and IFC support slightly different processes, but, as shown, there is a
significant overlap between the frameworks. The FST is developed to support
specification, cost calculation, CAD-layering, PDM-systems, brief development, etc. for
the construction and facilities management processes. IFC has a similar scope, but the
needs of CAD-systems and the definition of CAD objects were initially in focus.
How could the harmonisation be accomplished? A starting point would be to abandon
the IFC strategy of defining model elements, functional roles, and systems separately
and acknowledge the need for a framework based on views and classification. Then, it
would be necessary to define a meta model based on generic principles for modelling
domain objects starting, not from the EXPRESS language, but ifrom very generic
ontological theories, e.g. a general theory of systems and properties. This would include
the definition of objects from different views. An attempt in this direction may be found
in (Ekholm and Fridqvist 2000). A next consideration would be to build a generic domain
model similar to that of FST or the IRMA that defines the main classes, including
objectified relationships, needed to build the model schemas. The overall aim would be to
develop a framework for object oriented information exchange for construction and
facilities management that would be both scientifically well founded, and applicable and
acceptable for the processes that are to be supported.
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The Swedish Building Centre 1999. BSAB 96. The Swedish construction industry classification
system. Stockholm: The Swedish Building Centre.
Tarandi, V 2003. Implementering av produktmodeller baserade pa IFC och BSAB. Slutrapport
20021218. IT Bygg & Fastighet 2002. Accessed 20040607 at:
http://www.itbof.com/2002//implementering_produktmodeller.doc.
Tolman, F. et al. 2000. The bcXML Baseline. eConstruct IST-199910303, WPl, Tl 100, DlOl,
Rev.4. Accessed 20040607 at: http://www.bcxml.org/ 6Public/bcXML_CD/PublicDeliverables/dl01_v4.pdf.
Wix, J. 2004. draft CWA3 European eConstruction Metaschema version 20040301.
Workshop on eConstruction N068, Nederlands Normalisatie-Instituut.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1
MOTIVATION
Existing CAD systems are predominantly incompatible. Standardization attempts
describe the structure of the data to be exchanged. However, existing CAD systems are
normally not based upon standardized data structures: The completion of their specific
tasks very often requires the usage of optimized data structures. Thus, the information
exchange is characterized by two data transformations: One transformation from the
native format of the source system to the standard exchange format and one
transformation from the standard exchange format to the native format of the destination
system. Due to incompatible data schemes this process normally (1) results in the loss of
data that (2) accumulates during each information exchange.
2 OBJECTIVE
Available CAD systems store their models in an evaluated form as objects and attributes.
In this paper the new research project opCAD is introduced: The objective of this project
is the standardization of CAD in civil engineering by a language for unevaluated CAD
models. Such an unevaluated model is not described by objects and attributes, but by the
operations that have created the model. The unevaluated model is called an operative
model.
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In available CAD systems the user stores the result of the construction process at
certain points in time. In the new approach the sequence of operations executed in the
construction is described by a language to be developed in the research project. This
operative model is continuously and implicitly stored by the system. The recorded
activity of the construction process can be played back later.
The main objective of the research project is the systematic and complete description
of a practical language for the operative modelling of CAD in civil engineering.
3 TRADITIONAL DATA EXCHANGE
3.1 State-of-the-art
Existing standardization attempts focus upon the description of the results of the planning
process.
The international organizations OMG (Object Management Group) and ODMG
(Object Database Management Group) define interfaces for the usage of objects in a
distributed environment and in object oriented databases (Serain 1999, Eastman 1999).
The SQL language has been standardized by the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI). SQL is a language for relational data models. The description of objects
and operations by the SQL language would be very cumbersome.
The ODMG has provided with OQL (Object Query Language) a standardized
language for the selection and manipulation of object models. OQL-instructions can be
optionally embedded in programs or can be used by experienced users as an ad-hoc query
language. OQL allows the selection of objects and their manipulation by calling methods.
Attribute values can be modified. The application of OQL by a user would require a deep
understanding of object oriented methods. In addition to that the formulation of operative
models by the OQL language would be a tedious task.
Another solution approach consists of the formulation of scripts for CAD. The Tc1/Tk
(Tool Command Language/Tool Kit) language is commonly used as scripting language.
Although the language allows the formulation of CAD macros no standardization took
place until now. However, Tc1/Tk could be an environment for the implementation of the
operative language (Ousterhout 1995).
Currently some CAD producers offer solutions on the basis of GDL (Geometric
Description Language) (GDL 2004): GDL allows, for instance, the import of catalogue
elements into CAD systems via the Internet. However, the scripting language contained
in GDL is not as open and extensible as Tc1/ Tk: An implementation of the operational
language on this basis would be almost impossible.
STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product Model Data) is the informal description
of ISO 10303 (International Organization for Standardization)a whole family of
international standards for the exchange, data management in databases and
implementation (Haas, Ilieva, Kessoudis 2002). The German automobile industry tries to
improve the quality of the data exchange by using the two dimensional subset STEP-CDS
(Haas 1999).
The IAI (Industry Alliance for Interoperability) attempts to provide a universal
interoperable data basis for all phases in the lifetime of a building. The according data
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model is the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes). This interoperability means that all
planners involved would use this data basis. Currently the data exchange of a subset of
the originally planned amount has been realised (Steinmann, Liebich 2002).
State-of-the-art concerning STEP and IFC in civil engineering is the communication
of the planners by the exchange of evaluated data. By contrast, our research project
focuses upon unevaluated operative CAD models.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is an open standard of the W3C (World Wide
Web Consortium) for the format of documents. Is it suitable for the textual description of
evaluated object models. However, the usage of XML as a language for the operative
modelling would be rather tedious.
3.2 Recent fields of research in Germany
Net-distributed processes are currently in the focus of research in Germany: These
objectives are currently being explored in the Priority Programme 1103 Netdistributed
planning processes in Structural Engineering of the German Research Foundation
(Firmenich 2004). As many as 14 research projects are participating in the research
programme. There are no overlappings between the opCAD project and the Priority
Programme.
3.3 Traditional workflow scenario
Available CAD systems have data structures that are optimised for their own tasks. A
data exchange requires a transformation according to a common data scheme agreed
upon. Very often, the data cannot be completely transformed in practice due to the
incompatibility of the agreed data scheme. Even worse, the loss of information
accumulates with each data exchange. This problem is explained below using the
workflow of a typical co-operative scenario in the planning process:
PlannerA: Local work (Fig. 1a)
During project work planner A has reached an intermediate state MOA of the building
instance. As agreed this version of the planning material shall be technically
complemented by planner B.
PlannerA: Generation ofthe exchange data (Fig. 1a)
The CAD systems of planner A und B are incompatible with one another. For the data
exchange planner A has to generate the exchange data Z0 from the native data MOA
according to the agreed data scheme. Not all information can be stored: This information
is described by the difference set
MOA\Zo.
(1)
Planner B: Import of the exchange data (Fig. 1b)
Planner B receives the exchange data Z0 and transforms it according to his own native
data scheme to the data model MQB. Set Z0\M0B contains the non transformable
information. The accumulated loss of information is described by set
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(2)
127
(5)
The elements of the node set M represent versions, the elements of the edge set
Mrepresent the relationships between two versions. Differences between
two subsequent versions can only be obtained by a comparison between the two versions.
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This method leads to unsatisfying results because the semantics of the change between
the two versions cannot be reconstructed.
This thread is explained by an example from solid modelling. The consistent
adjustment of a duct inside a building requires a recess r inside the wall w. Technically,
this requirement has to be realized by a difference set operation wV. In a BRep model the
semantics of the operation recess planning could not be reconstructed subsequently. In a
CSG model, however, the operation and its semantics can be reconstructed because this
information is part of the data structure.
The solution approach presented is based upon the change-oriented approach (Figure
3):
As in the version-oriented approach the node set M contains the versions. However,
these versions need not be necessarily stored in an evaluated form. It should be noted that
for performance reasons the
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results. It should be noted that these problems do not occur if the evaluated model is
stored.
4.4 Other applications
Operative modelling could also be applied for other problem domains. For instance,
query and manipulation of the CAD data model could be handled by the help of the
language for the operative modelling.
In database technology the standardized SQL language serves to query and to process
the relational data model. The users of the database system formulate their ad-hoc queries
by the help of the SQL language (Date 2000). It is also possible to embed SQL programs
inside application programs. Today, SQL is a complete programming language for
relational database systems.
Analogous, the language for the operative modelling could be used to solve problems
in the CAD domain. A simple language would be highly desirable since existing modern
programming environments can only be handled by specialists. The simplicity of the
language to be specified is a major objective.
Another important application is the archiving of operative CAD models by the help
of the standardized language. According to experience the syntax and semantics of an
unevaluated model does not change as frequently as in an evaluated model. Beyond that,
the archived data can be interpreted by the users and not only by interpreters.
5 EXAMPLE
The advantages of the proposed solution approach are shown in an example from 3D
solid modelling. The available solid modeller ACIS (Corney & Lim 2001) describes
solids with a BRep data structure.
The BRep data structure describes the topology and the geometry of the solid
boundary. The BRep data structure allows to distinguish between points inside the solid,
points outside the solid and points on the boundary of the solid. The ACIS modeller
allows to save and restore solids as a textual representation in so called SAT files
(Standard ACIS Text).
The ACIS modeller has an interface for rapid prototyping: The Scheme language
allows to write programs to be executed by an interpreter. While the scheme language
allows the formulation of a program for an unevaluated description of a solid, the SAT
file represents an evaluated description of the solid.
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6 CONCLUSIONS
At present, the exchange of information in civil engineering is predominantly based upon
the versionoriented approach. Due to incompatible data structures, this transformation
process is characterized by (1) a certain loss of information that (2) accumulates during
each transformation process.
In this paper another solution approach is proposed. The basic idea is that instead of an
exchange of the building instance the changes that lead to this
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REFERENCES
Corney, J.& Lim, T. 2001. 3D modeling with ACIS. Stirling: Saxe-Coburg
Date, C.J. 2000. An introduction to database systems. Reading: Addison-Wesley
Eastman, C.M. 1999. Building product models: computer environments supporting design and
construction. Boca Raton: CRC Press
Firmenich, B. 2004. Product Models in Network Based Co-operation in Structural Engineering. In:
Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Civil and Building Enginering (ICCCBE-X). Weimar:
Bauhaus-Universitat, Universitatsverlag
Fogel, K. & Bar, M. 2002. Open Source-Projekte mit CVS. Bonn: mitp
GDL2004. GDLAlliance. http://www.gdlalliance.com/. (l-Jun-2004)
Haas, W. 1999. Datenaustausch und DatenintegrationSTEP und IAI als Beitrage zur
Standardisierung. Frankfurt: ACS
Haas, W., Ilieva, D. & Kessoudis, K. 2002. Erfahrungen beim Einsatz Web-basierter
Planmanagementsysteme im Planungsalltag. In: Bauen mit ComputernKooperation in ITNetzwerken. Diisseldorf: VDI Verlag
Ousterhout, J.K. 1995. Tcl und Tk: Entwicklung grafischer Benutzerschnittstellen fur das X
Window System. Bonn: Addison-Wesley
Serain, D. 1999. Middleware. London: Springer-Verlag
Steinmann, R. & Liebich, T. 2002. IAIIndustrie Allianz fur Interoperabilitat: Stand der
weltweiten Aktivitaten. In: Bauen mit Computern: Kooperation in IT-Netzwerken.
Dusseldorf:VDIVerlag
Zeller, A. 1997. Configuration Management with Version Sets. Dissertation am Fachbereich
Mathematik und Informatik der Technischen Universitat Braunschweig
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Much of the recent research and development into information technologies for the
construction industry has focused on model-based systems. These systems use structured
data models of facilities and their associated construction projects to support a range of
application tools and the integration of information across the project lifecycle. However,
in even the most optimistic scenario for model-based approaches, the vast majority of
current project information exists in the form of unstructured documents. At present,
there is very little linkage between information technologies for working with
unstructured document-based technologies and model-based technologies. This paper
discusses issues relating to the integration of these two branches of information
technology.
After introducing model-based and document-based technologies, the paper will show
how a consideration of human-computer communication channels leads to the
requirement for synchronized model-based and document-based technologies. Next, the
basic techniques for establishing linkages between the two technologies are described.
These include references from an object-oriented project model to external documents, or
references to model objects from document meta-data. Text processing approaches will
be discussed as another relevant approach to integrating the two technologies. The paper
will also discuss specific types of documents that can span between unstructured
document-based and model-based approaches, such as 2D CAD and project
specifications. The paper will then discuss issues relating to the generation of static and
dynamic documents from project data models in the form of a presentation layer
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component of model-based technologies. This presentation layer can help ensure that the
receiver of a project data model receives the specific interpretation of information via an
exchange of a data model that the originator intended to send. This could have a
significant impact on enabling the use of model-based approaches for carrying out
specific information transactions.
This paper lays out a series of approaches to the integration of model-based and
document-based information. Our work is in the early stages of forming a research
prqject, so this paper outlines the technical issues, but does not neport detailed literature
search or research results.
2 MODEL-BASED TECHNOLOGIES
Many of the leading edge information technologies emerging to support the construction
industry rely on model-based techniques. In general, we consider model-based
technologies to be any IT that organizes information into elements associated with
semantic meaning that reasonably corresponds to the semantics of the actual construction
projecti.e., the data objects model the real-world objects. The primary example of this
is the move from purely geometric CAD-where the system works with geometric
primitives (lines, etc.) and it is left to users to interpret these primitives as real-world
elements (walls, etc.)to object-based CAD systems where both the system and the user
work with elements that represent walls, slabs, doors, windows, etc.
Any software tool that uses model-based techniques, then, can be described as a
model-based application. Thus, object-based CAD, estimating, scheduling, and structural
or HVAC analysis software can be model-based, since they organize their information
around elements that correspond to real-world elements (e.g., building components, costs,
tasks, beams, and heat sources, respectively). On the other hand, word processor
documents, photographs, spreadsheets, and traditional CAD are generally not modelbased since they organize their information around elements that do not correspond to
real-world elements (e.g., words, raster images, cells, and lines, respectively).
Moreover, there is a trend towards comprehensive and integrated model-based
approaches, where a variety of model-based tools can exchange data and collectively
develop detailed, multi-purpose data models of construction projects. The key issue here
is that, since the software captures some of the semantic meaning of each element of
information, the potential exists to inter-relate all of this information. This integration can
greatly leverage the value of the individual applications and data sets. Ultimately, this
could lead to an approach where most project information and communication is centred
on a virtual project model that is developed and managed in parallel with the
development and management of the actual physical project. This approach, referred to
by various terms such as building information models and virtual design and
construction, requires both modelbased applications and model-based interoperability.
Model-based interoperability, in which project data models serve as a common language
for exchanging data between applications, is typified by the Industry Foundation Classes
(IFC) data standard (International Alliance for Interoperability, 2004; Kam et al., 2003).
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3 DOCUMENT-BASED TECHNOLOGIES
In spite of the interest in model-based technologies, even the most optimistic scenarios
must concede that a large proportion of project information will remain in the traditional
form of unstructured documents for many years to come. Here too, there have been
significant advances in supporting information technology. The vast majority of project
documents are now produced electronically using various computer applications, while
the consumption (viewing), transmission and storage of documents are a combination of
electronic and paper-based. Electronic document management systems provide a
comprehensive range of features to manage project documents, including conversion
between paper and electronic documents (printing, scanning, and character recognition),
sharing and distribution, storage, versioning, indexing and searching, tracking, etc.
From an IT perspective, these documents contain unstructured data, yet much of the IT
used to support document management makes use of document metadata, or structured
data about documents. Document meta-data can range from simple information such as
document type and creation date (which exists for virtually any electronic document), to
extensive industry-specific information that link documents to related people and roles,
type of work, contractual relationships, project phase, etc. Again, interoperability
becomes important and standards have been developed. Examples include the Dublin
Core as a general document meta-data standard (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, 2004)
and various construction-industry-specific meta-data standards (International
Electrotechnical Commission, 1999). While meta-data provides opportunities for
organizing and managing documents, it can be difficult to capture and maintain
meaningful meta-data, particularly if it requires additional data entry from end users.
Other information technology trends that are not directly related to document
management per se, but that are closely related, include project web portals (which act as
a central collaboration site for project teams and often include extensive document
management features), and workflow management systems (which can be used to define
typical work processes, manage the assignment and progress of tasks, and automate much
of the information handling requirements).
4 COORDINATING HUMAN AND COMPUTER COMMUNICATION
CHANNELS
Figure 1 illustrates key elements and information interfaces in an IT environment. Within
the construction industry, most design and management tasks are fairly well-supported by
computer tools. However, these are not isolated activitiesrather they are highly
collaborative, involving large numbers of project participants operating in a highly
fragmented and dynamic environment. Correspondingly, IT solutions involve not only
stand-alone computer applications, but must be viewed as elements in an overall
technical and social system.
Within this system, information flows between individual users and their computer
based tools (data entry from the user to the computer, and data interpretation from the
computer to the user). Information also flows between users (as direction
communicationi.e.
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extremely beneficial, e.g., effectively feeding data into structural analysis or estimating
software. However, the building model can be a large data set that is beyond the scope of
any single application to effectively convey to the user. With the building model alone,
the structural engineer might not clearly understand what parts of the building had
changed, why, and what additional requirements existed; the subcontractor might not
clearly understand what scope of work was included in the work package. For the overall
communication to be effective, both the computerto-computer data sets and the humanto-human interpretation of the data must be exchanged.
This illustrates the fact that efficient project communication must take place along all
of the communication channels: human-to-human, human-to-computer, and computer-tocomputer. Furthermore, these different communication channels should be coordinated
in effect, a project communication from one user to another could say here is a data set
and here is a document that describes how I expect you to interpret this data.
Previous research into model-based interoperability has not addressed this
coordination of human-based and computer-based communication channels. Our view is
that a successful solution to project information management requires this type of
coordination, and that this is achieved by inter-relating the model-based and documentbased information technologies. The remainder of this paper introduces a variety of basic
technical approaches for establishing this inter-relationship.
5 CROSS-REFERENCING
Perhaps the most basic approach to integrating model-based and document-based
technologies is the use of cross references from one to the other. In most cases,
documents can be identified by some type of unique identifier. Project model standards
such as the IFCs include mechanisms to associate a reference to an external document
(via the document identifier) with any project object. If, for example, the document is
stored in an electronic document management system on a project collaboration web site,
this reference information could allow the user of a CAD system to select a component of
the building in the CAD system and directly access any associated document (such as the
manufacturers specifications for a window). A similar mechanism can be used in the
reverse order, where documents refer to individual objects in a project model by their
unique ID. This reference could be embedded in the unstructured document itself (similar
to including a hyperlink URL in a word processor document), or it could be part of the
structured metadata associated with a document (e.g., request-for-information notices
stored in a project collaboration web site could be indexed according to the building
components in question).
This approach of representing cross-references is technically straight-forward, yet it
provides a sufficient representation for various types of computer applications to create
quite effective integration of model-based and document-based information. Some of the
challenges include capturing the crossreference relationships in the first place, and
managing a large collection of cross-referenced project information. Another challenge is
that this approach creates a relationship between a specific model object and a specific
document, from which systems may need to infer more specific or more general
relationships. For example, a relationship may be established between a change-order
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notice and a specific room in a building; yet the document should be retrieved if a user is
looking for all change documents associated a specific wall within the room, or
associated with the entire floor of the building.
6 TEXT PROCESSING AND DATA MINING
One opportunity to link model-based and document-based information is to use text
processing techniques on documents (or other types of data mining techniques on other
types of data) to extract significant words and a limited amount of semantic information
from the documents. This semantic information can then be associated with the
documents as anything from a set of simple keywords to a structured data model of the
document content, which could then be mapped to other model-based data sets. Text
processing and data mining of construction documents have been examined by a number
of researchers (Schapke et al. 2002; Caldas and Soibelman, 2002).
7 HYBRID DOCUMENT TYPES
Certain systems represent information in a manner that spans between model-based and
unstructured-document-based (i.e., hybrid approaches). An example would be a
specification-authoring system that allows the user to organize the specification
documents for a project into a highly structured hierarchy of sections. Each section is
made up of a passage of unstructured text interspersed with certain words, phrases, names
of products, etc., that are structured data fields linked to an underlying data model and
database. In an integrated scenario, these data fields could be mapped to elements in an
overall project data model. We describe this as a hybrid type of document since the
information is only complete and usable when the unstructured text and the structured
data fields are considered together.
8 PRESENTATION LAYER
Section 4 described the need to communicate both the computer-to-computer data sets
and the human-to-human interpretation of the data as part of an effective transaction. For
model-based information, this might be done by deriving document-based versions of the
model data and incorporating these documents within the model itself. We describe this
approach as a presentation layer within the model.
The documents could be produced by any application that can produce a useftil view
or presentation of the information contained in the data model, possibly by reading parts
of the data model and requiring additional effort from a user to manipulate, interpret, and
supplement the model data.
A simple example would be a text document that lists the key changes made between
two versions of a data model. Another example would be a CAD program that reads the
data model and uses the model geometry to produce a 2D cross-section of a segment of a
building, which a designer then embellishes to produce an annotated design detail
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drawing. A final example would be a bill of quantities report in which certain quantities
are linked directly into an enumeration of objects within the data model.
Presentation layer documents can be either static (capturing a specific view of the data
set at a specific point in time), or dynamic (presenting a specific view of the data that is
automatically updated when the data model changes). In a static approach, for example,
the 2D design drawings described above might be written to an acrobat (PDF) file
embedded within the data model. In a dynamic approach, an XSLT template document
could be created that would produce an HTML version of the bill of quantities report
(mentioned above) at any time by applying the template to an XML version of the data
model.
With any of these approaches, the presentation-layer documents give snap shots
(specific views) of the model data intended to convey specific information for specific
purposes in human-to-human communications that accompany model-based transactions.
9 AN OVERALL SCENARIO
The following describes a possible scenario that would incorporate many of the issues
and techniques discussed in this paper:
On a given building construction project, many of the key participants have agreed to
use IFC-compatible model-based design and management tools.
A project web portal is adopted that incorporates strong document management features
as well as a model-server that can host a shared IFC building information model and
interface directly with participants IFC-enabled software applications.
One company acts as the information manager on behalf of the overall project, with one
individual acts as a project information officer.
Throughout the project, participants make regular use of the portal, contributing project
information into the portal and accessing information from the portal.
Many of the information transactions are ad hoc in terms of who is using the
information, what information is used, and for what purpose. However, many other
transactions follow formalized transaction templates or specifications (e.g., requests
for information, progress payment claims, etc.).
The formalized transaction templates specify the content and form of information to be
included in the transaction. These can include complete or partial building models as
well as various types of documents.
Objects within the building information model and documents within the document
management system cross-reference each other, and tools on the project web portal
allow users to navigate between these different types of information.
The data required to create these cross references is acquired from user input, is
inferred from the context in which the information is entered into the system, and is
captured from within certain documents from some text processing capabilities built
into the portal site.
At any time, the entire building information model (or a specific subset), can be
exported from the portal site. This model can include the documents embedded in (and
cross-linked to) the model.
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10 CONCLUSIONS
This paper has argued that model-based information technologies and document-based
information technologies should be integrated and used to support transactions that
combine human-to-human and computer-to-computer communications. The technical
approaches outlined to achieve this integration include cross-referencing, text processing
and data mining, hybrid document types, and a presentation layer within data models.
Solutions based on these approaches need not be complex, but some attention to this
issue and recognition within an overall information management approach could
significantly improve the effectiveness of project information and communication
approaches.
REFERENCES
Caldas, C. and Soibelman, L. (2002), Automated Classification Methods: Supporting The
Implementation Of Pull Techniques For Information Flow Management, Proceedings IGLC10, Gramado, Brazil, http://www.cpgec.ufigs.br/norie/iglc10/papers/99-Caldas&Soibelman.pdf
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (home page).
http://dublincore.org/(accessedJune3,2004).
International Electrotechnical Commission (1999), Project IEC 62045 Ed. 1: Management data
(meta data) associated with documents URL: http://tc3.iec.ch/txt/169.htm(accessedJune3,2004).
International Alliance for Interoperability (2004), IAI International Home Page, http://www.iaiinternational.org/iai_international/ (accessed June 3, 2004).
Kam, C., Fischer, M., Hanninen, R., Karjalainen, A. and Laitinen, J. (2003), The product model
and Fourth Dimension project, Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction,
Vol. 8, pg. 137166.
Schapke, S.-E., Menzel, K., and Scherer, R. (2003), Towards Organisational Memory Systems In
The Construction Industry, eSM@RT and CISEMIC Conference, http://cib.bau.tudresden.de/~sven/Publications/20020903_PubFinal_eSmart2002_SES.pdf
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, business success depends on the seamless integration of enterprises internal
processes and relies on collaborations with outsiders. In the advent of electronic data
exchange, heterogeneous data models and processes need to be integrated in order to
provide interoperability between systems. This situation has been identified hard to
achieve, mainly because each application adopts its own distinct data structure and
semantics (Chen, 2000).
The principal recognized difficulties preventing interoperability between applications
are in its genesis problems related with: (i) data model compatibility and mapping; (ii)
different languages and methodologies for model representation; (iii) correctness in the
semantics of the data exchanged; (iv) readiness for model reusability and (v) accurate
conformance and interoperability checking between applications (Jardim-Goncalves,
2001).
145
The adoption of a common standard model, e.g., IFC or STEP Application Protocols,
could help face this problem. However, these models should not be completely static in
order to enable reusability and dynamic adaptation along time.
This flexibility requires the definition and agreement of common semantics, to
represent uniformly the meaning of the data to be instantiated and exchanged between
applications.
Building and Construction (B&C) industry involves a long process direct at the
satisfaction of clients and customers needs through the provision of quality products that
fulfil their purpose at a reasonable cost. It comprises complex activities that involve the
combined efforts of several specialists from different disciplines.
Contrary to what is seen in other manufacturing industries, the B&Cs artefact is
almost always a oneoff product. This main difference between the creation of a single
item and mass production has led the adoption, by B&C community, of a conservative
technological attitude and progress has not been as fast as in other industries (JardimGoncalves, 2003).
The life cycle of an artefact is long and normally it involves a large number of
participants with different experience and knowledge, often located in different
geographic areas. In B&C the life cycle of a product is basically a sequential process
comprising various stages in which the following stage does not begin before the
previous one is concluded.
Nevertheless, B&C projects allow concurrency between the different stages. For
example, escavation can begin before the design and planning stage is fully completed,
allowing a reduction of the overall project time, while phased occupation can begin
before external paintings completion, providing an earlier return on investment.
If one considers, for instance, the design and planning stage, we find the processes
used are essentially sequential. However, concurrent procedures can be adopted easily in
large numbers of situations, even for small projects.
The major obstacles identified to block such an approach are caused by two main
facts:
1. Engineering data is not interoperable;
2. Interaction between different participants is neither represented nor correlated.
The need of a unified and interoperable model that integrates all the information and
knowledge related to the different stages and that allows participants to access all the
information is a requirement.
In this scenario, the end user, can directly access to the systems data or do it through
the project manager, controlled by the systems managing applications and rules.
However, for instance for practitioners in these industrial environments, time and
material planning is still very often done in a manual process at the construction site in a
standalone basis, mostly assisted by data received by phone calls or by fax machines
(paper support).
Regarding the utilization of state-of-the-art ICT in the B&C industry, adherence is still
very poor (Filos, 2000) (prodAEC, 2004). Most established ways are concentrated on the
individual use of CAD tools, scheduling/planning applications, and automation of certain
pre-fabrication processes.
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describes the structure required to represent the information in the scope of the AP,
stating the information requirements and constraints in the application context.
This model is expressed using a normalized modeling language (e.g., ISO10303H
EXPRESS), and should be structured using entities, attributes, assertions and
relationships described for easy understanding by the industrial experts. Figure 3 depicts
the architecture for the development of one AP at reference level.
The Application Integrated Model (AIM) represents the implementable AP, when it
interprets the ARM using normative resources. The AIM acts as a formal data model
which defines the structure and content for the neutral data exchange (Figure 4).
Interpretation is a major task to be done by standardization experts who map the
industrial concepts at ARM level with the available standard entities, released as standard
Integrated Resources (IRs). IRs are sets of entity schemas that were identified as a
common concept for many industrial APs.
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entry point for the development of the ARM, which specifies in a formal modeling
language the application domain and information requirements for electronic data
exchange.
The ARM is built with several schemas of entities, usually known as Application
Objects (AOs) that can be clustered by functionality matters, defining Units of
Functionality (UoFs). This level is dependent on the industrial scope of the AP.
The CCs are defined to organize the AP in sets of conformance requirements for
implementation. To certify an application as compliant with a complete AP, or to a set of
CCs of an AP, standard Abstract Test Suites (ATS) need to be defined for verification
and validation tests. These ATSs should be also part of the standard AP.
The two described blocks of this architecture are linked through a mapping procedure
that describes the reference path for complete semantics matching between the industrial
model representation and the neutral independent one.
3 MOTIVATIONS FOR ADOPTION OF MODULARAPS
An Application Protocol represents a referential standard model within a specific
application scope. However, the typically large dimension of an AP leads to complex
models, which become standards of difficult reusability. They need to be organized in
well defined and simple scope limited modules.
To respond to this need, modularization is an increasingly important research activity
related to the development of standards. It is expected to be a major contribution for
supporting solutions for interoperability.
Application modules were recently introduced to the STEP architecture and are
considered the key components for the new generation of APs, intending to make them
more interoperable, cheaper, quicker to develop, and easier to understand and to manage.
In this new architecture, each module is seen as an atomic self-contained AP with a
respective reference and interpreted model (ISO10303, 2004).
The inclusion of the application reference model in a module is a major clue in this
modularization approach, because it extends the application interpreted construct (AIC)
concept of the classical STEP architecture towards a representation easier to understand
by the user, keeping the implementation advantages for the implementer
(ISO10303,2001) (ISO10303, 2002).
Thus, the need to create flexible models to support very large combinations of systems
can be sustained by a set of selected application modules, as the basis to develop a
complete new AP.
When compared with most of the existent Application Protocols, typically complex
and in compacted big models, the granularity of this novel standard architecture makes
the systems representations more flexible, interoperable and independent, to better
support new model representations and respective implementations.
This is a major advantage that provides specialized and autonomous structures
prepared to be reused to support the emerging industrial and business modeling
requirements.
Figure 6 depicts the architecture of a modular AP.
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of software applications work using shared databases (also known as project model
servers);
3. By using software interfaces that can expose the information content of defined groups
of attributes within an object Software interfaces allow for direct communication
between applications without the need for an intermediate file or database.
5 DISCUSSION
Both STEP and IFC architectures are based on EXPRESS. However, IFC is simpler,
though it does not consider the Interpreted Model, having their implementations at the
reference level. The existence of an unique reference model, makes the IFC model easier
to implement, and to reuse its models components.
Modularization is a major achievement in the STEPs architecture, because it will
allow having modules representing atomic aspects of the product life cycle that already
includes the respective interpretation. This situation facilitates the reuse of such existent
components/modules, enabling an immediate implementation at AIM level.
Modules development also obligates to have such components independent of each
other, acting as an autonomous atom. Therefore, this Atomic Modules, can circulate along
the applications adopted for its product life cycle, with independence, and using bounded
information description, i.e., without the necessity to bring attached the complete global
model (e.g., AP).
IFC is already developed in a well structured architecture, in many layers, each one
composed by a set of schemas, called modules. However, these schemata have strong
dependencies among the others, not having yet the required atomaticity. This makes
difficult potential extensions of the IFCs, as part of future releases of IFC or even by
external parties interested in such extensions, i.e., joining of external modules.
The reuse of the existent modules for the creation of new schemas at Application
Domains layer will be easier to develop using the proposed approach, i.e., complete
modularization will enable dynamic development of new modules, based on the IFC
modules, i.e., extension or reuse, specially based on the models in the Kernel and
Resources layers.
This dynamism will help to face the heterogeneity problem of an application willing to
use the IFC modules, when IFC cannot offer yet an integrated built-in complete solution
as intrinsic part of its standard.
Indeed, it will not be possible to cover all requirements foreseen by all applications
operating in the B&C area, including their many applicational views. In such way, and in
a case by case basis, each application can adopt IFC modules, and when necessary to
create new IFC-based modules, through extension from reuse of the existent IFCs.
AEC community can take important advantages from this strategy, allowing sustained
growing and increasing of the existing IFCs, having it as an open standard platform,
where external contributions will be absorbed, though developed and validated according
the IFCs architecture and quality assurance rules. With time, and with such distributed
effort, IFCs would be more and more complete, and adopted by the users and application
developers.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank all the national and international organizations that
supported the international projects that resulted in the development of framework
presented in this paper, the European Commission, CEN/ISSS, Ministry of Industry of
Portugal, IPQPortuguese Standardisation Body, ISO TC184/SC4. Also, the authors
express recognition for the project partners and our colleagues that work and contribute
in the international research and development projects developing the modular ISO10303
(STEP) AP236. To Ricardo Olavo, for his assistance at UNINOVA in the modularization
activities.
REFERENCES
prodAEC, 2004, http://www.prodaec.net/.
Blockley, D. & Godfrey, P. 2000. Doing it differently: Systems for rethinking construction. UK:
Thomas Telford.
Chen, Q. 2000. Inter-enterprise collaborative business process management. Technical report, HP
Labs Palo Alto, http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2000/HPL-2000107.pdf.
Filos, E. 2000. Moving construction towards the digital economy. In Goncalves et al. (eds.), 3rd
ECPPM conference, Lisbon, pp. 310, September 2000, Rotterdam: Balkema.
IAI/IFC 2001. International Alliance for Interoperability. Industrial Foundation Classes.
http://www.iai.org.uk/.
IFC 1999a. An Introduction to the International Alliance for Interoperability and the Industry
Foundation Classes. March 1999, IAI.
IFC 1999b. IFC Object Model Architecture Guide. March 1999, IAI.
ISO 10303, 2001, Standard for the Exchange of Product Data (STEP), ISO TC184/SC4 N1 113,
Guidelines for the content of Application Protocols that use application modules, International
Organization for Standardization.
ISO 10303, 2002, Standard for the Exchange of Product Data (STEP), ISO TC184/SC4, N535,
Guidelines for the development and approval of STEP application protocols, International
Organization for Standardization.
ISO 10303, 2004, Standard for the Exchange of Product Data (STEP), ISO TC184/SC4, Parts
IxxxApplication Modules, International Organization for Standardization.
ISO 103031 1994. Part 1Overview and Fundamentals Principles. International Standardization
Organization. http://www.tc184-sc4.org/.
ISO 1030311 1994. Product data representation and exchange Part 11: Description methods, The
EXPRESS language reference manual. International Standardization Organization.
ISO 1030321 1994. Product data representation and exchange Part 21: Implementation methods,
clear text encoding of the exchange structure. International Standardization Organization.
Jardim-Gonalves, R. & Steiger-Garo, A. 2001. Agile Manufacturing: 21st Century
Manufacturing Strategy, Chapter 48: Putting the pieces together using standards. Elsevier
Science Publishers, pp. 735757.
Jardim-Gonalves, R. Farinha, F. & Steiger-Garcao, A: 2003, A metamodel based environment to
assist integrating one-off production in B&C, International Journal of Internet and Enterprise
Management, Vol. 1, N 2, April-June 2003.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The A/E/C domain is characterized by the required cooperation between partners from
very diverse fields of activity, knowledge and terminology. This phenomenon is also
reflected by the applied software tools which were developed for one specific application
area. The design and construction process of a building is project-oriented, and thus
associates those partners in heterogeneous workgroups within the companies as well as
within the whole project. The different views on the project induce problems with regard
to information integrity and distribution. The latter are emphasized by parallel planning
steps on one and the same object, which are often necessary due to time pressure. Finally,
losses due to inefficiencies in project processing in the building industry are estimated up
to 40% of the total costs. Hence, the optimization of the project communication and the
rationalization of the project processes reveal a big potential to ensure the
competitiveness of enterprises within the sector. This cognition is mirrored in the past
and current developments of IT-technologies for the A/E/C domain. On the basis of the
requirements of the German steel construction companies, the specifications of an
integrated project processing system are elaborated. Because of the numerous existing
software standards, the number of new applications should be kept minimal. Therefore,
the actual state of the art in design and construction practice and developments of current
research activities are analyzed. From there on, a methodology for an optimized project
processingespecially for steel construction domainis proposed. The model is then
evaluated with regard to its applicability in time and for other A/E/C-domains.
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2 REQUIREMENTS
2.1 Project and company views
The organization of a company is human-centered, i.e. its structure is subdivided in
function of the competences and tasks of a department. Therefore one person or at least
one division work simultaneously on several construction projects. All systems to support
project processing should take this organizational structure in account (Katranuschkov et
al. 2002). The tasks of the diverse departments are generally supported by incompatible
and fragmented software applications, which rely on different concepts and database
structures. The German steel construction industry (DStV 2004) considers the creation of
integrated solutions which interconnect both all company actors and all project partners
as well as their respective software one of the most important challenges. The latter
should on one hand be able to represent the entire operational and organizational course
of business in the company and handle all project-oriented processes centrally. On the
other hand, the mentioned applications should be able to integrate themselves in the
project context. This would allow consistent information flows within the company for
the diverse departments, e.g. marketing, project-management, technical design, etc. and
over the project for the diverse involved partners, e.g. architect, civil engineer, steel
construction.
2.2 Data and information management
Because of different terminologies and software tools, the main difficulty of integrated
solutions consists in managing data and information. From the companys view, the
shared data has to be kept consistent and thus updated in all databases for each event.
Further, only the data relevant for at least two departments should be exchanged or held
centrally. Because of the different levels of confidentiality of the information, a
differentiated rights management system must be available. Any developed solution
should rely on existing standard software applications to keep expenses and
implementation efforts as low as possible. On the other hand, it should be kept very
flexible because of the various software systems and business structures of the diverse
companies. Actually most of the companies are not set to store all relevant project data in
external project spaces, e.g. for reasons of confidentiality or security. To avoid double
storage of information, the data management systems should partially open themselves to
the project space, to provide and get relevant information to or from the involved
partners. Therefore the sharing of information within the project should be similar to the
company internal model, but on another layer. Figure 1 shows this concept with the
example of a company with 2 departments working on 1 project. Because of parallel
planning steps, keeping the data unique, consistent and up-to-date is more complex. As a
matter of fact, real-time updating is not possible with regard to the possible interferences
between the project partners while planning.
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noticing new versions. The proposed main classes to represent a company with its
business structure are listed below:
1 Structure: defines the companies subdivisions, e.g. departments and employees
2 Project: defines projects and their subclasses
3 Partner: defines the partner types of the company, e.g. customers or suppliers
4 Product: defines the diverse products or services of the company
5 Tool: names the hard- and software tools of the company
6 Document: defines document types.
Hence, each entity in the company is handled and can be addressed by the project
processing system. Some
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the companys structure. The pre-defined classes must be those which are required within
the project environment.
Once a company model is defined, the entities can be linked to each other. The
management of those links has to be performed with this developed project processing
tool. If those links are available, workflows can be easily defined in the system. Figure 5
shows the above introduced principles. Once the companies entities are defined in a
neutral model, they can be instanced and linked. Those instances and links can be
addressed by workflows.
Assumed that the concerned application software has accessible database structures,
also more complex workflows can be defined, like automatic updating.
4.3 The project platform
To open the company to the project environment, its internal organization and process
model has to be connected with a project platform. The latter should be used for project
communication and document or file exchange. Because of the volume of accruing data
and their diversity, the idea of one unique file containing and treating all information is
not realistic. A better approach is to provide a simplified building model on the project
platform, which represents basic subdivisions of a building (Petersen & Diaz 2004).
Within the scope of this investigation, the building is split into basic elements of steel
construction domain. Those construction entities are then linked with concerned project
partners. With the company internal linking concept presented in 4.2, the latter step is
sufficient. The entity in the project space is automatically linked with all concerned
entities within the company. The information attached to the simplified model is unique
and stored on the internet platform. The real documents are accessible by links to local
servers. This also allows a better access control for the documents owner. To guarantee
data consistency, versions of detailed documents have to correspond to the version of the
related coarse element on the platform. If more detailed data are connected to one coarse
element, the more checks of consistency are necessary. On one hand this leads to an
optimization problem of the simplified models accuracy. On the other hand this situation
is a very strong argument for the use of product model based exchange files, where
checks can be performed automatically in a relatively simple way due to the common file
format, and the information can be directly taken over by the software. In a first step, the
common standard for data exchange can be the Produktschnittstelle Stahlbau, because it
is already used in the practice. But, because of its larger scope, the advantages of the IFC
are evident in this case. Figure 6 shows the concept of the proposed project processing
system with its internet platform and the peer-to-peer networks. In the example, the civil
engineer performs a change on frame A. The notification processes run over the common
internet platform. The internal links lead to the detailed data. Two alternatives are
presented with regard to the updating of information in the detailed files. In one case, the
concerned planner in the steel construction company gets to the changed file of the
structural engineer over the peer-to-peer access and performs the modifications
afterwards on his file. In the second case both file formats are compatible and a direct
exchange can be performed.
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5 EVALUATION
The above presented approach of a project process management system shall ensure data
integrity within A/E/C companies and within their projects. The system shall dispose a
simple messaging system. Assumed that the partners are considered by the company
model, an easy and systematic notification of changes is possible. If the used standard
software applications have open database structures, the update of data can be automated,
since their information contents are also instanced by the mentioned model. Thus, the
approach offers an immediate possibility to enhance data consistence by better
communication between the concerned actors, and in a further step, automation of
updating is possible. The adaptation of the method is up to the system administrator. With
the use of a simplified model on the shared project platform, interdependencies between
diverse project partners can be defined or detected easier. Further the data volume on the
web-server is limited. The peer-to-peer approach for real file sharing allows a better
access control within the company, which enhances the security and confidentiality.
The concept of the presented system is based on the improvement of existing project
communication systems. It does not depend on any product model standard, but only on
the abilities of the already existing and applied software applications of the companies.
Thus it offers a progressive approach of process optimization. Because of the use of
existing standards, it can be developed and applied in practice relatively rapid. The first
step is to provide a company modeling tool and a virtual project space. Then the process
model can be extended steadily.
The applicability to other domains is ensured by the general and adaptive approach of
the project pro cessing system. But as the process automation potential is dependent on
the scope of product models, its efficiency is also dependent on the latter.
6 CONCLUSION
This investigation shows, that an answer to the requirements of the industry can be found
by combination and small extension of existing technologies. In a first step, data
consistency and communication within companies and within building projects can be
improved. In a further step, several repeating processes can be automated, and thus the
efficiency of the sector improved.
The Lehrstuhl fr Stahl- und Leichtmetallbau is developing a prototype system in
cooperation with industry partners, which will be tested on real building projects.
REFERENCES
Deutscher Stahlbauverband (DStV) 2002. Standard-beschreibung Produktschnittstelle Stahlbau
Teil 1, Teil 2, Teil 3 and Standard description for product interface steel construction.
http://www.stahlbauverband.de/asp/biblioaussdet.asp?auss=7.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDlkba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Building automation is expected to improve building performance by reducing the
operation and maintenance costs of buildings (e.g. for heating, cooling, and lighting),
improving environmental performance, augmenting human comfort, and providing higher
safety levels. However, data collection and monitoring activities in current building
automation systems are rather limited: the focus is mostly on service systems such as
elevators and office equipment. There is a lack of systematic and scalable approaches to
comprehensive facility state monitoring throughout buildings life cycle. To achieve a
higher level of building automation technology, collected data must cover not only the
state of systems such as elevators, but also the state of room enclosure surfaces, furniture,
doors, operable windows, and other static or dynamically changing building entities.
Toward this end, we focus on generating comprehensive and self-updating models of the
physical and behavioral aspects of facilities over their life cycle (Mahdavi 2001a, 2001b,
2003, Mahdavi & Suter 2002). Thereby, we are developing and implementing a prototype
sensor-supported self-updating building model for simulation-based building operation
support (Mahdavi 200Ib).
To deliver a proof of concept for the feasibility of the system, we focus on lighting
controls in a test space. The control scenario is as follows: at regular time intervals, an
Executive Control Unit (ECU) considers possible changes in the states of control devices
(e.g. the dimming positions of the electrical light fixtures, the position of window
shades). The ECU then requests a lighting simulation program to predict the implications
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of device states for the lighting performance of the space (i.e. light availability and
distribution) in the immediate future time interval. Based on the comparison of the
predicted performance levels with desired (user-based) objective functions, the ECU
initiates the transition to the most desirable control state. For this scenario to work, the
underlying model generation system must consider a wide range of space and system
characteristics, including the spatial and material properties of a space as well as the state
of the luminaries and furniture. Specifically, the lighting simulator requires an accurate
and up-to-date model of both internal space and external conditions (i.e. the sky
luminance pattern) to run the necessary simulations. This implies the need for a location
sensing system to provide real-time identification and location data for the construction
of a space model. This information is subsequently used by the ECU to construct a 3D
object model in the system database. The resulting model can be used for lighting
simulations. Similar models can be constructed to inform other applications for building
operation and facility management support.
The challenge in constructing a model is that the building infrastructure is not a static
entity and may change in multiple ways during its life cycle. In office buildings, an
indicator for these dynamics is churn, that is, the number of office moves during a given
year. Depending on the flexibility of a buildings systems, churn can involve significant
infrastructure changes. According to one study on churn, freestanding furniture changes
daily to monthly, or modular partitions once a year (Ryburg 1996). The ability to track
such changes automatically is necessary for the viability of simulation-based building
control. In our prototype, this task is performed by a location sensing system.
2 LOCATION SENSING TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
Prior to the implementation of a location sensing system, the available technologies are
examined from the building automation perspective (Brunner et al. 2004). A suitable
system must be capable to identify individual objects and return their locations.
Furthermore, it should require minimum maintenance, and be scalable to adapt itself to
changes in a facility. In addition to these basic requirements, accuracy, unobtrusiveness
(minimal installation and maintenance necessary), cost, scalability, and identification
capability are also considered among the primary evaluation criteria.
Most currently available location systems use tags, small items affixed to the actual
objects to be tracked. Location information is obtained by signal exchange between these
tags and a sensor infrastructure (sensors, readers). Even more so than in other ubicomp
applications, building model applications call for rather small, long-lived tags that require
no batteries or any other maintenance. Moreover, systems based on devices that obtain or
calculate position information internally (called localized location computation) are not
meaningful in building model applications, unless the location information is fed back to
the overall system.
Among the available technologies, the ones that exploit electromagnetic and radio
frequency, ultra-sound, and optical/vision-based methods are specially noteworthy.
Electromagnetic and radio frequency include technologies based on the measurement of
electromagnetic or radio frequency signals field strengths, distortion, time-of-flight or
frequency. Ultrasound-based systems typically consist of battery-powered tags and a set
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be distributed across a facility, and their number can be increased as needed. The results
obtained from multiple clients are combined in the Application Server, which is also
responsible for controlling the status of the cameras and TRIP Clients. It informs the
operator (a facility manager, for example) of inactive sources and dynamically assigns
active cameras to active TRIP Clients by taking their workload feedback into
consideration. This arrangement minimizes operator overhead.
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Interface. Object IDs and locations are extracted by the Image Processing unit and are
conveyed subsequently to the Coordinate Translation. Coordinate Translation transforms
the location data with respect to camera coordinates to the location data with respect to
room coordinates. Multiple Image Processing and Coordinate Translation units run
parallel in the LSS, as they are implemented within distributed TRIP Clients. The ID and
location data extracted from various camera devices are combined in the Object Fusion
phase utilizing current and previous object information. Final results are transformed into
data packets for convenient data communication, and transferred to the main system,
ECU, for model construction. These data are also transferred to the Object History
database for the further processing of the Object Fusion.
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Network cameras, like other digital video devices, are designed to convey images as fast
as possible for user convenience and therefore apply compression on the original images
prior to transmission. To overcome the compression artifacts, enhancement algorithms
are integrated as described in the following.
3.2.2.1 Original Image Processing method
The original method comprises target recognition and pose extraction algorithms that
turn the input images of tags into location and identification data. The target
recognition algorithm determines the identification and geometric properties of the
projections of TRIP tags. Since the projection of a circle in an image generates an ellipse,
TRIP tags circular patterns are observed as elliptical, and parameters of these ellipses are
extracted from the image. The outermost ellipse of a detected tag is marked as reference
ellipse and its parameters are used for the pixel sampling procedure of TRIP code
deciphering. The intensity values of the pixels at point locations around the reference
ellipse determine the entire TRIP code. The TRIP code is finally validated with the
evenparity check bits (Lopez 2002).
Target recognition returns the ID number, radius of the tag, the position of
synchronization sector and the parameters of the reference ellipse for each identified
TRIP tag. The pose extraction algorithm takes these values as input in order to
determine the 3D position and orientation of TRIP tags with respect to the camera. The
algorithm implements a transformation that back-projects the elliptical border of a tag
lying on the camera image plane into its actual circular form lying on the centre of the
target plane. The reverse projection makes the camera image plane become parallel to the
target plane and retrieves the 2D orientation of the TRIP tag by giving out the angles
around the cameras axes X and Y, and respectively. The position of the
synchronization sector is used to extract the final component of the orientation, angle
around Z-axis, . The distance between the camera and the target plane, d, is computed
using the radius length of the tag. Thus, in addition to orientation, position vector [Px, Py,
d]T is also generated where Px and Py are computed from the central point of the
reference ellipse.
3.2.2.2 Enhanced Image Processing method
In our application, network cameras apply wavelet transformation with a 10:1
compression ratio. This process generates smoothed input images for the TRIP Clients
and causes the tag images to lose sharpness. To compensate this, TRIP Clients apply an
adaptive sharpening algorithm (Battiato et al. 2003) on the input image prior to target
recognition (Fig. 4). This method restores first the original image by an un-sharp masking
process, which is naturally affected by noise and compression-based ringing artifacts.
The algorithm then minimizes these artifacts by combining the adaptively restored image
with the original.
In addition to camera artifacts, an increase in the distance of tags to camera reduces
the pixel resolution of the tag images and makes the TRIP codes harder to decipher, even
though the tags are detected and reference ellipses are extracted properly. To solve the
problem, edge-adaptive zooming (Battiato et al. 2000) is applied locally to spurious
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TRIP tags from which the TRIP code could not be deciphered or validated. Edgeadaptive zooming, as opposed to its counter-parts such as bilinear and cubic
interpolation, enhances the discontinuities and sharp luminance variations in the tag
images. This procedure is repeated until the target recognition succeeds or the zoomed
image region loses its Details (Fig. 4). The latter case indicates a false alarm or an
unidentified tag.
3.2.3 Coordinate Translation and Object Fusion
Coordinate Translation is executed within TRIP Clients after Image Processing (Fig. 2).
The outcomes of Image Processing are a position vector and orientation angles
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eventually gives out the position vector with respect to the room when combined with the
original position vector, [Px, Py, d]T.
Object Fusion, implemented in the Application Server, combines the object
identification and location data acquired from parallel-running TRIP Clients (Fig. 2). The
same object may be detected with multiple cameras, each of which is assigned to
different TRIP Clients. This may generate repeated records in the system. Object Fusion
combines these reiterated data based on identification codes and room coordinate
locations. Furthermore, TRIP Clients attach time stamps on each extracted objects
location data. In cases of inconsistency, Object Fusion uses previous object data to
perceive the correct identification or location information, and generates the final, unique
object information.
4 A DEMONSTRATIVE TEST
To evaluate the performance of the LSS, a demonstrative test was performed to observe
the identification and location accuracy. The test configuration was
Distance
Original
Enhanced
2m
100
93
78
100
97
90
30
3m
82
78
53
97
90
84
60
4m
42
36
18
81
78
56
designed to address system limitations. One limitation is the distance of the tags from
the camera. An increase in distance reduces the resolution of the tags that makes pixel
sampling unable to locate the circular regions within the tag image. A second limitation is
the incidence angle between the normals of the target plane and the image plane. As the
incidence angle increases, the elliptical properties of the tag image projections become
more difficult to acquire.
In our test, 1616 cm tags were located at 3 different distance values (2, 3, 4 m) and,
for each distance, 3 different incidence angles were evaluated (0, 30, 60). Thirty
sequential readings for each location were recorded using the TRJP Client program and a
network camera with 1/3 CCD sensor and 720486 resolution. As camera artifacts affect
input images in changing magnitudes and spatial values, multiple samples were taken for
each designated location.
The test was performed with the original and enhanced Image Processing methods
as described above. Identification percentages are given from the sequential reading
results in Table 1.
In addition to identification, location results were also observed. For the enhanced
method, the position and orientation data are within a maximum error range of 10cm
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and 10 degrees for 3 m distance. The error rates show an increase to 20 cm and 35
degrees for objects located within 3 to 4 m distance.
A single TRIP Client program running on a 2 GHz processor possesses an average
update speed of 5 image frames per second. The update speed of the overall system is
dependent on the number of cameras and TRIP Clients employed and it is configurable
based on the facility requirements and budget. Increasing the number of cameras also
increases the amount of space being covered by the LSS. However, this eventually
increases the image production rate and reduces the overall update speed. The resulting
drawback can be compensated with adding new TRIP Clients. Multiple TRIP Clients
executed in the system share the workload and may increase the update speed per camera
up to its maximum frame transfer rate.
5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
We have presented a location sensing system to support self-updating building models for
building automation applications. The implemented system has some drawbacks inherited
from the general disadvantages of the visual methods as it requires line-of-sight between
the camera and tags, and its performance is dependent on the cameras image quality.
However, the results obtained from our location sensing system suggest that vision based
location sensing, when enhanced with software methods and integrated with appropriate
hardware, is a promising technology suitable for spatial domains such as facilities and
buildings.
The implemented sensing system is still open for improvements. We expect that in the
future the tag size can be reduced and the effective distance of the system can be
augmented. Integrating pan/tilt units that can feed their position data back to the system
will also increase the effectiveness of the cameras. In addition, currently, coordinate
translation data has to be updated for any displacement of the cameras. Utilizing
reference tags will facilitate the automatic calculation of coordinate translation data,
allowing the relocation of cameras without manual system reconfiguration.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research presented in this paper is supported by a grant from FWF (Austrian Science
Foundation), project number P15998-N07. The research team includes, in addition to the
authors, G.Suter, K.Brunner, B.Spasojevic, L.Lambeva, and M.Mohamadi.
REFERENCES
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Battiato, S., Gallo, G. & Stanco, F. 2000. A new edgeadaptive algorithm for zooming of digital
images. IASTED Signal Processing and Communications, Marbella, September 2000. 144149.
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Brunner, K., Icoglu, O., Mahdavi, A. & Suter, G. 2004. Location-sensing technologies for selfupdating building models. (to be published).
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Lopez de Ipina, D. 2002. Visual sensing and middleware support for sentient computing. PhD
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Lopez de Ipina, D., Mendonca, P.S. & Hopper, A. 2002. Visual sensing and middleware support for
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Mahdavi, A. 2001b. Simulation-based control of building systems operation. Building and
Environment. 36(6): 789796.
Mahdavi, A. 2003. Computational building models: Theme and four variations (Keynote).
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Eindhoven, 2003. 1:318.
Mahdavi, A. & Suter, G. 2002. Sensorgesttzte Modelle fr verbesserte Gebaeudeservices. FWF
proposal, 2002.
Ryburg, J. 1996. New churn rates: people, walls, and furniture in restructuring companies. Facility
Performance Group, Inc. 1996.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDlkba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The planning process in the construction industry is focused on organizations and work
breakdown instead of construction operations, flows and supply chain management
(Ballard 2001). Decision-making is often based on practice, general information and
assumptions, resulting in sub-optimal solutions that often have a negative impact on the
total project costs. Product and process innovations are not easily adapted in this practice.
A widely used method for process modeling is the Critical Path Method (CPM). The
method concentrates mainly on the temporal aspect of construction planning and is seen
as one-dimensional (Heesom 2004). Construction projects have unique spatial
configurations and the spatial nature of projects is very important for planning decisions
(Akbas 2004). CPM schedules do not provide any information pertaining to the spatial
context of project components and requires users to look at 2D drawings to conceptually
associate components with the related activities (Koo 2000, 2003). This approach limits
evaluation and comparison of alternative solutions.
4D modeling is a new process method in which 3D CAD models are visualized in a 4dimensional environment. Construction plans can be represented graphically by adding
the time dimension to the 3D model to allow project planners to simulate and analyze
what-if scenarios before commencing work exe cution on site (Mallasi 2002). Koo (2000)
identifies 4D modeling as a tool to convey planning information (visualization tool),
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enhance collaboration among project participants (integration tool), and to support users
to conduct additional analyses (analysis tool).
Although geometrical data and temporal data are present in commercial 4D CAD
software, the utilization of these models has so far mainly concentrated on the
visualization of construction processes, rather than on integration and analyses of
construction operations. However, recent research efforts in 4D modeling show an
increasing interest in providing an integrated 4D environment to support a variety of
analysis of for example work spaces, work flows and use of resources (Akbas 2004,
Akinci 2002, Heesom 2003, Li 2003, Mallasi 2002).
In this paper we describe the relevance of 4D modeling as an instrument to introduce
construction innovations and to evaluate construction alternatives. We report the
implementation and findings from a 4D modeling project conducted by a Swedish ready
mixed concrete supplier, in which 4D was used as a tool for visualization and integration.
The use of an Internet-based collaborative engineering environment to support interactive
decision-making processes is introduced, which was used to create 4D models. The main
findings and results from the study provide a base for fiiture research aimed at defining
methods for 4D comparative analyses of construction alternatives.
2 MARKETING CAST IN PLACE CONCRETE
4D modeling formed the basis for a marketing project conducted by a Swedish ready
mixed concrete supplier. Motivation to conduct this project followed from routine
problems in the suppliers business process. The suppliers marketing department
experienced difficulties in introducing new products and production processes to its
clients: project developers and contractors.
As an example the introduction of permanent form work systems can be given. Paperbased brochure material and 2D engineering drawings are commonly used to
communicate product characteristics. The process of applying these products on site is
communicated via spread sheets and CPM schedules. These media and tools are
considered to be insufficient to create a common understanding in project teams about
advantages and disadvantages of new products and production technologies.
An alternative approach for introducing new innovations is performing a full scale
study in a pilot project. However, such projects are often expensive and resource
intensive. Furthermore, there is a risk that the efficiency and effectiveness of innovations
are not clearly shown, caused by a lack of experience, and other parameters such as
weather conditions that are beyond control of the project organization (Jongeling 2004).
In an effort to adequately support the introduction and evaluation of construction
innovations a pilot study was initiated in which 4D simulations were made to evaluate
two construction alternatives of a residential construction project.
The first alternative, the 0-Reference scenario, represented todays common practice for
cast in place concrete construction. The objective of this scenario was to represent
typical sequenced and concurrent activities on a construction site that are related to
casting of concrete walls and slabs.
The second alternative provided an industrialized approach to cast in place concrete
construction. A number of innovative production technologies formed the basis for
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this alternative. The objective was to visualize the potential for permanent form work
systems in combination with the use of prefabricated carpets of reinforcement and self
compacting concrete. Such a combination of innovative production technologies had
not been applied in actual projects and the possibility to evaluate these methods in a
virtual environment was considered to be very useful.
The simulations, by realistically visualizing typical construction activities, provided a
foundation and a base for evaluating the differences between traditional and permanent
form work systems. The period of construction was used as a primary comparator.
Typical construction activities were defined as operations needed for the installation of
form work, reinforcement and concrete. Original 2D architectural drawings from a
typical residential construction project were used to create a two-storey 3D CAD model.
The 4D experiments were conducted after the actual construction of the project was
finished and have no direct relation to the construction process by the contractor.
Modeled scenarios were based on estimates of product and process data acquired from
experienced practitioners at the supplier and other actors in the Swedish construction
industry. Many hypotheses and limitations were made in planning and representing these
processes in a 4D CAD environment. For example, the planning of resource use was not
directly addressed in this study.
3 MODELING ENVIRONMENT
A main interest in the study was to investigate the possible and practical use of the
software tools and 4D simulations in practice. For this reason software tools were
selected that were to some degree already familiar to both the supplier and other project
participants. The 3D models were created by using AutoCAD Architectural Desktop
(ADT) as client software to an Internet-based database management system, developed
by Enterprixe Ltd (Enterprixe 2002). The system stores all project data in a central
database, to which project members have concurrent access over the Internet. Depending
on access rights, users can view or edit information by loading data from the server to
local software clients. The server keeps track of the modeling work and modifications by
connected users, who can check out and check in parts of the project.
The contact between the concrete supplier and its clients is often highly interactive and
intense during certain stages of a construction project. The interoperability environment
provided by the modeling system was therefore considered useful to support these
processes and to ensure consistency of data. The possibility to create a user defined
object hierarchy for 3D CAD objects was another reason to apply the modeling system.
This functionality facilitates the creation of multiple parallel CAD object hierarchies that
can represent different construction alternatives.
4 MODEL COMPONENTS
The following section describes the method and findings of the modeling work of the
main 4D model components for both construction alternatives.
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model had to be split and regrouped in order to suit the object hierarchy of the production
model.
4.2 Schedule
CPM schedules were created on two levels of detail in MS Project. The first level, the
master level, contained the main work processes of the project. The level of detail in the
master schedule was appropriate in conveying the overall daily work flow in the project,
but was too abstract to represent construction operations on site. For example, activities
such as installing and dismantling form work were not included in this schedule. The
master schedule was subsequently detailed into a second level of detail in order to
represent work flows more accurately. This level of detail included time frames of 10
minutes and led to CPM schedules with large number of activities for the various work
flows. For example, the activity cast concrete walls phase one from the master schedule
was broken down into sub-activities; install traditional form work side A, install
reinforcement bars, install traditional form work side B and cast concrete. These subactivities were further detailed to standard sections of form work and sections of
reinforcement and walls. A similar approach was applied to the detailing construction
operations for the slabs.
The final CPM sChedule for both construction alternatives contained over 1500
activities. The CPM schedule was imported to the project database and manually linked
to the respective objects and objectgroups. Color settings for the visualization of
activities were made after the linking of activities to the 3D CAD models was completed.
The order of installment of all 3D CAD components was determined in the CPM
environment without a direct relation or visual check in the 3D model. Interdependencies
between different work flows, i.e. form work, reinforcement and concreting, could only
be checked after the CPM schedule was linked to the 3D CAD models. By browsing the
time planning of the two models errors could be detected, such as work space conflicts
and erroneous work flow directions. These observations led to updates in both the 3D
CAD model and the CPM schedule that in many cases had to be restructured and relinked in order to work properly. Schedule changes were difficult to manage due to the
large number of activities and the large number of dependencies between different
activities. The process of linking and updating the CPM schedule and the 3D CAD model
was labor intensive.
4.3 Casting sequences
To define casting sequences for concreting work the building model was split in a
number of work packages. Each of these work packages represented the concrete casting
work for one day and included sections of walls and slabs. The sequences were planned
in a traditional 2D paper-based way as this was deemed more flexible than planning the
sequences in a 4D environment. Sequences for the casting process of walls were planned
by using colored lines drawn into 2D drawings; each line representing casting work for
one day. The length and distribution of lines were manually determined in five iterations
in which a set of decision criteria was used. Main criteria were: required form work,
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volume of concrete, work flow direction and possible work space conflicts. These criteria
were considered implicitly and were not quantified in the decision-making process.
In many cases the 3D building model components had to be split in a number of subcomponents, i.e. production objects, to represent the appropriate size of the individual
concreting activities. This was a complex process as the planning for casting work kept
changing during the modeling work.
4.4 Form work
Form work was different for both alteraatives. The 0-Reference alternative was based on
the use of traditional temporary form work. Traditional form work elements in the model
purely had a visual purpose and were abstract representations of the actual form work
elements. Form elements were grouped in the 3D CAD model by sections of standard
length of elements. Modeling and grouping form work into work packages was a labor
intensive process. Casting sequences determined the size and distribution of work
packages in the 4D model. As noted in the previous section, the planning for casting
work kept changing and subsequently the work packages containing 3D CAD form work
elements had to be changed to keep the model consistent.
A permanent form work system was used for the industrialized alternative. This form
work consists of cement-bonded particle boards, which remain in the building after
construction. As opposed to the 0-Reference alternative, where casting sequences
determined form work activities; the permanent form work objects determined the
planning for the industrialized construction alternative. 2D drawings were sent to a
supplier of permanent form work systems, who manually planned wall and slab form
elements in the drawings. Geometric data was manually extracted from drawings and
used in spread sheets to calculate required resources and element costs. Hand-written
element ID-numbers on 2D drawings were the key in linking 2D drawings and spread
sheets together. All the form work elements for walls and slabs were modeled and
organized in the 3D CAD model according to element ID-numbers given in the 2D
drawings.
For every form work element an activity was created in the CPM schedule that was
linked to the corresponding 3D CAD element in the database. For the two storey building
used in the project this implied 180 form work element activities for slabs and 170
activities for wall elements. The order of work for installation of form work elements did
not follow the ID-numbers and was made in the CPM schedule by changing order of
activities. Changing order of activities for form work often had an impact on
approximately 70 shoring activities, 60 reinforcement activities and 80 concreting
activities.
This constrained the rapid evaluation of different work flow directions. It took
approximately 15 iterations before an installment order was found that visually satisfied
the planning criteria for work spaces and work space conflicts.
4.5 Reinforcement
Dimensions, locations, and number of reinforcement bars were determined by visual
analyses of the 3D CAD model. The reinforcement bars served a visual purpose and were
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not modeled for reasons of structural analyses. Reinforcement bars for slabs were
distributed over equal distances and modeled in one direction in order to minimize 3D
modeling work. The purpose of these bars was to show the reinforcement activity work
zones rather than the actual reinforcement components.
Planning the installation of reinforcement bars was done with the assumption of a
constant production rate, i.e. every reinforcement bar would take the same amount of
time. Specific geometrical situations were not taken into account. The relation between
the geometry of reinforcement bars and productivity for installment could only be made
visually. Considering specific production rates by analyzing the 3D and 4D CAD model
in detail was beyond the scope of the project, but could have contributed to the accuracy
of the simulations.
5 COMPARISON IN 4D
Both construction alternatives were simulated in parallel in a 4D CAD environment,
Figure 2. The two construction simulations showed to some extent similar work flows.
Activities for form work, reinforcement, and concrete were carried out concurrently,
enabling and constraining the execution of other activities.
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The main differences between both alternatives were the dependencies between the
different work flows and the production rate. This observation could be made visually,
but was not supported by measured data from the 4D model.
Parallel visualization was considered very effective to visually explain the differences
between the two construction alternatives. The simulations were used in seminars in
which a variety of professionals in construction was invited. It was generally agreed that
the 4D models helped to understand the different construction processes, but it was noted
that the models were limited in scope and non-interactive. Evaluation of alternative work
flow strategies or changes in productivity could not easily be managed in the 4D model.
The 3D CAD objects in the production model that had been created and grouped to
represent specific activities, i.e. form work, reinforcement and concreting, constrained the
rapid evaluation of alternatives. Changes in schedule implied often major changes in the
production model, involving considerable remodeling work.
The 4D models provided the actors from different disciplines an integrated visual
impression of the construction alternatives, but there was a general need to support this
visual analysis with data. We distinguish two types of actors here: specialists and
managers.
Specialists from different disciplines were mainly interested in making specific data
analysis of the 4D models. In addition to the visual comparison in 4D, these actors were
interested in making data analyses by using a range of criteria. Examples of these criteria
are: changes in crew composition, distances between parallel work flows, amount of
equipment, crews, available work spaces, etc. Data needed to make this analysis could
not easily be extracted from the available 4D models. This was partly due to absence of
specific input data and partly due to the fact that output data, i.e. the 4D model, was
limited to mainly graphical information.
Managers considered 4D models on a different level and considered Key Performance
Indicators of both alternatives. These indicators would summarize findings from the
various analyses by specialists in graphs that would provide them with a general
impression of the performance of different alternatives. Some of the indicators that were
suggested were rather specific, such as costs, resource use and project phase duration;
others were more abstract such as the efficiency of work space use. Data to support these
analyses could partly be obtained from the CPM schedule, but most of the needed data
was not readily available.
In summary, 4D models were considered very useful to visually compare construction
alternatives, but limited in the sense that it was difficult to interact with the models. Next
to the graphical output of 4D models, there was a need to quantiiy the results from the
analyses to allow comparison of construction alternatives on different criteria.
6 DISCUSSION
In this section we summarize the main findings from the conducted 4D modeling
experiments. We also suggest a number of directions for future research and
development.
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REFERENCES
Akbas, R. 2004. Geometry-based modeling and simulation of construction processes, 150. PhD
Thesis. Stanford University. Stanford, CA.
Akinci, B., Fischer, M., and Kunz, J. 2002. Automated Generation of Work Spaces Required by
Construction Activities. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 128(4):10.
Ballard, G., Koskela, L., Howell, G., and Zabelle, T. 2001. Production system design in
construction. 9th International Group for Lean Construction Conference. Singapore. 2337.
Ballard, G., Tommelein, I., Koskela, L., and Howell, G. 2002. Lean construction tools and
techniques. in Best, R., and De Valence, G. (eds). Design and ConstructionBuilding in
Value:227255. Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd.
Enterprixe 2002. Enterprixe White Paper. Enterprixe Software Ltd. Helsinki, Finland.
Heesom, D., and Mahdjoubi, L. 2003. Dynamic Interactive Visualization of Construction Space
Using 4D Techniques. 3rd International Postgraduate Research Conference in the Built and
Human Environment. Lisbon, Portugal.
Heesom, D., and Mahdjoubi, L. 2004. Trends of 4D CAD applications for construction planning.
Construction Management and Economics, February 2004, 22, 171182. February
2004(22):171182.
Jongeling, R., Olofsson, T., and Emborg, M. 2004. Product modelling for industrialized cast-inplace concrete structures. INCITE 2004International Conference on Information Technology
in Design and Construction. Langkawi, Malaysia.
Kim, J. 2004, unpubl. Generating temporary structures with feature-based 4D models. 41.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University. Stanford, CA.
Koo, B., and Fischer, M. 2000. Feasibility Study of 4D CAD in Commercial Construction. Journal
of Construction Engineering and Management. 126(4):251260.
Koo, B., and Fischer, M. 2003. Formalizing Construction Sequencing Constraints for Rapid
Generation of Schedule Alternatives. 75. 28. Center for Integrated Facility Engineering,
Stanford University. Stanford, CA.
Li, H., Ma, Z., Shen, Q., and Kong, S. 2003. Virtual experiment of innovative construction
operations. Automation in Construction. 12(5):561575.
Mallasi, Z., and Dawood, N. 2002. Registering Space Requirements of Construction Operations
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overall goal
The focus of our research is to create a conceptual model which enables active
connections between requirements for a building project and the building product model
based design solution. Our intuition is that the link could improve the requirements
management process and also the quality of the end result; the building.
1.2 Problem description
A building program specifying a projects goals and requirements for all the spaces is the
typical client requirements documentation in building projects, though there are also
several other methods to capture client requirements. Regardless of the capturing method,
the requirements, depending on the project type, consist of more or less detailed
information about the required room properties; net area, activities, connections to other
spaces, security, appropriate or desired materials, conditions like daylight, temperature,
sound level, etc. Many requirements also cascade; e.g., create additional requirements
to building elements bounding the space and systems serving the space. Moreover, an
important part of the design process is that some requirements can be in conflict; the
project team must often prioritize and make trade-offs between different requirements,
192
which creates the need to update the requirements, and thus, manage and document the
changes to the requirements and the design solution.
In practice several factors make it virtually impossible that all the participants know
and remember all the relevant requirements and especially their relationships to each
other and to the design solutions.
The main reasons for this argument are:
Amount and complexity of project information.
Duration of projects.
Designers need to work simultaneously on many projects.
Changing stakeholders in different project phases.
Shifting design focus, e.g., moving from overall problem solving to detailed technical
solutions.
After conceptual design the requirements documentation is usually not used actively in
the current process, and often the evolving requirements are not even communicated to
the whole project team (Kagioglou et al 1998). Thus, the changes are compared to, and
decisions made based on, the previous design solutions. The current design tools do not
support recording of client requirements or designers intent in the documents. Thus, the
people deciding on the changes do not always even know the original intent, and the
solution can drift away from the original goal without actual decisions to change the
goal or understanding the contradiction between the proposed design and project goals.
(Kiviniemi and Fischer 2004a, Kiviniemi and Fischer 2004c).
193
194
recognize the connection between bounding elements and spaces, which is supported
by some commercially available product model based software.
(5) Another reason for the separation is to make the distinction between requirements and
properties clear; for example sound insulation is a requirement in the requirements
database and a property in the product model.
A further important observation is that the requirements instances in the requirements
database have no physical locations, i.e., the requirements for bounding elements can
relate to one space only. In the product model the bounding elements are always either
between two spaces or part of the building envelope. This means that the requirements
for the bounding elements must be aggregated from the requirements of the related
spaces; they cannot be defined directly to the elements in the same manner as the space
requirements relate to the spaces.
3 CASE STUDIES
3.1 Test cases
To test the existing problems and possible solutions we used rapid prototyping. We
analyzed two real building programs, implemented two test databases based on the
results, and entered the project information. In the test cases the research concentrated on
room related client requirements only, external requirements were not in the scope at this
stage. The detailed results of the test cases are published in ICCCBE-X proceedings
(Kiviniemi and Fischer 2004a) and also in a CIFE Working Paper (Kiviniemi and Fischer
2004c). This paper covers only the main conclusions from these case studies.
The two projects were the ICL Headquarters project in Helsinki built in 19941996
and the on-going Lucas Center Expansion at Stanford University. The ICL Headquarters
is a large office building consisting mainly of standard office rooms, but including also
some special rooms and requirements. The Lucas Center Expansion is a small special
laboratory consisting mainly of unique rooms with very little repetition.
3.2 ICL Headquarters program
The ICL Headquarters building program was one document. The required areas were
constantly compared to actual design solutions and the requirements file was constantly
updated during the design process. The requirements documentation with respect to
required room areas was coherent. The only identified problem was related to the
structure used in the document; all classification codes and requirements were entered
manually in each cell, which created the possibility for incoherent content and made
updates more laborious. Use of references to one source data, e.g., simple inheritance
structure, would prevent this problem.
195
196
level, and was able to follow constantly that the project design stayed within the
allocated limits. In addition, despite the simple approach taken in the ICL project to
only link the requirements and the design information for comparing required and real
areas, the coherent requirements information suggests that a link between requirements
and design tools and the constant use of requirements information in the process could
improve requirements management.
4 DATABASE STRUCTURE AND UI
To explore the possible solutions to manage the room related requirements, we used rapid
prototyping and implemented some different database structures to find a usable solution,
which would:
Provide solutions to the problems identified in the LCE project.
Support inheritance of the room type requirements (ARqE) to rooms (IRqE) (Figure 2).
Enable in the next phase of the research a link between the requirements database and
the product model (Figure 2).
4.1 Requirements database tests
The user interface and database structure of the first pilot implementation were based
mainly on the room program documents of LCE project. The implementation was made
in MS Access 2002 database. The main criteria for the database structure were to provide
a solution to the identified problems:
Unique IDs for the rooms; i.e., IRqE and all the rooms in the product model referencing
it must share the same ID
unambiguous identification.
Use of requirements types (ARqE) and inheritance
efficient and easy maintenance
and updating of repetitive requirements.
Use of user-definable enumeration (list of values) instead of free text
coherent
content.
No default values, which might inadvertently set wrong requirements.
Functionality to compare area requirements with areas in design documents.
Functionality to link external documents to the requirements database, e.g., to include
also complex descriptive requirements, not only short text and numerical
requirements.
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198
Single-value requirements (SVR), which can have only one value or reference for each
room, like, for example, noise level, maximum number of occupants, maximum
temperature, etc.
199
which were located in both the RoomTypes and Rooms tables in the LCE
test, would have caused extensive duplication of similar type definitions with
different area and occupant values. Thus, the database structure was changed so
that these requirements were removed from the RoomTypes table and changed
to instance-specific requirements in the Rooms table (Figure 4).
Otherwise the same database structure, which was used in the LCE project test, also
worked for the ICL Headquarters project and enabled recording of the requirements in a
usable format; 782 physical room instances are stored in 186 requirements instances
based on 51 RoomTypes. The maximum number of type references is 16, the average 3.8
and the median 2. The population of the database took about 3 hours, which can be seen
as a reasonable effort.
Figure 4 shows the 1_to_1 and 1_to_many relations in the final pilot database.
Room-Type and RoomID are the key links between different tables.
This draft structure forces the user to define unique IDs for each requirements instance
(Rooms), and all the free text requirements, like departments, adjacent rooms,
equipment, activities, etc. are based on user-definable lists (enumerations), which
prevents slightly different requirements descriptions or references to non-existing rooms;
all problems we identified in the LCE project data.
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201
delegate the requirements management to the designers, in some projects it might be the
task for the PM or the clients own representative. The selected database approach
enables independent access control for the requirements database.
5 FUTURE WORK
The research is still continuing. At the next stage we will analyze several other building
programs to find a
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Different building types and process phases: The scope of our research covers a few
building types only. Our intuition is that the same conceptual model could be applied to
most buildings, but because of the different requirements the database and UI
implementation might be different In addition, our research covers only design, a short
period of the process, the use of the requirements model in other parts of the process,
like, construction, FM, etc., is not covered in detail, though the same principles are
possibly applicable.
Technical systems and other design areas: The designers role in defining detailed
technical requirements for technical systems is more dominant than in the architectural
design, and LBNLs research in this area provides another view on building requirements
management (LBNL 2003). However, there is no link between the technical requirements
for systems and the building product model. Our research identifies some connections to
technical systems, but the formal link between these two requirements views will need
further research, as do requirements link and management in other design areas, like
structural engineering.
Requirements history: One interesting related research area is the requirements
history; how the requirements evolve during the process. Our research proposes a
conceptual model for requirements, which will provide a conceptual basis to store all the
requirements changes during the process in the database. How to implement such a
historic perspective of requirements management in detail and which functionalities the
UI would need, could be interesting areas for further development.
UID,
string
Room
Name
Room
Type
Room
Descrip
tion
Document
62
92 100
88
String
100
100 100
100
UID,
string
46
100
73
String
Hyper
link
Enum
92 100% 100
98
Integer
100
Depart
ment
Number Of
203
Rooms
Required
Area
Real
Max
Occupants
Integer
100% 100
100
100
50
Basic properties
MaxNoise
Level
Integer
Sound
lnsulation
Enum
SecurityClass
Enum
38
19
Refto
UID
Assigned
Activities
Enum
list
Furniture
Enum
list
Equipment
Enum
list
Doors
oo
Enum
list
Windows
Enum
list
Floor
oo
Walls
oo
Ceiling
46
x
28
37
85
42
62
731
38
100
50
Enum
92
46
Enum
100
50
Enum
100
50
Ceiling height o
Real
92
46
Hyper
link
Natural
Light
Yes/
No
77
38
NoWindows
Yes/
No
Dimmable
Yes/
No
21
Finishes
Document
Lighting
x
x
204
Darkenable
Yes/
No
Warning
Light
Yes/
No
Ambient
Light Level
Real
Hyper x
link
Min
Temperature
Real
46
Max
Temperature
Real
46
MinAir
Change Rate
Real
92
46
MaxAir
ChangeRate
Real
Min
Humidity
Real
Max
Humidity
Real
AirRecycle
Yes/
No
62
31
Hyper x
link
Document
Environmental conditions
Document
23
2
24
205
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problems in building systems control
Currently, building systems controllers (for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, etc.)
operate in terms of individual system components at several levels. While this allows, in
principle, for a distributed implementation of control logic, it also leads to the
configurations of environmental systems as isolated sub-systems. Thus, devices affecting
the same control zone are seldom integrated. Likewise, in most buildings, the level of
vertical integration of local and central systems is insufficient. These problems are
aggravated due to the contingencies associated with the boundary conditions of system
operation, e.g. dynamic changes in the outdoor conditions as well as building occupants
activities and control actions. There is generally a lack of representations for integrating
sub-systems with each other and with building product models. Most commercially
available environmental control systems for buildings do not offer explicit
representational frameworks either to systematically capture multiple control processes
and their interactions or to map those processes onto target building product model
entities (i.e. control impact zones).
1.2 Product and process
Numerous representational schemes (product models) have been proposed to describe
building elements components, systems, and structures in a standardized fashion
(Augenbroe 1995, IAI2004). Thereby, one of the main motivations has been to facilitate
hi-fidelity information exchange between agents involved in the building delivery process
(architects, engineers, construction people, manufacturers, facility managers, users). The
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2 INTEGRATION
2.1 Control as process
As opposed to abundant literature in building product modeling, there is a lack of an
explicit ontology for the representation of building control processes. Table 1 includes a
glossary of fundamental terms (together with definitions and examples) that are relevant
to building systems control representation. A basic control process involves a controller,
a control device, and a controlled entity (see Figure 2). An example of such a process is
when the occupant (the controller) of a room opens a window (control device) to change
the temperature (control parameter) in a room (controlled entity).
2.2 A high-level combined product-process scheme
It is useful at this point to explore ways of coupling the basic process model depicted in
Figure 2 with an instance of the previously mentioned building product models (Figure
1). Figure 3 illustrates a high-level expression of such a combined building product and
control model. While certain instances of the product model such as building, section,
space and enclosure constitute the set of controlled entities in the process view, other
instances such as aperture or technical systems and devices fulfill the role of control
devices.
2.3 Zones, sensors, and devices
Both the basic control process model depicted in Figure 2 and its embellished version
with elements of a product model (Figure 3) are rather schematic. They must be extended
and augmented to capture the details of realistic control processes. To achieve a more
detailed and operationally effective representational integration of building product and
process aspects, this scheme must be realized within the context a two-fold hierarchy, one
pertaining to the building product classes and the other pertaining to controller classes.
Key to the communication between the two hierarchies is the Janus-faced notion of the
controlled entity (or control zone). From the product model view point, a control
zone corresponds either directly to a product model entity (such as space) or to an
abstract entity derived by partition or aggregation of product model entities (e.g. a
workstation within a room, a collection of windows in a facade). From the control model
point of view, a zone is the abstract object of control (controlled entity) whose controlrelevant attribute (control parameter) is monitored via corresponding sensors.
As Figure 4 illustrates, zones can be viewed as fluid and reconfigurable entities whose
spatial extension may be mapped back to (properly partitioned or aggregated)
components of a building product model. Devices and sensors can be mapped back to a
product model in terms of physical objects (e.g. in terms of technical elements as per
Figure 1).
209
Definition
Instance
Controller
Control
objective
Maintaining a set-point
temperature
Control
device
Actuator
Control
device state
Closed, open
Controlled
entity
Control
parameter
Room temperature,
illuminance on working plane
Sensor
Thermometer, illuminance
sensor, electricity counter
Control state
space
210
controller entity as shown in the basic schemes of figure 2 and 3 applies only to a
device controller (DC), i.e. the dedicated controller of a specific device. These schemes
stipulate that a DC receives control entitys state information directly from a sensor, and,
utilizing a decision-making functionality (e.g. a rule or an algorithm that encapsulates the
relationship between the device state and its sensory implication), sets the state of the
device. Real world building control problems are, however, much more complex, as they
involve the operation of multiple devices for each environmental system domain and
multiple environmental system domains (e.g., lighting, heating, cooling, ventilation).
An appropriate representation of control processes must thus capture the relationships
between primary
211
3 GENERATION
3.1 Device and meta-con trollers
As such, the complexity of building systems control could be substantially reduced, if
distinct processes could be assigned to distinct control loops. However, controllers for
various systems and components are often interdependent. A controller may need the
information from another controller in order to devise and execute control decisions. For
example, the building lighting system may need information on the buildings thermal
status (e.g. heating versus cooling mode) in order to identify the most desirable
combination of natural and electrical lighting options. Moreover, two different controllers
may affect the same control parameter of the same impact zone. For example, the
operation of the window and the operation of the heating system can both affect the
temperature in a room. In such cases, controllers of individual systems cannot identify the
preferable course of action independently. Instead, they must rely on a higher-level
controller instance (i.e., a meta-controller), which can process information from both
systems toward a properly integrated control response.
We conclude that the multitude of controllers in a complex building controls scheme
must be coupled appropriately to facilitate an efficient building operation regime. Thus,
control system features are required to integrate and coordinate the operation of multiple
devices and their controllers. Toward this end, control functionalities must be distributed
212
213
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215
(iv) If in the process a new node has been generated whose functionality duplicates that
of an existing node, then it must be removed. Any resulting isolated nodes must be
reconnected.
4 ILLUSTRATION
4.1 Control system representation
The following example illustrates the application of the rules introduced in the previous
section (Mertz & Mahdavi 2003).
The scenario includes two adjacent rooms, each with four luminaires and one local
heating valve, which share a set of exterior moveable louvers for daylight and insolation
control (see Figure 7). Hot water is provided by the central system, which modulates the
pump and valve state to achieve the desired water supply temperature. In each space,
illuminance and temperature are to be maintained within the set-point range. This
configuration of spaces and devices stems from an actual building, namely the Intelligent
Work-place (IW) at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA (Mahdavi et al.
1999b).
An effective way to define control zones (controlled entities) is to describe the
association between the sensors and devices. From the control system point of view,
controlled entities are represented by sensors, and the influence of devices on the
controlled entities is monitored via sensory information. In the present example, an
interior illuminance sensor (E) and a temperature sensor (t) are located in each space. The
sensors for Space-1 are called E1 and t1, and those for Space-2 are called E2 and t2. In
Space-1, both the louvers and electric lights can be used to meet the illumination
requirements. As shown in Figure 8, Sensor E1 is influenced by the louver state,
controlled by DC-Lo1, as well as by the state of four electric lights, each controlled by a
DC-EL. Similarly, both the local valve state and the louver state influence the
temperature in Space-1 (t1). Analogous assumptions apply to Space-2.
Once the associations of the devices and sensors have been determined and the control
zones (controlled entities) have been defined, the generation rules can be applied to the
control problem, resulting in the representation of Figure 9. A summary of the application
of Rules 1, 2, and 3 is shown in Table 2.
As to the application of rule 1, four nodes, namely DC-EL1, EL2, EL3, and EL4 are of
the same device type and all impact sensor E1. Thus, an MC is needed to coordinate their
action (MC-EL_1). Similarly, regarding the application of rule 2, both DC-Lo1 and DCVa1 impact the temperature of Space-1. Thus, MC-Lo_Va_1 is needed to coordinate their
action.
216
Affected sensor
Affected device
Metacontroller
E1
N/A
MC-EL_1
E2
N/A
MC-EL_2
Lo1, Va1
t1
N/A
MC-Lo Va_l
Lo1, Va2
t2
N/A
MC-Lo_Va_2
EL_1, Lo1
E1
N/A
MC-EL_Lo_1
EL_2, Lo1
E2
N/A
MC-EL_Lo_2
N/A
Lo1
MC-II
Application of Rule 1
EL1, EL2,
EL3, EL4
EL5, EL6,
EL7, EL8
Application of Rule 2
Application of Rule 3
EL_Lo_1,
EL_Lo_2,
EL Lo Va_1
Lo_Va_1,
Lo_Va_2
217
218
219
Affected Sensor
Affected Device
MetaController
EL1, BL1
E1
N/A
MC-BL_EL_1
EL1, Lo1
E2
N/A
MC-EL_Lo_1
BL1, Lo1
E3
N/A
MC-BL_Lo_1
E1
DC-EL1
MC-BL_EL_Lo_1
E2
DC-Lo1
MC-BL_EL_Lo_2
E3
DC-BL1
MC-BL_EL_Lo_3
Application of Rule 2
Application of Rule 3
BL_EL_1,
EL_Lo_1
EL_Lo_1,
BL_Lo_1
BL_EL_1,
BL Lo 1
Both rules and simulations can be applied to capture (and predict) system behavior. In
rule-based control, a simple statement describes the control function used to make
decisions. As an example, a rule used within a DC node can define the relationship
between the state of a device and its corresponding impact on the state of the sensor
monitoring the controlled entity. Rules can be developed through a variety of techniques.
For example, rules can rely on the knowledge and experience of the facility managers, the
measured data in the space to be controlled, or logical reasoning.
Simulation-based control (Mahdavi 2001b) can be used for building control within the
proposed representational framework through the following procedure: (i) Multiple
potential control device states are considered in the pertinent DC node; (ii) The resulting
device state space is analyzed via real-time simulation runs; (iii) Simulation results are
evaluated and ranked according to applicable objective functions; (iv) Devicecontroller
implements the most desirable device state.
220
Rule-based and simulation-based control algorithms and methods can animate the
control system representation resulting in a versatile systems control environment. Such
an environment has the potential to simultaneously address: (i) The effects of control
actions on multiple zonal performance indicators (control parameter), (ii) The influences
of devices in multiple domains (heating, cooling, lighting, etc.), (iii) Conflicts amongst
devices used to control multiple zones, (iv) Cooperation between local and central
systems, (v) Multiple control objective functions.
5 CONCLUSION
This paper presented an approach to establish an adequate framework for the combined
representation of building product and process aspects. In this representation, target
entities of control actions (controlled entities or zones) act as the coupling links between
parallel hierarchies of building product classes and building controller classes.
The building control hierarchy can be generated automatically via a set of four rules.
Starting point for this generation process is the definition the controlled entities. This is
achieved in that explicit associations between devices and sensors are established. The
generated control representation includes various layers of multiple nodes that embody
primary device-controllers and higher lever controllers (meta-controllers). Multiple
expressions of distributed control semantics can be accommodated in such nodes.
Promising algorithmic candidates for such distributed control logic implementations
include model-based (rule-based and simulation-based) control routines.
To improve the applicability of the proposed approach, work is under way to address
issues of building model maintenance. Specifically, technology candidates for scalable
and pervasive monitoring of model entities are being examined so as to bestow upon
thetypically complexbuilding models the capability to update and reconfigure
themselves autonomously.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work presented in this paper is support in part by the Austrian Science Foundation
(FWF), Grant number: P15998-N07.
REFERENCES
Augenbroe, G. 1995. COMBINE 2, Final Report [online]. Commission of the European
Communities, Brussels, Belgium. Available from:
http://dcom.arch.gatech.edu/bt/Combine/my_www/document.htm
IAI 2004. International Alliance for Interoperability [online]. Website. Available from:
http://www.iai-international.org/iai_inter-national/
Mahdavi, A. 2003. Modell-basierte Steuerungsstrategien fr selbstbewusste Gebude.
Gesundheits-Ingenieur. Oldenbourg Industrieverlag Mnchen. Heft 5. ISSN 09326200. pp.
234244.
221
Mahdavi, A. 2001a. Aspects of self-aware buildings. International Journal of Design Sciences and
Technology. Europia: Paris, France. Volume 9, Number 1. ISSN 16307267. pp. 3552.
Mahdavi, A. 2001b. Simulation-based control of building systems operation. Building and
Environment. Volume 36, Issue 6, ISSN:03601323. pp. 789796.
Mahdavi, A. 1999. A comprehensive computational environment for performance based reasoning
in building design and evaluation. Automation in Construction 8 (1999) pp. 42735.
Mahdavi, A., Ilal, M.E., Mathew, P., Ries, R., Suter, G. & Brahme, R. 1999a. The architecture of
S2. Proceedings of Building Simulation 99. Sixth International IBPSA Conference. Kyoto,
Japan. Vol. III. ISBN 4-931416-03-9. pp.12191226.
Mahdavi, A., Cho, D., Ries, R., Chang, S., Pal, V., Ilal, E., Lee, S. & Boonyakiat, J. 1999b. A
building performance signature for the intelligent workplace: some preliminary results.
Proceedings of the CIB Working Commission W098 International Conference: Intelligent and
Responsive Buildings. Brugge. ISBN 90-76019-09-6. pp.233240.
Mertz, K. & Mahdavi, A. 2003. A representational frame-work for building systems control.
Proceedings of the Eight International IBPSA Conference. Eindhoven, Netherlands. Vol. 2.
ISBN 90-386-1566-3. pp. 871878.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The exchange and integration of the information among the different stakeholders who
participate in the processes of projecting and constructing public and private buildings
and infrastructures (architects, engineers, constructors, manufacturers, laboratories )
are critical points that the construction industry must approach for being able to benefit
from the enormous potential of productivity increase that the application of the
Information & Communications Technology do provide. To date it exists no reference
framework in Spain for the integration of the information in the construction process,
neither for the compatibility of the existing software applications in the market, nor it has
been considered a model or standard system of common data exchange within the sector
in the Business-2-Administration arena.
The usage of a common data model will allow a drastic reduction in the use of
resources by all the involved agents. This specially applies for the Public Administrations
in their task of the management and control of the information, documents and files
generated during the construction process. The Administration must play therefore a
fundamental role in the promotion and use of new technologies in the construction sector,
being one of the main beneficiaries of its use, since it may enormously optimise the
administrative processes which consume important resources as a result of an inefficient
management of exchanging information.
The FIDE model focuses on the scope of the Spanish National Technical Building
Code. The Technical Building Code (TBC) is the normative framework that establishes
the safety and habitability requirements of buildings set out in the building Act (LOE)
[1].
223
To promote innovation and technological development, the TBC has adopted the most
modern international approach to building norms: Performance-Based Codes or
objectives.
The use of these new regulations based on performance calls for the configuration of a
more flexible environment, easily updated in accordance with the development of
techniques and the demands of society, and based on the experience of traditional norms.
Its development is coordinated at national level through a supra-regional stable
Working Group that establishes the bases for its development and that coordinates and
controls the extensions of the model, establishing approval mechanisms and integration
of partial developments made by third parties within the general structure of FIDE,
guaranteeing therefore the scalability of the model and the interoperability between
different scopes of the Technical Code.
FIDE model is public and open. In addition, its foundations have been established
taking into account the possible relations with the most internationally spreaded standards
and data models, like the IFC from the IAI [2]. This will facilitate the interrelation
between FIDE and these international standards, thus fostering its compatibility and
usability. This way FIDE will take profit of the existing tools and developments existing
in the market developed for the IFC data model. For this reason FIDE will be widely
spread not only at national level, but also at international level, showing it as example of
good practices in the sector.
The work done so far in FIDE has generated not only technical results, but what is
more important, a proposal of a Law project for the setting up of the legal framework and
procedures for the implementation of the initiative and the assurance of its general impact
in the sector. The FIDE project has developed medium and long term plans to ensure the
continuity of the initiative and to create the foundations for the sustainable development
of the model, as well as to increase the awareness in the sector of the use of data models
standards.
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 describes the objectives of the
development of the model. Section 3 shows the methodology used in the development,
including management and organization issues as well as technical issues. Section 4 gives
the flavour of the work done in the technical part with the model development. Finally,
Section 5 summarizes the conclusions and lessons learnt from the work as well as the
near fiiture steps.
2 OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the FIDE initiative is the development of a common product data
model for the Spanish Construction sector. A major concern, although is to keep the
compatibility with the existing initiatives at international level. The objective of FIDE
can be splitted into two main issues: firstly the development of the model itself, and
secondly the establishment of the necessary procedures for its maintenance and quality
assurance.
The main trigger for such a development is the need for a common framework for the
different stakeholders in the sector to exchange information. One of the most benefited
actors, and in fact the main promoter, is the Administration. The Administration is in the
224
very centre of the data exchange. They have to receive plenty of documentation related to
the construction process: building licence queries, quality control documents, health and
safety assurance reports, etc. Each document has to be processed according to a repetitive
established procedure. At the moment this is done manually. The use of a known standard
digital format will allow them to process this documentation in an automatic manner.
Furthermore, the Administration has the power to make it compulsory for the rest of the
stakeholders to use this data model for the delivery of the required documents.
On the other hand, there are also some important benefits for the industry side. In case
they use this common data model the information reusability increases, thus improving
the efficiency of the construction process. Also different actors collaborating within the
framework of a given construction project can take profit of the file sharing, thus
reducing the repetition of data introduction in different applications and improving,
again, the efficiency of the process. This becomes directly into economic benefits for the
sector stakeholders
Finally, the existence of a broadly accepted and spreaded product data model will be
the key to the development of software applications for the sector. These applications will
take profit of this common language to facilitate the re-usability of information, the
automatic processing of data, etc. So one of the intentions of the consortium is to set up
the basis for the implementation of such applications by third parties as soon as the
industry demands them.
To sum up, the objectives of the FIDE initiative can be enumerated as follows:
To foster the construction sector development by improving the efficiency of the
current ways of working.
To improve the current communication channel between the sector stakeholders and the
Administration.
To provide the sector, specially the Administration, with a base for the later
development of tools based upon it.
To offer international interoperability by following the main international standards.
To facilitate the interoperability between the sector stakeholders: promoters, designers,
constructors, material provider, software vendors, etc., including the Public
Administrations, independently of the computer applications used for planning,
designing, estimating, and covering administrative management, authorizations
procedures, and other purposes.
3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This section describes the methodology that has been followed for the development of the
FIDE model. The section has been structured in three parts: firstly the management
structure that was created is described. Then the model maintenance and extension
procedures that were established are described. In both cases the main functions and aims
for each component of the structures are defined. Finally the technical issues are
discussed, explaining and justifying the main technological decisions taken in the model
implementation and the tools used.
225
226
the developers with their advice and support. This Committee defines the technical
framework for the adequate development of activities under the FIDE initiative. Thus
providing a controlled environment for the developers, which is the first step towards the
quality assurance of the model. These activities include the specification of issues such as
the development methodology and tools, as well as infrastructure and common
information resources.
227
228
not included in the global FIDE model. Subsequently, they will proceed to the
integration of the sub-model within the global FIDE model.
This development process will be performed following the technical indications and
advice from the FIDE Technical Committee.
3.4 Technical issues
As it has already been mentioned, one of the main objectives of the FIDE project, and
thus of the consequent FIDE data model, is the compatibility with similar international
initiatives. More concretely, the actual reference for the development of the model has
been the IFC model.
The IFC standard (Industry Foundation Classes) is a standard promoted from the
construction industry by means of the IAI (International Alliance for Interoperability).
IAI is an association of organizations involving engineers, architects, constructors,
national administrations, etc. It arised in 1995 aiming at fostering a product data model
for the data exchange amongst different applications within the construction sector.
After some years, ISO has approved its last release, IFC2X, as an ISO Publicly
Available Specification (ISO/PAS 16739), thus making IFC into an ISO standard.
One of the main decisions for the consortium was the choice of the method to
represent the model. In this line there are several possibilities, namely UML diagrams,
Express schemas, XML schemas. A deep study was performed evaluating pros and cons
of each of them. Eventually the decision was to use XML schemas [3,4]. This decision
has been strongly meditated as it has some advantages and some disadvantages. Anyway,
after this detailed analysis, there was a clear decision to use this meta-language for the
model representation. The reasons for this decision are stated below:
XML meta-language is the de facto standard for the data exchange in the network. On
the other hand, one of the main objectives in the development of the FIDE model is to
facilitate the B2A (business to Administration) to improve the relation between the
Administration and the industry. Providing the tools for procedures such as electronic
delivery of documentation, eTendering, etc. This way, by using XML in the
development of the model, we are moving forward to the facilitation of these B2A
procedures.
There exists a very high level of use of XML at the International level, this will
facilitate the spread of the model.
At the moment there are a lot of available software tools to work with XML. On the
one hand there are plenty of tools for the manipulation (edition, visualization, creation) of
XML files. On the other hand there also are a lot of development tools such as
programming libraries. The proliferation of such tools does make easier the adoption in
the industry of the XML structures.
The most extended international standards in this sector, ISO STEP and IAIIFC, evolve
or already support XML [5].
The existence of programming libraries and SDK (Software Development Kits)
facilitates the task to developers. This is a key issue, because it promotes the faster
development of applications, and as a consequence a bigger expansion of the model.
229
The consortium suggests a set of tools in order to facilitate the developers task. Namely,
these tools and methods are IDEFO for the process models, UML for the conceptual data
models, and XML for the physical data model.
4 FIDE MODEL
4.1 Model framework
As it has been introduced, the main aim of the current project was not the development of
a complete model. More precisely, the intention was to establish the mechanisms for a
self-maintenance and development of the model. These mechanisms have been described
in the previous section. In this section a sample of the developed model will be shown,
just to give the flavour of the model under development.
This sample sub-model has been developed in the area of quality management in the
construction sector. This is a very important issue in the sector and has gained a lot of
attention in the latest years. The main aim is to achieve better quality in the final product
by means of controlling the whole life-cycle of the construction process.
In the case of the Spanish situation the quality control procedures are mainly driven by
the Administration. Some of the mechanisms they use have been deeply studied within
the FIDE framework, namely a control book, quality profile, building book and material
test.
Most of the information to make up the model has been extracted from the analysis of
this documentation. Furthermore the overlapping amongst them has been accurately
analysed.
4.2 Reference model: IFC
The FIDE consortium has decided to take the IFC model from IAI as the reference
model. Specifically the latest XML version for the release IFC2x 2nd Edition: ifcXML2.
FIDE data model does not include the whole ifcXML2 model. It only plans to pick the
needed entities from IFC and then to complete the entities according to the specific
needs. In some cases these entities must be extended to fulfil the needs. One of the main
concerns is to keep the compatibility with the standard initiative in order to get an open
and usable data model.
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We have confirmed that the main modelling problems to be solved had already been
faced in the IFC model. This validates the modelling strategy defined within the FIDE
model.
Despite the big scope of the IFC model, the absence of some important elements and
attributes for the Spanish construction sector has been detected. These elements are
essential for the utility of the model in the Spanish national level. That confirms the
need for extension of some of its features.
The XML available tools have facilitated the creation and understanding of the model
as well as the documentation generation. This is so thanks to its clarity in
representation, and the big amount of different tools
The nearest further work consists of the continuity in the development of the model,
firstly to complete the quality management area and then fulfilling new areas of interest
in the construction sector. The Administration has shown its determination and deep
interest in the FIDE project by assuring the development for several years on, so the
model will keep evolving along the coming years. Apart from this, and as important as it
or even more, the very next target will be the promotion and dissemination of the results
obtained so far. Furthermore, the emphasis will be set in the development of software
applications in the Spanish sector.
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.codigotecnico.org/
[2] http://www.iai-international.org/
[3] XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition, W3C Proposed Edited Recommendation,
March 2004.
[4] XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes, W3C Recommendation, May 2001.
[5] Options for the IAI regarding XML, Thomas Liebich.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The efficient and accurate exchange of data is an important basis for a successful
cooperative work in the field of computer-supported planning and design in building
industry. This fact not only holds for the exchange inside a homogenous group of
planners, it is also important for the data-transfer between planning processes within
different working-domains.
In this paper, a software-framework will be presented, where a central volumeoriented geometric model is considered as a basis to support the cooperative work and the
integration of different planning-processes. The central data set is thereby given by an
explicit geometric B-Rep (Boundary-Representation) model associated with semantic
product data attributes, which is originally derived from an IFC product model.
Using a classical client-server structure, the building model is provided centrally and
can be accessed by different planners. The concurrent access to the database is organized
similar to classical software-management-systems, where single entities can be checked
out, locally modified and checked in by the user. To ensure geometric consistency of
the common data model, an octree-based algorithm is applied, which was developed in
this project.
The geometric building model is the starting point for various subsequent tasks in the
planning process. For the structural analysis, we present an automatic generation of a
volume-oriented finite element mesh, consisting of solid hexahedral elements. In addition
to the finite element analysis, an indoor air flow simulation was also connected to the
234
framework in an other project (v. Treeck et al. 2004). Figure 1 shows a schematic view of
the framework.
The outline of this paper is as follows: In the next section, the software-structure and
techniques used inthis work will be presented. Then in Section 3 the automatic derivation
of the hexahedral finite element mesh from the architectural model will be described in
detail. Finally, in Section 4 the cooperative work of two planners will be demonstrated in
an example
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upload (check-in) modified or new objects to the central database, the user has to
checkout the selected objects first.
Based on the internal states mentioned before, for each object, the user can choose
among three possible modes of access:
Read-only: in this mode, a modification by the user is not allowed. However, the user
will be registered on the server and has the ability to activate the notification service
for the selected object.
Read-write: the user gets read and write access for the data, which allows him to check
in modified objects to the server. Modification by others is also possible.
Exclusive-write (lock): the user gets exclusive write access to the object. Modification
by others is not allowed.
Only in case of read-write mode, a concurrent access of objects is possible. In this case,
each upload by a user will overwrite the current version in the central database. To avoid
confusion, the notification service may help, so that the user can stay informed about the
actual state and can react accordingly. This makes sense especially in cases, where one
user (e.g. a designer) changes the geometry of an object while an other user (e.g. a
structural engineer) only wants to modify some attributes like loads or material. In such
cases, an exclusive lock by one user would only hamper the work of the other. In cases
where one wants to prohibit concurrent access by others completely, e.g. when
substantial modifications must be applied, exclusive-write access should be used instead.
After modifications in the local workspace are finished, the user will check in his
object to the central database. Each upload of a modified or new building object will
thereby initiate a consistency check on the server, according to the method which will be
explained in the next sub-section. In the case of geometric collisions or insufficient
access rights, the upload will be rejected and the user will be informed about the problem.
2.3 Consistency check
Before any consistency check can be performed, volume-oriented models have to be
derived from the respective surface-oriented ones. In (Mundani et al. 2003) we presented
an algorithm for the generation of octrees by intersecting half-spaces, allowing us a fast
and efficient derivation both in real time and on-the-fly.
Applying the Boolean operator intersection on two octrees, collisions of type
overlap and gap can easily be detected. Whenever two voxelsvolume elementsof
two arbitrary octrees claim for the same space an overlap occurred and the algorithm can
stop at this point. Depending on the maximum depth of recursion dmax overlaps up to
h=1/2 dmax on the finest resolution level can be found. In this case, the check-in of
modified parts is rejected by the server.
When no overlap could be detected, the two parts or the two volume-oriented models,
respectively, are either lying perfectly together side by side or are disjoint. In the latter
case, a gap among these two parts exists; only gaps of certain sizes are from further
interest. Therefore, the algorithm has to determine the maximum depth deff reached during
the intersection calculation, not to confuse with the maximum depth of recursion dmax. By
specifying dgap, the maximum gap size, only in case of dgapdeff< dmax a gap has been
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detected. The corresponding part is allowed to be checked in but further user feedback is
necessary, because most gaps unintentionally occur due to design or round-off errors.
3 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
3.1 A volume oriented flnite element approach
In contrast to the classical way in finite element analysis using dimensionally reduced
models (e.g. 2D-plates, shells or beams), in this project the structural analysis is
performed in a fully volume-oriented approach. The complete structure is discretized
consistently with solid hexahedral elements and the computation is carried out by using
higher order elements of the so-called p-version of the finite element method (Szab et al.
1991, Szab et al. 2003, Dster et al. 2003). This approach has some important
advantages:
The automatic derivation of a finite element model from the original (product-) model is
simpler, if this transition can be done consistently in the same volume-oriented way.
The possibility of such an automatic model derivation releases the engineer from a
manual reconstruction of various numerical systems.
Using solid finite elements, possible three-dimensional stress conditions can be
resolved.
There is no need for coupling different dimensionally reduced mechanical models.
3.2 Automatic derivation of the flnite element mesh
An important basis of our consistent volume-oriented approach is the automatic
derivation of the finite element model (Romberg et al. 2004). The basic idea of the
underlying algorithm is to decompose the given geometric building model into a set of
simpler geometric objects and decompose each of these objects again into hexahedral
elements. To ensure compatibility (i.e. no hanging nodes) of the final mesh, the whole
procedure is carried out in a set of steps, which are mainly used to find a common
discretization at the interface of different entities. It should be mentioned that this
approach does not aim at meshing general spatial volume-structures but is capable of
decomposing a typical building model, which usually consists of objects like plates,
beams, columns and slabs.
3.2.1 Connection model decomposition
As a first step in the process of creating a hexahedral mesh, the given geometric building
model is decomposed into a so-called connection model using boolean operations.
Figures 2-4 illustrate the basic idea.
Starting from the set of building models Mb, these elements are partitioned into a set
of coupling objects Mk and a set of difference objects Md. The set of coupling objects Mk
are then again recursively decomposed into coupling objects of different levels (Mkl
Mki).
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Each coupling and difference object is itself a closed B-Rep body being described by
nodes, edges and faces. After decomposition, the intersection between difference objects
or coupling objects of the same level is given in points and edges only, whereas adjacent
difference and coupling objects intersect in faces, edges and nodes.
After applying this decomposition algorithm, the resulting elements have some
important characteristics with respect to the following steps in finite element
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a new mesh is created on the difference objects in a second run, which is then compatible
with its neighbours, i.e. the resulting mesh has no hanging nodes.
3.3 A complex example
In this section, the process from the original geometric building model to the finite
element results is demonstrated in an example of a realistic office building. The building
is constructed by reinforced concrete and consists of two massive inlying building cores,
six floor plates and supporting columns. It has dimensions of about 4030 meters in the
ground view. Figure 5 shows the geometric model.
In Figure 6, the decomposed connection model can be seen, which was derived from
the original model according to Section 3.2.1. One can see easily the connection elements
on the top floor plate, created at the intersection of the inlying building cores and the
plate.
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Planner A has finished his work now. So, he selects the modified objects and tries to
check them in to the server (Fig. 14). Unless any other user has locked one of the objects
exclusively or the consistency check detects an intersection, the check-in is successful
and the objects will be stored in the database and overwrite their current version there.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Building information models
The construction industry is working very hard to bridge the gap between its islands of
automation. The efforts have taken many forms e.g. neutral file formats, APIs
(Application Programming Interfaces) and BIMs (Building Information Models). The
latter is expected to provide a means for sharing and exchanging of information. The first
intention towards a Building Information Model started in the mid-1970s by independent
efforts to develop a number of integrated systems, based on a single model that supports
various applications e.g. OXSYS CAD and CEDAR and HARNESS hospital design
systems in England (Eastman 1999). Although it is now more than thirty years later, the
BIM approach is still not a common practice in the AEC industry.
One major problem facing BIMs is the absence of the responsibility for modeling the
construction product and material in a multidisciplinary cross industrial level of
abstraction. It is obvious that architects working on a project that contains thousands of
elements would not have the resources to create a model for each element. They would be
most probably paid for the production of printed drawings and documents rather than
models. It is not only the architect; we can imagine the problem for all the involved
disciplines. The problem is even worse when we consider that these models could be
prqject specific and cannot be used in a product library for similar projects at other
organizations. Most probably this approach would go beyond any return on investment
employed.
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2 OIP SPECIFICATIONS
2.1 Definition
OIP Stands for Object Information Packs. An OIP is a multidisciplinary cross industrial
continually updated pack of information about a construction product or a service, upon
which there is a need to retrieve predefined information at anypoint in the value chain.
This information pack acts as a base unit of information supply to BIMs (Building
Information Models) throughout the buildings overall lifecycle.
2.2 Format
It is produced in a software independent neutral format like ISO 10303 p-21 STEP or
XML, i.e. it enables the transfer of structured data, by agreed message standards from one
party (computer) to another by electronic means with minimum human intervention, i.e.
machine-to-machine language.
2.3 Producer
The OIP has to represent both technical and commercial information of the construction
product. This information is usually produced jointly between the manufacturer from one
side and the supplier, retailer, importer or wholesaler from the other side. This means that
the OIP is finally determined at the point of aggregation of both types of information.
This aggregation or double composition ensures the uniqueness of the OIP as an
identifier of the construction product and enables its dynamic properties, i.e. commercial
properties can be continually updated and the technical properties can be extended. The
final OIP identifier is finally issued by the organization that owns the brand name of the
product regardless where, and by whom it has been manufactured.
2.4 Genesis
The OIP is designed to be built on top of EAN (Einheitliche Artikel Nummer), which is a
type of a GTIN system (Global Trade Item Number). It inherits its well-established
norms for global trading and adds further restrictions and capabilities to suit the
characteristics of the construction industry. The OIP can be mapped (converted) to EAN,
whenever needed.
2.4.1 OIP versus EAN
OIP is a construction oriented global lifecycle identifier that links cross industrial
multidisciplinary information. It is mainly designed to suit the characteristics of the
various procurement systems of the construction industry. On the other hand EAN is
considered to be a product item reference and a check digit. The EAN is a pointer to a
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database (at the EAN local organisation). However, this database does not include
information more than the producers name and contact details.
Both OIP and EAN have a check digit for the validity of the identifier. The OIP goes
beyond this by adding an extra validity check, that checks if the product fits into the
design or not, e.g. if an OIP of a 1.2 m door is linked to an opening of 0.9 m width in the
Building Information Model, this conflict should be detected and the OIP rejected.
OIP provides dynamic lifecycle information. This means that information can be
continually updated. Updates and versioning are two faces of the same coin. Therefore,
OIP allows for versioning. This enables dynamic properties of the product like price and
availability to be continually updated.
At the meantime, there are different priorities and objectives standing behind the EAN
and OIP. Some properties are of greater relevance to commercial trade uses than to
construction uses and vice versa, e.g. tracking and tracing of logistical units and
returnable assets is of a great value for trading. This could still be used in construction for
determining things like the percentage of completion of works and delivery of products to
construction sites and so forth. Although it seems of no use to stick a barcode on a beam
on a construction site, where it will most probably be lost, it still can be useful to read
(scan) the barcode from printed product catalogues and link the OIPs to the BIM in the
design phase. Moreover, the use of new technologies like: programmable mobile phones
with scanners and cameras in future may enhance the effect of an OIP Barcode for on-site
use.
2.5 Degree of granularity
One of the problems facing OIPs is the degree of nesting of elements. In other words, to
what extend would the OIP reference other OIPs of the constituent components. In some
cases like in electromechanical equipment, we can not determine at which level should
the OIP referencing stop. Is it to the screw level, or to the material of the screw. To put
an end to this problem, OIP is designed to reference other construction products and
materials only as a maximum detailing level e.g. a concrete brick may reference cement,
sand and gravel as leaf elements. Other sophisticated construction elements like
electromechanical equipment and so forth are not further referencing their components.
However, there is another ISO Standard (ISO 13584 Plib), which is a STEP-EXPRESS
based standard that is designed specially for this purpose and it is technically feasible to
be referenced from OIPs whenever needed.
2.6 Limitations
OIPs are not aimed by any means to solve the taxonomy problems of the construction
products properties. Thus, the product properties are limited to the attributes and
published property sets of the IFC 2x model (ISO PAS 16793 (lAIntern 2003)). This
enables the exchange of multidisciplinary cross industrial technical properties between
parties beyond national borders without any mis-understanding due to differences in
languages, classification systems or organisational cultures. However, the commercial
properties will remain subject to international trading conventions and standards.
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to register the technical properties according to the IFC model and its published property
sets at the OIP Standard Organisations. At the time of conducting this research work, the
EAN keeps in its database only some basic information about the brand name holder, like
contact details. However, it does not offer any commercial properties that belong to any
product. Such properties like availability, price and discounts are best managed by the
commercial organisation itself. Therefore, the OIP organisation can exceptionally include
a link to the brand name holder or commercial organisation to overcome this shortage of
the EAN system.
2.10 The OIP identifier
As it is earlier mentioned, the OIP is built on top of EAN. Hence, the commercial aspects
are encoded in the EAN. However, the EAN item number will be extended to include a
versioning system that enables the dynamic management of commercial information.
The technical part of the OIP is a reference to a pack of information residing at the
OIP organization. This pack of information contains information about the product
according to the attributes and published property sets of the IFC model. It may also
contain
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model consists of two main parts: the Lining and the panel (Figure 3-4). All the attributes
of the door and its property sets can
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4 CONCLUSION
This paper has introduced a new concept for the automation of the process of establishing
a Building Information Model. This concept is called OIP. It depends on the IFC platform
specification (ISO/PAS 16739) and EAN for the transfer, merging and mapping of
technical and commercial data of the construction product. This mechanism enables the
continuous up to date distributed communication between product models and their
attributes, which reside by the manufacturer or supplier. This approach is envisaged to
satisfy the need of information by the AEC disciplines during the products overall life
cycle.
Such strong standardization concepts do have their impacts on creativity of the design
process. Researchers like (Howard 2001) argue that such standardization concepts limit
the freedom of design as the alphabet limits literary expressions. On the other hand, every
design is a redesign, and by applying this concept, we could foresee the window of
opportunities that such a new concept can open.
However, it may also have dramatic impacts on procurement of construction products
and the process of automation of generation of documents i.e. it may enhance all the
benefits of the Building Information Model and simulation applications.
Finally, it should be mentioned that this research work did not try to tackle the
taxonomy, languages, cross-organizational and cultural differences of the construction
product attributes and properties. It adhered to the attributes and published property sets
that are defined and published by the IAI in the IFC2x documentation. At the mean time,
queries can also be conducted using SQL, EXPRESS-X, bcXML and so forth.
REFERENCES
Augenbroe, Godfried. 1998. Building Product Information Technology, White Paper. Atlanta:
Georgia Institute of Technology. Available from http://www.arch.gatech.edu/crc/ProductInfo/
EAN 2004. The Global Language of Business, EAN International. Available from http://www.eanint.org/
Eastman, C.M. 1999. Building Product Models: Computer Environments Supporting Design and
Construction, CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33431, USA.
ISBN 0-8493-0295-5.
Howard, R. 2001. Classification of Building Information-European & IT systems. In Construction
Information Technology, International conference: IT in Construction in Africa, pp. 91 to 9
14. CSIR, Building and Construction Technology.
IAIntern 2003 IAI-Industrie Allianz fr Interoperabilitt, Nr. 1/03, Januar 2003. pp. 7.
ISO 10303-11 EXPRESS 1994. Industrial automation systems and integrationProduct data
representation and exchangepart 11: Description methods: The EXPRESS language reference
manual.
ISO 10303-21 STEP 2002. Industrial automation systems and integrationProduct data
representation and exchangepart 21: Implementation methods: Clear text encoding for
exchange structure.
Laitinen, J. 1998. Model Based Construction Process Management. PhD Thesis, Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nelson, Charles 1996. TQM and ISO 9000 for Architects and Designers, McGraw-Hill.
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Shailesh, J. and Augenbroe, G. 2003. A methodology for supporting product selection from ecatalogues Journal of Information Technology in Construction, Vol. 8 (2003), pp. 383.
Tolaman, F.Rees, R. & Bhms, M. 2002. Building and Construction Mark-up language (bcXML):
The C2B/ B2C Scenario. Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
Workman, Brad. 2003. BIM (Building Information Model): Does the Building Industry Really
Need to Start Over? A response from Bentley to Autodesks BIM proposal for the future.,
Bentley.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The paper is about a conceptual model of building product in collaborative design and
manufacturing environment, based on a systemic approach and formalised using UML
language. It evolves on three principal parts; the first part describes the building design
and manufacturing context within actors interoperability. The second one focuses on the
conceptual modelling as tool of interoperability, and the last one consists on the proposals
of a formal conceptual model.
2 CONTEXT OF BUILDING DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING
ACTIVITY
In spite of the several actors concerned with the building design and manufacturing, the
building sector remains one the rare fields excluding tools and methods dedicated to
collaborative work. Nevertheless, it is strongly depending on the legal framework specif
ic to each country.
2.1 Legal context
In the current European context of building design and manufacturing, buildings are
subject to a particular cutting of the life cycle regulated by the law. This legal framework
constitutes a privileged instrument of management of the activities related to the building
262
sector (Ameziane 2001). The MOP law (Maitrise dOeuvre Publique) which is specific to
France, codifies the missions of each actor intervening in the building design and
manufacturing process (DA 2000) (similar laws exist in each country).
In this cutting, the project of construction is born from an intention which expresses a
need. This need is formalised by a program which expresses the requirements of the
customer. Based on this program, a draft including conceptual solutions is then developed
by actors of design.
Starting from this stage, a Preparatory Project Summary is created and integrated into
an administrative file for a building authorization. The development of the PPS will work
out the Preparatory Project Detailed which includes the technical solutions evaluated by
the partners of design (office of: structure studies, electric studies, etc.). This work leads
to the realization of the Tender Documents to the Companies composed of the Plans of
Execution of the Project and the Technical Specifications detailed.
The reception of the project is the last stage in the life cycle cutting; it comes to mark
the completion of the project. The building enters then in the phase of exploitation for
which it was intended (Sahnouni 1999).
2.2 Towards a collaborative design
The legal framework presented above constitutes a kind of method which influences the
production of the building. In nowadays other methods of design initially conceived for
the industrial sector come to influence the building sector. They are not always adapted to
it (Design for manufacturing, systemic production, etc.) and only few of them can
integrate it, in particularly: the concurrent engineering (Bignon et al. 1998).
The tendency today is for this new method; which gives a margin of flexibility for the
companies of building. These last are directed for their designs towards the co-operation
and the exchange of information, around a co-operative process of building production.
This co-operation is organized on the basis of information systems. It allows joining
different knowhow on the same problem, in order to produce a solution. This solution
would be only the compromise among the various points of view (of the architect, the
engineers, the contractor, and of course of the customer). This method seems to be
adapted to the building sector requirements.
Concurrent engineering is the normal evolution to which the building sector should
evolve. The continuation of this paper will take for objective to satisfy this need and will
deal only with tools related to this method.
2.3 The conceptual modelling as a background of interoperability
A great number of works about conceptual models in France were initiated (BOX, GSD,
MOB, JUICE, TECTON, etc.), but also in the international area (ATLAS, COMBINES,
MISSED, etc.), with a principal objective concerned on the description and the
development of data building product models and building production process models
(Ameziane 1998).
These works were variously based on research laboratories from the academic world,
with the assistance of institutional and industrial partners implied in the manufacture of
hardware and the edition of software.
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The most important international action for answering the problem of interoperability
with a conceptual model in nowadays is the project of the International Alliance for
Interoperability IAI. It consists on the IFC model (Industrial Foundation Classes). The
IFC model is different from all the precedent models in measurement that it proposes an
extremely detailed structure of the building product (Billon 1999). This level of detail is
justified by the fact that the IFC are a whole of resources, thought as a support to the
building software publishers.
The IFC propose the modelling of the building life cycle, structured according to four
levels:
level 1: four general phases are identified: feasibility, design, construction, and
exploitation of the building.
level 2: each preceding phase breaks up into a whole of secondary phases, organized
according to a chronological order (the phase of design for example breaks up into:
programming, diagrammatic design, detailed design, documents of execution, tender
documents.).
level 3: each one of these secondary phases is declined in a series of chained processes,
which correspond to the various actions of the designers during the project. They
establish continuity in the cycle of design.
level 4: finally each process breaks up into a whole of activities. Each one of it is
associated to a diagram, in which are described the tasks to carry out, also indicated in
the model by methods of design.
It is to note that these works have relatively close ambitions. It is question of facilitating
the communication of information relating to the building product among the actors using
a conceptual model. The principal idea in this tool is to model the building product as a
whole of objects evolving in a process of production. It is important to know that this
vision is very restrictive of the reality.
3 A SYSTEMIC APPROACH FOR BUILDING DESIGN MODELLING
Going beyond the actual cutting in the building design and manufacturing process (by a
conceptual model) means first of all the reconstitution of an informational continuity in
the building life cycle. We propose to intervene on this cycle according to a systemic
approach regarding the world of the building as being not a multitude of distinct elements
(as in the actual models), but as a single system integrating a set of components in
interaction (Le Moigne 1977).
The building system is the set of human, material, and immaterial components
intervening in the activities related to the life cycle. The system limits are the terminals
characterizing the life cycle beginning and end. The system inputs are data characterizing
these components and the outputs are the system levels of production (Oumeziane 2004).
Our paper untitled A systemic approach for building design modelling presented for
the ITC@EDU workshop introduces in four pages a conceptual model of the building
system proposed instead of the actual traditional life cycle. Based on these results, the
present paper proposes a building product definition in the building system.
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higher levels which defines the elements of UML (usable concepts) and their semantics
(their significance and modes of use) (Fowler 2002).
As first results the Figure 4 is a synthesis of the paper presented in the ITC@EDU
workshop and this paper. It consists on a model representing the building product classes
and the building system composed of the actors classes, the tasks classes assigned to the
actors and the tools classes used for that. It includes also the representation of the
building system states, its output and the referential used in the state of design
(Oumeziane 2004).
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4 CONCLUSION
Setting up a framework of interoperability in the building sector should passes initially by
a conceptual level of modelling. The various current models which are used as a basis for
the collaborative design deal with only a part of the reality of the building product. These
models reduce the building product to an assembly of physical objects. The paper
proposed through a product definition more general and more complete taking base on a
systemic approach and formalized in a multi-referential language UML.
This work constitutes the beginning of a model more complex of the system
building including the roles of actors, the design methods, etc. We project to present in
our ftiture publications the detailed of the referential framework proposed (conceptual,
normative and methodological) in our building product definition.
REFERENCES
AFITEP, 2000. Le management de projet, principes et pratique. Paris: AFNOR.
Ameziane, 1998. Structuration et reprsentation dinformation dans un contexte coopratif de
production du btiment. PHD thesis, Ecole dArchitecture de Luminy.
Ameziane, 2001. Building Production Management systems in a cooperative work, IEPM 2001,
Quebec City, Canada.
Bignon et al., 1998. Evolution de la mitrise duvre, pratique coopratives et informatique
rpartie. Confrence Mieux Produire ensemble. Plan construction et architecture. Nancy.
Billon, 1999. Comprendre les concepts des IFC. Dcrire son projet en vue des changes. Paris:
cahier du CSTB.
dA, 2000. La loi MOP mode demploi. Darchitecture. Paris: SEA editions.
Fowler, 2002. UML. Paris: Campus Press Poche.
Giambiasi, 2001. Dynamique des systmes. Course of Master in MCAO. Marseille:
PolytechMarseille.
Johnson, 1970. Thorie, conception et gestion des systmes. Paris: Dunod.
Le Moigne, 1977. Thorie du systme gnral. Paris: PUF.
Martin, 2001. Process design modelling through methodological integration. PHD thesis. Paris:
Ecole Centrale Paris.
Oumeziane, 2004. An adapted software environment for building design and manufacturing.
IDMME2004. Bath City.
Oumeziane, 2004. Systemic approach for building design. ITC@EDU conference. Istanbul.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
People involved in the construction informatics share a common objective irrespective to
the terms used for their work description. Supporting of all participants in the
construction industry in their individual tasks, and even more, in their synergistic
collaboration should strive towards the optimal design, construction, operation,
maintenance and removal in less time and with less cost. The knowledge contributed is
presented in the forms of product and process models, tools and representations serving
all participants (teams, individuals) in the construction process. All general estimations
regarding to the debated issues emphasizes the huge difference between
academia/research sphere and practice, quite matching the mentioned general public
prejudice.
Before making any accuracy estimation or prediction, the state-of-the-art analysis is
required. Several investigations referring to the ICT implementation in the AEC sector
were carried out (IT Barometer, SIENE Network and others), but most of them were time
and geographically limited. Consequently, a conception to overcome the described
restraints with a new international joint research has occurred.
2 PRODAEC PROGRAM
2.1 Program objectives
The Fifth European Framework Program sets out priorities to the technical development
and implementation of the user-friendly information technologies. These priorities have
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been associated in the IST program (Information Society Technologies) on the basis of a
set of common criteria reflecting the major concerns of increasing industrial
competitiveness and the quality of life for European citizens in a global information
society. ProdAEC, a two-year pan European IST program, main objective is to set up and
sustain a thematic network for product and project data exchange, e-work, e-business in
architecture, engineering and construction.
Program main motivations and goals are:
to become the primary source of information for standards on data exchange, e-work
and e-business in the AEC/FM (Architecture Engineering
Table 1. ProdAEC founding members.
Member
Country
AIDICO*
Spain
http://www.adico.es/
UNINOVA
Portugal
http://www.uninova.pt/
VTT
Finland
http://www.vtt.fi/
CSTB
France
http://www.cstb.fr/
Hass+Partner
Germany
http://www.de-hass-partner.de/
Taylor Woodrow
UK
http://www.taywood.co.uk/
STABAU
Netherlands
http://www.stabau.nl/
TUD
Germany
http://www.tu-dresden.de/
UCBL
France
http://www.univ-lyonl.fr/
ULFGG
Slovenia
http://www.ikpir.fgg.uni-lj.si/
Cervenka
Czech
http://www.cervenka.cz/
BIC
Italy
http://www.bicnet.it/
ANTARA
Spain
http://www.antara.net/
AEC3
UK
http://www.aec3.com/
* Project coordinator.
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The Benchmarking service is available online, absolutely free of charge. All categories of
enterprises in the AEC sector are covered with the unified questionnaire and everyone
involved in the sector is welcome to participate in the enquiry. Its dynamic makes the
service unique. After filling in the basic identity questionnaire, users receive the
username and password via email. An immediate automatic feedback is generated in the
personalized reports form after filling in the questionnaire. Ensuring the report
coherency, only companies with the similar profile are used in the report generation. The
dynamic system allows participants to revisit and check the results anytime and
anywhere. Each participant has to fill in the questionnaire periodically ensuring the
automatic database update. Therefore, the company evolution can also be monitored. The
benefits of the benchmarking service are mutual. Answering the questionnaire is
rewarded with the personalized reports where the competitor's data are offered without
any special effort of collecting them.
The industry participants can use the reports to define appropriate investment in the
knowledge acquisition and technology evolution within the company. The government
agencies, sector association, research and consulting organization can obtain even more
benefits:
identify lacks in the ICT awareness level and implementation in industry;
updated knowledge about the actual awareness level and status of the ICT in AEC
sector;
identify the training needs;
to collect data for designing future innovation public policies;
get valuable data influencing software product development strategies per country
(and/or) per sector.
The service requires no special maintenance since the operation is completely automated.
Maintenance with additional costs would appear only when modifying or preparing new
questionnaire.
If the users find benchmarking service useful, they will check the results regularly and
therefore provide the requisite answers for the database. Although the prodAEC is a twoyear program, the zero operation costs could keep the network and tools developed
continue in the future.
3.2 The questionnaire
The inquiry based methodology covering the ICT, drafting, modeling and e-commerce is
used in benchmarking. Semantically, the questionnaire is divided into four parts:
A: Company information (company profile, size and turnover, participant individual
datainvolvement, etc).
B: Use of the computerization, modeling, e-commerce, EDMS (electronic data
management system).
C: Classification, exchange standards, reference libraries.
D: Training, organizational and human issues.
The questionnaire is available in English, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Czech, Slovenian,
Spanish, Italian and German language. Enquiry generally takes 20 minutes to complete.
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275
Enterprises*
Employees
1993
1532
31722
452
2000
2608
40841
1680
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Table 3. Nominal indices of the value of construction put in place, March 2004.
Time
III 2004
III 2004
III 2004
Period
II 2004
III 2003
III 2000
Value
111.6
109.9
109.4
National Motorway Construction Program that started in the beginning of the nineties had
an important influence on incensement. The indices of the value of construction put in
place shows the promising prognosis.
5 ENQUIRY RESULTS
5.1 General information
The inquiry results are based on the responses (43) having been collected in the
benchmarking service until April 2004. Although University of Ljubljana put a lot of
efforts in the Benchmarking service promotion, the response was under all expectations.
Since we do not know the exact number of people familiar with the inquiry, it is
impossible to estimate the percentage of responses. Generally, the response in
comparable surveys when informing the potential participants with e-mail message is
very low1015% in IT Barometer (Samuelson, 2002). Evidently, it is hard to persuade
the target e-mail recipients about the mutual benefits of such service. All observations
and conclusions as the result of the prodAEC Benchmarking service presented in this
paper are therefore based on a limited population.
The equal participant role is presumed in the results analysis. No answer weighting is
necessary. More participants foreseen from the big companies will compensate the large
number of those employed in the small enterprises.
5.2 Part A: Company and user profile
First part of the questionnaire contains the essential questions for creating the image
about the participants and furthermore for the inquiry results filtering.
As expected, most of the answers (54%) came from the design offices. Presumably
they were the best informed about the Benchmarking service. The low ICT
implementation in the AEC sector is usually referring to the constructionthe participant
percentage (10%) probably confirms this estimation. The share marked as other
presents the answers from the research/academia institutions. No feedback (not a single
answer) from the Public administration was considerable disappointment.
After taking into the consideration the crumbliness of the AEC sector we can expect
the high percentage (almost 50%) of enquiry participants employed in the small
enterprises (<=10 employed). The 25% share of the medium-big companies (51250
people employed) justified our assumption about the unnecessary answer weighting.
Since there are only two construction companies in Slovenia with more than 500 people
employed, their participation share (3%) is also anticipated.
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The answers about the annual turnover can be linked to the answers about the
enterprise size. More than 50% of them have the turnover less than 0.5 mio euros. If we
set the limit to the 5 mio euros, more than 90% of survey participants are captured in the
analysis.
Figure 4 presents the enquiry participants role in the enterprise. Since the participants
from the smaller enterprises are commonly involved in more than one area of interest,
they have picked up more than one answer and automatically weighted the area
importance. Generally, the collected response presents mostly the architects and
engineers involved in the design, construction and project development and partly
operation.
The first paragraph assumption about the inquiry participant role in the AEC sector is
confirmed with the answers about undertaking work location. More than 80% of
participants usually undertake their work in the main or area office instead of on-site.
5.3 Part B: Technological infrastructure
The first step in the computerization, modeling, e-commerce, EDMS usage evaluation is
the technological infrastructure implementation.
Internet and e-mail are the most accepted modern ICT in the AEC sector. Every
participant has access to the both technologies, but only two thirds use them. Similar
results are valid for the CAD system usage too.
It is difficult to understand why 32% of people who owns the digital photography
equipment do not use it. We are certain that this technology usage will increase rapidly in
next year or two.
Telephone and video conferences with the result of 15% and 12% are not so
disseminate. The usage percentage is much lower than the ownership in both cases and
indicates that users dont find those two types of technologies very useful. Presumably,
the main cause can be found in the technical difficulties usually present in the conference
usage (like low band width, etc).
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279
280
281
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of specific plans for the enterprise future ICT investments. New technologies should
focus on improving productivity (less time, costs fewer errors and process simplicity) and
be implemented through the user friendly information and training.
Furthermore, the academic and research institutions must stay in contact with current
achievements in ICT and also with the practice requirements in order to ensure the sector
development.
REFERNCES
Fenves, S.J. 1996. Information technologies in construction: A personal Journey. In Ziga Turk
(ed.), Construction on the information highway. CIB proceedings publication 198, Bled, 1012
June 1996. Ljubljana: University of Ljubljana. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering.
Rivald, H. 2000. A survey on the impact of information technology in Canadian architecture,
engineering and construction industry. Electronic Journal of Information Technologies in
Construction 5: 3765.
Samuelson, O. 2002. IT barometer 2000The use of IT in the Nordic construction industry.
Electronic Journal of Information Technologies in Construction 7: 126.
URL: http://www.prodaec.com/ [1.6.2004].
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
As computers increasingly stimulate automation and greater efforts are being dedicated to
develop building models with enhanced representation capabilities, the question of an
automated code certification is certainly a challenge. To achieve this goal, the building
model must include much more data than it traditionally does, and it shall no longer be
dependent on human interpretation. In fact, the building model must include knowledge
and become a true building simulation with complete, accurate and integrated references
to all aspects that may be relevant for the code checking. Since this is certainly beyond
the usual approach of sensitive visual modelling, it may be referred as advanced
simulation.
Besides, for the technology that can make this possible, each clause from a code that
can be automatically checked becomes essentially a design requirement, for which the
building model provides the necessary information resources and operating instructions.
So, the same building simulation technology can be used for the checking of other sets of
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design requirements, whether they originate from a particular building program or relate
to some specific analysis.s
This paper follows the concept of the Normative Product Model (Santos et al. 2002,
Santos 2003) described in Figure 1, accepting that the IFC standard (IAI 2003) is a basic
component of such an advanced building simulation, but it focus on the necessity of
developing formal definitions of building sense as an ultimate component, not only to
allow for the automated checking of design requirements but also to enhance the
completeness and accuracy of a building model, and still to support the design process.
Besides, this paper states the exclusive role of building codes as the main source for
building sense, among others.
The contribution of IFC for advanced simulation is first discussed, followed by the
characterization of distinct levels and contexts related to the automated checking of
building design requirements. Then the question of building sense is introduced, its
relevance for code certification and model completeness is described and its fundaments
are discussed. Finally, some conclusions are emphasized.
2 CONCEPTUAL LIMITS OF IFC
In the attempts to enhance building modelling, the main goal is not exactly about
simulation but simply to
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allow that everyone on the world can share a single and common view of a building, at
least to a certain extent and quality that may be considered convincing by the industry
judgment. This view is expected to: (1) become a standard; (2) cover the entire building
lifecycle; (3) be independent from particular requirements; and (4) bring no limitations to
the design solutions, soon at the early phases of the design process.
However, to enhance building modelling starting from todays practice, sooner or later
it means facing the real world, where things that are put together usually interrelate and
even interact. So, an enhanced building model technology must also support a great
number of interrelations and dependencies between building elements, which may
outcome as a difficult trend, not only for software implementation, because of database
management problems, but also for the users that become responsible for the introduction
and assessment of building model data, much more than presently (Bazjanac 2002).
The evolution of the IAI design for the IFC standard seams to be more and more
successful about the referred expectations, but it denotes some conceptual limits in
relation to building simulation, which are more concerned to the quality of the modelling
than with extension capabilities (probably as a result of lessons taken from the difficulties
of previous attempts on standardization or implementation issues).
The most important of IFC conceptual limits under this particular perspective is its
conception as a building descriptive language, but also the flexibility of interrelation
declarations and the possibility of partial implementations in software applications
become relevant.
2.1 Conceived as a language
The IFC standard is strictly conceived as a language to describe a building during its
lifecycle: a building metamodel as referred by Santos (2003), meaning that it defines the
abstractions considered necessary to develop specific building models.
It includes a lexicon of generic designations, which starts from the most abstract level
like object or relation, goes through medium abstract level like building element or
space, and ends with the less abstract ones like window, opening area or wall.
It also includes a grammar that identifies the allowed interrelations between the
concepts of those designations. For example, it determines that a window has opening
area as an attribute and it can be associated to a wall meaning that the wall has
openings (by the fills/voids interrelation definition).
However, IFC does not include any definitions of sense outside the very own
metamodel context. It does not control, for example, if: the opening area of a
window is related, by a certain formula, to the space area of an associated interior
space (assuming that space area and interior space are, respectively, an attribute and
a type of space).
So, its possible to use IFC modelling resources to make an internally consistent
representation of a nonsense building, almost the same way as one can use the English
language with complete syntax correction, while not making sense, as in: a dog without
legs runs backwards.
Of course, since IFC is particularly dedicated to the building industry, the possibilities
of incorporating some sense soon at the grammar level are bigger than with a common
use language, mainly by means of the semantics embodied in attribute and specific
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Once these cross-references are defined, an interactive system, possibly hypertextbased, can be developed and distributed as a program directly integrated with design
tools, or as an Internet-based service.
3.2 Code checking assistance
Code checking assistance occurs when the selection of a building element from a
building model automatically leads to the checking of the relevant properties of its own,
or other associated elements, according to the requirements of a set of applicable clauses
taken from the treated codes, with the objective of detecting unconformity, and possibly
to present alternatives.
To achieve for a code checking assistance its necessary to go much further on the
computer operable representation of the code than for code referencing. The building
model needs to be meaningful, so that the checking system has enough knowledge about
the building model, the building code and the logic correspondence between both, and
takes consistent action.
However, since the building model is essentially descriptive, but the code content is
intended to be normative/declarative, while also descriptive (any code embodies a certain
view of a building), the referred correspondence is expected to cover only the information
requirements that concert to the description of a building, i.e., it relies upon a possible
common building language, leaving the normative content to be represented by some
distinct rule-based modelling.
The Normative Product Model concept states that, for each clause of a treated code,
the information requirements are considered at a base layer as a data structure that
includes both lexical definitions and interrelations, while the normative content is
represented by upper layer logical rules. Then, the data structure becomes the source for
the correspondence with the metamodel that supports the building model, either by a
mapping or by integration.
Typical problems of this kind of code checking systems are: (1) ad-hoc solutions for
the building model, when a true standardized modelling does not exist or does not
provide the appropriate semantics; (2) poor correspondence between the building model
and the content of the code, usually as a result of poor semantic capacity of the building
model (most frequent with geometry-based modelling); (3) non homogeneous treatment
of the code content, when some of its information requirements cannot be satisfied by the
building model.
Yet, this is the level of automation of the majority of the developed systems till now.
For example, the SEED project (SEED 1997), which is one of the most serious attempts
based on geometry-based building modelling, suffers from the referred mapping
limitations, while the undergoing CORENET project (Liebich et al. 2002) looks much
more ambitious with the exploration of the new possibilities of IFC on building
modelling. Also some software applications for specific technical domains include a few
capabilities of code checking assistance when the code information requirements are
close to their own database specifications, but it is rather limited and not suited as a
general approach.
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water distribution system; (2) the existence of individual spaces without entrance; or (3)
the existence of too many apartments that do not conform to space requirements.
For a human interpretation based checking, this kind of considerations may sound
exotic, but for a computer-based automated checking it is a matter of major importance if
the building model is expected to be realistic, even because the entire checking procedure
becomes much less solemn and errors are easier to arise. So, there is an absolute need of
some formal definition of how a building must be, not only by a positive approach,
saying what a building is expected to be, but also by negative statements that can prevent
unexpected occurrences.
The previous considerations lead to the notion of the global sense of a building, from
which results a verdict about a building model can in fact refer to a realistic building, or
not. This global sense notion can take into consideration some building classification,
resulting in selective references, like: its a building of type X, except for this and that;
or its a nonsense building in regard to type X.
The question of sense is always associated to code checking because, by definition,
each clause of a code determines how something must be, or what makes sense about the
building in relation to the code it belongs. However, global sense is somehow different
because it first concerns the realism of a building simulation, which is an important
quality of a building model, especially when an automatic code checking certification
takes place.
5 ADDING SENSE FOR MODEL COMPLETENESS
An automated code checking certification must be based on a reliable and complete
building model, or otherwise its results can easily be false. This means that every
building element shall be properly described and classified, and all its relevant relations
with other elements shall be explicitly declared.
Firstly, this depends on the capacity of IFC, as a building metamodel, to satisfy all the
information requirements of the treated codes without exception, at least by the proper
use of its extension mechanisms.
Lets consider an example from a Portuguese building code: in a house, the kitchen
can never have a direct communication with a bedroom. In order to check this clause, the
checking system can perhaps start by the detection of a kitchen, then looks for all the
walls that surround it and for each one of them tries to find an opening (possibly a door or
a window). If successful, then identifies the space to which the wall connects and sees if
it is a bedroom type. But the result can be false if the space identifiers do not exist or are
not compatible with the code requirements (not allowing the distinction between kitchen
and bedroom types), or if the relation between a space and the surrounding walls is not
explicit.
So the demand of completeness really means to explore the simulation power of IFC
modelling to the maximum, avoiding the negative tendencies that result from optional
interrelations between identified elements of a building, as well as partial
implementations in software tools. Besides, as a consequence of an intensive and
extensive exploration of IFC resources, the operating environment must be capable of
processing a dense network of data, specially for queries, both at high level (conceptual
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data) and low level (for example, when doors and windows are only geometrically related
to walls). In fact, some problems can arise in relation to this increased amount of data and
its quality:
The possibility of mistaken interrelations to be declared;
The possibility of users to forget relevant interrelations;
The corresponding machine processing cost;
The lack of specialized assistance;
Etc.
For the first two of these problems its possible to develop software tools to go deeper
into the analysis of a building model and help to prevent such errors by detecting
important signals of possible occurrence. The kind of building cognition needed by these
tools is also related to the notion of global sense, but here the emphasis goes for a
probabilistic approach (not mandatory).
So, besides the capacity of IFC, the reliability and completeness of a building model
can be greatly improved by using sets of generic mles based on building sense, which can
be customized by users as model types. Following examples illustrate this kind of rules:
Always an interior space type is expected to have an entrance;
Always a bedroom space type is expected to have a window opening to the external
space;
Every space that is totally surrounded by walls is probably an interior space;
Every interior space area where a dishwasher exists is probably a kitchen;
Every interior space to which more than two doors are related is probably a circulating
space type;
If a combustion equipment exists in an interior space, it needs the corresponding
connection to an air exhaustion system;
Etc.
The implementation of this kind of building cognition must consider the existence of
multiple start points and directions to explore in the network of data of the building
model, where the goal is to find the proper hierarchical structure and sequence of
operations, in order to obtain the most quicker and effective results.
Once formalized in accordance to the IFC capabilities, software tools that use this kind
of building cognition can be integrated with user interfaces to IFC models, and become
an important contribution to facilitate its use.
6 SOURCES OF BUILDING SENSE
The main reason why a standard building metamodel like IFC cannot include rules of
building sense, as those that have been described above, is that otherwise it would
become generally restrictive to the design process in an unacceptable way for a building
language level. The kind of knowledge associated to building sense is best intended as a
filter for building model data, which is to be used in special moments of the design
process (and eventually later on during the entire lifecycle) and which will be inevitably
dependent upon particular building concepts.
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Besides, where is the legitimacy to determine what makes and what does not make
sense in regard to a building?
Building codes are the prior admissible sources to determine building sense, though
they are just intended for that, not only by their content but also by the quality of being a
recognized and general imposition over the building design. Besides, by the same reason
that one shall not expect to find inconsistencies between the distinct codes that apply to
the same building, the seek for building sense gains much more effectiveness if a larger
and properly structured set of applicable codes is considered, because of the improved
global consistency. Usually, architectural building codes provide more general definitions
based upon space functionality, while more specific codes shall depend on these general
definitions for their detailed views. Thats why the Normative Product Model concept
also states that more general codes shall be considered first as a fundament for the formal
definition of sense in a building. And it points to distinctive manifestations of the concept
for each set of building codes sharing the same conditions of applicability (time period,
territory, building categories, etc.).
Nevertheless, even the most general and structuring building codes can become
insufficient in regard to the kind of global sense that has been described. So, a second
source must be considered, which is precisely the one known as common sense, and
this shall be used only to complement building codes concerning the realism, reliability
and completeness of a building model.
Building codes and common sense can be considered the only admissible sources for
the definition of building sense, at least within a normative perspective towards an
enhanced building simulation. However, all other sources containing building
requirements can also be considered for special objectives. Beyond the previously
mentioned sources of particular building requirements, the so-called codes of good
practice deserve reference, though they often represent the anticipation of important
requirements that can only be properly checked much later during the design process.
If a building sense relies on building codes and other particular sources, then there are
multiple building sense definitions, some of them corresponding to a particular set of
codes that embodies a specific Normative Product Model, while others simply become
tools to support the design process.
7 CONCLUSIONS
It has been shown that building sense is greatly important to enhance a building model
towards an enhanced building simulation, through realism, reliability and completeness.
This last achievement becomes especially relevant to stimulate the simulation capacity of
IFC-based modelling.
However, because building sense is not suited to become standardized, the Normative
Product Model concept points to a kind of building modelling that includes two layers
that can be referred as: building language and building sense. The first layer consists of
an integrated metamodel that results from the integration of the structural information
requirements of a building code into a standard metamodel like IFC, and its main content
consists of object definitions. The second layer becomes a structured set of rules that
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represent the normative content of building codes, for which it uses the building language
defined by the first layer, together with a standard formal language like EXPRESS.
It has been suggested that this approach is also useful for any other situation of
automate building requirements checking, once an integrated building metamodel can
satisfy the particular informatSion requirements of the respective source.
The incorporation of building sense and other requirements checking systems into
design tools, using IFC as a standard base component, can greatly improve the design
process, allowing for better simulation models at a lower cost and in shorter time.
REFERENCES
Bazjanac, V 2002, Early Lessons From Deployment of IFC Compatible Software, in Z Turk and RJ
Scherer (eds.), E-Work and E-Business in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Proc. of
4th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling, Portoroz, Balkema, Rotterdam,
pp.916
IAI: 2003, [http://www.iai-international.org/iai_international].
Liebich, T., Wix, J., Forester, J. and Qi, Z: 2002, Speeding-up the building plan approvalthe
Singapore e-plan checking project offers automatic plan checking based on IFC, in Z Turk and
RJ Scherer (eds.), E-Work and E-Business in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Proc.
of 4th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling, Portoroz, Balkema, Rotterdam,
pp.467471.
Santos, IA., Hernandez-Rodriguez, F. and Bravo-Aranda, G: 2002, A Normative Product Model for
Integrated Conformance Checking of Design Standards in the Building Industry, in Z Turk and
RJ Scherer (eds.), E-Work and E-Business in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Proc.
of 4th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling, Portoroz, Balkema, Rotterdam,
pp.473480.
Santos, IA: 2003, Modelizacion de Edificios de Viviendas para la Verificacion Automatica de
Requisitos Formales Asociados a las Normas Generales de ConstruccionUn Desarrollo
Basado en los Estandares IFC y UML, PhD thesis, Dpto. de Ingenieria del Diseno, ESI, The
University of Seville.
SEED: 1997, SEEDA Software Environment to Support Early Phases in Building Design, The
Carnegie Mellon University, USA, and The University of Adelaide, Australia,
[http://seed.edrc.cmu.edu/IJDC/toc.html].
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The integration of the AEC industry and the interoperability of the hundreds of software
applications supporting the design and construction of the built environment have been
providing one of the most challenging environments for the application of information
and communication technologies. The islands of automation (Hannus & Silen, 1987)
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problem has been identified by the AEC community in the late 1980s and several national
and EU project have been tackling the problem since.
It is interesting to read Fosters definition of the grid (Foster, 2002) in the context of
collaboration requirements of the construction industry Foster defines grid computing as
coordinated resource sharing and problem solving in dynamic, multi-institutional
virtual organizationsnot primarily file exchange but rather direct access to computers,
software, data, and other resources, as is required by a range of collaborative problemsolvingin industry. This sharing ishighly controlled, with resource providers and
consumers defining clearly and carefully just what is shared, who is allowed to share,
and the conditions under which sharing occurs. This statement captures the essential
requirements of collaboration in the AEC.
An EU project was proposed to verify this hypothesis. It is expected to start in
September 2004 and will run until February 2007 with a total funding of 3.13 million
EUR. The partners in this project include University of Ljubljana (Slovenia, coordinator),
TU DresdenTUD (Germany), Polish Center for Super-computing ApplicationsPSNC
(Poland), VTT (Finland), EPM Technology ASEPM (Norway), Conject (Germany),
Sofistik (Greece), OBERMEYER Planen+Beraten GmbHOPB (Germany) and ESoCE
NET (Italy). The home page of the project is at http://www.inteligrid.com./
2 STATE OF THE ART
This section presents the state of the art in grid computing and AEC interoperability. We
believe that there is a clear convergence between the two.
2.1 Grids and semantic grids
Grid is a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and
aggregation of geographically distributed autonomous resources dynamically at
runtime depending on their availability, capability, performance, cost, and users qualityof-service requirements.
Grid computing is an innovative approach that leverages existing IT infrastructure to
optimize computing resources and manage data and computing workloads. According to
Gartner (Price WaterHouse Coopers, 2002), a grid is a collection of resources owned by
multiple organizations that is coordinated to allow them to solve a common problem.
Gartner further defines three commonly recognized forms of grid:
Computing gridmultiple computers to solve one application problem
Data gridmultiple storage systems to host one very large data set
Collaboration gridmultiple collaboration systems for collaborating on a common
issue.
Grid computing has its origins in solving computationally intensive problems. Recent
developments and trends of grid computing go beyond the solving of data (petabytes) or
computationally (teraflops) problems for scientists and engineers towards making grids a
suitable business infrastructure for virtual organizations. Grids are increasingly viewed as
services (Foster et al., 2002) aware of the business semantics. Semantic grids should
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provide to the grids what the semantic Web is providing to the Webcommunication
based on high level, meaningful entities.
There are numerous related research projects in the EU, the US and beyond: The Grid
Enabled Optimization and Design Search for Engineering (GEODISE)
(http://www.geodise.org/) project was one of the first to explore the possibilities of the
semantic grid, however, the semantics was being attached to files as metadata. True
semantic-rich that would study the meaning of the information inside the files is not
addressed. The myGrid (http://www.mygrid.org.uk/) project defined its architecture using
the OGSA architecture but does not seem to be based on a common ontology which is
what inteliGrid is aiming for. The Commodity Grid Kit (COG) (http://wwwunix.globus.org/cog/) project has similar goals to inteliGrid, but is addressing a different
business sector and seems to be primarily concerned with the heterogonous data formats
and not heterogonous information schema addressed in inteliGrid. Based on the review of
the state of the art, semantic information as we understand it in engineering has to date
not been addressed in a grid environment. This is a key contribution of this project. Also
relevant to the inteliGrid project are the Collaborative Advanced Knowledge
Technologies in the Grid (CoAKTinG) (www.aktors.org/coakting) and Grid-Enabled
Desktop Environments (GRENADE) (http://mrccs.man.ac.uk/research/grenade) projects
that address the interactive collaboration using grids. This is not targeted in inteliGrid but
their open source results could be re-used in the inteliGrid demonstrations. The only grid
project related to the AEC sector that we are aware of is the National Science Foundation
(NSF) funded Information Infrastructure for Earthquake Research (SCEC/IT)
(http://www.isi.edu/ikcap/scec-it/). The rather broad and practical goal is to provide
information technology infrastrucrure for earthquake research, including knowledge
representation and reasoning, Grid technologies, digital libraries, and interactive
knowledge acquisition.
World leading software companies such as Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and several
software SMEs are also developing grid middleware and grid extensions to their existing
software. The following are some software vendors, which could potentially make use the
results (semantic extensions) of the inteliGrid project:
Oracle delivers database products and application servers. Their Oracle 10 g version is
an enterprise grid version, using server consolidation and cluster computing
techniques.
Avaki Corporation is a supplier of commercial grid software solutions that provide
wide area access to data, compute, and application resources in a single, uniform
operating environment.
Metapa supports business intelligence applications on open source, commodity
technology, including the use of Lintel platforms and Metapas database clustering
technology.
GridSystems develops and markets the InnerGrid multiplatform product that allows the
application of the Grid technology to the current corporate environment. It speeds the
key processes of a business converting underused resources in a virtual
supercomputer.
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hard that it may effectively discourage the use of building information models. These
problems are partially tackled by the generic services developed at TU Dresden (Weise et
al, 2004). The suggested approach mitigates hard demands associated with product data
sharing thereby allowing incremental improvement of the application of BIM in practice.
Product model standards and ontologies have in parallel been developed in other
industries as well. While they share common schema for the geometric information,
product structure and configuration management, they specialise when it comes to
information about distinct product components. The STEP standard ensures that
interoperability between domain models (known as Application ProtocolsAP) is
possible through the integrated information resource layer, but in order to further reduce
the cost of developing future APs ISO TC184 SC4 has introduced the Application
Modules (AM) layer, which defines self contained Units of Functionality (UoF) that can
be reused between the different models (http://step-mod.sourceforge.net/).
A major initiative that has resulted in the publication of a new application protocol is
PLCS (ISO10303239). It contains many of the modules found in PDM schema (itself a
subset of AP203, AP212, AP214 and AP232), with additions to support service and
maintenance concepts. The PLCS data model was designed in order to provide a data
model that is capable of supporting product data throughout the product lifecycle. It
supports automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, AEC and other industries.
3 THE inteliGrid PROJECT
This section proceeds from visions, placing them in context, stating high levels goals and
refining them into measurable, scheduled objectives.
3.1 Vision
The vision of the project is to provide the industries with challenging integration and
interoperability needs a flexible, secure, robust, ambient accessible, interoperable, payper-demand access to (1) information, (2) communication and (3) processing
infrastructure. The idea to support virtual organizations has been central in grid protocols
development computting (Foster et al., 2001), however, most practical results to date
were related to a fast distributed computation and storage. The hypothesis of this project
is that grid technology has the potential to provide such infrastructure.
3.2 Contextintegration and interoperability in complex industries
The integration of the AEC industry and the interoperability of the hundreds of software
applications supporting the design and construction of the built environment have been
providing one of the most challenging environments for the application of information
and communication technologies. The islands of automation problem has been
identified by the AEC community in the late 1980s and several national and EU project
have been tackling the problem since. Grids are expected to be the solution to the islands
of computation problem. Figure 1 shows what has been known since later 1980s as the
islands of automation problem.
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product model databases. The result is a semantic or cognitive grid. It is genericit gets
its business semantics from an ontology that can be an arbitrary one.
While the AEC industry is providing the testing environment for the project, all
technologies developed will be generic and applicable in any kind of virtual organization
environment and are not limited in any way to AEC. Business sectors that include long
and complex supplier chains share the same interoperability problems as the AEC. They
will be represented in inteliGridproviding requirements and evaluating the endas
well as interim results through the Industry Advisory Board (IAB) and ESoCE NET.
Moreover, many of the software applications to be integrated to the inteliGrid platform
are of general applicability to computational intensive problems coming from other
sectors as biomechanics, aerospace, shipbuilding and automotive industries.
3.3 Project goals
The long term practical goal of the project is to provide complex industries such as
construction, automotive and aerospace stable, co-allocated, reliable, unified, adaptive,
remote, ambient accessible, interoperable, pay-per-demand access to: (1) information, (2)
communication and (3) processing infrastructure and thereby provide the integration and
interoperability infrastructure.
This goal cannot be achieved by the project alone. But it can prepare the enablersthe
true project targetsfor the paradigm shift from internet and web services to the grid.
The enablers are researchers, standardization bodies and the key software developers.
They need a reference grid, which will be in a position to provide the strategic steering of
their future developments. Current state of the art addressing these needs is based on the
(semantic) Web services approach. This approach is viable in businesses with stable and
long term virtual organization relations where the investment into finding a service with
the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), learning its interface with
the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and finally creating the links with
SOAP pays with the long time using of the services. In contexts where the involvement
of a partner in a VO is temporal, short term, but needs to be set up quickly, a grid based
approach seems more appropriate. The Figure 2 compares the two approaches.
The key scientific question addressed by this project is how grid technology can be
used to address the interoperability of software and services working with complex and
semantically rich information.
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Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications can interface with the grid. This will attract
new SMEs to enhance their applications with gridcomputing capabilities, since the
project will provide the necessary libraries, toolkits and guidelines.
The results are shown schematically in section 5.
3.4 Innovation
inteliGrid goes beyond simply grid-enabling present day applications, on present day
grids. It creates an underlying fabric in the form of abstracted toolkits and tools that can
be used to grid enable old applications, and more importantly to build innovative new
generations of grid applications that use semantics and ontologies. It also focuses on
applied research in the area of application scenarios in many areas, such as engineering,
construction, aerospace, fluid dynamics etc., that take unique and unprecedented
advantage of emerging semantic grid technologies.
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5 DRAFTARCHITECTURE
In Figure 4, the users are using the applications. These applications need information and
ftmctionality from the outside of the users workstation, from the grid.
The applications therefore have a workstation component and the grid based
component. The communication media between the workstation and the grid is the
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Internet and the workstation applications, their grid based counterparts, as well as the grid
only services are connected to the grid with a series of interfaces. At the very bottom
there are numerous computers on which these grid side services run. Workstations
would typically not know on which machine the service is running. Computationally
intensive services would run on several in parallel, big databases would be spread across
several machines. Simple services would have redundant backups in case of computer or
network failures. Any prototyping should therefore develop these components that
together form a semantic collaboration grid:
grid enabled workstation applications (the first three from the left) that connect to a grid
through a
specialised semantic grid adapter for each application. This adapter talks to the
workstation-side semantic grid client common to all applications on a workstation.
Over the internet, this client connects to
server side semantic grid server. It would run on machines providing grid enabled
services
semantic grid adapter will be used by services that are to made grid enabled
specialised core servers, such as the product database and an ontology server. This
software may not have a workstation component other than some administration
interface.
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6 DISCUSSION
In spite of successful pilots, the AEC industry lacks a robust collaboration infrastructure.
Grids are the latest hyped technology that promises the solution to this decades old
problem allowing both the researchers as well as the industry to capitalize on the
development in standards of the past decades. A grid is a natural transition path for the
project webs and application service providers. In this paper we have not been
mentioning a very clear potential that the grid has for the providers of complex numerical
and modelling software that is truly hungry for processing power and gigaflop computers;
the usefulness of those in solving complex engineering problems is obvious.
Research in the field of grids in AEC is just starting. An EU project has been
proposed, AEC partners have been involved in the preparation of a Grid integrated
project. There is at least one national grid related project (in Slovenia
http://www.gridforum.si/) seriously is focusing on the AEC aspects of the grid. However,
grid research in AEC is still rather new. The vision shared by the authors of this paper is
that the AEC community should work towards a single AEC grid in which various
services and software could be plugged in and not repeat the mistakes of the various
integration projects that developed their own collaboration infrastructures from scratch.
This paper is therefore proposing the establishing of aec.gridforum, to coordinate and
harmonize grid efforts in AEC as well as to show the general grid community, that to
support, with grid technology, virtual organizations of a particular domain, domain
specific solutions, particularly those related to domain ontologies, should be built into the
fabric of the grid.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper is based on the inteliGrid Project Proposal and its subsequent Description
of the work. Through their contribution to the definition of the project, these colleagues
also contributed to this pa per (in alphabetical order): T.CerovTiek, U.Forgber, A.Gehre,
U.Forgberger, J.Hyvarinen, J.Mitchell, B. Protopsaltis, R.Santoro, R.Scherer,
V.Stankovski, K.Tonn. As co-authors, only those are listed that made a significant
contribution to the delta between this paper and its baseline documents.
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Press, June 2003.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Today it is widely accepted that efficient project collaboration can be best accomplished
using product data technology as basis (Eastman 1999). However, there are still a number
of problems to be solved. The existing heterogeneity of tools and systems in construction
IT, and especially the variety of data models used in the different stages of the design
process, strongly limit the successful application of PDT in practice. Undertaken
standardisation efforts, whilst principally successful, cannot fully overcome this problem.
It seems that additional model mappings will always be required (Turk 2001).
Integrated environments that have been demonstrated by a number of research projects
in the last decade are yet of little acceptance because they typically require wellharmonised applications, only capable to process agreed model data to a fine granularity
level. Scaling up such environments to the full set of practical use cases in computerintegrated construction is unlikely to be achieved due to the extreme increase of
complexity with regard to modelling representations, model mappings and consistency
(Amor & Faraj 2001). Obviously, solutions should be sought by other ways.
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1. The achievement of data integration requires sophisticated model mappings that in turn
may produce additional data conflicts or even data loss.
2. Engineering work requires long transactions and these transactions must happen
concurrently Hence, the goal should be to provide pragmatic methods which may not
guarantee full consistency at any time but which should support the users to regain
consistent model states.
3. Standards enabling collaborative work have not yet fully penetrated design and
construction practice. File-based data exchange of (partially) standardised model data
is the current, quite insufficient common denominator with regard to data sharing.
Therefore, in the development of collaboration approaches problems of imperfect
data exchange scenarios need to be tackled as well.
4. The road towards comprehensive life cycle data sharing will include a number of
incremental steps seeking to find the optimal balance between fully automated
consistent solutions for limited subsets of the design data and adequate interactive
functions to fill in the gaps.
Consequently, an approach allowing to alleviate hard demands associated with the
problems of data sharing is required.
Our approach is based on the conviction that full integration and consistency of the
evolving design data are not needed continuously but only at specific coordination points,
reasonably selected by the design team. We do not try to create a closed ideal world but
provide an open solution which allows to reduce data loss, improve data sharing quality
and reach a practically adequate degree of consistency. The developed concept does not
promise a perfect environment providing faultless data integrity. Instead, the strategy is to
mitigate the requirements to the involved engineering applications, reduce data loss
caused by data mapping and other data conflicts, and at the same time take into account
practical deficiencies in current data models and their software implementations.
The envisaged principal application scenario is based on the concept of long
transactions allowing off-line modifications and, in order to support parallel work,
involving versioning and merging of concurrently changed data. This is achieved with the
help of four key generic services as follows:
extraction of model subsets that are of interest for a specific design task,
mapping of the model data to support different modelling representations,
matching of two successive model versions to help recognise properly the latest
modified data, and
merging of concurrently made data changes.
We assume a common modelling paradigm and a commonly agreed (standardised) data
model to represent the data to be shared. Taking into account current practices and trends,
the developed services are based on the broadly acknowledged EXPRESS modelling
language and can therefore be used with a lot of existing data models, such as an IFC
project model of any version and a like.
Whilst there are many different use cases where these services can be applied, they
can all be derived from the principal scenario shown on Fig. 1 below. It starts at time
point ti with the consistent shared model version Mi based on the product data model M
(defining the data that have to be shared), and proceeds until the next coordination point
ti+c is reached.
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The data processing sequence for a single designer is comprised of the following six
steps:
1. Model subset definition and subsequent extraction of the needed model data from Mi to
a model subset Msi, which can be expressed as Msi=createSubset (Mi, subsetDef (Mi)).
2. Mapping of the model subset Msi to the domain model Si representing an instantiation
of the domain data model S, i.e. Si=map (Msi, mappingDef (M, S)).
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incorrect recreation of attributes. If OS2 is not based on O1 the cut and downsized
references of OS1 will be assigned to a wrong successor and hence violate the originally
intended meaning. It can be argued that shared significant, high-level data objects, such
as instances of IfcBuildingElement from the IFC model, can be uniquely identified and
that less important data objects, such as IfcPoint, are mostly used with the complete set of
attributes. However, on theoretical level we cannot assume such implicit knowledge of
the semantics of the model. Therefore, the reintegration of changed model subsets has to
be supervised by the user to compensate missing object identifiers. For the formal step of
reintegration this can be done by evaluating established object pairs and found data
changes, which can be limited to data objects where cut references or removed attributes
shall be re-established or added. Generally, this step represents additional user
interactions which are caused by insufficiencies of the used data exchange scenario and
the data handling in the participating applications. The amount of this additional work
depends on several criteria such as the percentage of uniquely identifiable data objects,
the quality of the data produced by the used application, and the selected model subsets
for design modifications, i.e. the number of objects which have to be reintegrated.
5.3 Structural problems
The described reintegration scenario is limited to object pairs in 1:1 relationships which
cannot be guaranteed by the suggested comparison algorithm. If needed, it can be
enforced by applying an appropriate post-processing of assumed object pairs, applying
additional criteria to reduce the cardinality. However, for tracking the design history it is
important to allow n:m relationships or change of object types as well. Such cases can be
tackled by applying some additional user interactions, mostly needed to resolve eventual
ambiguities.
1:m version relationships
This case occurs if an old object is associated to several new objects. The reintegration
itself can be performed as shown in Fig. 3 by duplicating all removed attributes for all
new (corresponding) objects. Consequently, in the discussed example the attributes a
and b wills be re-established for both objects OS2 and OS2, as shown on Fig. 4 above.
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Basic modelling concepts, such as defining the object geometry, location, material
properties and so on are reused by inheritance throughout the whole model definition.
Therefore, all participating applications will have a common understanding of these
concepts and the suggested use of more abstract objects can be applied.
The IFC model globally defines the used measures and the coordinate system for object
placement. The concept of relative placement makes the IFC model more sensitive to
changes of model subsets w.r.t. model consistency.
In many cases there exists a large variety for describing the same semantic meaning.
This makes the model vulnerable to semantic conflicts.
Not all IFC objects can be uniquely identified (via an object ID). Observations of
currently available IFC data sets have shown that the percentage of identifiable objects
on instance level is typically below 5%.
Starting from identifiable objects a reference tree can be created where many of the
unidentifiable objects can be unambiguously allocated. However, there are several
examples of shared objects without identifier where this procedure cannot be applied.
This is not at all an ideal situation for the generic model comparison algorithm.
The IFC model provides the possibility to attach individual, i.e. not standardised data
by using property set objects. Consequently, sophisticated model subset definitions
will be needed to restrict requested data to the manageable property set objects.
A comprehensive description of the IFC model can be found in Wix and Liebich (2001).
6.2 Practical use of the IFC model
To work with practical and real size model data we make use of available IFC
applications. Thus, we are limited to file based data exchange according to ISO 10303
21, which provides no adequate support for partial model exchange. However, we can use
a procedure which generates an IFC file containing the requested model subset and all
additionally required data (i.e. mandatory attributes) to formally fulfil the ISO 1030321
specification.
Consequently, the changed data has to be processed by the same GMSD request
removing such added attributes in order to work with the correct model subset that was
originally intended to use. This will be necessary for instance for the GloballD attribute
of IfcRelationship objects, which are mandatory but not managed by most known
applications, i.e. they are newly generated for each IFC export. Since relationship objects
can be seen as primary objects too, e.g. for the structural analysis domain, and because
of the fact that they will typically contain a lot of cut references when using model
subsets, the tracking of the data will be destroyed if identifiers of these objects are not
managed correctly. If newly created GloballD attributes can be ignored, corresponding
IfcRelationship objects can be found by the generic model comparison algorithm and thus
can be applied for the model subset approach.
To cope with such problems we have applied model subset definitions expressing the
capability of the used architectural design application, namely Graphisofts ArchiCAD.
Additionally, we have removed different object types, such as windows or doors to deal
with cut references.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
In architectural design four major stages are distinguished: the programming, proposal,
main proposal, and the detailed design stage. During the lifetime of buildings, facility
management stages and redesign or remodeling stages alternate. We foresee that in all
stages there will be an increasing demand for models, simulations, and tools that
incorporate user requirements and activities much more explicitly than it is the current
practice.
One of the reasons is that buildings are becoming technically much more sophisticated
because of the embedding of digital control and communication systems as well as other
technical advances. Such systems make the requirements analysis, design, use, and
maintenance of buildings much more complicated for all stakeholders and add a new
dimension of complexity.
Another reason is a growing awareness that the building users should be in the center
of attention during all stages and that a building should adapt to changing requirements of
users instead of the other way around.
In most building development, construction, and maintenance processes it is claimed
that everything is done for the best of the user. It is assumed that the average user
requirements are known and buildings that are built for these average users will fiilfill the
requirements of the majority of users.
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However, post-occupancy evaluations show that this assumption is not true. There is
no average user and all individuals have different requirements. Satisfaction case studies
showespecially in the case of automated service systems with no user intervention
that in many cases the majority of the users is not satisfied and would like to get more
individual control. Since satisfaction with the working environment is strongly correlated
to productivity, much can be gained by improving satisfaction. Also, users often do not
react to situations as assumed. This means that we are dealing with ranges of user
requirements and non-deterministic behavior of individuals.
Post-occupancy evaluations of users in buildings come too late in the process.
Therefore, we propose the use of simulators to be able to experiment with groups of
individual users, which also can have extreme requirements and exhibit non-deterministic
reactions. We are aware that the dynamic behavior of persons is not well known and
models of it are also based on average assumptions. Our hope is that by comparing
simulations with observations of real users, the models can be refined over time.
Advances in software and hardware technology and in computer science as well as
software engineering provide us with the means to establish models, simulators and tools
to support all stakeholders in coping with the problems that were mentioned above. One
such approach for systematically coping with the complexity that is introduced by
regarding sophisticated building technology and individual user activities is introduced in
this paper.
Still, it has to be clarified which questions computer simulation can answer that could
not be answered by experienced architects or by stochastic models or calculations. At this
time we can only make assumptions on the necessity of simulation. Applications of such
simulators can show that these can provide solutions to the posed problems.
One field we see as very difficult to tackle without simulation is the dynamic
interaction of users with building control systems and the test and optimization of
appropriate user interaction strategies. Simulations with user activities in a building
system that is equipped with a control system could answer the question how little should
be automated, how much user influence should be provided, how such systems should
react to unexpected user behavior and how different control strategies influence the total
building performance. The outcome might be that no control, computer aided control or
the fully automated control should be preferred to provide optimal user satisfaction (and
thus productivity) with little or no loss in energy efficiency.
Other questions are related to the use of resources shared by many individuals of
groups of users. Such resources are access and circulation areas and common facilities
and equipment. Instead of using stochastic models, dynamic simulations with many
individuals and situations could also provide answers about the average satisfaction or the
satisfaction in extreme or unexpected situations.
At this point, it should be stated clearly that we regard user activities as dynamic
activities that happen over time. This means that the models and the simulators have to
reflect this dynamics of user behavior in relation to time.
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2 RELATED WORK
There have been discussions about the necessity of more formally taking user activities
into account during the design and maintenance of buildings, and some progress has been
made to achieve this goal. For example, Eastmann & Siabiris (1995) and Eck-holm &
Fridquist (2000) have extended object structure models for building spaces by including
organizations, user activities, and activity spaces. The purpose of these models is the
formalization, communication, and storage of data, not so much the simulation. Eckholm
(2001) introduced semi-dynamic user behavior by showing situations of user activities in
a CAD-program.
Dijkstra & Timmermans (2002) extended this notion into the dynamic domain by
introducing models of space-time behavior of persons. They used agent technology to
implement such models. Experiments have been conducted in the domain of pedestrians.
The results are of great value in urban planning and also for the design and evaluation of
transportation in general and of circulation areas in buildings. There is ongoing research
to extend this work to other user activities in business processes.
We have developed structural models of buildings as complete systems (Zimmermann
2003) that include users, user activities and activity spaces. These models provide the
foundation for the automatic creation of simulators and is explained in Sect. 3. This paper
demonstrates how this model can be extended to also include the dynamics of user
activities.
We have shown that physical effects that are observed in buildings (like heat or air
flow) can be simulated by mapping simple physical objects into autonomous
computational objects that compute the required physical results at run-time
(Zimmermann 2002). We can use this technology to treat all physical simulation
problems by integrating suitable computational objects into the building system model.
The communication links between these objects can directly be derived from the static
building structure in case of the domains regarded so far. Where the topology of the
physical objects directly reflects the communication relationships in such a case (e.g.,
connected walls will exchange heat), this is not true when regarding users and their
activities. The reason for that is that the topological relations change while users move
(e.g., when going from an office to a meeting room) or change their memberships with
certain groups (e.g., when changing the role from private person to employee).
Additionally, the flow of messages and the behavior of the objects strongly depends on
their state. For example, an occupied meeting room will force a user seeking for an area
to hold a presentation in to search for a vacant room.
Therefore, we need to augment the building models with that additional information.
Unfortunately, all notations that are commonly available to the software engineer do not
seem to be suitable for these purposes.
A vast number of modeling notations, the so called scenario notations (Amyot et al.
2003), focus solely on the external communication between objects. Examples for such
scenario notations are Message Sequence Charts (MSCs, cf. Braek et al. (1993)), UML
Sequence Diagrams (Rumbaugh et al. 1999), or Use Case Maps (Buhr 1998). The
behavior described in these scenarios usually only represents a single run of the
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modeled system, thus forcing the modeler to create lots of diagrams to achieve an overall
understanding of the system. The concepts for hierarchical decomposition or repetition of
partial scenarios as suggested in some of the notations (e.g., Hierarchical MSCs) only
provides little help in our context.
As an other extreme, there are modeling techniques that only allow for the description
of the internal, stateoriented view of objects. SDUs state flow diagrams (Braek et al.
1993) or UMLs State Charts (Rumbaugh et al. 1999) are examples for such notations
that are commonly accepted in industry and academia.
Only UML Activity Diagrams (Rumbaugh et al. 1999) and variants thereof seem to
support the mixed specification of (external) messages and (internal) states. However, the
visual appearance and understandability by non-experts is far from ideal when the
number of states to be regarded is increasing.
It is the deficits of the above notations that made us conceive a new modeling
notation, which we call Message/Transition Charts or MTCs for short (cf. Sect. 4). This
paper will illustrate the notations elegance for the purpose of modeling user activities
and dynamic behavior between distributed objects.
3 THE BUILDING SYSTEM MODEL
Our approach bases on sound software engineering techniques that are applied to solve
the problem of modeling building systems including user activities and to implement
appropriate dynamic simulation environments in reasonable time. The most important
techniques that are applied are structuring (or separation of concerns), iterative
refinement, reuse, and model as well as code generation.
Structuring is exploited throughout several dimensions. As a main structuring concept
we have partitioned the building system model according to the domains: building
structure, service systems, control systems, functional units, and user activities. All
elements that are described by the sub-models of these five domains are further classified
as being of type space or of type matter. As an example, in the building structure domain,
the volume of a wall is considered as being of type space, where the materials that make
up the wall (like bricks) are regarded as matter.
Figure 1 shows the top level view of our building system model. All elements in this
model are derived from the generic SystemObjectType. The Matter and SpaceTypes are
found as specializations of this generic element (the more general element is depicted by
the hollow arrowhead), as are the elements of the respective domains (e.g.,
BldSpaceT=BuildingSpaceType).
All SystemObjectTypes are related by Requirements. Requirements are typically of
such a form that an element in one domain requires a service that is fulfilled by one ore
more elements in other domains. A basic structuring principle is that these requirements
should only relate elements of the SpaceType if possible. In this way the spaces in the
five domains together with the requirements, form the backbone of the overall building
system model.
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the model in Fig. 1. From this level, the elements of the domain level are described first
and then these elements are refined to form the application domain level. The different
application domain models extend the level of detail of the domain models for different
application domains.
The elements of all models presented so far represent a classification of types of reallife objects (e.g., the office building domain model contains an OfficeType element,
which is a type of a SmallOffice of an exemplary real-life object Office-32419).
Therefore, these elements form a library of so called metaobject-types that can be reused
when creating new models. When these meta-object-types are instantiated they form the
models at the project level, which consequently contains object-types (like the
SmallOffice). Rather than linking the project and the application domain level with the
generalization arrow, we use a simple line to depict this instantiation relationship. When
the project level models are transformed into simulators (see Sect. 5) and executed, the
runtime-objects (that are instances of the object-types) reflect the real-life objects at the
run-time level of the model hierarchy.
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Figure 3 shows the user activity domain model as a more detailed example of a model
at the domain level. The generalization relations to elements of the building system
model are depicted by angle brackets. The types of roles that can be taken on by
individuals (IndivRolT) are composed of different individual types of activities
(IndivActT), which themselves can consist of more fine-grained activities. Accordingly,
group role types are defined.
Refinements of this model (at the application domain level) are meaningful in
different domains like office buildings, factories, or homes. For the offlce building
domain model (see Fig. 2) we would derive elements such as ManagerType,
SecretaryType, and VisitorType from the element IndividualType. In home applications,
other refinements would apply. The reason for this seemingly complex structure of levels
and domains is as follows: We do not aim at creating a monolithic simulation
environment for building systems that integrates all possible alternatives of such systems
as well as their usages and that can only be personalized by setting a large number of
parameters. We rather aim at a systematic and efficient method for constructing
customized simulation environments for each application of such simulators. The above
structuring and reuse concepts provide the framework for such an approach to be
successful.
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4 MESSAGE/TRANSITION CHARTS
After having modeled the structure within the five domains with sufficient detail, we
have to define the behavior of the respective objects. As it has been noted, we concentrate
on user activities in this paper, which especially includes the specification of roles and
activities that make up these roles (see Fig. 3).
It is obvious that different users and roles are active concurrently. Therefore, a well
fitting computational model for describing this behavior is a set of communicating,
concurrent objects. A first step in specifying models of such concurrent objects is a rather
abstract and well-structured description, which depicts the communication between
objects and their change of states (state transitions) as triggered by the reception of
messages. From these high-level models, more detailed models can then be created that
represent the input to the simulator generation process as described in Sect. 5.
As it has been motivated in Sect. 2, we will use our notation of Message/Tmnsition
Charts (MTCs) as a suitable diagramming technique for such an abstract description.
MTCs consist of a few basic building blocks that can be structured in a hierarchical
fashion. At the lowest level, states of objects are identified (like the states occupied and
vacant that we have introduced in Sect. 2). These are depicted by small rounded
rectangles. Messages (painted as thick arrows) can trigger a change of states, i.e. a state
transition (depicted by thin arrows), which can imply the creation of new messages that
are sent to other objects.
Figure 4. Example of a
Message/Transition Chart.
Object boundaries are drawn as large rounded rectangles. As we are modeling user
activities with objects, such boundaries can show the boundaries of activities as well.
Figure 4 presents an example with two such activities, each having two states and two
transitions.
This figure also shows the more advanced modeling constructs that are available in the
MTC notation. Small circles depict connection points that allow the usage of parts of the
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diagrams in a hierarchical fashion (the usefiilness of this feature will become obvious in
Sect. 6) or the connection of message flows (as shown within act2). When the transition
from state S1 to S2 is taken, a new message m3 is created. The text included in
parentheses following the message name specifies optional parameters of this message. In
the above figure the message m3 has the parameter a. Depending on the value of a, one
of the two transitions in act2 is triggered. In the case that a is one, the message m4 is
created.
An MTC thus presents a set of possible chains of messages in one single and easily
comprehensible diagram, which neatly reflects the behavior we want to model on an
abstract level. The editing of MTC diagrams as well as the hierarchical management of
parts of such diagrams is supported by a tool that we automatically created from a formal
tool specification using the Meta-CASE environment DOME (Engstrom et al. 2000).
5 SOFTWARE GENERATION PROCESS
As it has been motivated above, our goal is the systematic an thus efficient construction
of customized simulation environments. One potent way of gaining efficiency is the
automation of repetitive or complicated tasks that can be described by simple strategies
(or algorithms). One such task is the transformation of parts of the building system model
into executable code. Like a programming language compiler automatically creates an
executable application from its source code, we will show that the same powerfiil
technique can be employed for generating building simulators from our building system
models.
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qffice place, desk work requires a desk place, move uses circulation space, and so on.
These places require building spaces and services. Typical services are sufficient light
levels, which can be provided by natural or artificial sources under automatic or manual
control. Some of the requirements are more static in their nature; e.g., building space
requirements. But the fulfilment by actual spaces can change when a desk is moved,
causing a chain reaction in the resulting requirements. Other requirements like circulation
space requirements are of a dynamic nature in relation to an individual. Also, such spaces
can be shared, but limited resources.
This example shows the occurrence of many requirement chains that are interrelated
and can form complex graphs. To be able to model the fulfillment of all requirements and
simulate a possible solution, we have to model the structural relations of all involved
objects and the behavior of the resulting system.
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instantiating the element to the right of the colon; e.g., the object-type UKLSecretary is
an instance of the SecretaryType of the application domain model.
Each UKLSecretaryRole aggregates one instance of the individual activities of
UKLDeskWork, UKLMakeCopy, UKLMove and UKLMeet, which have to be active in
mutual exclusion. The most abstract view of this behavior of the UKL secretary role can
be specified with the MTC as it is shown in Fig. 7.
In this diagram we have reduced the number of arcs by using bidirectional arrows for
the messages if applicable (the > and < symbols show the direction of the labels).
Also, for brevity, parameters have been omitted.
At the top of the diagram, the hierarchical activity UKLSecretaryRoleCtrl represents
an object that controls the overall behavior of the UKLSecretaryRole (the folded corner is
a visual cue that a refinement of this activity exists). All other nodes within
UKLSecretaryRole represent instances of activity types, whose behavior is defined
elsewhere. It should be noted that the instance mov1 only exists once and is shown in
three shared copies to simplify the layout.
Outside of UKLSecretaryRole the person UKLSecretary, is shown, which takes on the
role of secretary upon arriving at work. A first activity within this role is the secretarys
move to her desk to begin the desk work. This desk work can be interrupted (triggered by
the actionCtrl message) and either a meeting or a copy job can be performed. In each
case, the secretary has to move to the respective places.
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This diagram also shows the interface to objects within the ftinctional unit domain
(connection points on the right hand side of Fig. 7). As an example, the desk work
activity needs to get a desk or the copy activity needs to enter the copy place.
Because of its abstract nature, the MTC in Fig. 7 allows for different alternatives of
the dynamic behavior and the control of the different activities. The simulation
environment could very strictly control all activities by sending simulatorCtrl messages
with exact timing and ftmctionality requests. Typically, parameters of messages from
outside of the simulated domains would be provided by files. Therefore, the results of
such experiments would present a repeatable outcome. In contrast to that, simulation
control could be very loose by giving the objects autonomous control, similar to the
concept of independent agents. A non-repeatable behavior would result, which could be
analyzed with statistical methods. Finally, an indeterministic behavior could be achieved
by using random generators that influence the objects behavior. In such a case, the
simulation environment could be used to control the stochastic parameters. We believe
that this large range of behavioral alternatives can be employed to easily realize a variety
of different experiments.
There are different options for the further use of this abstract MTC: First of all it can
be employed to define all external and internal message interfaces of UKLSecretaryRole
for the subsequent stages of the software generation process. Second, it can be extended
by modeling the other domains at the same level of detail (connecting the MTC with
MTCs of the other domains). Third, it can be refined by completing all message relations
and by precisely modeling UKLSecretaryRoleCtrl in detail. Figure 8 shows one such
possible refinement.
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Figure 8. Refinement of
UKLSecretaryRoleControl.
Before the role has been taken on by the secretary, it is in the state undeflned. As soon
as the response message (from the desk work activity in Fig. 7) arrives, the state of the
role changes. If the secretary has just taken on the role, she starts working. If she has just
been away for a meeting or a copy job, she resumes her work. Upon the first transition
from undefined to working, the occupOffPlace message is sent to the respective object in
the functional unit domain such that the occupancy of the person is noted (the message
parameter is true).
Whenever the simulation control environment triggers a new action, the request for
this action is propagated to the desk work activity. If the simulatorCtrl message requests
quitting the role (because the working time might have ended), the state of the role
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changes to undefined and the functional unit is notified that the office place is no longer
occupied by the secretary.
The hierarchical decomposition that we have illustrated above can be used at as many
levels as seem to be suitable, and therefore allows us to handle very complex systems. At
the bottom of this composition hierarchy, simple objects (or activities) reside that are
solely specified by states and state transitions with the appropriate actions (the
UKLSecretaryRoleCtrl has been an example for that).
The secretary MTC can easily be reused for creating models for other roles like a
manager role. Such a role could make use of the same or other elements as needed. To
support such kinds of reuse, we maintain an MTC library, which is extended with every
new project. Besides these abstract behavior descriptions, the library also contains the
refinements of these descriptions in the form of PROBAnD models to speed up the
simulator generation process.
7 CONCLUSION AND PERSPECTIVES
This paper has shown the feasibility of efficiently creating customized building
simulators for various application domains. The examples that were presented as a
motivation for creating such simulators might seem obvious. Nevertheless, we hope that
once architects realize the potential of such a custom-specific tool generation, they will
come up with more interesting concepts for performing experiments and evaluations of
buildings before these are erected.
We believe that this area of building simulation is a very promising field for both
building and software architects to work together productively. Our vision is that
architects will be able to create the abstract behavioral and structural models (i.e., the
project level models) from which the software architects (software engineers) can take
over and refine these models into running simulators. We hope that the small examples of
our Message/Transition Chart notation has supported the visual appeal and ease of
understanding of modeling at this level and will provide a basis for further discussion in
the field of modeling user activities and processes.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Building commissioning is an important new area of practice and research in the industry.
It has emerged, during the last 25 years, as the central phase of building delivery that is
responsible for verifying design intent. Currently, it is rapidly becoming the performance
verification tool in HVAC design and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) certification in the USA.
Building commissioning is a multi-phase process that ensures the interacting systems
in a building are properly installed and operating. In the early phases of facility design,
commissioning is concerned with whether the program and the design are delivering the
owners desired functionality. During the construction process, commissioning is
concerned with ensuring that the performance of the selected building equipment agrees
with the design specifications and delivers the intended fimctionality. The process of
building commissioning tends to generate large amounts of data, much of which needs to
be shared across other facility delivery phases.
We view commissioning as a building delivery embedded process that persistently
verifies and validates design intent throughout the building lifecycle. The Embedded
Commissioning Model (ECM), which is described in this paper, combines the processes
of commissioning and building life-cycle in order to provide a framework for managing
the information exchange between them. Here, the role of commissioning is to
complement each of the lifecycle phases and their interactions through timely building
system evaluation.
The primary objective of our study is to investigate the computability of Embedded
Commissioning (EC) for HVAC systems. Our approach focuses on exploring the
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2.2 Deflnition
ASHRAE defines commissioning as the process of ensuring that systems are designed,
installed, functionally tested and capable of being operated and maintained to perform in
conformity with the design intent (Guideline 11996). Commissioning is a systematic
approach. It starts with the programming phase and ends when the building is turned over
to the owner. Most commissioning companies also provide a one or two year guarantee
phase after the building is occupied. During the commissioning period the aim is to
ensure and verify, with documentation, that all building systems perform in the way that
they were intended and the operating and maintenance staff is trained according to the
owners operational needs.
Commissioning is occasionally confused with the testing, adjusting and balancing
(TAB) process or the punch list inspection process. The latter is a physical examination
done before a building is turned over to its owner. It is a one day process at the end of
which a list of missing elements are identified such as door stops are missing or vinyl
base needed in the emergency exit stairway. TAB is a more complex process than punch
list inspections. It measures air and water flows in buildings HVAC systems. Punch list
inspections and TAB process mainly focus on items that are important to get regulatory
occupancy permits and opening the building.
Commissioning covers a much broader scope of work than these inspections. It
necessitates functional testing to determine how well building systems perform together
and verifies the results of TAB reports. Applying fimctional tests to individual equipment
and whole building systems also help determine whether the tested item meets
operational goals or if it needs modification to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.
This standard definition of commissioning refers to a process which starts at the
buildings design phase and ends when the building is turned over to the owner. However
existing practice of building construction does not require building owners to hire a
commissioning professional at the beginning of the project. The commissioning
processes can be adapted to any phase during the lifecycle of a building.
3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The conventional building delivery process begins with the recognition of the need for
physical intervention and concludes by the eventual decommissioning of a building
having gone through a set of predefined stages (Davis et al. 1974). We use the term
building lifecycle as a reference to an expanded and improved version of such
conventional delivery models.
In the building lifecycle approach, buildings are considered to have cradle-to-grave
life spans. They are modeled through a variety of different developmental phases, rather
than a set, lockstep procedure. These phases include: requirement specification, design
specification, facility construction, facility (de)commissioning, facility (re-)occupancy,
facility management, and materials recycling. They can take place, iteratively, in smaller
or larger process cycles, at anytime during a building projects lifetime.
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For instance, architects and their consulting engineers occasionally specify building
designs only partially. They, intentionally, rely on the general contractors and their subs
to provide the fabrication details for individual structural components or mechanical
equipment. These are called shop drawings.
Furniture manufacturers and cabinet makers, often wait to obtain as-built drawings
and dimensions before they design and fabricate furaishings. Similarly acoustic engineers
rely on measurements and readings taken at the site. They also use mockups before
finalizing their designs. It is not uncommon that paints and other finishes, even major
cladding elements like brick and stone, are evaluated through samples installed at the site
before final approvals are given.
Even when such sampling and measurements are made, it is not unusual to end up
with insufficient data about existing conditions. Soil samples, for example, may not tell
the entire story about what can be uncovered at the site once excavation takes place. At
the time of demolition, existing structures on a site usually reveal more than just a few
surprises.
The potential impact of some of these problems fit nicely into the professional knowhow of specific building trades or the practices that apply to the individual stages of the
delivery process. But others fall squarely at the boundaries of these stages or professional
domains. This is precisely the reason why explicit protocols for information exchange
between trades do exist. For example, it would be counter productive for the designers to
prepare shop drawings for the steel work. Only the steel contractors would know with
certainty how to meet the design requirements in the most economical and practical
manner. One of the formal procedures for bridging such a seam is, in fact, the shop
drawing preparation and approval process.
In practice, these procedures are imperfect. Many failures in buildings, some of which
have achieved national notoriety, have been linked to information loss that has occurred
at the shop drawing preparation and approval stage of building deliveryJohn Hancock
Tower, Boston MA; Citicorp Tower, NY, NY; Kansas City Hyatt Regency, Kansas MO
(Akin 2001).
3.2 Implications for the embedded commissioning approach
The Embedded Commissioning Model (ECM), integrating commissioning within
building lifecycle phases, is intended to address the need for continuous evaluation
during not only the design specification phase (as addressed above) but also for all of the
other phases of building lifecycle. This model is proposed as a framework to address
problems of information management, such as the ones described in the previous
sectiondecision complexity, system integration and information seams.
The primary mechanism in this model is to execute each phase with the expectation
that persistent evaluation will provide guidance for downstream decisions, based on
ongoing commissioning measurements and simulations. We expect that this will
significantly improve performance during all of the stages of the building lifecycle. For
example in design specification phase two important improvements can be affected: (1)
scoping design intentions more accurately based on greater downstream information
obtained through the embedded commissioning process; and (2) phasing the entire scope
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of design intentions into smaller installments, in order to match them against the stages of
ECM.
What we have outlined here for the design specification phase, we expect, holds for
the other phases of building lifecycle, as well. The scope of our overall research program
then is to identify process flow of embedded commissioning in building lifecycle phases
and develop a data model that represents the information in it. These are going to be a
base to build a computer assisted decision tool to enable all of the information exchange
links between building lifecycle phases and the embedded commissioning activities.
In this paper, due to space limitations, we consider a much smaller portion of this
agenda. In particular, we will describe a process model developed for commissioning
HVAC systems during the facility programming, design, construction, acceptance and
post-acceptance phases. We will then explain ECM data model that is developed to
represent the information in our EC process model. At the end we will discuss a proof of
concept application limited to the HVAC systems during the facility construction phase.
4 APPROACH
Our approach to investigate the computability of Embedded Commissioning is built on
the formal representation of its process and data models.
4.1 EC process model
In almost every commissioning related source there is a description of how building
commissioning should be done. Our aim for developing an EC flow chart was identifying
a standardized process that we can use in our research. We used ASHRAEs
commissioning description in its Guideline 11996 as our starting point. We have
conducted a detailed study of the commissioning process described in that guideline. This
revealed a well-structured methodology and yet promises to lead to a guide for people
involved in building delivery, so as to achieve efficient, effective, and high quality
HVAC systems. The ASHRAE guideline provides a model that shows commissioning
activities step by step. However this model does not present the details of the flow of EC
processes and their connec- tions to different building delivery stages.
In order to develop a comprehensive model we conducted a detailed observation of an
HVAC commissioning process of a new university dormitory at Carnegie Mellon
University, in Pittsburgh, PA. We interviewed the commissioning team in order to
primarily learn about a specific case of commissioning in detail so as to gain insights
about the mechanics of the process. Our aim in this observation was to explore the larger
context of EC and how it works in the normal. We analyzed the dormitory case so as to
illuminate commissioning as a normative process. We are particularly interested in
understanding the precise protocols and documents used in their inspections, tests and
measurements, and the role of these documents in different phases of commissioning.
In our analysis of the ASHRAE guideline and dormitory commissioning, we described
the EC process as an inclusive process flow illustrating every task, document and
decision culled from all phases of commissioning (Akin et al. 2003). The flow chart is
organized in the form of a design-bid-construct process which has five main phases:
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program phase, design phase, construction phase, acceptance phase and postacceptance
phase. All HVAC commissioning procedures are explained in relation to these building
stages. Figure 2 is an example from our flowchart that shows the programming and
design phases.
In our study, this detailed process model was important for three reasons. First, it
showed us how people interact with each other during the commissioning process.
Second, we could track how and what kind of documents are produced in this process and
how they evolve throughout the flowchart Third, it helped us to recognize the type of data
used in EC, which needs to be identified and modeled.
4.2 EC data model
After completing the EC process model we started to model EC data. Data modeling for
Embedded Commissioning has three steps. The first step is about identifying building
commissioning data. In this phase, we looked at commissioning related information
produced by different sources such as commissioning companies and organizations that
publish commissioning guidelines or regulations. We compared these different groups of
data through comparative analysis tables (CAT) and prepared a normalized data set. In
the second step we defined the structure of the data model that represents our normalized
data set consistent with the needs of the EC process we defined in our EC process model.
The third step of modeling EC data involves testing the developed model with existing
building product models. We tested IFCs in order to determine their degree of support of
the commissioning process and the possibility of data exchange in this context.
4.2.1 Identifying commissioning data
While modeling the embedded commissioning process we have identified a group of
commissioning data. In order to develop a normalized and consistent data set, we
compared the data we have with other commissioning data produced by other sources. In
our initial comparisons, we saw that commissioning data shows variations according to
the source type. For accurate comparisons we identified four groups of commissioning
sources: (i) data sheets of practicing commissioning agents; (ii) commissioning
guidelines coming from organizations such as the American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), National Institute of
Standards andTesting (NIST); (iii) equipment specifications of HVAC manufacturers
such as Trane and Carrier; and (iv) the products of other research groups.
Data coming from different sources are compiled into Comparative Analysis Tables
(CAT). The comparison analysis tables are laid out according to various pieces of HVAC
equipment, and each corresponding attribute is listed across the table to identify possible
matches or similarities in that specific components unique properties. By identifying
prevalent attributes relevant to certain equipment, we were able to compile generalized
properties of those components with the intention of using them to define the parameters
of the models in our research.
In CAT a column contains data coming from a specific source and same attributes are
placed in same rows. For example in Table 1 Fan Capacity, Air-flow (cfm) and Fan
CFM (total/return/outside/discharge); coming from Source 1, Source 2, and Source 3
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respectively; refer to the same attribute of HVAC equipment, fan. So they are all placed
in the same row. However Fan noise class property from Source 1 does not have any
match from Source 2 or Source 3. Respective cells left empty in those rows.
We selected three types of HVAC equipment according to the complexity of their
attribute types. These types of equipment are the air filter, fan and Air Handling Unit
(AHU). An air filter is a simple, single piece of equipment. It does not have too many
variations and has a constant set of attributes for all air filter types. In comparison to the
air filter, the fan is a more complex piece of equipment. According to its functionality,
there may be hundreds of different varieties and fan attributes which change with respect
to these variations. An AHU is the most complex piece of equipment that we have
modeled, since it consist of other pieces of equipment, such as coils, air filters, control
sensors, supply and exhaust fans. Different combinations of these pieces of equipment
can potentially create thousands of distinct AHU assemblies. Usually, the exact attributes
of an AHU depends on the equipment types from which it is made. We developed CATs
for all three equipment types. The table produced for air filter was simple and it showed
us that this comparison method is suitable for our work. The challenge in preparing a
CAT of fans was to group fan types into reasonable categories that can be represented in
our data model. For AHU it was not possible to put all information into one table. Instead
we identified components of a medium AHU and compiled CATS for all of them. We
identified nine components: air filters, fans, coils, sensors, humidifiers, ducts, dampers,
pumps, VAV boxes, economizers.
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The challenge in describing commissioning data, in this fashion is to limit the number
of sources to seminal ones. Every new source may bring a new attribute that has not been
captured in the previous sources. This may be due to the type of source, type of
commissioning practice or the type of building that has been commissioned. Our aim in
identifying the commissioning data is to collect a reasonable number of attributes that
refer to a comprehensive commissioning process. When we reach this point, new data
additions will remain marginal. For air filters and fans we collected an adequate amount
data.
4.2.2 Structure of data model
We have developed our EC data model simultaneously with EC data identification. This
was advantageous for us since it allowed refining the data model as EC data were
updated.
EC data modeling starts with understanding how the EC process works. For this, we
relied on the model that we created previously. Our building commissioning data model
is based on the assumption that there are three events in the building commissioning
process that
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The success (or failure) of any construction project is inextricably linked to the quality,
accuracy and timely delivery of design and production information. For large fast track
schemes, the management and coordination of this information amongst the project team
is particularly problematic, because information is required more rapidly than on
traditional projects. Fast track processes are designed to reduce project duration by
overlapping project phases and performing them in parallel as much as possible. Large
reductions in project durations have been achieved by applying fast track processes.
However, many organizations are having difficulty to successfully implement fast track
processes and realizing their benefits. (Ford, D.N., 2000).
Two of the principal explanations for failures to implement fast track processes are:
(1) the failure to match the organizations people, controls, tools, work into smaller
pieces. Fast track processes increase process and management complexity Process design
359
and management policies failed to address processes and structure with its need for
efficiency, focus, incremental change, radical innovation and proficiency, and (2) the
effects of disaggregating the increased complexity inherent in fast track processes and
this has been a reason for failure to realize the potential to reduce project durations (Ford,
D.N., 2000).
The aim of this paper is to outline an organizational system that would align the
structure, process, controls and people with the need for efficiency, productivity,
flexibility, innovation, proficiency and adaptability A new organization structure which
aligns the dependent variables crucial to project success on fast track schemes is
proposed (termed the Technical Office) which demonstrably leads to improved outturn
performance on these types of projects. The paper deconstructs the various facets of
effective organizational structures and outlines the benefits of the TO in addressing each
area. This is put into context through a case study project which demonstrably shows the
benefits that the TO can bring.
2 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Baccarini (1996) states that organizational complexity may be defined by differentiation
and interdependency. Organizational structures are more complex when the
differentiation of the parts is greater. Differentiation has two dimensions: vertical and
horizontal. Vertical differentiation refers to the number of levels in the organization,
where more levels indicate more complexity. Horizontal differentiation has two parts:
organizational units such as departments or groups, and task structure, which refers to the
division of tasks. The second attribute of organizational complexity in projects is the
degree of operational interdependencies and interaction between the organizational
elements. The construction industry has displayed difficulty in coping with the increasing
complexity of construction projects. Complex prqjects demand an exceptional level of
management, where conventional systems developed for ordinary projects have been
found inappropriate. Complex projects require that differentiation and interdependencies
are managed by integration (i.e. coordination, communication and control). This is
particularly true of construction prqjects, which are typified by strongly differentiated but
largely interdependent parts (Baccarini, 1996).
It may be the mindset of the construction industry that complex projects require
complex organizations, but this is far from certain. To answer the question of which
structure suits large and complex projects it is best to start with a basic management
model. An accepted model shows five main phases in the management cycle: planning,
preparation, execution, reporting and control. The first two phases logically fit together,
and they provide the requirements for the execution phase. The last two phases of
reporting and control also fit together. Those planning and preparing are best suited to
report and control the execution phase. With this in mind, the structure may be divided in
two main parts. Figure 1 shows the main structure, which is the basis for the development
of the Technical Office (TO) concept.
The concept is to have all tasks for each phase in the project, and resources required to
perform them, within each part of the structure. The execution phase would be performed
by the site management team. The planning and preparation phase would be performed
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by the TO While execution is under way the actual versus planned is continuously
monitored by the TO for reporting to the Project Manager and for control of activities.
Administration provides overall
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Additionally, construction projects are highly volatile. That is, the tasks required to be
performed in a given project are variable and low in analyzability. The tasks are largely
non-routine, and the task process does not consistently remain the same over time (Shih
and Tseng, 1996; Pena-Mora and Li, 2001). In this setting, the organization structure
needs to be flatter and more decentralized than traditional structures. The flatter structure
permits greater information processing among all members. In the face of task
uncertainty, providing relevant information enables managers to make better decisions
(Dibrell and Miller, 2002). Barber et al (1999) state that by granting more autonomy to
segments of a complex operation, better utilization of local knowledge is gained.
Additionally, quicker responses to needs and improved motivation are achieved.
The TO provides a flat and decentralized structure. The intent is to minimize the
length of both vertical and horizontal communication. Communication should be
achieved across the shortest possible route. Therefore, there are only three levels
vertically within the structure. Additionally, the length of horizontal communication is
minimized within each of the divisions and amongst them. This is particularly important
within the TO whose tasks are largely variable, non-routine and low in analyzability.
Also, communication is unhampered across the divisions as each is reliant on the other.
In effect, each division is provided its autonomy to manage itself. This would be required
to handle the largely non-routine tasks in a suitable manner. It is also necessary to allow
each division to manage the tasks within its phases.
2.2 Reduce functional barriers
The organization should not be centered around functions, but should be centered on
tasks. These tasks need to be performed in accordance with the management phases
stated previously. In order to perform tasks for construction projects, team members
should come from a variety of disciplines in order that all aspects of the project are dealt
with (Evans et al, 1994). Members totally committed to the team and have no allegiances
to functional departments help overcome many of the potential team problems (Prasad,
1995). Underlying the team is the requirement to be decentralized within the
organization structure. Decentralization means the need to empower. Empowerment is
stated as providing flexibility and tolerance of diversity from an implementation model
developed mainly for contractors. However, it gives senior management the retention of
ultimate business control. It is also shown that empowered employees are provided the
required resources and autonomy to strive for innovation and to be able to respond to
change (Holt et al, 2000).
The TO concept is centered around the tasks required to be performed during the
phases each unit is responsible for. It dissipates all functional allegiances and establishes
a multi-disciplinary team that is focused on achievement of the same objectives. In
addition, the TO organization is necessarily decentralized, and hence, the requirement for
employee empowerment to perform the tasks required in the manner best suitable for
them. That does not mean allowing loose ends as control is maintained by senior
managers. This results in a more dynamic model. This is important as there are many
changes that occur during a construction project. These changes come for a variety of
reasons and from a variety of sources, internal or external to the organization. Some of
these changes may be anticipated. That is, as an inevitable consequence of the
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construction process itself (common cause variations). Others may not be foreseen
(special cause variation) (Cox et al, 1999).
The phenomena of construction delays and overruns, a critical function in construction
projects, is expected to continue unless management actions are taken to control the
causes within the planned element of the design and construction works. Good
management practice in planning, coordination, and a change in control procedures need
to be recognized and its implications understood (Al-Momani, 2000). In fact, the project
organizations responsiveness may be inhibited by its organizational structure (Love et al,
2002). The TO is highly flexible and has the ability to respond to changes as they occur.
3 COMMUNICATION
Late project information is a primary cause of quality problems on site (Bentley, 1981).
Cornick (1990) states that two thirds of construction problems are caused by poor
coordination and inefficient means of communication of project information and data.
This results in delays and incorrect decisions being made. This communication problem
is compounded by the large volumes of information and documentation produced. Turk
et al (1994) estimate that the number of documents produced in a single building
structure may be in the order of 10,000, most of which are stored on paper. The
construction process demands proper and timely management of project information and
documentation. The improvement of the communication process in projects is essential.
The key requirement to achieve this is coordination of information exchange. Even
though the technology is available, the development of an improved communication and
data system to meet the needs of the various parties in the project has to be done first.
(Rojos and Songer, 1999).
Collaboration and coordination is required with data and information exchange
between dozens of companies. These companies work together to achieve a common
project goal, many times located in different geographical locations. The implementation
of construction projects involves thousands of activities requiring hundreds of different
resources. These activities trigger information intensive processes during the construction
phase. Additionally, construction projects are dynamic and subject to change during its
life cycle.
There are many factors affecting the implementation of a construction project. These
include technologies, inhibitors and internal or external constraints may lead to changes.
These changes must be communicated to all those concerned or affected by them in order
to enable them to make necessary modifications and changes to the project according to
the new situation. The amount of information generated during the implementation of a
construction project is immense. An efficient and effective system to manage this
information would affect the projects cost, time and quality (Soibelman and Caldas,
2000).
Information is strongly linked to activity. It enhances the ability to act, and activity
creates information. Therefore, information is a crucial element in the enhancement of
any organizational process, and timelines, accuracy relevance and quality are requisites
of information. Contingency Theory (Galbraith, 1973) states that there is no best way to
organize but different methods of organizing are not equally the effective. Different
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organization structures and networks of information flows will probably have diiferent
effectiveness and efficiencies. In order to achieve better effectiveness and efficiencies of
the process, the organizational structure and the network of information flows have to be
closely linked.
Additionally, the fragmented nature of the construction industry results in a lack of a
central project information repository and the lack of effective cross-discipline
communication within the project team. This reinforces the confrontational culture
common in construction projects (Sun et al, 2000).
Figure 2 shows a macro view of the communication process in construction. It is very
erratic and not channeled. Dawood et al (2002) proposed a framework for a central
information repository as shown in Figure 3. The Technical Office concept is in
agreement with the requirement for a central information repository. However, this
repository is best suited to be with the contractor and the modified diagram would be as
shown in Figure 4.
The TO would then be the information center for both the contractor and the parties
involved. The TO is suitable because the contractor is responsible for bringing aboard all
subcontractors, suppliers, vendors, etc. to plan, prepare, and execute the project in a
timely manner and within quality standards. This would provide the shortest
communication channel to all parties. Additionally, the contractor is responsible for
planning and preparation of all construction documents (e.g. shop drawings), which can
be completed only with the input of subcontractors, suppliers, vendors, etc. who are in
contractual agreement with the contractor. The contractor receives all information,
coordinates them and distributes the construction ready information. The TO allows for
the flexibility to organize and change based on the team within it and the requirements
expected. This flexibility to organize and change is enhanced by the fact that there is a
single information center. This information center allows for better informed managers,
which allows for better decisions being made. Additionally, the management phase cycle
concept will not allow for loss of control as the division of phases provides a push-pull
balance.
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the general contractors staff was spent for confirmation and adjustment of principal
information. This is contrary to the importance of the information!
The multi disciplinary characteristic of a construction project makes it necessary to
include representatives of domain-specific backgrounds within the team. The initial
design will be the basis for development of detailed design for each discipline. Each
discipline develops its components of the overall design. This may seem as logical and
correct. However, this only provides for local optimization (i.e. of components), but may
well be sub-optimal for the whole process. According to Galbraith (1973) this may be
interpreted as the creation of self-contained tasks and is an information reduction strategy
Interdependencies always occur among components and decisions have to be made
considering the best solution fitting all disciplines requirements (global optimization).
This process may be termed as coordination. Most of the design related problems occur
where interdependencies between components are. Therefore, to achieve an optimal
global solution, not only should information and knowledge be shared, but they should
also be managed in a manner that actively promotes integration (Nambayashi et al, 2000).
The TO, as the information center responsible for the planning and preparation phases
takes the initial documents and transforms them to production information capable of
being executed. It receives all information from all sources required to produce the
production information. The production information will consider the best solution fitting
all disciplines requirements since there are no ftmctional barriers established within the
team, and they are working to a common objective. Additionally, all interdependencies
are known and coordination will be required of all information received.
3.2 Information, uncertainty and iterations
As was alluded to above, construction projects face a high degree of task uncertainty.
Task uncertainty may be defined as the difference between the amount of information
required to perform the task and the amount of information already possessed by the
organization (Galbraith, 1973, p. 5). Therefore, task uncertainty requires information to
close the gap between information available and information required, thereby enabling
the achievement of the task. Galbraith (1973, p. 4) states, the greater the
taskuncertainty, the greater the amount of information that must be processed among
decision-makers during task execution in order to achieve a given level of performance.
Information flows are of primary importance in project planning and execution and serve
a dual purpose. First, they provide a clear picture of the ongoing project on a real-time
basis. This enables decision makers to monitor and control activities and to make
corrective actions when required to meet planned milestones, schedules and budgets.
Secondly, information flows between informatively linked activities may modify or
affect the other when information is generated from it. Untimely information flow change
requirements and resources availability, and hence affects activities completion time or
execution.
Overall project quality depends upon the possibility and capacity to implement
corrective actions in order to minimize the consequences of errors and accidents, thereby,
avoiding an unplanned iteration in the project. However, the more two activities are
informatively linked, the more an unplanned iteration of one of them affects the other,
and the overall execution of the project. The more two activities are informatively linked;
366
the more important it is to execute them concurrently. This is supported by the definition
of concurrent engineering as a methodology to schedule concurrent activities which
share common conceptual tools and information resources (Nicolleti and Nicolo, 1998).
A major reason that enterprises react slowly and inflexibly is the sequential process of
product development. Departments act rather independently, and thereby, do not know
the demands and capabilities of each other. Generally, information and communication
systems support sequential rather than concurrent workflow. They are able to handle
documents and exact information. Partial information and uncertain and incomplete
information are not supported by these systems, even if they contain important and
valuable information for succeeding activities. In the early stages of product and process
development, this type of information is typical. It contains constraints and determines
the main part of the development process. The benefit of this additional information is its
capability to reduce the number of iterations, thereby reducing the time between the
creation and use of information.
Making information available early means that costly iterations can be avoided, and
this is relevant for parallelism. In current processes the document structure restricts the
concurrent development of activities since information is collected in documents and
passed on. Recipients of the documents usually require a small fraction of the information
in a document. However, the need for small pieces of information for successive
activities is neglected. Small and flexible information units can be passed on and used
very early, which advance the feedback to assess results and to actualize knowledge bases
(Eversheim et al, 1997).
The impact of concurrence on performance is asymmetric because effects of
unplanned iteration cycles increase as projects become more concurrent. Errors generate
additional work and iteration cycles as concurrency is increased. Additionally, the
average iteration path length is increased with increased concurrence by delaying the
discovery of the need for rework to phases farther from the generating phase.
The failure to achieve the full potential of fast track processes stems from processconstrained progress magnified by concurrent development practices. Iteration cycles
increase duration even with availability of ample resources since the process is
constrained by the underlying recursive structure of information exchanges. Iteration
cycles delay projects by being more in number, longer in the distance which information
must travel, slower in traversing that distance and occurring later than possible. With
increased concurrence, development processes become more difficult to manage.
Managers generally have more influence on resources than processes, and thereby, have
few effective tools and methods to accelerate with when iteration cycles constrain
progress (Ford, D.N., 2000).
Williams et al (1995) term the iteration process in a project for design and
manufacturing of a vehicle as the vicious circle of parallelism. The design process
where the design of cross-related parts of the product occurs concurrently causes the
design activities to take longer as each part affects the other(s). This causes delay, and
with time limitations, the project becomes more concurrent as delayed activities overlap
succeeding non-delayed activities in order to attempt completion within project duration.
Even though this effect may be accounted for during planning, the process becomes nonrobust. A change in one element causes a loop to be set up where the tight time scale
causes more parallelism, which increases cross-relationship between activities, thereby
367
increasing activity durations and results in increased delay resulting in even more
parallelism. This situation is self-perpetuating. However, there are further loops that
accelerate this loop. Increased cross-relations between parallel activities implies difficulty
in freezing the system as a change in one component will aifect other components.
Without a system freeze, and within time limitations, management is forced to work on
items where the surrounding parts are yet not frozen. This has two main effects. The first
is that it demotivates the design staff who work with unclear parameters and know that
their work may be done in vain. The second and more important is that the design of such
components may have to be reworked if any changes are made to any of its cross-related
components.
The TO, as the information center of the project, has several advantages regarding the
information flow and achieving concurrency. Firstly, the TO has the responsibility to get
the information and transform that into production information in a timely manner and in
the required quality. Therefore, the TO would know the information needs to complete its
tasks and the information dependencies between tasks. The TO would strive to get the
information required in a timely manner as they have prepared the planning and know the
needs. In addition, it would know what information can be delayed and when it is
required to execute the plan. Also, all information required for the completion of
dependent tasks would be known. This would provide the ability to achieve a higher
degree of concurrency as all required versus available information is known, as well as
the time frame they are required in. Secondly, the iterations of information across phases
is minimized. The TO, as the information center and the unit that plans and prepares all
production information, provides for all iterations of production information within a
single multi-disciplinary team setting. This would provide for better manageability of
these iterations and distribution of production information, which would minimize
rework considerably. Thirdly, the TO is able to issue smaller units of information
required for the execution phase. The TO would not necessarily wait for all information
required to complete all systems when only a fraction of the information is required for
execution.
4 CASE STUDY PROJECT
The case study project was the Industrial City-part B, which was a $15,000,000 project in
the U.A.E. The project was one of five simultaneous projects awarded to a variety of
contractors. The largest contract was the case study project. This was a good opportunity
to compare performance against other contractors in a project of similar nature. The TO
was organized in the manner shown in Figure 1. The structure was based on the
management cycle model. The fiinctions were dissipated and concentration was on tasks
to be performed within the respective phases. It acted as the information and production
center for all parties involved in the project. The TO was responsible to get all
information required from all parties including consultant, subcontractors, etc. to ensure
that all production information required for a given task is made available in a timely
manner. The information is then coordinated between informatively linked tasks in order
to ensure that there are no discrepancies. At times the site team would require specific
information related to complete systems. An example is the electromechanical openings
368
in the structure. The TO would provide this information to the site team, even though not
all information for the complete systems was available. The importance was to minimize
any uncertainties within the information given in order to avoid rework. The TO achieved
this objective.
The TO performed effectively in the planning and preparation phases in the project.
This resulted in full knowledge of what information was available, what was still required
and when, what information was required for informatively linked tasks and ensuring that
they were coordinated to achieve optimal production information. The TO was also able
to minimize the iterations of information in two ways. Firstly, any information missing
was sought from the parties providing it. If the site team required partial information, it
was provided to them, but complete systems were delayed until all information was
provided, at least to a certain degree of certainty, but as not to allow any delays to the
project. In essence, a system freeze was only made after information was gathered and
coordinated, but before the planned date. Secondly, the informatively linked tasks were
clear within the planning and preparation. Additionally, the multi-disciplinary team made
all information required and all links known. The tasks would be completed only after
getting all the information and coordinating them. This was instrumental in reducing
iterations of information and achieving a higher level of concurrency. The TO was
demonstrably flexible and adapted well to changes occurring. If a change was made, the
TO would immediately set out to clarify what information was required versus what was
available. Again, any missing information was sought after and all effects of the change
were coordinated with all other tasks and any changes were made in new production
information, which would subsequently be distributed to those concerned. The effects of
the change would be included in the planning as well.
From the above it was found that the TO performed well in terms of time, cost and
quality, even when compared to the other contractors in the project The TO was able to
save time by minimizing the iterations of information and providing coordinated
production information. Rework was minimized and cost overruns were largely nonexistent. Quality was just a result. The staff were largely content with the system. They
were quite motivated by seeing the outcome of their work. They were also happy that
they worked in a decentralized environment in which they were providing suggestions
and making decisions within the tasks they were working in. They brought attention to
many problems that could have been overlooked. The multi-disciplinary team setting in
the TO, with no functional allegiances, made them work together to perform their tasks,
resulting in large amounts of information within the team and a great learning process at
the same time.
5 CONCLUSION
The TO concept provides a simple organization setting for complex fast track projects.
The concept is based on the phases of the management cycle. This allows for an organic
type structure, which would enhance the productivity and performance of construction
projects. It also provides for a multi-disciplinary team who share a common objective.
The communication is also enhanced by controlling the information coming in and out. It
also manages the iterations of information, which is a problem in large fast track projects,
369
depriving the use of concurrent engineering at a higher degree. With all of the above
many of the problems faced in construction projects may be minimized or alleviated.
6 FURTHER RESEARCH
The TO concept was created based on the pilot case study performed. Research is still
ongoing to develop the TO concept further. It is then to be tested in a fast track project.
The results will be compared to baseline performance measures to be devised. The parties
in the project will also be interviewed across the life cycle of the project for their input.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The precast industry is a major supplier of offsiteprefabricated components to the
construction industry. The construction of a building can be regarded as an assembly of
hundreds of different designs and delivery dates of bespoke precast concrete
components. This demand creates the difficulty in the bespoke precast production.
Bespoke precast production system is in make-to-order or engineer-to-order style
(Ballard et al., 2002). Bespoke precast production has a major distinction from ordinary
mass production that every time the process is start from new product design. The
complexity of bespoke precast production is based on this ground. Since the production is
less uniformity, the learning curve is hard to establish and the automation is hardly
372
implemented to assist the process. The optimum resources utilizations are serious issues
of precast manufacturers.
Therefore, the production planning requires sophisticated managerial tasks and
becomes a key of the success of the delivery program, customer leadtime
competitiveness, and the effective utilization of purposed-built precast mould (Benjaoran
and Dawood, 2003).
The aim of this research is to develop a new (semiautomatic) planning system to
manage bespoke precast production called the Artificial Intelligence Planner (AIP). The
AIP system and its components operations are separately described in different sections
of this paper. The paper is mainly focused on the formulations of process and product
models, which are applied to the bespoke precast production.
2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PLANNER (AIP)APPROACH
AIPs transactions start from gathering input data to finally arranging a production
schedule. The system adopted artificial intelligence technologies: neural network (NN)
and genetic algorithm (GA) to assist the difficulty of the production process.
Figure 1 shows primary input data of the bespoke precast production process come
from the external sources (project designers and contractors of construction projects).
These are project drawings, product specifications, and construction schedule. The
precast product design and delivery schedule are created to conform to both external
input data.
373
374
375
Number of curves is the counting number of curve surfaces along a products shape; for
example, a curve surface of a window, or a curve surface of a balcony
Number of embedded parts is counted from all embedded parts, which are not
reinforcement, such as lifting-point and duct blockouts.
Concrete strength, and slump of the used concrete are determined.
Reinforcement weight, and number of different bar shapes are determined from the bar
list table provided on a product design drawing.
The other four factors come from manpower are the number of workers assigned to the
four routines for manufacturing that product. The manpower information can be obtained
from factory daily-reports (manufacturing booking sheets). Sample data-sets of 50
different precast products were collected from a leading bespoke precast manufacturer in
the UK and used for designing architecture and evaluating performance of the models.
3.1.2 Neural network based model (BPPE-NN)
The common practice of designing NNs architecture is through trial-and-error. The first
step is to develop the NN with a common architecture and rule-of-thumb settings, then
evaluate the NNs performance, and adjust the parameters to improve the NNs
performance. Finally, the multi layer perceptrons (MLP) with feed forward and backpropagation train is selected as the BPPE-NN architecture. The BPPE-NN has fiill
connection of three layers. The transfer function of processing elements (PEs) is the
hyperbolic tangent (tanh). The hidden layer with the optimum number of hidden PEs is 8.
The input layer has 20 PEs for all of the influential factors, and the output layer has 1 PE
for each estimated value. The model is divided into four networks for four estimated
outputs. The final networks of BPPE-NN use the momentum learning rule method with
the momentum rate=0.7, the step size of output layer=0.2, and the step size of hidden
layer=0.5.
3.1.3 Multiple regression based model (BPPE-MR)
Bespoke precast productivity is also modeled using the multiple regression (MR)
technique. The relationships between each productivity value and all influential factors
are described by Equation (1) below:
(i)
where y is an estimated output variable; xt=a variable of an influential factor i; Ai=a linear
coefficient; A0=a constant or an intercept; and n is the total number of influential factors.
3.2 Models performances
The estimation performances of both models are measured with three statistical values,
namely absolute percentage error (APE), mean square error (MSE), and correlation
coefficient (r). The results from the model evaluation are concluded that both BPPE-NN
and BPPE-MR are comparable. They can be implemented together as BPPE-NN will
376
give more often precise estimated values while BPPE-MR will help cross examine or
verify the results and to alert the fault extrapolation from BPPE-NN. However, the
reliability of both models much depends on the exhaustiveness of influential factors, and
an amount and the representativeness of historical data.
In a long-term implementation, the BPPE-NN is based on a large amount of historical
data. Its estimation performance is anticipated to be better and better because its ability to
be generalized to match future cases. Also, the BPPE-NN supports the automation in the
estimation process and integrates data to product design process. Precast manufacturers
potentially benefit from the model through the more accurate but less effortfiil
estimation.
4 PRODUCTION SCHEDULING WITH PS
The production planning is very complicated and has a high impact on time and cost of
the production program; however, the current practice of production planning is much
simplified by applying the earliest due-date sequencing rule. Precast concrete
manufacturing consists of many repetitive routines and each product is independent with
no obvious logical precedence required. Pioneering researchers (Chan and Hu, 2002; Leu
and Hwang, 2001) have proposed new scheduling methods for precast manufacturing.
They applied the flowshop scheduling modeV on general precast manufacturing
processes and used the GA approach for the optimization.
This study has further developed the flowshop scheduling model particularly for
bespoke precast manufacturing named as BP-FSSM. It aims to improve the production
planning technique using the flowshop scheduling and GA based optimization
approaches. BP-FSSM has included moulds reuse consideration since types and available
numbers of moulds have impacts to the production cost and time. The moulds are costly
and purpose-built in a limited number. The PS system is connected with PTE and Central
Database. PS is illustrated with a flowchart in Figure 3.
The operations of PS start from details of new jobs (products) fed into the scheduling
model. BP-FSSM has been formulated according to the current implemented method of
crew organization. GA randomly arranges job sequences and then evaluates them with
the multi-objective function in order to reach the optimum. This procedure is repeated
numerous times until GA programming loop is terminated. The final job sequences are
the best findings and they are then allocated into a factorys timetable with regard to the
existing workload. The outputs of PS are efficient production schedules and a decision
support for utilizing factorys resources such as moulds and manpower.
Precast designers intend to make all products as identical as possible to reduce the
product design effort and to economize the cost of moulds. Purposebuilt moulds made of
timber are designed and prefabricated to be able to cast slightly different designed
products. Different and identical designed products, which can be cast with the same
mould type, are grouped as a same product family($). The moulds can be reused but these
jobs cannot be cast in the adjacent sequence instead they need to wait until their family
moulds are available (see Equation (2)). Planners have to decide the number of each
mould type (X$) and trade-off between time and cost by arranging a good schedule that
effectively and efficiently utilizes this constrained resource.
377
Also, bespoke precast products are specified with delivery dates, which usually
correspond to the construction progress on sites. Therefore, bespoke precast products
even of the same project may have different delivery dates. Product delivery dates are
treated as due dates (dj). It is important that the production schedule must be attempted
to satisfy all product delivery dates.
Manufacturing process of a bespoke precast product consists of many routine tasks
some of which are directive and the others are supportive. The directive routines are
the focus of the production planning
378
cannot be finished within the working-time, a limited overtime (HE), which is counted
after the working-time, will be allowed; otherwise, the whole routine is postponed to the
next working day (see Equation (5)). For M4, the no-wait condition is applied to since the
routine must start immediately after M3 is finished. In addition, M4 can continue during
the non-working time without any workers attending so that the overtime is not required
on this routine. Another special condition for M4 is it has a capacity to process more than
one job at a time (see Equation (6)).
The industry survey reports that manufacturing workers are divided into three crews.
One crew is assigned to perform Modifying (M1). The workers in this crew called
Joiners who have high carpentering skills. The second crew performs most of the
routines, which are M2, M3, and M5, and the last crew performs M6. The three crews are
working together to complete each product (or job). This crew organization method
becomes the fundamental assumption for the flowshop scheduling formulation. The
work-sequencing logics of the crews (therefore, the machines) are quite complicated
and different from the basic assumption applied on the general flowshop scheduling
model
The first and the last crews use the same completion time equation as defined in
Equation (3). The second crew behaves differently because anytime it has more
alternatives to begin its consecutive task. After finish a task, its consecutive task can be
M2, M3, or M5 of the previous in-progress product, or continuing the next routine on the
current product (see Equations (2), (4) and (5)). More work sequencing logics are applied
on this second crew of how it selects its consecutive task wisely. All characteristics of
BP-FSSMs routines are exhibited through their completion time, which are formulated
in the following Equations (2)(6).
BP-FSSM includes the mould reuse consideration. The machine that starts occupying
a mould is Modifying (Mj); and the machine that releases the mould when it finishes is
the Demoulding (M5). Any job Jj on M1 needs to wait for an available mould particularly
of its mould type ($). The start time of M1 of any Jj (C(Jj S, M0)) is expressed in
Equation (2).
379
(2)
where Jj,$=a job at the sequence j that uses mould family $;j=1, 2, 3,, n; Mk=a machine
number k; C(Jj, M0)=the completion time of job j on the machine 0 (therefore, it is the
start time of the machine 1); C(Jj, M5)=the completion time of job j on the machine 5;
{}= the
minimum value of {}; Ay=for every y, where 1y<j; Jy,$=a job at
the sequence y that uses the same mould family $ as Jj,$ does; the number of mould type
$=X$.
An example scenario shown in Figure 4 illustrates that job-ID 1 and 2 have slightly
different designs so they can be assigned to use and share mould A; job-ID 3 and 4 use
mould B; job-ID 5 uses mould C. While the factory has prepared one of mould A,
two of mould B, and one of mould C (XA, XB, XC=1, 2, 1, respectively). The planners
have arranged a production sequence as job-ID 1, 3, 4, 2, and 5. From the Gantt chart,
job-ID 2, which now is produced in the fourth sequence (J4), needs to wait until mould
A is released from job-ID 1 since there is only one mould A available. Job-ID 3 and
job-ID 4 can be cast in an adjacent sequence without waiting for mould availability
because there are two of mould Bs; Job-ID 5 has its own mould C so that it can be
cast whenever Mj is ready. The Gantt chart also shows the idle time of Mj caused by jobID 2 waiting; and the completion time ofjob-ID 2 (C(J4, M6)) conforming to the above
Equation (2).
For pre-emptive routines, they are performed within the working-time. If they are not
completed at the end of the day, they can be paused and continued on the next working
day. The completion time of pre-emptive M1 and M6, which are executed by the first and
the third crew, respectively, on the twenty-four hour scale is expressed in Equation (3).
(3)
where C(Jj, Mk)=the completion time of job j on machine k; Jj=ajob at the sequencey
j;j=1, 2, 3,, n; Mk=a machine number k; k=1, 6; T=Max {C(Jjl, Mk), C(Jj,
Mk1)}+Pjk; Pjk=the processing time of job j on machine k; 0PjkHw; D =
integer(T/24); Hw=working hours per one working day; HN=non-working hours per one
working day; HN=24-HW.
Note: In case of M1, C(Jj, M0) was defined in Equation (2).
The completion time of pre-emptive routines M2 and M5, which are executed by the
second crew, on the twenty-four hour scale is expressed in Equation (4) below.
(4)
380
where C(Jj, Mk)=the completion time of job j on machine k; Jj=a job at the sequence j; j
= 1, 2, 3,, n; Mk=a machine number k; k=2, 5; T#=PrecTime (D)+Pjk; Pjk=the
processing time of job j on machine k; 0PjkHw;D=integer (C(Jj, Mk1)/24);
PrecTime(D)=Max-of-Day(D) {C(Jj,1, M2), C(Jj1, M3), C(Jj1, M5), C(Jj, Mk1)};
PrecTime (D+1)=Max-of-Day(D+1) {C(Jj1 M2), C(Jj1, M3), C(Jj1, M5), C(Jj, Mk1)};
C(J0, Mk)=0.
Note: Equation (4) is different from (3) that it uses Max-of-Day(D) and &=2, 5.
For example of how the second crew decide to move to the consecutive task, or the
application of Equation (4). To determine C(J3, M2), let C(J2, M2)=28; C(J2, M3)=30;
C(J2, M5)=50; C(J3, M1)=27; P32=1.5. Therefore, D=integer(27/24)=1; Prec
Time(1)=Max-of-Day(1) {28, 30, 50, 27}=C(J2, M3)=30. The reason is that although C(J2,
M5)=50 is the maximum time among the choices, it is on the next day whilst the others
are on the same day (D=1). As a result, C(J3, M2)=C(J2, M3)+ P32=30+1.5=31.5.
For non-pre-emptive routine M3, it must be finished within one working day. If it
cannot be finished within the working-time, a limited overtime (HE), which is counted
after the working-time, will be allowed. Otherwise, the whole routine is postponed to the
next working day. The completion time of M3 on the twenty-four hour scale is expressed
in Equation (5).
(5)
where C(Jp Mk)=the completion time of job j on machine Jc, Jj is ajob at the sequence j;
j=1, 2, 3,, n; Mk=amachine number k; k=3; T#=PrecTime(D)+ Pjk; Pjk is the
processing time of job j on machine k; 0PjkHW+HE; D=integer (C(Jj, Mk1)/24);
PrecTime(D)=Max-of-Day(D){C(Jj1, M2), C(Jj1, M3), C(Jj1, M5), C(Jj, Mk1)};
PrecTime (D+1) = Max-of-Day(D+1) {C(Jj1, M2), C(Jj1, M3), C(Jj1, M5), C(Jj, Mk1)};
and C(J0, Mk)=0.HE=overtime hours allowed per one working day.
For non-pre-emptive routine M4, it will start immediately after M3 is finished.
Moreover, it can continue during the non-working time without workers attending so that
the overtime is not applied on this routine. Another special condition for M4 is it has a
capacity to process more than one job at a time. The completion time of M4 on the
twenty-four hour scale is expressed in Equation (6) as follows:
(6)
381
(8)
(9)
382
383
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The construction of timber frame houses has a long tradition in Sweden. The great
majority of detached houses has timber frames and is manufactured in permanent
factories by small and medium-sized enterprises (approximately 74% between 1990
2002). By comparison, about 69% (down from 90% 20 years ago) of all housing starts in
the US are stick built on site. The experiences from the detached house market, having
had an open competition for a long time, indicate that an industrialized and processoriented production approach could have a potential also for the whole housing industry.
This is supported by an extensive evaluation of the Swedish construction industry (SOU
2002), indicating that it is possible to reduce production costs in housing construction
through industrialisation, customer orientation, and a more efficient construction process.
Logistics and supply chain management (SCM) are demonstrated as disciplines with the
potential to increase efficiency in the construction process (Agapiou et al 1998; Naim and
Process an information
385
Barlow 2003). In the large enterprise manufacturing industry, the supply chain concept
has been one model for improvements in efficiency. Holistic production philosophies
such as lean production, and comprehensive planning methods such as enterprise
resource planning (ERP), which are supported by information technology (IT) based
software systems, are used to manage parts of or the entire supply chain (Crowley 1998,
Tarn et al 2002, Al Mashari et al 2003). The possibility of cross industry learning from
the manufacturing to the housing industry is analysed in (Gann, 1996). The potential for
improvements in the housing industry as well as the use of concepts such as SCM, lean
production using IT supported ERP, applied to small and medium-sized enterprises
(SME) have been pointed out by Stehn and Bergstrom (2002) and Bergstrom and Stehn
(in press). This paper describes a case study on how mass customisation of prefabricated
timber houses might be accomplished using an integrated information management
system in the design, manufacturing and sales process of tenant owned apartments and
how the manufacturing process can be adapted. It also investigates the needs of, and
relations between, the different stakeholders in the process, e.g. between a manufacturer,
a real state trustee and the finally holder of the tenant-ownership.
2 THE CURRENT BUILDING PROCESS
The investigated SME company (Olofsson et al 2004, Cassel-Engqvist, in press) is a
producer of timber frame multi-storey houses in Sweden. Fifty percent of the production
is based on skeleton contracts with real estate trustees. This has been a deliberately
strategy taken by the SME to achieve a solid economical base. The skeleton contract with
the real estate trustee investigated is based on a few typical house layouts. The
simplified tendering process only includes adaptation of the house layouts to the
project in question (only minor changes of the principle design are allowed to keep a high
production-cost efficiency), negotiation of price and date of delivery and setting up a list
of options for the prospective holder of the tenant-ownership. This type of market
segmentation, i.e., a predefined principle design targeted to a specific customer group in
terms of flat layout etc. and specific or typical features are offered to the customers by
options (extras), e.g., equipment, flooring and finishing etc. is reported in Stehn and
Jonsson (1999).
386
Process an information
387
388
Process an information
389
Figure 3.
390
Since the case company had already decided to investigate in a MRP system (req. #5),
the suggested solution was to complement the MRP system with a PDM system that
would fulfil reqs. #13. To enable
Process an information
391
The sales representative, or the prospective customer, can login and select a flat layout
and surface material, fittings etc for each type of room from a list of options. When all
the option are selected the information is transferred to the PDM system and stored in the
product structure. The room id created in the design was chosen as the common
identification. Figure 6 shows the web clients user interface.
392
Process an information
393
394
Ballard, G., Koskela L., Howell, G., Zabelle, T. 2001, Production system design in construction.
Proc 9th International Group for Lean Construction Conference, Singapore, 68 August 2001.
2337.
Bergstrom M. and Stehn L. 2004, Matching industrialised timber frame housing needs and
enterprise resource planninga change process, International journal of Production
Economics, submitted.
Blokpoel, S. 2003. Cooperation and Product Modelling Systems. Research Report 2003:17, Lulea
University of Technology.
Cassel-Engqvist, E. 2004. Kundorderstyrning i det industriella byggandetEnfallstudie av
volymbyggda trdhus, Master thesis (in Swedish), Lulea University of Technology. in press.
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industry, Computers and Structures 67:389400.
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Stanford University, Stanford.
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industrialized housing and car production in Japan. Construction Management and Economics.
14:437450.
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customization (MC). Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 129:507512.
Jongeling, R., Emborg, M., Olofsson, T. 2004, Shared product models for cast in place concrete,
ITconElectronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction, Submitted.
Naim, M., Barlow, J. 2003. An innovative supply chain strategy for customized housing,
Construction Management and Economics 21, 593602.
Jongeling, R., Olofsson, T., Emborg, M. 2004. Towards virtual prototyping of construction
innovations, Proc European Conference ofProduct and Process Modeling, ECPPM 2004, 89
September, Istanbul, Turkey. To be published.
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edition. USA: Addison-Westly Publishing Company.
Olofsson, T., Cassel, E., Stehn, L., Ruuth, S., Edgar, J-O., Lindback, S. 2004. Produktmodeller i
ettflexibelt industriellt byggande, Teknisk rapport 2004:06, Luled tekniska universitet (in
Swedish).
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constructions, ITconElectronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction.
http://www.itcon.org/2003/13. 8:167180.
SOU, 2000, Frdn byggsekt till byggsektor: Byggkostnadsdelegationens betdnkande. Statens
offentliga utredningar 2000:44, Stockholm (in Swedish).
Stehn, L. and Bergstrm, M. 2002. Integrated design and production of multi-storey timber frame
housesproduction effects caused by customer-oriented design, International Journal of
Production Economics. 77:259269.
Stehn, L. and Jonsson, J. 1999. Conceptual and customer oriented development of a multi-storey
timber frame house system. In proc. from IPCR-15, University of Limeric, Ireland, 912August
1999. 11991802.
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Publisher.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Current practices in the industry suggested that road construction is inefficient and
projects are often over budget and over time (Castro, S 2002). Also, project managers use
only on their experiences, historical and technical data and gut feeling to manage the
process. In order to have efficiency gains and construct projects on time and on budget,
more innovative tools and techniques are needed to assist managers in planning and
396
managing road construction projects. Also, there is a need for tools that will be able to
assist project managers to study and compare all possible strategies and methodologies
for the execution of the works and without comparison there is no evidence that the
planners choice corresponds to the most advantageous possibility.
To overcome that limitation and automate the road construction planning process a
computer-based system has been developed, incorporating a knowledge base and a
simulation of the principal road construction operations.
The system is designated RoadSim and the respective framework is described in this
paper. The main components of the systems are: knowledge based system that
encapsulates rules; procedures, factors and technical data; central database for storing and
retrieval project information; simulation engine and graphical user interface.
Due to the limitations on the size of the paper, only a brief description of current
construction simulation literature is given.
The ultimate purpose of all simulation systems is the determination and analysis of the
behavior of a certain construction solution or a certain construction resource involved in a
construction operation under different scenarios, measured basically by its physical
feasibility and/or productivity.
The simulation systems created by the research communitycombined with
visualizationrevealed to be very helpful in designing complex construction operations
and in making optimal decisions at the planning stage. Though the fact that there has
been limited use of simulation in planning construction operations (Kamat and Martinez,
2001) in the past, it has been also recognized that the construction industry is
progressively investing in the adoption of IT tools.
Since the development of CYCLONE by D.W.Halpin in 1977, to simulate
construction processes, a number of meaningful simulation systems have been created in
order to achieve two important goals: to verification of the feasibility of a certain
technical solution, either in terms of design and construction method or as a tool for the
automation of planning in construction processes.
Among the number of simulation systems developed by the research community for
the construction industry, deserve especial mention INSIGHT (Paulson and Koo, 1987),
MicroCYCLONE (Halpin, 1985), RESQUE (Chang, 1987), COOPS (Liu and loannou,
1992), DISCO (Huang et al, 1994), CIPROS (Odeh et al, 1992) and STROBOSCOPE
(Martinez and loannou, 1994).
AbouRizk and Mather (2000) developed a simulation system through integration with
3D CAD in which each resource is associated with its atomic model. The concept of
atomic model has been presented by Ziegler (1987), Luna (1992) and Odeh (1992) in
order to simplify simulation model building.
One of the major conclusions that the authors have reached in reviewing historical and
recent literature is that there is very little work that has been accomplished in the
simulation of road construction. No paper was found dealing with road construction as a
whole process composed by tasks defined as plan the project, execute the works and
evaluate the economic results. The difficulty faced by the researchers is probably due
to the fact that road construction has a particular culture for planning and performance
management, brought to the construction process by:
The geographical extension of the works;
397
The sensibility of the road works to the local conditions (materials to be removed, water
table, site organisation, accesses, etc.);
The sensibility of road works to the weather conditions;
The environmental impacts;
The potential conflicts with other social and economic activities.
Specificity and simplicity seem to be the key for the success of simulation in
construction. In the search of that simplicity and specificity, this paper presents a
knowledge-based simulation system developed for the modeling of road construction
operations and for the automation of the planning process in road construction projects.
The simulation system is designated RoadSim and has been created to automate the
process of: selection of resources; scheduling of the works and definition of contract
construction cost.
The next sections deal with the analysis of road constmction processes and
specification of RoadSim.
2 ANALYSIS OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
The authors of this paper have been involved in road construction for long time (in
particular Mr. Castro who is currently a production director at Mota, Lisbon) and this
section is based on the analysis of current planning practices of more than 50 road
construction projects. It can be concluded that every construction operation can be
considered as a collection of integrated activities. Table 1 shows an example of road
construction operations.
This is not just a particular case in construction industry since it is common practice in
construction modelling to break a complex system (construction operation) into
subsystems (activity) of a lesser complexity. But in road construction it is not only a
question of reducing complexity. Acting in that way we have the possibility to use the
same simple model in a certain number of operations in which the activity is included.
For example, in a cut-to-fill operation using motor scraper as a hauler it is possible to
divide and model the whole operation into two sub-systems (activities):
The loading and hauling phase with the interaction between the track-type bulldozer and
the motor scraper;
The levelling, watering and compaction phase, with the interaction of motor graders,
water-tankers and rollers.
The loading and hauling phases are exactly the same activity for other operations like
fill from borrow pit or cut to spoil (mutatis mutandis) and therefore can be used in
the modelling process of other activities (the same is valid for the levelling, watering and
compaction activity).
Using activity as a nuclear modelling element allows the possibility of analysis of
the system in great detail, especially in terms of bunching effect, as shown in Table 2.
398
Construction operation (fill from borrow pit, execution of base course, etc.)
Entity
Attributes
Resources
The example shows that the simulation can be done by tracking continually certain
variables (time elapsed, counter variables, state of the system at the time t, etc.). In our
example, and assuming that the scrapers are loaded in a first-in, first-out manner (FIFO),
the motor scrapers arrive at the loading point in accordance with a non-homogeneous
poisson process and start immediately the loading operation if the pusher is free or wait
in the queue if the pusher is busy. That is shown in the flow chart of Fig. 1. The example
also shows that if the pusher (bulldozer) has to perform random tasks (ex: dozing and
ripping every 250 m3), the consequent effect in the system can be studied (this is virtually
impossible to execute using analytical models).
Under the viewpoint of the road planner, the construction operation should be seen as
a whole process. However, it is also noted that the duration and total cost of the overall
operation is determined by one of the activities (leading activity). For example, in a cut to
fill operation, the leading activity may be the cut if the other resources working for
different activities in the operation have the capacity to haul, level, water and compact the
totality of material produced in the cut activity. But may be the hauling activity if the
haulers are not able to transport the totality of material produced by the cut activity and is
inferior to the
Bulldozer
Motor scraper
Remarks
Arrival to loading
point
Start pushing
Start loading
Finish pushing
End loading
Travel backwards
Travel loaded
Start unloading
Finish unloading
Travel unloaded
399
400
401
402
site organisation
total duration of the activity (long duration increases productivity)
duration of the cycle time (short cycle times are more susceptible of experiencing losses
in productivity)
bunching effect
random works.
403
404
6 SIMULATOR
The simulator is conceived to unambiguously describe, both spatial and temporally, a
complex road construction operation, depicting the movements, transformations and
interactions between the resources involved.
The simulator receives the information referring to a new road contract (BOQ,
technical specifications, contract agreement, working conditions, etc.) as input and then
retrieves the relevant data in the database to perform a set of programming calculations.
The simulator recognises the operations from the inputs and automatically generates all
possible options of equipment combinations for the operations. After the planner inputs
405
more details of every operation, the arithmetic module produce results of estimated
productivities and required execution durations. For every option, the simulator estimates
the respective cost of execution using the information stored in the database.
After the execution of the works on site, the planner can later introduce the actual
productivity of work done in an up dating module to enable RoadSim to check the
difference from the estimation and readjust the existing formula, if necessary.
In terms of earthworks, RoadSim allows the visualisation of how the road evolves
with time, as shown in Figure 4. This RoadSim feature uses Integration with CAD, since
it is common practice today to produce road designs using CAD. Obviously, the
visualisation refers to a pre-selected section of the road. Using this application, the
planner can select the period of time he wishes to analyse and the unit of counting (day,
week or month).
7 VALIDATION
This is a brief section about the validation of the system and more information will give
in a subsequent paper. RoadSim system has been tested in the re-planning of the highway
A25Talhadas-Vouzela section (Portugal). The A25 is a 166 km long highway
spanning from the port city of Aveiro (Portugal) to the Spanish border of Vilar Formoso.
The highway will replace the existing IP5. The section Talhadas-Vouzela has a length
of 17.1 km, a cross section of 2X2 lanes with a total with of 28 m. The works in this
section are basically the widening of the existing IP5. The main quantities of work
include 2 000 000 m3 of excavation (650000m3 in rock), 400000ton of stone base and
ISOOOOton of asphalt. The works in this section started in June 2003. Meaningful
differences in terms of geological data and hauling distances, more severe environmental
restrictions than expected and a more accurate safety assessment led to the need of a replanning process. The re-planning work was done using both the traditional method and
the RoadSim.
Simulation output from RoadSim was compared with the actual system installed in the
project (equipment combinations and performances), with the following conclusions:
The re-planning process took only 2 days, instead of the 15 days using traditional
methods;
The results from RoadSim are too close from the results obtained using traditional
methods;
RoadSim was able to give the output of all possible options, while the traditional
method only focused in the actual combination of equipment.
The tests already done indicated that the system could be used to select the resources,
schedule the works and estimate the construction cost of road contracts. However, more
tests are to be performed to evaluate the applicability of RoadSim and fiirther analysis
and refinements are needed to validate the system.
406
8 CONCLUSIONS
Current practices in the industry suggested that road construction is inefficient and
projects are often over budget and over time. Also, project managers use only on their
experiences, historical and technical data and gut feeling to manage the process. The
paper concluded that there is a need for tools that will be able to assist project managers
to study and compare all possible strategies and methodologies for the execution of the
works and without comparison there is no evidence that the planners choice corresponds
to the most advantageous possibility. The paper presented a computer-based system has
been developed, incorporating a knowledge base and a simulation of the principal road
construction operations.
The system is designated RoadSim and the respective framework is described in this
paper. The paper concluded that the model is important to road construction planning and
has the potential to save cost and improve efficiency. RoadSim will provide a platform
for road construction automation in the construction industry.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the efforts of Mr. V Benjaoran for the
development of the software.
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Law, Averill, M. and Kelton, W.D. (2000). Simulation modelling and analysis. 3rd edition,
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Ledin, Jim. (2001). Simulation Engineering. CMP books.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Connet Europe
Connet Europe consists of a set of electronic information services offered through one or
more web portals and accessed through the European Gateway. Connet Europe plays the
role of the integration point where each country site is registered with its online services
(Bloomfield et al. 2001a & 2001b).
Such integration point not only provides a visual portal environment, but also
information exchange utility where local information databases are shared for
multinational reach of knowledge.
It is also a vital role of this gateway to provide translation services to discard language
differences as an issue in knowledge sharing. The Connet Europe gateway brings
together the dispersed knowledge to better utilize information in a multinational business
environment where industry players in each participating country already carry out
projects across each other.
Each national service is not necessarily provided by one vendor; in fact may be a set
of services from varying sources, again brought together through each national gateway.
409
It is not a strict must that each country provides the same set of services and
information. As can be seen on the European Gateway; some countries provide certain
types of services whereas some provide others, seamlessly integrated to work together
efficiently.
1.2 Connet Turkey
Connet Turkey has started as a research and development project at Istanbul Technical
University Project Management Center (ITU-PMC) and is currently being
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News central,
enter for consultancy services,
Classification systems center,
Web hosting services,
Online B2B building materials market,
Banner and ad server,
Waste material and idle equipment utilization market,
Center of continuous education,
Construction management service.
Outputs of a research project carried out in Faculty of Architecture at Istanbul Technical
University (ITU) will be used in classification system and online B2B building materials
services of the Connet Turkey project. Main objectives of the Building Materials
Information System (BMIS) project were to examine Turkish market and to develop an
web-based information system in the context of building materials and components (Tas
et al. 2002).
Outputs and data structures of the BMIS project are being revised for Connet Turkey
project compatibility.
2.2 Management and information system for construction projects
This web based tool is developed for managers and project responsible. It allows multiple
construction projects to be managedbudget-wise and time-wise-through cost analysis,
project schedule, building material and work standardization. This tool is especially
helpful for universities, municipalities and other government organizations who seek to
manage their construction projects.
2.3 Technical information repository
This repository and portal gateway is planned to be the one stop access point to all
written and published work available to the construction industry and covers all
disciplines. The service allows content providers to integrate their content into the Connet
Turkey web portal.
2.4 Software and hardware inventory
This inventory module provides means of categorization and access to all available
hardware and software information technology tools and products for the benefit of the
construction industry. Designers at the site or office can gain instant access to this
module to find required hardware and software.
2.5 News central
The news central is going to be a spot where all information will be gathered from news
service providers and centrally published to subscribers. News headlines and content is
412
grouped, for convenience, into categories such as government projects, upcoming bids,
projects news, and technology news and such.
2.6 Centerfor consultancy services
This service will cover all consultancy needs, especially contract management, project
analysis, contract analysis, arbitration and general consultancy as well as research and
development support.
2.7 Classiflcation systems center
Turkish building materials industry bears a large number of suppliers, yet lack a
consistent standardization and classification. This very module is especially important for
the integration process with the EU and supply all necessary materials cataloging
requirements. Suppliers and their products will also be displayed under categories.
2.8 Web hosting services
SMEs in Turkey merely have the necessary abilities and budget to start corporate web
sites, let alone e-business sites. A web manageable hosting services is going to be
provided through a centralized data center infrastructure.
2.9 Online B2B materials market
In order to enlarge the reach of building material suppliers in global markets, as well as
the national market, an on-line trade platform is planned to be developed and operated.
2.10 Banner and ad server
The portal is going to utilize banner ads both accompanying its own income model, and
assisting subscribers and banner ad clients for better market penetration and brand
communication.
2.11 Waste material and idle equipment utilization market
Reusable second hand machinery and waste materials/ equipment is a very important
asset if utilized. Through this module, such assets will re-enter the market, thus
maximizing efficiency and decreasing certain project costs for portal subscribers.
2.12 Center of continuous education
ITU-PMC is already a well established continuous education provider in Turkey. This
module is going to allow a wide spread reach of such educative content through elearning.
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414
5 CONCLUSION
415
Turkish construction industry, unlike the structure in other Connet partnering countries
and though large and promising, is at an early stage in terms of information and
knowledge sharing and management. Thus, Connet is a well crafted opportunity for the
players especially SMEsin Turkey to obtain higher effectiveness and innovation,
standards based design and production through information-reach, collaboration, training
and consultancy.
Connet is believed to be an important tool to reach at an international business stage of
competition through collaboration.
REFERENCES & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Bloomfield, D., Amor, R., (2001a), I-SEEK: An Internet gateway to European Construction
Resources, Proceedings of the CIB W78 conference, Mpumalanga South Africa, May 30-Jun
1.
Bloomfield, D., Amor, R. and Groosman, M., (2001b), The Evolving CONNET Gateway to
European Construction resources, Proceedings of the CIB W102 conference, Melbourne,
Australia, 2627 March.
Connet project web site http://www.connet.org/ (2004).
Tas, E., Tanacan, L., Yaman, H., (2002) Design of a Building Materials Information System for
Turkey, Unpublished Research Found Project Report, Istanbul Technical University.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
416
1 INTRODUCTION
Recently, considerable research efforts have been spent on the modelling of Virtual
Organisations (VO) and the related processes, phases, topologies, and coordination/
collaboration aspects. However, the developed models have different background, take
different viewpoints, and apply different specification approaches. A common weakness
is the lack of appropriate formal methods, consistent modelling paradigms and adequate
modelling tools. Therefore, it is necessary to consolidate and synthesise the gained
insights and develop a formal methodology for harmonised process modelling. Especially
efforts for the development of domainspecific requirements and inter-enterprise process
modelling paradigms are of utmost importance.
The main objective of the research presented in this paper is the development of a
systematic approach for the specification, instantiation and management ofprocess
pattern related to the collaboration and the information exchange between the different
types of enterprises that may form a VO in the building industry.
The application of process modelling paradigms can foster efficient interorganisational business relationships and help to achieve a common understanding for
project management and information exchange. However, on each specific construction
project various aspects need to be adapted to the particular restrictions of the domain such
as: legal regulations, functional and organisational structures, and technical aspects.
418
To define these requirements for VOs in the construction sector an analysis of existing
regulations, common procedures, and research results has been conducted by the authors.
On the basis of that analysis an overall modelling framework is suggested for modelling
and instantiating collaborative processes for Virtual Organisations in the building
industry. Moreover, an extensible reference library of tasks identifying organisation and
communication requirements as well as standards and meta data types will be introduced.
The added value that can be achieved by combining organisational and technical VO
aspects will be explained. The following chapter will first of all introduce the
requirements of VOs in the building domain.
2 VIRTUAL ORGANISATIONS IN THE BUILDING INDUSTRY
Construction projects are characterised by a high complexity of problems. They usually
involve a great number of different specialists such as architects, structural engineers,
building services engineers, quantity surveyors, cost estimators, etc. Furthermore, the
different business goals and perspectives of the participating partners regularly result in
opposing project interests and conflicts in the design and construction phase. Applying
the principles of Virtual Organisations for construction projects these problems may be
reduced by establishing a common understanding for the business operation within the
consortium.
2.1 Deflnition of Virtual Organisations
A Virtual Organisation (VO) is a cooperation of legally independent enterprises, bodies
and/or individuals, which perform businesses on a common understanding (Mertens et
al., 1998). The business associates in a VO primarily participate with their core
competencies. To external partners the VO acts as a single company. According to Picot
et al. (2001) the use of modern information and communication technology enables the
creation and operation of VOs by:
penetrating regional and international borders
an improved integration of third parties communication systems
the extension of capacity limits by the incorporation of third parties
worldwide access to knowledge carrier and knowledge bases
cross-linking processes and actors
Thus, the aim of the Virtual Organisation is to gather various competencies of different
companies in order to enhance efficiency and productivity while decreasing overheads.
2.2 Virtual Organisation phases
The lifecycle of a VO can be broken down into five or six phases as indicated in Figure 1.
Due to the dynamics of a building project several of these phases may run
simultaneously. While one partner is already leaving the project, another partner is still
negotiating with the project manager. Every phase can be supported by an information
and communication system, whereas some systems might be comprehensive.
419
Participation
Single Business
Single Alliance
Mulitple Allinace
Visibility:
Single Level
Multi Level
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421
In order to quantify these risk-factors using distinct values (for workflow processes the
limitation of time is of uttermost interest) it is essential to define the influence factors and
respectively the context that controls them. Therefore, the entire project will be
decomposed into its elements and structured in a hierarchical manner. The aim is to
formulate a project workflow or schedule, in which each single work-task is determined
by a specific outcome. The work-tasks and the corresponding outcome have to be
adjusted to the boundary conditions of the project
The boundary conditions of the work-tasks can be classified in regard to various
criteria, that can again be organised according to two the main classification types
specifying the (a) Project-Type Organisation and the (b) Project Structural-Scheme.
These types in turn consist of two sub-types as indicated in Table 2.
The major difference between the Project-Type Organisation and the Project
Structural-Scheme is that the former is defined by the project manager or the building
owner in a very early state of the project. It is also influenced by legal guidelines and
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424
3. From the workflow a time-schedule can be derived by applying the project specifics
Function Orientated Project Structural-Scheme
The focus of the Function Orientated Project Structural-Scheme is on the performance of
tasks. That means that the overall project will be divided into its different activity-types.
Each activity-types will be performed by an actor of the VO.
Another option to structure a project by its function is by dividing it into its various
phases that will be performed during the project.
An example of a Function Orientated Project Structural-Scheme is given in Figure 3.
A sound example to structure a project in a functional manner is provided by the
German STLB2.
1
HOAIHonorarordnung ftir Architekten und Ingenieure, regulation to calculate the hires for
performed work of architects and engineers. The HOAI structures the construction design and
realisation process into nine phases.
2
STLB: The Standardleistungsbuch (Standard Construction Service Manual) is a general,
standardised catalogues of text modules for the specification of construction activities.
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426
The DIN 267 is used for the determination and classification of costs in building construction. It
acquires the costs for production, reconstruction and modernisation tasks including the association
expenses.
427
Each row in the matrix represents a single business process and the information
communication shows the end result and who is supposed to use that result in subsequent
processes. Each process can be broken down further into sub-processes or detailed by
using a diagramming approach such as UML activity diagrams. Processes are explicitly
represented in the matrix by their Process_ID, Name and optional Description. They are
defined as being either actions or activities. The definition of action and activity is
adapted from their specification in UML. Processes are organised by project stage
whereby the organisation of project stages set down in the Generic Process Protocol is
used with some extensions.
A process has a typical formalization of communication indicated in the matrix, e.g.
3D model, 2D drawing, cost plan, schedule, list etc. This is covered by the attribute basic
information type. Information in a process is received from one or more predecessors (as
a prerequisite for executing the process), created and exchanged within the process, and
passed over to subsequent processes.
Two major extensions have been defined to complement the basic Process Matrix.
Their purpose is to provide additional details on the requirements to a process that can be
seamlessly incorporated in the matrix. These aspects are the generic information type
(related to some classification system) and the speciflc information type (enabling
association of information items to secondary, more detailed classification items).
Information Requirements Extension
The objective of this extension is to identify the actual data communicated in a process
that can serve as guideline for the definition of more specific requirements for a software
system or tool intended to support that process. In addition to the basic, generic and
specific information types it introduces two new fields: data model and data content.
Communication Requirements Extension
The objective of this extension is to identify the technical aspects of the communication
between the actors in the process, such as the model of the communication process (e.g.
client/server), the network protocol (e.g. FTP or HTTP), the exchange/messaging format
used (e.g. XML, HTML, IFC exchange file) etc. It can also capture requirements for
more advanced communication techniques such as SOAP or WSDL. The components are
structured in three groups: communication model, communication protocol and exchange
format.
4 PROCESSES MODELING APPROACH
The aim of this paper is to introduce an approach for collaborative business processes
modelling, in order to enhance, harmonise and eventually standardise the use of
formalised business process patterns for initialising and operating construction projects.
First of all the workflow-management concepts can be applied. However, current
project/process management systems provide only little user support to select and
instantiate the most appropriate workflow patterns for the tasks that have to be
performed, in regard to the project goals and restrictions. Thus, the performance and
428
success of the project are essentially depended on the knowledge and experiences of the
project manager.
In order to develop a project/process management support system various aspects have
to be considered, namely: (a) analysing the requirements for the underlining
organisational and technical aspects of the project, (b) identifying the context parameters,
which influences the instantiation and operation of project activities, (c) developing a
methodology to extract these parameters from different data sources (that comprises
implicit as well as explicit available information), (d) designing a workflow language to
model standardised, generic business processes, (e) developing domain specific process
pattern that identify actors and roles for each individual activity and associate these
activities with information like communication and standardisation requirements.
An approach to identify and classify different influence factors for scheduling
construction projects is introduced in Chapter 3.1. This comprises the classification of
geometrical and object information as well as organisational and functional
characteristics. We propose to use these parameters for selecting the dedicated workflow
pattern that has to be instantiated to specify a task. The required information for the
parameters can be extracted from various data sources like cost models, product models,
or project management systems or entered manually. An example for construction
specific process pattern is given in Chapter 3.2.
Figure 6 provides a schematic sketch of a framework integrating the required services
for such a project/process management support system. The basis of the framework is a
library of various process patterns generally describing workflows to perform a certain
construction task, for example Development of the structural system. These process
patterns define the tasks, their sequences, the actors, and the resources/ information
needed to perform it. To control a process pattern in a workflow management system the
required actors and information has to be instantiated. This will be performed in cooperation with the VO structure of the project and the deployed information system. For
example new partners have to be integrated or responsibilities have to be shifted while
information will be exchanged through certain interfaces.
To instantiate the appropriate process pattern from the process pattern library the
identified influence parameters for the specific work package have to be determined from
the Project-Type Organisation and the Project Structure-Scheme. Based on this
information the most suitable process pattern can be selected and adjusted to the project
requirements. In order to allow for an efficient operation of the framework it is essential
to model various workflow patterns for different purposes, phases, objects, and functions.
These patterns have to be defined in a manner that they can be (semi-) automatically
instantiated by the workflow-management-system according to the available context
parameters.
Using the introduced Process Matrix as a first source for the process pattern library
will foster the
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430
5 CONCLUSION
The instantiation and operation of collaborative processes in the building industry has
been the focus of numerous research projects for several years. However, an overall
modelling methodology considering domain specific requirements and restrictions for
organisational, fimctional, as well as technical aspects has not been realised so far. The
principles of Virtual Organisations have been identified as a first starting point to more
thoroughly characterise construction project processes. By establishing a common
understanding of the business operations among all project participants, first problems are
reduced.
Based on requirements for Virtual Organisations in construction projects, the paper
introduces an approach using formalised business process patterns. A methodology to
structure aspects of construction projects by defining different classification types for the
overall project is proposed. Eventually, four different classification types have been
identified: Project Organisation Structure, Structuring of Operations, Function- and
Object Orientated Project StructuralSchemes. By detecting the classification types for a
specific activity of a project the most appropriate process pattern can be instantiated from
a library of standardised, generic reference processes. Therefore, the paper explains the
use of an extensible reference process library identifying communicating actors,
information and communication requirements, applicable standards as well as meta data
types. The Process Matrix developed in the ICCI project gives an example for predefined,
generic processes in the building industry. This library is the basis for a framework to
support collaborative business processes. By means of this framework it is feasible to
establish the Virtual Organisation structure as well as the communication requirements
and data standards for the activities that have to be performed in the VO.
431
REFERENCES
Booch, G., Rumbaugh, J. & Jacobsen, I. 1999. The Unified Modelling Language User Guide,
Addison Wesley Longman Inc.
Brandenberger, Jurgen, Ruosch, Ernst 1996. Projektmanagement im Bauwesen, Baufachverlag,
ISBN: 3-85565-215-5
Camarinha-Matos, L., Afsarmanesh H. 1999. The virtual enterprise concept, In Infrastructures for
the Virtual EnterpriseNetworking industrial enterprises, Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 07923-8639-6
Generic Process Protocol: http://pp2.dct.salford.ac.uk/, accessed 03.2004
Greiner, Peter; Mayer, Peter; Stark, Karlhans 2000. Baubetriebslehre Projektmanagement, Viewegs
Fachbiicher der Technik,, ISBN 3-528-07706-9
Kagioglou, M., Cooper, R., Aouad, G., Hinks, J., Sexton, M. & Sheath, D.M. 1998. A Generic
Guide to the Design and Construction Process Protocol, Res. Report, University of Salford,
UK,. http://www.salford.ac.uk/gdcpp/, accessed 12/03.
Keller, Martin; Menzel, Karsten & Scherer, Raimer J. 2003. Use of Workflow-Patterns for Process
Modelling in the Building Industry. PRO-VE 2003, 4th IFIP Working Conference on Virtual
Enterprises, Lugano Switzerland
Keller, Martin; Menzel, Karsten & Scherer, Raimer J 2003. Modellbasierte Projektkoordination fur
das virtuelle Planungsteam. IKM 2003, Internationales Kolloquium iiber Anwendungen der
Informatik und Mathematik in Architektur und Bauwesen, Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar
Katranuschkov, Peter; Gehre, Alexander; Scherer, Raimar; Wix, Jefrey & Liebich, Thomas 2004.
User Requirements Capture in Distributed Project Environments: A Processcentred Approach;
Xth International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering Weimar;
Mertens, P., Griese, J. & Ehrenberg, D. 1998. Virtuelle Unternehmen und
Informationsvemrbeitung, Springer, ISBN: 3-540-64643-4
Mller, Dietrich-Alexander, Kalusche, Wolfdietrich 2001. Planungs- und BauokonomieBand
1&2: Grundlagen der wirtschaftlichen Bauausfuhrung, 4. Issue; Oldenbourg Verlag;; ISBN: 3486-25497-9 & 3-486-25433-2
Picot, A., Reichwald, R. & Rolf, T.W. 2001. Die grenzenlose UnternehmungInformation,
Organisation und Management, GABLER
Rsel, Wolfgang 1999. BaumanagementGrundlagen, Technik, Praxis; Springer-Verlag; ISBN: 3540-66291-X
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Planning processes in building engineering are described by a process model and a
product model: The process model defines the time dependent planning tasks, which can
be assigned to different specialized planning participants. The product model includes
information on the building elements and their relations within the context of the whole
building. This information consists of product data, CADdata and related documents.
Within the research project the process model is described in detail. Related projects in
the priority program 1103 are dealing with the definition and the software
implementation of product models.
The planning process of a building is subdivided into three sub models: an
organisation structure, a building structure and a process structure. The consistency of
these three sub models is provided by process management based on methods of graph
theory. The process model and the corresponding relations are outlined in Figure 1.
2 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
The cooperative planning process requires an organisation structure for planning
participants and their different planning roles. This organisation structure is project
related and can be changed during the term of the planning process. Planning participants
represent planning actors, planning groups, offices or subcontractors. For every planning
participant one or more planning roles
433
Set of roles
Set of participants
Before a participant can start to perform a task he has to obtain all necessary data from
the product model. The building structure acts as an interface to the product data. After
finishing a task the participant has to add all results to the product model. In addition it is
his duty to report any conflicts arising from the execution of his planning activities.
3 BUILDING STRUCTURE
434
The building structure covers the planning states of all building elements including the
references to the product model. Relations between components are defined by
connections. Within the context of planning processes the building structure only
contains topological information on building elements. All information on dimensions,
material and documents are subject of the product model.
Components and connections of a building form a bipartite undirected graph. During
the term of planning processes components and connections can be specified in more
detail by decomposing the graph structure. This recursive decomposition leads to a
topological building structure which is represented mathematically by a hierarchical
bipartite undirected graph.
S:=(C, F; R, RT, fCF)
(2)
C
Set of components
Set of connections
R
R
fCF
435
(3)
(4)
For each component and for each connection a planning schedule with an ordered set of
planning tasks has to be defined. Every task has a certain planning state with references
to the corresponding objects or documents of the product model. The planning of a
component or connections is finished, if all tasks are carried out.
4 PROCESS STRUCTURE
The process structure covers all planning activities. Activities represent work packages
carried out by planning participants within a prescribed time period. They are specified
on the basis of planning schedules for components and connections.
4.1 Structure
The entire planning process of a project is decomposed into basic activities which are
also called phases. Typical basic activities are the feasibility phase, design phase and
construction phase. The directed relationships from one activity to a successive activity
are specified by transitions. Activities and transitions form a bipartite directed graph
which is acyclic and is called workflow graph.
436
Set of activities
Set of transitions
fAT
437
438
439
440
441
The critical path for each level of the hierarchy of a labelled hierarchical bipartite graph
can be calculated with the well-known critical path methods. If the hierarchical graph is
consistently labelled, the length of a
Label of x
P(x)
442
with
m
The marked process structure is extended by exactly one start transition and exactly one
end transition. The initial condition of the marked process structure is defined as: each
Transition without predecessors is marked with 1 and each transition with predecessors
and each activity is marked with 0.
The consistency of the marking of a hierarchical process structure has to be checked.
Each decomposed
443
(9)
T
Set of tasks
Set of roles
SO
Every planning task is mapped to exactly one planning activity of the process structure.
An activity can be related to more then one task.
fSP:TA
(10)
T
Set of tasks
Set of activities
fsp
Set of activities
Set of participants
fpo
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During the composition of the relations between the three structures the consistency must
be considered. A activity can only be assigned to a participant, if the participant has all
planning roles of the tasks of the activity.
(12)
R(a)
R(p)
These relations can be used to navigate through the hierarchical process model. In order
to manage the complexity of the entire planning process the hierarchical structures for the
building and the process can be supportively adopted.
6 PROCESS MANAGEMENT
Methods for the process management are defined on the basis of the formal description of
the process model. The methods are used for coordinating und controlling the entire
planning process. The graph theory allows a formal definition of these methods.
For example a planning participant can use the methods to find all references for a
component of the building structure in the product model or to find all activities with
their associated building elements which a participant has to process.
The formal description of the methods and the whole process model are a good
precondition for a simple software implementation. For this project the structures,
conditions and methods have been implemented in the programming language JAVA
(Konig 2004).
7 SUMMARY
In this paper a concept for a process model for planning processes in building engineering
is presented. The relational process model consists of an organization structure with
planning participants, a building structure with planning states and a process structure
with planning activities. These sub models are mathematically described on the basis of
relation theory and graph theory.
The building structure and the process structure are represented by hierarchical
bipartite graphs. These hierarchical structures support the dynamical aspects of
cooperated planning processes in building engineering. The consistent and correct
composition of the relational process model is very important. To ensure consistency and
correctness of the compositions, conditions as well as methods for coordination and
controlling of the planning process are formally defined.
The structures, conditions and methods have been implemented prototypically and
were used in extracts for an example project.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors thank gratefully the German Research Foundation (DFG) for supporting the
research project Relation Process Modelling in Co-operative Building Planning
embedded in the priority program 1103 Network-based Co-operative Planning Processes
in Structural Engineering.
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Klinger, A. 2003. Strukturanalyse von Workflow-Graphen. In: Tagungsband des 15. Forum
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Konig, M. 2004. Ein Prozessmodell fiir die kooperative Gebdudeplanung. Dissertation, University
of Hannover, Germany.
Konig, M. & Klinger, A. 2002. Modellierung von Planungsprozessen mit Hilfe von Hierarchischen
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problems in visual workspace planning
Communicating the construction schedule and strategy of work among the project team
members is a unique problem that takes place in most construction sites. This problem is
448
even cumbersome as the built facility generates complex shapes of occupied sitespaces
by the executed construction processes. The ideal solutions in traditional space-time
planning techniques, have involved textual description, hand sketches with site layout
templates, a number of graphical technologies, including bar charts, network diagrams,
and 2D/3D scaled visualisation models (Morris, 1994). However, there are shortcomings
of techniques in forming a visual representation of the construction execution workspace:
Activity workspace execution: Considering the Gantt chart a favourable technique,
planners are not capable of communicating visually the execution strategy and plan. In
other words, the Gantt chart can be thought of as a what to do list and sequence of
assignments concerning the construction activities. Cheng and OConnor (1996) claim
that, in field practice, construction planners have to interpret space information into
poor visual descriptions. However, they do not seem to convey the dynamic behaviour
of construction activity workspace in 3D space and time.
Mental rehearsal of site operations: Mawdesley et al., (1997) explained that Gantt
chart techniques do not furnish a communication medium on how the project activities
on the construction site are to be executed. During the construction phase, the format
of Gantt chart does not capture the visual interaction between the site operations.
Consequently, the Gantt chart is not entirely adequate for rehearsing site operations,
both in space and time.
Loss of productivity: Productivity problems were investigated by Kaming et al. (1998)
and showed that inappropriate workspace planning caused interferences between
subcontractors. Many frequent visits by the workforce had occurred in some zones of
the building, which resulted in work interruptions. There is evidence to suggest that
workspace interference was a factor in decreasing productivity of work by 40%.
1.2 What was neglected in construction workspace-time planning
exercise?
Four important issues, therefore, were not highlighted in 4D workspace-time planning.
They are:
Execution strategy representation: Traditional workspace-time planning methods, such
as the space-time Chainage charts and layout motion diagrams, in their most general
forms, are ambiguous. Construction planners often express the coordination of the
planned schedules based on highly generalised conceptual space terms, such as North,
South, East and West. Take an example of a construction planner conveying the
execution of
GroundFloor Steel Columns activity to begin from the East and progressing towards
the West. The execution plan of such an activity is left to the workmen on the site. In
such manner, work interruptions between site operations might occur (Mallasi &
Dawood, 2001), especially in large complex construction projects, where the site
space involves a number of constrained site operations.
Construction progress state simulation: The weekly visualisation technique used for
the construction progress state is not realistic. Previous site layout planning applied
such techniques from a factory/plant perspective that only featured linear patterns of
direction for the produced work (Zouein and Tommelein, 1999). This research
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450
To some extent, these decisions are of a spatial nature and they do not appear to have
the adequate visual representation in the traditional planning methods. There are four
workspace planning tasks (Fig. 1) that can be highlighted during project planning stages:
(1) developing a space concept of the built facility (2) planning the workspace
requirement based on the construction method and physical resources (3) the Critical
Space Analysis (CSA) of workspace conflicts, and (4) the detail output of work execution
strategy.
From the above, three main visual features are studied to help in generating 3D visual
representation of the activities workspace configuration are:
Visualising quantities of work: Planners realise the importance of recording the
progress of construction work at weekly intervals, then presenting it on a Gantt chart.
This work, therefore, suggests three types for work rate distributions to be included in
the 3D visualisation: Uniform, High-Low, and Low-High distribution. In this respect,
the example shown in Figure 2 explains the significant correlation between the activity
behaviour at a point-in-time and its completion, based on the three types of work rate
distribution.
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452
453
454
455
(1)
where f(scr)=the project schedule space criticality calculated value; f(co)=the criteria
fimction for the percentage of conflicting workspace. Where
(2)
f(r)=the criteria function for the total number of workspace conflicts with respect to the
rankings; f(no)=the criteria function for the total number of conflicting activities;
(st)=thecriteriaftmctionforthe conflicting space types; f(cr)=the criteria function for the
critical activities (1 for critical and 0 for non-critical); vwi=the weighted coefficients for
each criteria in the function fA(scr).
The weighting coefficients vwi (sometimes referred to as variable weights) are an
estimated measure for each criterion governing a priority scheme. By doing so, the
performance of the value of fA(scr) fimction can be assessed. Although these coefficients
could be obtained through trial and error, they could also be user-deflned values from the
project planner. This is
Thabet
- Space
and
Capacity
Beliveau Factor
(1994)
No
Yes
No
No
No
CAD
Akinci
etal.
(2000a)
Conflict
Ratio
Clash
severity
sub
classifica
tion
No
Yes
Not
all
Yes
Yes
4D-CAD N.A.
Guo
(2002)
Inter
No
ference
Space
Percentage
Inter
Yes
Yes
No
No
4D-CAD Manual
Yes
reschedul
ing
N.A.
No
Yes
456
ference
Duration
Percentage
Winch
(2003)
Spatial
Loading
Yes
No
Not
all
No
No
4D
Evolution Yes
CAD/VR ary
algorithm
(brute
force)
VW(i)=VW(1)+VW(2)+VW(3)+VW(4)+VW(5)=1
and: 0vw(i)1
(4)
The values for in Equation (3) are the measures of priority for each criterion that is
chosen by the project planner. These values range from Zero to One: more important
criteria will get a higher weight, and less important criteria will get lower weights.
457
458
459
460
461
twelve execution pattern types, three different work rate distribution types, and timebased QW simulation were identified and implemented in the developed 4D visualisation
environment. The design of a multi-criteria function was the core of the PECASO
approach for evaluating the CSA value. Based on the experimental results, the PECASO
CSA approach is expected to increase the planners awareness for workspace planning
and become more confidence when using 4D visualisation for communicating the project
plans. One could argue that the advancements in 4D space-time conflict analysis relies on
capturing the dynamic nature of construction site operations. The results also suggest
possible future use of the proposed technique in 4D workspace planning.
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Construction Zone Generation. Proceedings of CIB w78 2001 Conference on Construction
Information Technology, 2001, South Africa, Vol. 1, pp 301/3016.
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Akinci, B., Fischer, M., Kunz, J. & Levvitt, R. 2000b. Representing Work Space Generically in
Construction Method Models. CIFE Working Paper No. 57, June 2000, Stanford University.
Chang, P., Hsieh, J. & Lin, S. 2002. The Development of Gradual-Priority Weighting Approach for
the Multi-objective Flowshop Scheduling Problem. International Journal of Production
Economics, No. 79, 2002, pp 171183.
Cheng, M.Y. & OConnor, J.T. 1996. ArcSite: Enhanced GIS for Construction Site Layout.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, December 1996, pp 329336.
Cheng, M.Y. & Yang, S.Y. 2001. GIS-Based Cost Estimates Integrating with Material Layout
Planning. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, July/August 2001, pp 291
299.
Gardiner, P.D. & Ritchie, J.M. 1999. Project Planning in a Virtual World: information management
metamorphosis or technology going too far? International Journal of Information Management,
Volume 19, pp 485494.
Guo, S. 2002. Identification and Resolution of Work Space Conflicts in Building Construction.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, July/August 2002, pp 287295.
Hessom, D. & Mahdjoubi, L. 2002. Technology Opportunities and Potential for the Virtual
Construction Site: emerging research initiatives. VIRCON Task Three Technical Report, Vol. 1
University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK.
Hillier, B. 1996. Space is the Machine, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Kamat, V.R. & Martinez, J.C. 2001. Visualising Simulated Construction Operations in 3D. Journal
ofComputing in Civil Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 15, No. 4, October 2001.
Kaming, P.F., Holt, G.D., Kometa, S.T. & Olomolaiya, P.O 1998. Severity Diagnosis of
Productivity Problemsa Reliable Analysis. International Journal of Project Management,
Vol. 16, No. 2, pp 107113.
Mallasi, Z. & Dawood, N. 2001. Assessing Space Criticality in Sequencing and Identifying
Execution Patterns for Construction Activities Using VR Visualisations. ARCOM Doctoml
research workshop: Simulation and modelling in constmction, October 2001, Edinburgh
University, UK, pp 2227.
Mallasi, Z. & Dawood, N. (2002). Registering Space Requirements of Construction Operations
Using Site-PECASO Model. Proceedings of CIB w78 2002 Conference on Distributing
Knowledge in Buildings, 2002, Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark, Vol. 2, pp 8390.
462
Mawdesley, M., Askew, W. & OReilly, M. 1997. Planning and Controlling Construction
Projects: the best laidplans, Addison Wesley Longman, England.
Morris, P. 1994. The Management of Projects, Thomas Telford, England.
Ramulu, M. & Kim, D. 2003. Drilling Process Optimisation for Graphite/bismaleimide-titanium
alloy stack. Journal of Composite Structures, 2003, (in press).
Riley, D. & Sanvido, V. 1997. Space Planning Method for Multi-story Building Construction.
Journal Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 123, No. 2, pp 171180.
Rischmoller, L. & Alarcon, L. 2002. 4D-PS: Putting an IT new work process into effect.
Proceedings of CIB w78 2002 Conference on Construction Information Technology, 2002,
Aarhus, Denmark, Vol. 1, pp 109114.
Roberts, Keith 1998. Construction and the Built Environment: advanced GNVQ, London, Addison
Wesley Longman Ltd.
Sirajuddin, Abdullah, M. 1991. An Automated Project Planner. PhD Thesis, Department of Civil
Engineering, University of Nottingham.
Staub, S., Fisher, M., & Melody, S. 1998. Industrial Case Study of Electronic Design and Schedule
Integration, Working Paper, No. 48, CIFE, Stanford.
Thabet, W. & Beliveau, Y. 1994. Modeling Work Space to Schedule Repetitive Floors in
Multistory Buildings. ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 120(1),
pp96116.
Winch, G.M. 2003. Critical Space Analysis: Planning the Use of Spatial Resources on Projects.
Proceedings 3rd Nordic Conference on Construction Economics and Organisation, Lund
University, pp 375392.
Zouein, P.P. & Tommelein, I.D. 1999. Dynamic Layout Planning using a Hybrid Incremental
Solution Method. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 125, No. 6,
November, 1999, pp 400408.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
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partnerships. The PPM is not one single model but a collection of models. Each of these
models consists of a PP process model, representing with workflow (WF) models, that
incorporates the coordination logic of how the project planners negotiate and reach a
resolution on one of the aspects that need to be tactically agreed. Each of the WF models
operates on one or more content templates.
A content template is an ordered set of fields with specific meaning. The WF model
controls who has read or write access to which field. All parts of the PPM are grouped in
packages, each of which may contain a set of (sub) process models. Each process
model is defined as a workflow model that adheres to the WfMC standard. In the PP
platform in the e-Hub the workflow models are enacted, initiated by the project planners.
Figure 1 illustrates the functional architecture of the e-Hub discussed above.
The following sections present the collaborative PP process conducted on the e-Hub
platform in a seismic risk analysis scenario.
2 SEISMIC ENGINEERING SCENARIO
The seismic engineering scenario aims to demonstrate how a small company with a high
degree of specialization, can take advantage of the e-Hubs services. In this example,
Geodeco, which is a consulting company based in Italy specialized in geotechnical, geoseismic, geo-environmental and earthquake engineering problems, provides through a
Web Portal, engineering services to companies seeking advice on seismic risk assessment
problems. The portal helps the potential clients to find other companies or professionals
able to provide the required services.
It has to be noted that the same concept could be applied to very different engineering
fields. The scenario just shows one example related to the civil engineering domain.
In this scenario, a Dutch design company (the Client) has won a project in Central
Italy to design a Paper Mill. The project is at preliminary design stage. The company
knows that the location is a strong seismic area, but it has no expertise in seismic risk
assessment. It thus needs to employ professionals which are able to provide the necessary
knowledge and services. However, the company does not have such contacts in Italy. It
finds the eRiskZone portal to help it procure such services and collaborate with the
professionals.
2.1 eRiskZone portal
The eRiskZone (URL2) is a seismic engineering portal, run by GEODECO. The Client
can take advantage of specific engineering services provided by the eRiskZone (mainly
dedicated to seismic risk assessment, tools for distant co-engineering, information
logistics, legal support, procurement etc (Figure 2). The eRiskZone also provides a sort of
certification that all the companies offering services through it are regular members of the
Chamber of Commerce, and the professionals are listed in the official professional
associations.
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3 WORKFLOWS
As illustrated in the functional architecture, generic PP workflows form the core of the eHub. These workflows codify the logic of a process that enforces collaborative project
definition and planning conducted in the e-Hub platform with the involvement of all the
project partners. Altogether, three workflows and related attribute templates are
developed in this testbed with each representing a key phase of project planning process.
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Attributes to address
Project description
ProjectlD
Projecttitle
Project description (e.g. nature, service required, location,
etc.)
Attachments
Input requirements
InputlD
Input items
Input description
Level of requirements
Format requirements
Date of submission
Output requirements
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Deliverable ID
Deliverable items
Deliverable description
Type of service
Level of service
Options required
Date
Deadline
Milestones
Yes/no
Particular requirements?
Ifresource,
Manpower
Material
Machinery
If method, then...
If quality, then...
Cost estimate
Cost system
Fix rate
Negotiated rate
Amount
Payment approach
Liquidated damage
Quality retention amount
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important collaborative issues for the execution of the project (e.g. project execution plan
and schedule, quality plan, risk plan and change protocol).
In this scenario, project execution plan and schedule is particularly important for
project participants, therefore the related workflow and attribute template are fully
developed and implemented. This section also briefly presents other related workflows
and attribute templates which, though not being adopted and implemented in this testbed,
are essential for most of the engineering outsourcing projects.
To define project execution plan and schedule, a number of activities will be
performed by project participants, which include:
Define activities: both parties collaboratively define all the potential activities which are
necessary to perform the project. After defining the activities, the Client and Geodeco
need to identify the partners who can perform the activities. Related partners could be
identified either at this stage or at the hand-shaking stage.
Identify dependencies: after defining all the activities to undertake and the potential
parties to perform them, all the participants will try to identify the dependencies
between/among these activities. This shows there inter-relationships. Some new
activities or sub-activities can be further identified if it is required.
Define duration: participants define the duration for each activity. In the end, the overall
schedule should be addressed.
Specify deliverables: participants particularly specify the date for submitting
deliverables. This further strengthens the definition of outputs defined in the workflow
1. Similarly they also further address the date for project inputs.
Address milestone: besides defining the inputs and outputs date, participants also
address milestones in the defined project schedule.
Figure 5 illustrates this workflow. Table 2 presents the document template for this
workflow.
3.3 Contract negotiation workflow
After defining the work statements, the Client and Geodeco (as well as other participants)
enter the contract negotiation stage. The contract negotiation is conducted in two steps:
negotiation of agreement, and negotiation of conditions of the contract.
An agreement template is developed based on standard engineering service
outsourcing contracts commonly used in the construction and manufacturing industries
(D5.2). A contract negotiation workflow is then developed to facilitate the negotiation of
the key contract items in the agreement template. For example, if there are four key items
(i.e. no. of test samples, final service cost, liquidated damage, and governing laws) to be
addressed in the agreement template, the contract negotiation workflow will guide the
Client and Geodeco to negotiate these items step by step (e.g. no. of testing sample
service cost liquidated damage governing laws). The items finally agreed by both
parties will fill into the right place in agreement template which is saved in the
eRiskZone database in this case. A particular data transferring mechanism has been
developed in this study.
Attributes to address
IDNo.
Title Description
Responsibility
Pre-conditions
Post-conditions
Dependencies
Precedent activity Successor activity
Duration
Time
Deliverables/Inputs
IDno.
Title
Description
Responsibility
Date
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Milestones
IDno. Title
Description
Date
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The collaborative work statements generated through previous workflows are integrated
into the agreement template, which provide a sound basis for the service outsource
contract.
The negotiation of the key contract items could be conducted on a generic negotiation
platform (like those in workflow 1&2) embedded in the e-Hub, however, there are many
legal and contractual related issues which are not easily addressed by general negotiation
platform. Therefore, sophisticated contract negotiation platforms (i.e. eLEGAL contract
editor URL3) are required. Although the eLEGAL contract editor was initially developed
for ICT related legal issues, it provides an effective approach to representing contract
clauses and addressing all the general legal and contractual issues general e-contracting,
which makes it possible to be used for general engineering contract negotiation (Ren et
al, 2004).
In this testbed, the eLEGAL contract editor is adopted as a negotiation platform for
project participants to address the key contract items and finalize the Conditions of
Contract, which often involves the
475
complex contract clauses (Figure 7). A Conditions of Contract template for engineering
service has been developed, which is stored in the eRiskZone database and linked with
the eLEGAL contract editor through a SOAP web service.
3.4 Supporting engineering services
3.4.1 Supporting engineering servicefor Workflow 1
A typical supporting engineering service required in this workflow is the cost estimation
tool. When users enter the stage to negotiate engineering service cost, they often need the
support of cost estimation tools to estimate the service cost. These tools could be a simple
cost breakdpwn table where users estimate each single cost iteni by their best
professional guess. In this testbed, Geodeco uses a spreadsheet as the cost estimation tool.
In other cases, other sophisticated tools such as ACEIT (URL4), BEST ESTIMATE
(URL5) and COCOMO (URL6) are adopted.
The use of these cost estimation tools (as well as other cost estimate activities) is
closely integrated through e-Hub workflow. In the seismic example, Geodeco normally
estimates the service cost based on a few key factors which include scope of service,
methodology, data provided by the client, deliverables, time, and overhead.
By defining these inputs and the related adjust parameters, the cost estimation tool
(e.g. spreadsheet) will generate the initial project cost estimate. These input factors are
addressed by the project definition activities in Workflow 1 step by step (e.g. project
description (a), input requirements (c), output requirements (d) & (e), special
requirements (b)). The outcome of each stage of the workflow will become input to
the cost estimation tool. All the key input factors will be inserted into the cost estimation
tool, when the workflow runs to the final stage, and therefore, the cost estimate will be
generated, which will be then used for the cost negotiation between the Client and
Geodeco.
3.4.2 Supporting engineering service for Wbrkflow 2
Although Workflow 2 and the related attribute template specify the process of defining
project execution plan and schedule, particular engineering tools (e.g. scheduling service)
are necessary for project participants to undertake the detailed task scheduling. This is
because the e-Hub is not designed as a specific task scheduling tool. External project
scheduling services need to be incorporated with the e-Hub engineering services (Figure
8). Some of the commonly used project scheduling tools could be adopted such as MS.
Project, Primavera, Barchart, GanttProject, task scheduling whiteboard and other
visualized project planning tools (e.g. project planning JAWE and JDPG).
In this testbed, project planning and scheduling starts when all the potential activities
to be performed have been identified by project participants in the e-Hub platform. They
then enter into task scheduling, either offline or through a task scheduling platform that
could be either recommended by the e-Hub or by participants. In this testbed use is made
of a collaborative task scheduling platform. For this, GanttProject (URL7) is adopted as
the scheduling platform due to its particular advantages such as:
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Offer low entry barrier for SMEs to the global marketplace for the outsourcing and
fulfillment of engineering subtasks.
Offer configurable e-Engineering process templates, thus harnessing proven procedures
for remote collaboration.
Enable trade organizations to enforce quality in collaborative engineering through
certification of procedures and standard practices.
Provide a trusted engineering gateway to SMEs.
Support new organizational development in e-collaboration.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The e-Hubs project is supported by the European Commission under the IST
programmed (Contract no: IST-200134031). The authors would like to acknowledge the
financial support of the European Commission, and record their appreciation to the eHubs project partners for their contributions to Testbed 1.
REFERENCES
Augenbroe, G., 2004. e-HUBs: e-engineering enabled by holonomic and universal broker services
(In Press). eChallenge conference, Vienna.
Project Management Institute, 2000. A Guide to the project management body of knowledge
(PMBOK). Project Management Institute Inc.
Ren, Z., Anumba, C.J., Hassan, T.M., 2004. D5.2: Set of working e-engineering services dedicated
for seismic engineering demonstrator. Q-HUBs Project Deliverable. ISTproject: (IST-2001
34031).
Ren, Z., Hassan, T.M., Anumba, C.J., Augenbroe, G. and Mangini, M. (2004). e-contracting for the
e-engineering hub, a case study in the construction industry. The 5th IFIP working conference
on virtual enterprises, Toulouse, France.
Technical Annex-1, 2001. e-Engineering enabled by Holonomic and Universal Broker Services (eHUBs), Description of Work. ISTproject: (IST-200134031).
URLl: http://elf.eurodyn.com:8080/edos/index.do
URL2: http://www.geodeco.it/eRiskZone/eRiskZone.html
URL3: http://cic.vtt.fi/projects/elegal/public.html
URL4: http://www.aceit.com/
URL5: http://www.best-estimate.com/
URL6: http://sunset.usc.edu/research/COCOMOII/index.html
URL7: http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
There is a growing awareness in the construction industry that materials management
needs to be addressed as a comprehensive integrated management activity. Materials
account for approximately 50% to 60% of the cost of construction projects. More
significantly, materials management typically controls 80% of a projects schedule and
40% of the time lost on a construction project can be attributed to bad management, lack
of materials when needed, poor identification of materials and inadequate storage
(Stukhart, 1995). Integrated Logistics Support, the holistic approach to supply chain
management over the entire life cycle of a product, has transformed manufacturing
industries over the last three decades. The construction industry, facing opportunities and
threats in a global marketplace for construction, is poised to embrace a similar approach
to its materials management practices.
481
General activities that should be considered in preparing the plan for materials include
the determination of materials needed (i.e. quantity, type, sizes, color, etc.), the sources of
materials, specific dates when the materials are needed, procurement, expediting,
receiving, storage, usage, disposal and provisions for contingencies.
Effective planning is required to keep costs to a minimum and to insure that the
material is on site when needed. Poor planning of materials will increase indirect costs
as-associated with delivery and use of materials. In addition, losses in productivity,
delays, rehandling, and duplicate orders among other factors can be expected when there
is a poor materials management system.
Material management problems have a great impact on general contractors, but are
more critical for specialty contractors such as electrical contractors. Based on the coauthors experience, the construction industry has moved toward specialty contractors in
the last decade to the point where at least 80% of the work performed on a typical
construction contract is done by specialty contractors. General contractors have become,
for the most part, project managers. Today there are more than 25,000 specialty
contractors in the United States (http://www.assoc-spec-cn.org/). The electrical
contracting market, in particular, has expanded in recent years compared to the other
areas of construction. Employees in the electrical contracting industry account for around
13% of the total employees in the construction industry. The nature of the electrical
contracting business requires that a large volume of sales needs to be achieved in order to
support the company. In the last 14 years the electrical contracting industry has tripled
their volume of sales. In addition, the number of employees in electrical contracting
activities increased by more than 350,000 (NECA, 2001).
This trend of moving towards subcontracting parallels the trend seen in manufacturing
economy that has increased the role played by original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) that supply basic components to name-brand companies that carry out final
assembly. The effects of this evolution in the construction industry also parallels the
effects witnessed in the manufacturing economy over the last decade:
increased the pressure on contractors to deliver goods cheaply and on time
flexibility for the general contractor with respect to sourcing contractors
negotiating with suppliers and manufacturers
increased need for closer coordination between the specialty contractor and the general
contractor
Most specialty contracting companies are small companies. Therefore, these companies
have to provide services efficiently and at the lowest cost possible in order for the
company to remain in business. Specialty contractors need to track constantly the
materials, resources and labor due to the risk that they undertake in every construction
job. This tracking is useful to avoid losing material due to theft, misplacement or damage,
for productivity improvement and to compare actual resource and labor usage against
planned. The electrical contractor has to plan and schedule the purchasing, expediting,
receiving, storage, and installation of the materials by coordinating the different parties
involved (i.e. estimating, job managers and field personnel). Timely availability of
materials, systems, and assemblies is vital to successfiil construction.
This paper presents research that focuses on supply chains for the electrical
contracting industry. The authors applied knowledge-management concepts to design a
482
prototype for an integrated, effective system of decision-support tools for materialsmanagement decisions during the construction phase of a project. Based on previous
research by two of the authors, the paper first reviews current phases of material
management in the electrical contracting industry including bidding, sourcing,
procurement, construction and post-construction. The paper then introduces some of the
challenges that face material managers. Decisions needed to be made during all phase of
material management are introduced with a focus on the decisions needed during the
procurement and construction phases. A proposed decision modeling solution, based on
similar models adopted by manufacturing, is presented. A decision support framework is
proposed that integrate various alternatives and parameters to provide possible solution
for some of the decision making questions posed.
2 CURRENT PHASES OF MATERIAL MANAGEMENT IN
CONSTRUCTION
Research work by Thabet and Perdomo (2003) has investigated current materials
management practices in the EC industry. The investigation considered the entire range
of activities necessary for procuring the needed material, starting with the estimating
process and ending with site delivery, distribution and storage logistics. Research
outcomes included documenting the problem bottlenecks in the supply chain as well as
identifying and classifying the various criteria that influence the decision process for
procuring material. A conceptual framework for the material supply chain process was
developed based on various discussions and interviews with office and site personnel
from the electrical contracting industry including contractors, suppliers, manufacturers
and a software provider. Five distinct phases, as shown in Figure 1, that comprise the
material management process were identified: 1Bidding Phase, 2Sourcing Phase,
3Materials Procurement, 4Construction Phase, 5Post-Construction Phase. Based
on information acquired from these interviews, a more detailed representation of the five
material management phases for a typical electrical contractor was developed.
During the Bidding Phase the contractor identifies the materials needed as well as any
special requirements or special materials to be used in the project. Quantities needed are
estimated and a bid package is put together and submitted. In general, materials used by
electrical contractors can be classified into two categories: miscellaneous materials or
commodities, and major materials. Miscellaneous materials refer to off-the-shelf items
such as cables, conduits, straps and fittings. Major materials include switch gears,
lighting fixtures, alarm systems and other items that need to be designed/fabricated
specifically for a given job. If the project is successfully won, the contractor schedules a
meeting to generate a material requisition
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schedule (e.g. release forms) specifying material types, quantities needed, dates when the
material should be delivered and any additional information needed for clarification. In
addition, any notes related to particular items and the drawings for the job are included.
Figure 2 illustrates this phase.
The Sourcing Phase involves the selection of reputable suppliers and manufacturers.
The selection of suppliers is critical and the performance of a supplier can decide
between a successful project and a project fiill of delays. Therefore, the contractor needs
to verify that the supplier is capable of delivering the right material (i.e. type, quality and
quantity) when needed (i.e. at dates specified). In general, most materials (miscellaneous
and major) are purchased through suppliers/distributors. Typically, after a contract has
been awarded, the contractor issues a temporary purchase order to ensure the supplier that
the material will be bought from him/her upon approval of submittals. Once the submittal
process is over (i.e. submittals are approved), the temporary purchase order becomes a
valid contract. This phase is presented in Figure 3.
The Material Procurement Phase involves the generation of a material requisition
schedule. Once a
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manager needs to realize that decisions taken at one stage in the process will certainly
impact other activities and processes in the supply chain, therefore these effects are not
realized due to this fragmentation. Specific problems that are encountered are:
There is no structured approach to SCM in the construction industry
Supply chain decisions are not made consistently across projects and contractors or
even within a project and contractor
The construction industry does not learn from experience how to improve its supply
chain methods
There is no theoretical foundation for the methods for supply chain management that
are currently used in the construction industry
There are cultural characteristics of the construction industry that encourage shortsighted actions and little information sharing and cooperation, especially at the level of
foremen and supervisors
There are limited IT applications and available technologies for SCM in the
construction industry
Especially in small contractor companies, there is little or no awareness among
personnel who carry out supply chain activities of the impacts of poor planning and
decision making on the big picture of project costs and delays
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construction phases, therefore only the decision making process performed during these
faces will be explained.
There are critical decisions that need to be made at the procurement and construction
phases. This includes how much material to buy, when to buy this material, when to
deliver, where to deliver and where to store on site. The decision of how much to buy is
very important to assure that material quantities needed are available and that there are no
material shortages. The decision of when to buy is important to ensure that material is
available when needed. The lead times for the material to buy need to be considered. The
decision of when to deliver requires understanding the progress of the work, installation
rates and forecast of any possible changes in these factors. In addition, the performance
of the supplier needs to be considered. The decision of where to deliver the material
requires space planning and consideration of site limitations, pre-fabrication strategies,
and subcontractors to be used. The decision of where to store on site requires considering
the number of trades working, possible damage and any storage restrictions.
Review of current practices (Thabet and Perdomo, 2003) indicates that the electrical
contractor buys the material based on what the foreman requests without considering the
storage costs associated with having material early on the construction site. The
important aspect is purchasing and delivery of the material either to the jobsite,
warehouse or subcontractor without considering any costs that could result from damage
while the material is stored and/or re-handled due to space limitations.
Better material management practices and more structured decision making models
could increase the efficiency of the material management process. There is a growing
awareness in the electrical contracting industry that materials management needs to be
addressed as a comprehensive integrated management activity. Increasing pressures on
project costs and completion times are motivating the need to make supply-chain
decisions in a coordinated fashion and in consideration of minimizing total supply-chain
cost without causing stockouts. The performance of these decisions is heavily dependent
on the combination of the different alternatives listed in every phase. Currently, there is
no structured approach to identifying the optimum combination of decisions that will lead
to processing the needed material with the least total costs. Fortunately, model-based,
computerized solutions to supply-chain problems are proliferating. However, the typical
contractor may be over-whelmed by the technology embodied by these solutions and the
challenges of integrating this knowledge into business practices. A definition of the data,
models, decision makers and procedures that make up this knowledge and a mapping of
their relation-ships and uses is a vital first step towards building integrated decision
support for the contractor. The term knowledge management has become the
recognized name for this definition and structuring of all of these knowledge elements
that an organization uses to make decisions.
5 DECISION MODELING APPROACH
The last two decades have demonstrated that implementing the use of decision support
technologies in an industry can be done successfiilly only with an enabling culture
change. In the manufacturing sector the movements of total quality management, just-intime management, business process re-engineering
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Uncontrollable variables refer to those parts of the decision that although having an eifect
in the decision taken, is not controlled by the decision maker; its values are given by
factors external to the model. An example of an uncontrollable factor could be the level
of demand when deciding how much production to allocate to a new product. In reality,
many parameters that affect the decision making process are variable, however they are
treated as constant. This assumption is part of the simplification that characterizes
decision modeling processes (Cooke and Slack, 1984). Parameters must be satisfied
while selecting an alternative and are critical data to be considered in the analysis since
they could have a great impact in the decision making process.
Some decision models go fUrther than describing the outcomes of each alternative by
determining the optimal choice from among all of the alternatives. These kinds of models
are called prescriptive models and embody a search routine that a computer uses to carry
out an intelligent, restricted trial-and-error search for the optimal solution. Prescriptive
models leverage the decision maker by evaluating tradeoffs that are too complex or
numerous for human judgment to comprehend.
For example, a descriptive model could be used when a company needs to decide on
how much material to order. Decision alternatives might include ordering material as
estimated, order less material than estimated, order more material than estimated, order
material based on actual quantity or order the quantity calculated with the EOQ model.
Examples of parameters might include the storage capacity, availability of space, location
of the job, discounts, progress of the work, among others. Examples of performance
measures might include shortages, surplus of material, among others. Based on the
information input (i.e. alternatives and the parameters), an analysis can be performed to
assist the electrical contractor with the amount of material that should be acquired.
6 PROPOSED DECISION SUPPORT FRAMEWORK FOR SCM
The proposed framework will encompass several decision flowcharts at different decision
nodes. Decision nodes in the material management process include those points where
something has to be done or a decision has to be made with material such as
purchasing, delivery options and storage alternatives. Each flowchart will provide the
logical sequence to respond to the different decision making questions presented in
Figure 6. An example flowchart that comprises part of the framework is presented in
Figure 8.
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particular supplier. If there are no blanket orders, the contractor requests bids from
different suppliers.
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This definition allows filtering and extracting the model parameters needed for a
particular decision from all the data available in the companys database (2). The model
parameters needed for the analysis are filtered and extracted from their permanent storage
locations in the companys database or other locations such as supplier servers, internet
resources, etc. (3). Once extracted, these data are loaded into a temporary location for the
running of the model (4). These data are all temporary data elements that exist while the
model is being used for the specific user call initiated. The model calls the necessary
analytical tools that utilize the temporary data elements to provide the best decision at
that particular instant. These analytical tools are filtered using the intelligent query
defined for the particular decision (5). Once the model runs and provides a decision
support for the user (6), including performance measures and alternatives considered in
the analysis, the knowledge elements stored in the temporary database are erased.
7 SPARCSSUPPLY CHAIN PARAMETER CLASSIFICATION
SYSTEM
The performance of the material-procurement decisions is heavily dependent on the
combination of the different alternatives listed in every phase of the materials
management process and the factors or parameters that influence the selection among the
different alternatives for each particular decision. These knowledge elements (i.e.
parameters) can be acquired from different sources such as historical databases, the
internet, and suppliers, among others.
These data need to be extracted on a regular basis as decisions related to material
management are ever present in a construction project. The identification of parameters is
a task that requires more attention, since parameters related to different issues, such as
schedule, suppliers, among others, need to be considered.
The identification and extraction process for the parameters could be tedious and time
consuming be-cause the decision maker could be extracting the information from
unstructured records that contain vast amounts of data. In addition, important parameters
that relate to different categories such as schedules, storage, cost, among others, need to
be extracted and sorted. Currently, there is no structured model to categorize the
parameters that need to be considered on the supply chain decision making process for
the electrical contractor. The electrical contracting industry needs a structured database
design that can allow decision makers to review and categorize these parameters. This
categorization could facilitate the storage and classification of this parameter information
for future extraction and use. As part of this research, a structured approach was defined
for parameter classification.
Based on the information gathered through interviews with electrical contracting
industry personnel such as contractors, suppliers and manufacturers, and extensive
literature reviews, a system for classifying parameters for material supply chain,
specifically for the electrical contracting industry, was developed. The system is known
as SPARCS, which is an acronym for Supply-chain PARameter Classification System.
This system will allow decision makers to classify supply chain parameters and organize
them in a structured format, thus minimizing the time required for data extraction and
reducing the tediousness of the current approach.
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categories are used to further divide the Storage categories into on-site or off-site storage.
The parameters are then classified into the appropriate category and subcategory.
8 FUTURE RESEARCH
This article presented a research effort that established the knowledge and bases that
allow re-engineering the current practices for material supply chain management for the
electrical contracting industry. A framework for the design of a decision support system
to assist the decision maker in the construction phase of the project was presented. The
implementation of the framework will allow making better decisions on what material to
buy, when to buy, where to deliver, where to store. This research didnt consider all the
phases in the supply chain management for the electrical contracting industry. However,
it serves as the basis for future research in the area. This section presents research
directions and issues that could be the basis for fUture research efforts. Some of these
directions include:
1. Expand the Fmmework to Include Other Phases of the Material Management Process
2. Database Design and Development for the Knowledge Elements
3. Expand FSPARCS into a Knowledge Map
By expanding SPARCS to be a knowledge map, it would def ine all of the
knowledge elements of the decision support system including the decision
variables, performance measures, formulas, optimization routines and human
expert knowledge that are involved in the decisions, thus providing better
information about the relationships among such elements.
4. Expand the Framework to Better Represent the ECIndustry
The framework could be expanded to include other types of work such as
residential, industrial, government work among others, consider bigger size
companies, in terms of volume of sales per year and include companies from
other geographical areas.
5. Development ofthe Framework into a Computer Program
Further research can focus on the implementation of the design specified in this
document in the development of a computer application of decision support
system.
6. Build an Implementation Plan for the DSS
This implementation plan should address the areas that could concern contractors
such as computational requirements, educational requirements, monetary
requirements and collaboration requirements for successful implementation.
7. Study Cultural Change Issues
The construction industry is very resistant to change. Implementation of new
innovative methods might be difficult in such an environment. Therefore a study
of the culture encountered in construction is essential for the implementation of
the decision sup-port system in a company.
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9 CONCLUSION
An effective material management system is essential to avoid material shortages,
misplacements, loss, and theft which might result in increases in crew idle times, loss of
productivity and delay of activities. Electrical contractors should implement an efficient
material management system due to the fact that in most of the cases they are asked to
squeeze their bids in order to keep the costs of project under budget. In such a case,
failures to effectively manage materials could result in decreases in profit or even a loss.
The pnmary goal is to have the matenal needed, in the amounts needed, with the quahty
required, and the time that they are needed. Most electrical contracting companies have a
material management system that serves their needs, although it could be improved.
Standardization of the material management system could be a step forward in improving
the system and eliminating some of the bottlenecks.
REFERENCES
Cooke, S., and Slack, N., (1984), Making Management Decisions, Prentice-Hall International Inc.,
London.
Stukhart, G., (1995), Construction Materials Management, Marcel Dekker, Inc.
Thabet, W., and Perdomo, J., (2003), A Framework for an Integrated Matenal Management
System, Research Report Submitted To the Electrical Contracting Foundation, Inc.
Web site of the Associated Specialty Contractors (ASC), http://www.assoc-spec-cn.org/
Web site of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), http://www.necanet.org/
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Planning processes in the building and construction industry differ from planning and
design processes of other industry domains by specific characteristics. Generally, in Civil
Engineering the processes are complex and characterized by a
high number of planning participants where each planning participant is a specialist in
his technical domain and each planner has his own view on the building project,
heterogeneous and distributed planning environment concerning the software methods,
models and means of communication, and
high demand of communication between the planning participants.
Furthermore, in civil engineering projects architects, engineers, authorities and craftsmen
design complex buildings with a unique design. The specific planning tasks and the
associated communication network of planning participants vary from project to prqject.
Consequently, an identical process model can hardly be applied to different building
projects. Thats the reason why the application of process modeling and the processoriented view on the planning processes in the building and construction industry is
neglected compared to other industry domains. Instead, webbased projectcommunication-systems became very widespread in the last years. These systems mainly
base on document-management tools and therefore dont provide appropriate means for
496
the coordination of planning processes and the control of communication between the
planning participants. Basically, these project-communication-systems dont rely on a
consistent process model at all.
2 PETRINET-BASED PROCESS MODELING IN CIVIL
ENGINEERING
The presented approach supports the coordination of distributed and cooperative planning
processes in Civil Engineering based on the Petri Net theory. Hereby, the focus is not so
much on the product modelling but rather on the process orientation, i.e., the
identification, publication, analysis, optimization and finally the management of planning
processes. Nevertheless, processing distinct product model information is essential for the
case-based process management and control.
2.1 Formal process modeling methods
From the early 60s different process modeling methods have been developed each
addressing its specific objectives. However, there is one important criteria for the use of a
certain modeling method, which is known as the degree of formalism. In general, nonformal, semi-formal and formal modeling methods are distinguished. In non-formal
modeling methods neither the syntax nor the semantics are defined. Non-formal modeling
methods are, e.g., the human speech, pseudo-code or the UML use-case diagrams. In
semi-formal modeling methods, e.g., the eventdriven process chains (EPCs), entityrelationship-models (ERMs) or UML sequence diagrams certainly the syntax is clearly
defined, but not the semantics. Finally, in formal modeling methods the syntax and the
semantics are clearly defined. Examples are programming languages, simulation models
and mathematical models. However, there exist various formal modeling methods like
ACP, CSP or CCS which have an algebraic character but no appropriate graphical
representation. These methods are hardly suitable for process modeling [Aalst/Hee 2002].
2.2 Petri Nets for process modeling
The Petri Nets provide both a mathematical formalism and a graphical representation
based on the graph theory in order to model the concurrent and asynchronous behaviour
of a discrete system. The Petri Net theory origins from the PhD thesis of Carl Adam Petri
in 1962 [Petri 1962]. Since then, various researches, extensions and improvements have
been applied to the original Petri Net theory. The application of Petri Nets to process
modeling and workflow management has been introduced by, e.g., v.d. Aalst [Aalst
1998a] and Oberweis [Oberweis 1996]. Especially, the application of Petri Nets on civil
engineering processes is explained in, e.g., [Rueppel et al. 2003]. The main reasons for
modelling Civil Engineering processes with Petri Nets are
the graphical representation,
the bipartite structure with places and transitions for modelling both planning states and
planning activities,
497
the token concept for modelling logical firing conditions and the flow of planning
information within an engineering workflow, and
the mathematical formalism for structural, behavioural and simulation analysis of
engineering process models.
For a short introduction to Petri Nets see, e.g., [Aalst 1998a], for a comprehensive
introduction, e.g., [Reisig 1985] or [Baumgarten 1990] are recommend. As illustrated in
Figure 1 Petri Net consists of places, transitions and arcs, with each arc connecting either
a transition and a place or a place and a transition. The tokens reside on the places. Based
on well defined rules the transitions can fire and thus let the tokens flow through the
net.
The basic idea in modeling Structural Engineering processes with Petri Nets is to
describe
planning states with places,
lanning activities with transitions,
planning dependencies with arcs and
planning information with tokens.
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the soundness property, is defined in order to test the correctness of a Petri Netbased
process model.
2.3 Petri Nets with individual tokensfor process decision navigation
Petri Nets with individual tokens extend the original Petri Net theory by concepts of data
types and the manipulation of data values, known from programming languages.
Especially, Petri Nets with individual tokens are well-suited for systems modeling
communication, concurrency, synchronization and resource sharing [Jensen 1996].
Using the example of process decision navigation the application of Petri Nets with
individual tokens for processing product model information in the process model is
illustrated. Typically, in process models decisions are modeled as XOR-splits. In Petri
Nets these XOR-splits consist of a marked place and subsequent transitions, with each
transition initializing a specific process path (see Figure 2 left hand side). In simple
Petri Nets, e.g., condition/event-nets or place/transition nets, the decision is made by a
human supervisor interactively or by the system either based on a random value or a
probability function. The basic drawback arising from process modeling with simple Petri
Nets is that there is no reference to any product model information at all. However,
product model information
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evaluating the tokens GC-value. In the presented example only one transition with
GC==3 will yield true und thus initialize subsequent planning processes (path P3) based
on the token value, i.e., the product model information.
In this way, it is possible to process distinct product model information for process
decision navigation in the process model. Of course, there are other typical process
structures like process synchronization for which the use of product model information is
absolutely important.
3 PROCESSING MODEL INFORMATION IN PETRINET-BASED
PROCESSES MODELS
According to the reference model of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC)
specific data generated or updated by humans or technical application programs during
the process run time has to be accessible for process management. In [Hollingsworth
1995] this kind of data is termed process-relevant data in contrast to application data
which denotes the total set of product model information. In order to make
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on the other hand, existing Java Petri Net archives, like the Platform Independent Petri
Net Editor (PIPE), have been iritegrated. PIPE provides basic Petri Net analysis
possibilities, e.g., liveness, boundedness or safeness [Bloom 2003].
In ProMiSE the information representation is realized with the Petri Net Markup
Language (PNML)
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architecture introduced in Figure 4 the network communication from the SOAP client via
the Petri Net server to a specific planning participant according to the process model is
illustrated in Figure 8.
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Katzenbach, R., Meissner, U.F., Rueppel, U., Savidis, S.A., Giere, J., Greb, S. & Mejstrik, M.
2004. Abstraction of Process-Relevant Information from Geotechnical Standards and
Regulations, accepted for: Xth International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building
Engineering (ICCCBE), 0204 June, Weimar, Germany
Jensen, K. 1996. Coloured Petri-NetsBasic Concepts, Analysis Methods and Practical Use,
Springer-Verlag
Kindler, E. 2002. The Petri Net Markup Language, In: H.Weber (ed), Petri Net Technology for
Communication Based Systems, Springer LNCS
Oberweis, A. 1996. Modellierung und Ausfuhrung von Wbrkflows mit Petri-Netzen, TeubnerVerlag
Reisig, W. 1985. Petri Nets, An Introduction, In: W.Brauer, G.Rozenberg & A.Salomaa (eds.),
Monographs on Theoretical Computer Science, Springer Verlag, Berlin
Petri C.A. 1962. Kommunikation mit Automaten, Schriften des Instituts ftir Instrumentelle
Mathematik der Universitat Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Rueppel, U.; Greb, S. & Theiss, M. 2003. Managing Distributed Planning Processes in Fire
Protection Engineering based on Agent Technologies and Petri-Nets In J.Cha, R.JardimGonalves & A. Steiger-Garo (eds), Proceedings ofthe 10th ISPE International Conference
on Concurrent Engineering, Book 2, p. 651656, Madeira Island, Portugal, July, 2003
Xindice (2001), Apache Native XML Database, The Apache Software Foundation,
http://xml.apache.org/xindice
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
It is a well-known fact that building material sector grows parallel to the technological
developments in the construction sector since 1970s. There are many imported building
materials and components available in the market besides those are being manufactured
in Turkey. All of these products have an effect on construction sector as a whole complex
manner. On the other hand, it is a very significant enrichment for the users who
accomplish to select an appropriate building material among alternatives. The very
process of getting access to choose and specify building materials is persistently changing
by virtue of the emerging information technology tools. By the help of these tools, it is
also easy to access up-to-date, accurate and sufficient information about building
materials on time.
At the moment there are numerous information sources that have a very intense and
up-to-date content related to building materials in the countries where construction sector
is well-developed. In the last decade in particular web-based information tools have been
dramatically developed. Emerging web-based technologies offer opportunities to create a
straight link among manufacturers, suppliers and customers. Online supply chains and
electronic business considerably change the way products are specified, ordered,
customized, marketed and sold. It reduces the time and effort spent in the assessment and
choice of appropriate building materials and components. Hence, more efforts can be
spent to decrease the total building cost. Simultaneously, these tools provide
opportunities,
to the users to make comparisons among the alternative building materials and
components available in the market faster than conventional methods,
to the manufacturers and suppliers to introduce and present comprehensively their
products and to make less investment in marketing operations.
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Material and labor inputs used up through the construction process create quality control
dilemma. That is the reason why the performance of the building materials pointed out in
the catalogues cannot be accomplished after the construction has been completed.
Manufacturers spend a great effort to solve the problem in the scope of total quality
management.
Besides, in the building materials sector numerous new products introduced to the
market continuously. It is becoming unattainable to check their performance by tests, thus
most of the new products are to be used without being sure if they have satisfactory
performance or not. In this case, making the users to be in conscious is quite important.
Users should consider following factors throughout the assessment and selection process
of building materials:
the properties of the materials that are pointed out in the catalogues,
the physical, chemical or aesthetic compatibility with other materials,
costof the material,
availability of the material particularly for long-lead items,
familiarity or experience (that is to say knowledge about the material by craftsmen and
suppliers),
laborcost,
labor skill,
guarantee conditions,
standards, codes, regulations, and specifications that should be satisfied,
ease of maintenance and repairs (Keyser et al. 1978).
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provide the users making comparisons, evaluating and choosing among alternative
building materials in the market in a quick and rational manner,
provide the manufacturers or suppliers publishing reliable, up-to-date and detailed
technical information and introducing their new products economically,
provide suppliers developing e-commerce facilities between manufacturers and users,
provide building material manufacturers developing supply chains among each other.
3.1 Web-based building material information sources in the world
At the moment there are numerous global web-based sources that supply building
material information to the users. The structure of those web-based sources varies
according to the (Tas et al. 1999):
financial capacity of the sponsor institutions or the organizations,
the user profile which it serves,
its capacity,
geographical range that it serves.
On the other hand, the content of the web-based sources can be grouped under four main
topics:
General information (contact info, mailing and e-mail address of the institution or
organization that supports and maintains the source),
Product profile (the content contains technical and the other information about products
the users look for),
Other services (catalogs, CD-ROMs and floppy diskettes, electronic magazines and
manuals sent via mail or e-mail mostly on registration basis, web page design and
electronic mail services),
Communication and web links (interactivity between the user and the web-based
source, discussion forums, message centers, live chat, e-business etc.).
Factors that influence the users preference of the web-based sources are:
ease of use, in other words user-friendliness and enabling accurate and fast access to
information,
whether or not a well-known classification system is used in the organization of the
content, e.g. CSI Master Format, CI/SfB,
having a fast search engine and a comprehensive database,
having services like technical specification data, etc.,
having not only technical information but also problem solving alternatives related to
the application of building materials, e.g. CAD files,
having not only online services but also using traditional tools such as mailing paperbased sources.
It can be said that those services and content is progressively developed parallel to the
increase of numbers of users. It is a well-organized source if the content is in order,
reliable and up-to-date.
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Economical instability and changing inflation rate in Turkey are the most important
factors that prevent the development of Turkish construction sector for years.
It is well-known fact that the Turkish construction sector as the driving force of the
economy has not only been extensively affected by the reformist economical movements
but also has seen as a solution to unemployment problem. The companies, which have an
active role in construction sector, are adversely affected by the cost variations during the
construction process, which cannot be foreseen in the design phase. The share of the
building material cost is very high in total building cost. Since it is necessary to access
up-to-date market prices besides technical information of building materials.
There is no widespread use of well-known international classification systems in
Turkey except CI/SfB to some extent. Selection of a classification system is a very
important step in the design of a building material information tool. Moreover, it is hard
to exchange data among accessible information sources.
The audit to check the conformity of the standards, manufacturing, storage and
application of building materials and components is not enough. On the other hand, there
is no well-developed quality assurance system for the imported products to control the
suitability of them for the Turkish conditions. Users are not supplied with any further
knowledge that can guide them through building material assessment and selection
process. Most of the users are not aware enough about standards and regulations. So,
building materials are mostly selected in an empirical way, such as along with personal
experiences, knowledge and preferences. There are low quality mostly imported products
available in market cheaper than the others.
A web-based building material information tool should have a role to orient the
building material sector by encouraging the manufacturers to produce high quality
products and by helping users to aware in assessing and choosing building materials in
Turkey.
4 A BUILDING MATERIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM MODEL
(BMIS) FORTURKEY
This section mentions about a research project carried out in The Center of Building
Cost and Construction Management Center in the Faculty of Architecture at Istanbul
Technical University (ITU). The main theme of the project was developing a Building
Materials Information System (BMIS) based on relational database structure in the
context of Turkish construction sector. The main objectives were to examine Turkish
market and to develop an information system. It would be possible to estimate the
approximate total building cost of a project even in the design development phase by
means of developed information system. The information system would be used both in
schematic design and design development phases of the construction process.
There were two main objectives of the studies carried out within the scope of the
BMIS research. First group of the objectives were as follows:
gathering all the information on the subject of building materials used in market at
present,
having access to detailed technical information about available building materials in the
market,
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the subjects directly related with the human life, health and safety. On the other hand, in
developing countries, since the economical and social conditions are not at the sufficient
enough, national standards have a compulsory character by the laws. The standards
approved by the TSE are called as Turkish Standard. According to the National
Notification #82/113 related to Public Procurement of Turkish Ministry of Industry
and Technology it is pointed out that (Esen 1984):
Turkish standards should be referred in technical specifications prepared for public
procurement and tenders,
If a Turkish standard is available in an issue, Turkish Standard Conformity
Certification given by TSE should be looked for,
If a Turkish standard is not available in an issue, once more and only TSEK
Certification given by TSE should be looked for,
The authority given to the other boards by regulation, law and decrees is reserved.
Therefore when the users know that the building material complies with the TSE
standards, they can easily assess and select it. It also helps them to be protected from
deceiving advertisements or announcements.
The building material data sheets that are engaged in different generic categories are
developed as follows:
For instance, in developing a building material data sheet in the category of paint,
TS 7847 (Wall-Coating Emulsions for ExteriorsPolymer Based), TS 39 (PaintsOrganic Solvent Based-Top) and TS 5808 (Water-Based Emulsion TypeArchitectural
Paints) are analyzed. The structure of the data sheets mainly consists of following titles:
material category name,
structure of the material,
TSEnumber,
physical, chemical, mechanical performance characteristics and environmental
properties of the material,
manufacturer,
the Turkish Ministry of Public Works and Resettlement classification number and unit
price of material.
Hence, the user has an opportunity to check the performance characteristics of the
building material he/she selects from the data in the sheets, which are generated from its
corresponding standards.
Developing standard building material data sheet formats for Turkish construction
sector and using them extensively are considered to be the next step for the research.
4.2 BMIS coding system development
The system can also be used as a computer-based model that estimates the building cost
in schematic design and design development phases. In that context, a BMIS coding
system based on classification system based on functional building elements was
developed. So called BMIS classification system was linked to Turkish Ministry of
Public Works and Resettlement and CI/SfB classification system.
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6 CONCLUSION
Construction sector is called as the driving force of the national economy and cannot be
separated from the development process of a country. In addition, construction sector
uses the products or services of the other sectors, and the products it produces also are
used by the others. Construction sector is not only affected by the activities occur in the
other sectors, but also affects other sectors concerning to the decisions taken and the
industrial improvements. Besides, it creates employment opportunities.
Alternatively, as a candidate country for the EU, Turkey knows his duties and
responsibilities very well. International contractors and building material manufacturers
perceive Turkey as an important potential market. Turkish contractors, building material
manufacturers and designers are also getting projects abroad together with their partners.
As BMIS is started being used practically, the characteristics and properties of the
building materials manufactured in Turkey will be introduced to the world and it will be
an important step to a web-based source which has a link with the international
classification systems.
Availability of the building material information on the web will give the users the
opportunity of easy access to up-to-date and accurate technical information. It will have
encouraging contributions to the building material assessment and selection process
regarding time and cost issues. By the help of the BMIS, users can select the appropriate
products bearing in mind detailed technical information and unit cost, and through users
experiences or feedbacks. It will encourage manufacturers to search more economical
production and marketing operations. The users will be aware of quality and standard
issues. In addition, during the schematic design or design development phases of the
project, building cost estimation can be made to check whether the building material
selected is a rational choice or not.
REFERENCES
Building Industry Center, YEM, http://www.yapi-tr.com./
Bloomfield, D., Amor, R. and Groosman, M., 2001, The Evolving CONNET Gateway to
European Construction resources, Proceedings of the CIB W102 conference, Melbourne,
Australia, 2627 March.
CONNET Project, http://www.connet.org/ web site (2004).
Esen, D., Documenting and Studies inTurkey, Unpublished MasterThesis, ITU Science &
Technology Institute, 1984.
Tas, E., Tanacan, L., Yaman, H., (1999) Building Material Information Systems On The World
Wide Web, Proc. Int. Conference On Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics, Special
Focus Symposium World Wide Web as Framework for Collaboration, pp: 147156, BadenBaden, Germany.
Tas, E., (2001) A Research Project to Design A building Materials Information System, YAPI,
No.238, pp: 8491, Istanbul, In Turkish.
Yaman, H., Tas, E., Tanacan, L., (2000) The Content of an Ideal Web Site for Building Materials
Information in the World Wide Web: A Turkish Perspective, CIB W78 Proc. Construction
Information Technology CIT 2000, pp: 10691079, RejkjavikIceland.
Ontologies
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 0415359384
1 INTRODUCTION
Due to the fragmented nature of the AEC industry, various research works have been
conducted in the area of information management based on the concept of
interoperability, e.g., the Industrial Foundation Classes (IFC)1 and aecXML2 developed
by International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI), and the method of Business Process
Reengineering (BPR), etc. With the support of Information Technology (IT), information
generated in the process can now be integrated and subsequently reusable across
disparate disciplines throughout the project lifecycle. One example is the development of
Internet-based project management system, which aims to integrate heterogeneous
systems using workflow technologies and business-to-business integration standards.
However, information management is not just about managing the information flow.
One problem of the project management systems is the lack of flexibility to handle
dynamic information changes. They are reactive, instead of proactive, to the changes
519
initiated in other disciplines. Moreover, they treat changes as new coming messages and
broadcast them to all the stakeholders. Therefore, information neglect due to information
overload always occurs, and no implications of the changes are suggested for the stakeholders. As stakeholders have different perspectives and requirements to cope with
changes, they need to know how to identify the changes as early as possible, how to
respond to them immediately, who and what task will be affected by them, when the
project will finally finished, and what the final cost will be. Therefore, possible delay,
extra cost and even disputes can be avoided or minimized in the project.
Based on these demands, this paper describes an ongoing research to develop an
ontology-driven change management model in the AEC industry. Its initiative is to use
ontologies as the backbone to support the identification of complex information
interactions during the project process. In order to enable the change propagation across
different domains, this research uses intelligent agents to interact with the ontological
data, and also uses customized interface to deliver the custom-tailored change reports to
the stakeholders.
2 BACKGROUND
2.1 Ontology as a common vocabulary to describe domain knowledge
Ontology is a term borrowed from the field of philosophy, where it refers to what the
world exists and how it is configured. In the Artificial Intelligence (AI)
1
2
http://www.iai-ev.de/spezifikation/IFC2x/index.htm
http://www.iai-na.org/aecxml/mission.php
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http://www-2.cs.cmu.cdu/~softagents/intro.htm
ACL (Agent Communication Language), IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol), XMLbased scripting language, etc.
3 THE FRAMEWORK OF INFORMATION CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
After reviewing the necessary background, here we propose the framework of
information change management. We argue that in future Internet-based project
management systems, different stakeholders will have their own agents on behalf of them
to exchange information and update the changes. The agent will have the ontology as its
backbone, and customized workspace as its representation interface. We illustrate this
idea as below:
As figure 1 shows, the framework is consisted of three layers, i.e. interface layer,
application layer and theory core layer. We discuss them in more details:
Ontology (Theory core layer)
This layer is the backbone for other layers. It defines a common vocabulary for
different agents to communicate with each other, and supports the users to
customize their interfaces based on their preferences. In this layer, terms are
defined and used consistently in naming objects, e.g. task, pre-condition, postcondition, etc. This is the requisite for an explicit representation of a shared
understanding of different domains.
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this library has all the planed time, cost and process templates for Information
Agents to extract the related information.
Organization Sever (Application layer)
This server allows the Information Agents to collect information across the
organization boundaries, and stores the plan library specific to that organization,
where the Interface Agents can be designed to fit for specific purpose.
Task Agents (Application layer)
If we classify the Information Agents as internal agents for specific organizations
to structure information for them, then the Task Agents are external ones for
different organizations to exchange information and negotiate with each other in
case of conflicts. Because changes are initiated by one organization, and then
propagated to other ones, we need this kind of agents to roam from one
organization to another to collect the updated information, and report the changes
to stakeholders.
Interface Agents (Interface layer)
Interface Agents represent the users to respond to the Task Agents, and facilitate
the results to be displayed in a way that satisfies the users preferences. For
example, users can choose the preference as manual input or selection to
display the options.
Customized Workspace: Internet-based System (Interface layer)
After the manipulation of Interface Agents, different users can have their own
customized Web pages, and this is integrated into the Internet-based project
management systems.
With the implementation of the framework, changes are supposed to be delivered to the
right hand at the right time, thus possible delay due to information neglect can be
avoided, fast reaction can be initiated, and efficient authorization process can be enabled.
524
http://protege.stanford.edu/index.html
WebOnto, OntoEdit, etc. In this paper, we use Protg 2000, a graphical tool for ontology
editing and knowledge acquisition with new and evolving Semantic Web language, i.e.
OWL and ezOWL plugin. Comparing with other software, Protg 2000 can interoperate
with other ontology development platforms and support for most of the activities of
ontology lifecycle (Corcho et al., 2002). It concentrates on the concept models instead of
the syntax of the languages to be used on the web. One of the advantages of Protege 2000
is translating a model from one language to another is as easy as selecting a save as
item from a menu. Another key feature of Protg 2000 is it allows the user to define the
meta-class and metaslots to fit for the personal needs of concept modeling. For more
technical information, please refer to its website.
4.3 Implementation
In our research, we make use of IFC 22 to develop ontologies. In IFC, there are welldeveloped entities and relationships. According to the example mentioned above, the
entity, IfcSpaceProgram, is used to define the client requirements for the space before
the building is designed. Space programs can change over the life cycle of a building,
525
after the building is occupied. Changes to space programs take place in the facilities
management/operations phase of the building life cycle.5 Based on this, we model some
key concepts and their relationships shown as figure 2.
In this model, objects/entities are represented as classes with the properties/attributes
as slots, and
5
http://www.iai-ev.de/spezifikation/IFC2x/index.htm
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527
REFERENCES
Barron, A and Fischer, M. (2001) Potential Benefits of Internet-Based Project Control SystemsA
Study On Change Order Processing, CIFE Technical Report #126, Stanford University,
http://www.stanford.edu/group/CIFE/Publications/index.html [April, 2004]
Corcho, O., Fernandez-Lopez, M., Comez-Perez, A. and Vicente, O. (2002) WebODE: An
Integrated Workbench for Ontology Representation, Reasoning, and Exchange, Proceedings of
13th European Knowledge Acquisition Workshop: Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge
Management: Ontologies and the Semantic Web, Editors: Gomez-Perez, A. and Benjamins,
V.R., Siguenza, Spain, pp. 138153.
Fensel, D. (2003) Semantic Web Services: A Communication Infrastructure for eWork and
eCommerce, In: Lovelle, J.M.C. et al (Eds), Web Engineering: International Conference,
ICWE2003, July 1418, 2003, Oviedo, Spain, Springer, 17.
Schevers, H. (2004) Demand Support By Virtual ExpertsSupporting the Client During the
Inception Phase of a Building and Construction Project, unpublished PhD thesis, Faculty of
Civil Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The building industry has become aware that an ergonomic fit project information
management system is one of the fundamental needs at the project outset so that
knowledge corresponds to the activities conducted throughout the project life can be
managed effectively. The project information management system has evolved from the
conventional paper-based mechanism to the nowadays digital based mechanism.
However, the implementation of the digital based project information system does not
respond perfectly to the demands of the building industry yet indicated weaknesses
identified from the current web technologies. This paper presents a hypothetical
knowledge management system supported by the semantic web in which ontological
approach is applied for knowledge modeling purposes. The outlines of this paper is
divided into two parts where the current practice of project information management will
be analyzed followed by a comprehensive description of the hypothetical system that is to
improve the pitfalls identified from the current practice.
1.1 Background
The design process of the building industry was characterized as a sequential conversion
flow that transforms information from technical standards, legislations and other design
529
specialties into solutions and product specifications. The conventional design process as
such is typically disciplinary orientated, which means that different team actors concern
mainly about their respective interests and knowledge to formulate technical solutions
corresponding to the design requirements under their disciplinary specialties. Reworks in
designs are the consequences of this fragmented design process in order to maintain the
coherence among the numerous decisions made throughout particularly the ambiguous
and frequently changed briefing and early design process (Mesquita, 2002). Close
collaboration amongst the multidisciplinary team actors has therefore become a necessity
from the outset of a project.
2 COLLABORATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
The characteristic of building project is unique in a way to involve multi-participants
from different business natures to collaborate closely throughout the project life. It has
been custom for the building industry to organize a vast amount of information,
particularly those generated during the early design phase, with particular mechanisms to
ensure future reuse and retrieval. Basically, information that can lead to effective action
can be defined as explicit knowledge (Davies, Fensel & Van Harmelen, 2003). Both the
tacit and explicit knowledge have been recognized as the important strategic resource of
an organization (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). These two types of knowledge are reused
and shared amongst the project team actors as a means to achieve the optimum state of
collaboration. Organizing both of these two types of knowledge has also been realized as
an uneasy task (Fruchter, 2002).
2.1 The attempts
The basic need of an ergonomic fit project information management system is to enable
support of traditional project management tasks in planning, monitoring, reporting and
control of baseline scope, cost, time and quality (Archer et al., 1997). Such a system is
also expected incorporate to the mechanisms of trend forecasting and change control, and
able to manage documents in a manner that would track issues, provide fast retrieval of
relevant documents and support the time limited process for the resolution of disputes
(Archer et al., 1997). Several attempts have been conducted including the concept of
project web, which tends to apply the fast developing information communication
technologies (ICT) to manage the existing information base more effectively. A
comprehensive discussion in regard to project web associated with the technology behind
will be given in the following section of the paper.
3 METADATA AND PROJECT WEB
3.1 What is metadata
In brief, metadata is defined as data about data, and obviously metadata itself is also data.
Metadata can be embedded in the document that it describes/represents, or exist
530
separately from the document. Metadata can be used to describe any object in the
universe. Generally, metadata about an object is structured to provide a description. The
structure is common for all instances of the same type of object. A very typical example
for this is the library card system where each library card contains description of a book
such as title, author, keywords, publishing date, and so forth (NAEH, 2004b). Metadata
used in the library card system is to facilitate the library user for books searching by
considering a book as an object, having a number of properties that can be represented
with descriptive metadata. With this respect, it has been obvious that the application of
metadata has its long history in the aspect of information management.
3.2 Project web
Project web is a project-level mechanism, which is to fimction as a centralised repository
for project team actors to exchange project information during the phases of planning,
design, construction and facility management (FM). Digitalised information, such as
design drawings, progress reports and meeting minutes are available in this information
container.
3.3 Use of metadata in the building industry
Integrating information, as a mechanism to improve the efficiency of information
monitoring, becomes a crucial task for the A/E/C professionals. The mass amount of
information produced at the project outset may have a big variety of formats, including
the well structured data stored in database management system (DBMS), the semistructured HTML and/or XML files, and also the weakly structured texts/graphics/
multimedia files (Maher & Simoff, 1998). Both technical and managerial approaches
have been investigated for the purpose of improving information integration (Fisher &
Kunz, 1995). These approaches involved the use of a centralized project model that
adopts data standards ranging from the previous ISO-STEPS to the recent IFC, in which
structured data integration was the primary concern. Apart from that, some recent
researches started to take unstructured data integration into consideration. Amongst these
efforts were design tool that could capture, share and reuse project information (Fruchter,
2002), approach that could extract concepts from textual design documentation, the use
of arbitrarily metadata that could markup documentation (Briiggemann et al., 2000), as
well as the use of controlled vocabularies that could integrate heterogeneous data
representations (Kosovac et al., 2000). Apparently, metadata has been one of the
approaches under investigation by the A/E/C professionals which tended to improve data
integration.
3.4 The current practice
The use of project web by the A/E/C professionals becomes more and more widespread.
However, the conscious use of metadata in the construction industry is seldom. The use is
often limited to unconscious use of more or less occasional metadata elements in
desultory situations. Therefore the potential benefits of using metadata have decreased.
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if users were obliged to use metadata to connect to files. Only in half of the systems a
search on metadata could be done otherwise they were just indicated when the user
browsed the files. In fact, it was only possible to make a direct search on metadata in very
few systems. User reactions therefore claimed that the retrieval of documents often took
place in a list named e.g. New Documents or Since last Time. This list was sorted by
date and contained therefore documents concerning quite different subjects. The list was
emptied after each visit and the documents were automatically stored in folders that
corresponded to categories of the different subjects. This user pattern illustrated the
unawareness of users with respect to the functionalities of the system or more likely that
document retrieval functioning on metadata was poorly developed.
The connection of metadata to files was either done automatically by the system or
manually by the user. The automatically connected elements were often of the type as
Date, User ID and File Name (NAEH, 2004b). Only a few elements such as Document
Number and Revision were mandatory while the rest were optional. The optional
elements were sometimes used with different approaches or just ignored by the system
user.
In most cases, the metadata elements did not follow a common standard. The elements
were defined on the basis of the providers preferences indifferent of actual user needs or
patterns. The standards that were used to define the metadata elements were either out of
date or uncommonly used and therefore useless (NAEH, 2004b).
For the further work with metadata in project webs systems with respect to these
shortcomings, it would be naturally to follow a standard. ISO/IEC 820455 Document
managementPart 5: Application of metadata for the construction and facility
management sector which is a standard for the utilization of metadata in the construction
industry providing four metadata sets each of which directed to specific phases of the
construction process (ISO/IEC CD 820455). The standard is under development.
For some project team actors such a standard would make some limitations to their
work procedure and require modifications, but in accordance with common
understanding a poor standard is better than no standard. With the standard proposed by
ISO/IEC 820455, it would be possible to raise the use of project web systems from
merely document containers to more intelligent document management systems. By
following a standard the users would be presented with the same user interface
independent of which project web system the actual construction project is using. The
transfer of data from one system to another would become less problematic.
4 THE HYPOTHETICAL SYSTEM
4.1 The concept
With reference to the comments given by interviewees and the analyses of questionnaires
survey, a semantic web based knowledge management system is developed to improve
the management of project information which is a crucial means to enhance collaboration
amongst project actors (Lai et al., 2002; Lai et al., 2003). The system is primarily devised
to integrate pieces of information generated at the iterative early design stage in order to
provide decision making support in a multi-actors environment where information is
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Figure 1. Representations of
information and document.
developed to support progress meeting, and meeting minutes is chosen as the medium for
integrating information. The prototype may be an alternative method of capturing
discussion content of design progress meetings rather than the conventional notes-taking
534
approach. In light of the limited use of conventional meeting minutes, the prototype
system is also devised to provide fast and precise semantic search, and to capture the
intent and rationale behind decisions made during the early design process. The prototype
system is envisioned to fulfil the following tasks:
To integrate information that is distributed in heterogeneous sources without using one
central repository to reduce repetition of workload.
To capture and store discussion content wherein design rationale and decision intent are
intrinsically encompassed.
To organise the captured information in a way that is both human and machine
readable.
To contextualise the captured information in representation that may improve the
humans efficiency to interpret its implicit meaning.
4.2 The tools used
The semantic web (Bernes-Lee, 2001) technologies were chosen as the core of the
prototype system. In order to fulfil its tasks, the prototype system was built based on an
underlying ontology model so that the discussion content is organized in a semanticbased network. Resource Description Framework and its Schema (RDF(S)), the de facto
standards proposed by the industry group W3C (W3C, 2002) are adopted to develop the
ontology model of the prototype system mainly due to the availability of several open
source RDF(S) tools.
Protege 2.01, an open source ontology editor is used to develop the form-based user
interface of the prototype system. This user interface is to facilitate the system user
establishing RDF data file based on the lightweight ontology model, which is written in
RDFS. Sesame 1.0 (detail see http://sesame.aidministration.nl/), an open source RDF(S)
based repository and querying facility is used as the development base of the prototype
system. RQL, query language used in Sesame, is also implemented in this prototype
system as the means of accessing information in RDF(S) (detail see Broekstra &
Kampman, 2001).
4.3 The implementation
The underlying ontology model of the prototype system consists of a few modular
components, which respectively is ontology, as illustrated in Figure 2. Each of these
ontologies describes another aspect of interest, for instance the team-profile ontology
describing the profile of the design team. The modular characteristic with respect to the
ontologies network streamlines the prototypes flexibility for future expansion. Each
modular component within the ontologies network is accessible through uniquely
specified URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). This modular characteristic permits the
scattered information including the existent data and the respective ontologies not to be
collected under one central repository.
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5 DISCUSSION
The prototype is to test if ontology-driven approach is contributable to collaborative
design knowledge management. At this stage, the reasoning structure of the prototype
system is evaluated by populating instances to the underlying ontology model via the
form-filling user interface. The interim findings have identified that the current metadata
initiatives are insufficient for the prototype to fulfil all of its tasks. These initiatives focus
on the encoding of primary content attributes of resources (e.g. documents, datasets, etc),
such as author, date, location ID, and so forth, with the purpose merely to improve
information retrieval and interoperability. In order to fulfil all of its tasks, the prototype
system is devised one step forward to take the challenge claimed by Goel (Goel, 1995),
which is to provide possible means for analyzing the contents from group discussions so
that the idea flow can be traced.
Ideas with respect to various issues were generated, shared, and discussed during the
design progress meetings. These ideas comprise newly defined or existing design
problems, propositions to solutions, as well as the solutions themselves. The relationship
between these ideas was implicitly written as plain-text messages in the conventional
meeting minutes. The implicit relationship between these ideas can be made explicit by
contextualizing them with reference to the propositions given by Shum et al. (2002) so
that the flow of ideas can be traced, i.e.
1. The intellectual lineage of ideas, for instance, where has this idea come from, is this
idea a problem or proposition, has this problem been solved, are there any precedent
cases?
2. The impact of ideas, for instance, what was the impact of this proposition to its
problem and to other proposition?
3. Inconsistencies, for instance, did the solution gain unanimous agreement from the
project team, what was the reason given as opposition?
Contextualizing information in such a way is similar to overlaying interpretation of
contents explicitly based on the semantic network derived from the underlying ontology
model. As shown in Figure 4, the contextual map, which is part of the prototype system
devised for this purpose, allows system users to model the semantic relationships
between information graphically by binding the different sets of annotated ideas with
context dependent relations (or properties as defined in RDF(S)). Please see Lai (2004)
for the detailed explanation with respect to this knowledge authoring approach. With
reference to Figure 4, <Agreement> and <Problem> were two of the examples of
metadata used in the prototype system to annotate the information content, and solved_by
was the example of relations used to disclose the semantic relationships between
information. Briefly, disclosing the semantic relationships between information
graphically as illustrated in Figure 4 may reduce the time users will spend to digest the
non-relevant information and therefore enable the users to manage information of interest
more efficiently.
At this stage, metadata used in the prototype was arbitrarily defined based on its
meaning in natural language. Vocabularies were chosen on the basis of their expressive
semantic in describing collaborative design process. Use of arbitrary metadata is a pitfall
538
that may hinder effective information interoperability as already identified in the project
web system in Section 3.6.
6 CONCLUSION & FUTURE WORK
Design rationale and decision intent are intrinsically contained in the discussion content
of the design progress meeting. Discussion content has been conventionally captured in
meeting minutes simply as a piece of plain-text document written in natural language.
This piece of document is circulated amongst the project team actors. Sources of design
information that is referred to during discussion are usually specified in this plain-text
record. By making use of the technologies of Semantic Web and ontologies, the
conventional meeting minutes is envisioned upgradeable to a dynamic and semantically
structured medium. The implication is that this medium may handle the mass quantity of
design information effectively by eliminating repetition of workload. The dynamic
meeting minutes may also allow the design intents be explicitly presented instead of
implicitly described in plain-text records. This envisioned system will be a medium for
project team actors to manipulate (store, index, search and retrieve) knowledge as well as
the corresponding meta knowledge effectively
The proposition of further research is to examine the possibility of incorporating the
standards for metadata as proposed by the ISO/IEC 820455 in the ontology modeling
process. This consideration may avoid repeating the same imperfection of project web
while offering a coordinated strategy for better mapping of metadata between different
knowledge management systems. A promising standard may adapt the prototype
knowledge management system not only sufficient to serve the early design stage but
also to serve the whole building life cycle.
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Argumentation. in P.A.Kirschner, S.J.B.Shum and C.S.Carr (eds.). Visualising Argumentation:
Software Tools for Collaborative and Educational Sense-Making. Press. Springer-Verlag.
London: 185204.
W3C. 2002. RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema. W3C Working Draft 30
April 2002. http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Historically, construction projects have been organised on a local or national basis.
Construction, over the last decades, has become a global industry, with a variety of
activities, carried out on an international scale. For instance, the process of design has
followed international practice of creating a supply chain of independent companies, each
adding value in a particular area.
The result has been a large number of SMEs representing architectural practices, and
firms of structural and building services engineers. This situation results in a very highly
fragmented, heterogeneous, chain of information (complying with diverse official and de
facto standards) in the building process.
One of the major consequences in this scenario is the difficulty to communicate
effectively and efficiently among partners during a building project or between clients
and suppliers of construction products. This is a well-known problem, and several
European and international initiatives have tried to overcome this problem by producing
dictionaries, thesauri, and several semantic resources (e.g. BS6100 glossary, the e-
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development of new businesses exploiting the available semantic resources for the
construction sector. The second, a very ambitious one, is to be used as the main
instrument in the FUNSIEC quest towards the education of the construction sector over
semantic-related matters. Finally, the third one will rely on the
1
SPICE project is an European initiative that was over May 2004. Its main goal was to produce a
set of CEN Workshop Agreements (CWA) in order to support the establishment of the
eConstruction (e-world for Construction) in Europe.
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Beyond the simple pooling of linguistic resources, the project aims at creating a
harmonised environment where each resource is clearly characterised
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The ISO standard proposes a model to guide the development of taxonomies for Construction. It
is used by some SRs currently available in Europe, namely the LexiCon (the Netherlands), Barbi
(Norway), and Edibatec (France).
of interest that were used in the eConstruct end-user demonstration scenarios and
concentrates on the context of Buildings, especially Doors. It contains nearly 3000 terms
specifically related to doors and expressed in the following languages: English, French,
Dutch, German, Norwegian, and Greeklish3.
The bcBuildingDefinitions can be instantiated to create catalogue contents or the
actual requirements and solutions messages. For example consider that a user wants to
get quotations from a number of door suppliers that meet the following specification: 5
no. I hour fire resistant, internal solid core doors, Ash veneered and lippings on both
faces, door leaf height 2040mm and width 826mm.
The bcXML is primary capable of supporting simple eCommerce communication of
products (materials, components, equipment, documents) and services inside or over the
national borders. Users can specify the content of their messages (both supply and
demand) in terms used in the building and construction industry. Simple, small and clear
XML code is generated. Both B2C/C2B and B2B communication are provided. The
bcXML is also able to communicate with external taxonomies that add more complex
structuring mechanisms like specialisation, decomposition, or views.
The demonstration scenarios used in eConstruct show the use of
bcBuildingDefinitions. A given company is searching for a specific timber flush door.
Using their software tool or via the eConstruct Browser, they query the taxonomy server
in order to get the product they are looking for. They have access to the structure of the
door, they fill in the properties they are interested in and search in their native language
(assuming English) through French and German catalogues. If the product is found, the
company receives a list of the products currently available. The bcBuildingDefinitions is
used to provide the structure of timber flush door and to help the translation of the query
in different languages, since each element/concept in the taxonomy is represented in
several languages.
4.1.2 The e-COGNOS ontology
The e-COGNOS IST project developed the e-COGNOS Knowledge Management
Infrastructure (e-CKMI), a Web-based KM solution targeting the needs of the
Construction industry. Two concepts are fundamental in the e-CKMI: Knowledge Items
(KI) and Knowledge Representations (KR). The former are the real pieces of knowledge
(documents, experts, projects, organisations, etc.) and the latter are the respective
representation of KIs within e-CKML In other words, each KI is represented by a KR
within e-CKMI (Lima et al. 2003).
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creates the respective knowledge representation (KR). This KR is then indexed through
keywords and ontological concepts. In the search process, the ontology is used to support
an so-named advanced process where the user can browse the ontology in order to
prepare his/her query in a more precise way.
A group of four end users assessed the e-COGNOS ontology as part of the e-CKMI
tool as well as in an isolated way. In the first case, the ontology was used to provide
ontological references to index their KIs. As expected, the results reported showed that
better answers were obtained when using ontological indexes. In the second case, the
users were invited to play the role of administrator of the ontology. Positive results and
precise criticisms were acquired, showing that ontologies (or semantic resources in
general) are not so well understood by ordinary users. This conclusion provides precious
insights regarding future works on this area.
The e-COGNOS vision over the development of a big ontology was confronted with
an unexpected reality. The users actually showed their preferences to use their very
specific, concise and precise taxonomies. They do not want to handle big ontologies;
rather they are perfectly happy if their small resources are in place providing the results
they are expecting. This fact has changed the concept of the e-COGNOS ontology: the
big ontology is available but it is totally customisable in the sense that a small taxonomy
with 100 concepts can replace it.
4.2 The IFC model
The primary target of the IFC model is the interoperability among software applications
within the building and construction market sector. IFC classes are therefore defined
according to the scope and the abstraction level of software systems dealing with building
and construction specific content. Thus, the IFC model has not been developed as an
ontology per se, however its object model is structured according to principles that are
common with other semantic resources (CWA3 2004).
These concepts (or terms) are defined as follows:
As predefined concepts (of IFC classes and relations), if such concepts are commonly
used across many general and construction domain specific software products. These
statically defined concepts allow to speed-up the exchange and sharing of
information and reduce the risk of ambiguous interpretation;
As open concepts (of IFC proxies for classes, or IFC property sets for attributes), if
such concepts are subjected to deep domain knowledge or are specific to certain
localities. These dynamically defined concepts allow to enhance the scope of terms
used within IFC by enabling the IFC model to be extended by the use of an external
classification or taxonomy concept.
The predefined concepts form a well defined hierarchy of terms in the sense of a
taxonomical hierarchy. At the leaf nodes of that hierarchy more dynamic means to extend
the definitions (like enumeration for special occurrence types or type objects for common
types) towards more granularities.
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The IFC model comprises several schemas that are organised according to the layer
they belong to. The schema IfcKernel defines the most abstract part within the IFC
architecture which contains the most abstract IFC entitythe IfcRoot. Each entity
defined in the core, interoperability or domain layer of the IFC model inherits (over some
intermediate steps) from the IfcRoot entity. It provides for the fundamental properties of
identification, ownership and change information, and optional label attribution. There
are three fundamental entity types in the IFC model derived from the IfcRoot, that form
the first level of specialization within the IFC class hierarchy, namely:
Objects are the generalisation of any semantically treated item within the IFC model.
An object can be: the abstract supertype, all physically tangible items physically
existing items or conceptual items, processes, controls, resources or actors. An object
gets its context information from the relationships it is involved in.
Relations are the generalisation of all relationships among items that are treaded as
objectified relationships in the IFC model. A concept of relationships is the objectified
relationshipIfcRelationshipwhich is the preferred way to handle relationships
among objects. This allows to keep the relationship specific properties directly in the
relationship object and to uncouple the relationship semantics from the object
attributes. The introduction of the objectified relationships also allows the
development of a separate subtype tree for the relationship semantics.
Properties are the generalisation of all characteristics (either types or partial type, i.e.,
property sets) that may be assigned to objects. The property definition
IfcPropertyDefinitionis the generalisation of all characteristics of objects. It reflects
the specific information of an object type, versus the occurrence information of the
actual object in the project context. The property definition gets applied to the objects
using the concept of relationships.
The entities of the IfcKernel schemata are organised in a taxonomy, which is not the case
for the entities belonging to other schemas. This is a consequence of the object oriented
approach of the IFC model. In that case, there is no real need for an explicit organisation
of the concepts; rather the IfcEntities are related among themselves through explicitly
defined relations.
4.3 The ISO 120063 family
ISO 120063 is a Construction specific standard that defines a schema for a taxonomy
model, which provides the ability to define concepts by means of properties, to group
concepts, and to define relationships between concepts (Fig. 5). Objects, collections and
relationships are the basic entities of the model. The set of properties associated with an
object provide the formal definition of the object as well as its typical behaviour.
Properties have values, optionally expressed in units (CWA3 2004).
The role that an object is intended to play can be designated through the model and
this provides the capability to define the context within which the object is used. Each
object may have multiple names and this allows for its expression in terms of synonyms
or in multiple languages. The language name of each object must always be given in
English (the default language). An object may also be named in terms of the language of
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close cooperation with Norwegian and international organisations involved with similar
projects.
BARBi is a conceptual, object-oriented, language neutral reference data library. It is
the Norwegian version of a common reference data library based on the ISO DIS 12006
3. BARBI is conceptual because it describes objects from what they are, independent of
use and time, and not from what they are named or classified as. It is Object-oriented
because it puts the object (concept) in the centre and studies its properties and relations to
other objects. It is Language neutral because one object can have several names in the
same language, one name can refer to several objects, and because what a dictionary
gives as a translation of a word in one language not necessarily refers to the same object
in another language.
BARBi links standards, classification systems and their definitions. Every object
(concept) in BARBi has a global unique Identifier. BARBi also provides multiple
classification-and specialisation hierarchies for any concept.
4.4 The Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a vision for the future of the Web in which information is given
explicit meaning, making it easier for machines to automatically process and integrate
information available on the Web. A requirement for the Semantic Web is an ontology
language that can formally describe the meaning of terminology used in Web documents.
OWL has been designed to meet this need for a Web Ontology Language. OWL is
part of the growing stack of W3C recommendations related to the Semantic Web in
which OWL adds more vocabulary for describing properties and classes: among others,
relations between classes (e.g. disjointness), cardinality (e.g. exactly one), equality,
richer typing of properties, characteristics of properties (e.g. symmetry), and enumerated
classes.
In OWL, an ontology is a set of definitions of classes and properties, and constraints
on the way those classes and properties can be employed. An OWL ontology may include
the following elements: (i) taxonomic relations among classes; (ii) datatype properties,
descriptions of attributes of elements of classes; and (iii) instances of classes and
instances of properties.
4.5 Standardisation efforts
SPICE is an European project running together with the CEN/ISSS eConstruction
workshop aiming at helping to promote e-volution in European Construction by
providing an open discussion forum for consensus on several interrelated CEN Workshop
Agreements (CWAs)specifications needed for outworking of eConstruction.
In recent years there has been a strong cooperation between committed industry
players and the research community to create a climate of industrial interest and to
encourage industrial uptake. Fundamental to this is the establishment of standards for
eConstruction that application developers can implement to enable free flow of
information between diverse software tools. Here is where the CEN/ISSS Workshop on
eConstruction comes in, relying on the work carried out by some of the well-recognised
European institutions in this field.
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1 INTRODUCTION
Meaningful (semantic) electronic communication in Building and Civil Engineering has
been researched for many years. Success has been limited however. The bottleneck was
the time-to-market of the standard itself. ISO-STEP produced paper-based standards that
first had to be implemented by the application vendors before end-users could profit.
AIA-IFC shortened the cycle somewhat, but at the cost of speeding up the number of new
releases. With the arrival of XML a new approach became feasible. The European
eConstruct project developed bcXML as an example of a web-based communication
language for Building and Construction. With the newest OWL/RDF technology many
problems disappear that eConstruct could not solve at the time. It seems that electronic
meaningful communication is finally entering the arena ready to change Building
Construction into a truly modern industry. At least that might be the case if the Semantic
Web delivers what it promises.
2 TERMINOLOGY BASELINE
To set a baseline for this paper, we will first introduce the semantic web and shortly
explain what we mean with ontology and classification.
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RDF sees everything as resource-property-value triples also named subject-predicateobject. When reading multiple files, an RDF application combines all data into one set of
triples, so that data items with the same URL in both files are internally seen as one. This
means that the information in the files is combined, making it feasible to have dispersed
information that can later be combined. Also you can extend other semantic web files, for
instance you can add your own extra levels to an existing classification system.
2.2 Ontology and classification
Both the term ontology and classification will be used in this paper. As discussed in
(Rees 2003), these terms can be used to indicate multiple things, partly over-lapping. The
semantics suggested in that paper for classification:
Classification or simple classification. A grouping of entities according to some
external criteria. The grouping will be quite natural, as it is mostly made from a certain
viewpoint.
Classification is basically a set of boxes (with labels) to sort things into. It can be used
as a user-friendly view on/in a taxonomy or ontology
Likewise for ontology: Ontology is a set of well-defined concepts describing a specific
domain. The concepts are defined using an subclass hierarchy, by assigning and defining
properties and by defining relationships between the concepts etcetera.
When using the term ontology an indication should be given of the kind of ontology.
A very simple ontology could perhaps better be named taxonomy, but a heavyweight
ontology should specify and advertise its capabilities lest it be grouped with the apparent
majority of very lightweight ontologies.
An ontologys goal is to provide a common, reference-able set of concepts for use in
communication. It is quite common to use multiple ontologies, each providing concepts
for a particular domain, together forming a rich vocabulary for communication.
The intended semantics of ontology is a set of identifiable classes, placed at least
partly in a subclass hierarchy, with labels and possibly descriptions, with associated
properties.
2.3 OWL: the semantic webs ontology formal
RDF makes it possible to identify and relate data items. This by itself is not enough.
What is needed is to make the semantics of the data items explicit. An ontology can be
used to define classes and to provide a list of properties associated with those classes.
Besides being a standardised (Owl 2004) web format for ontologies, OWL also allows
a limited amount of reasoning. The semantics of the OWL model elements are welldefined, which is a necessary prerequisite for reasoning. When a certain property (say
door_height) is defined as being only allowed on a certain class (say door_leaf), any
object that has that property can be deducted as being part of that class. When needed,
this allows you to define class A as being the same as class B, but excluding those objects
that have property C.
In practice, you can for instance exclude objects from being a member of the class
load bearing walls if they are not connected to another supporting load bearing
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structural element, like a foundation. This way you can detect possible failureson the
condition, of course, that the ontologies and supporting applications are detailed enough.
3 IMPLEMENTATION OF A SEMANTIC WEB SCENARIO
This section describes an implementation of a semantic web based prototype. Much of
the work was done by graduate student Wouter van Vegchel (Vegchel 2004).
3.1 The scenario
The business scenario was directed to private house owners who want to improve and
extend their houses. Typically, no architect is involved in such a smallscale project. But
that means that the house owner (the client) has much less relevant knowledge than the
contractor. This inequality can lead to problems.
1 The client is unable to make his desires sufficiently clear to the contractor, leading to
disappointments later in the process.
2 The client is unaware of a lot of possibilities, and learns about unknown technical
solutions and alternatives during the project.
3 The client is unaware of a lot of risks, resulting in friction between the client and the
contractor.
The basic premise is that it is possible to support the private house owner with relevant
computer-based knowledge. House owner associations typically have a lot of data on
common risks. Identifying these risks beforehand allows you to prevent the risk or to
agree on the risk beforehand with the contractor, for example.
Providing the client in an early stage with multiple common alternatives for his wishes
might mean more satisfaction because of a better fit between the solution and the wish.
Ideally, a simple, but good, building specification can be generated that can form a
basis for a better and clearer contract.
The technical reason for this scenario was to provide a back to back walk-through of a
complete semantic web enabled building information exchange. There are so many
clients that have the same problem as our private house owner, though on a large scale. A
small experiment to learn about the technology, its features, and its limitations seemed
worthwhile.
3.2 The Ontology: basis for communication
Obviously the semantic web was a pre-requisite for this research. Therefore definitions of
objects used in the communication (house, extension, addition, foundation, roof, height,
and so on) were made explicit in an on-line ontology. As the Building Construction
industry is strongly fragmented, instead of developing a single huge ontology it seemed a
good idea to create multiple smaller cooperating ontologies, each for a certain domain.
Ultimately domain experts have to create the ontologies for their own domains. If
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estimates are correct some 300.000 objects with properties and units should be described;
clearly not a sma ll project.
Using OWL this possibility is becoming a real alternative, as OWL allows the mixing
of multiple ontologies. This is the semantic web in action: on the web you can link from
one document to another, on the semantic web you can link from one data item in one
location to one data item in another location. So a mechanical ventilation system can
have a subclassOf link with a more generic ventilation system in another ontology.
In the initial implementation a number small ontologies were created using Proteges
(Protege 2004) ezOWL (ezowl 2004) plug-in. The ezOWL plug-in
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As a test case the applicable rules in the building regulations have been added to the
ontology. As these rules are simply of an if-then-else type OWL had no problem with
them. In fact it seems that OWL DL and OWL Full provide a strong basis for this type of
applications and opens up a whole new market for knowledge vendors (including R&D
institutions). Though time became rather limited we looked into the possibility to check
the designs against a knowledge base that contained knowledge to prevent construction
errors. From what we did it seemed that this type of services can be nicely build on-top of
the ontology network. As many other services spring to mind from costs, risks, to a
multitude of analyses, the idea took shape that this might become a whole new way to
market knowledge.
3.5 Coupling with specification systems: using the available data
With the instance available, we made a coupling with the Dutch specification system. A
problem is that the Dutch specification system does not support such small projects
without an architect (it is both an implementation and a legal problem: there are two
differing legal frameworks, one for small works like these and one for bigger works with
architects, subcontractors, etc.). The work done is therefore just for test purposes.
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The instance was an RDF file pointing to the concepts in the ontologies. A file was
created that specified the mapping between concepts in the ontologies and specification
items. For example, House is the starting point. The mapping file specifies that for the
opening section of the specification, naming the project, the address and the description
of the extension have to be extracted from the instance. This mapping was, of course,
done in RDF.
The mapping used both push and pull. The specification pulls the info needed in
the opening section (the houses address, the extension description) from the instance.
But it just reacts (push) on a lot of other items. It only includes a section on brick walls
when the instance pushes the brick wall to the mapper. In a way, this simple solution
mimics XSLTs behaviour.
The result is an RDF file with just the specification items, but without a chapter
structure. A small program adds the relevant chapters from the separate chapter RDF file,
generated previously. This is converted to HTML at the end.
An interesting addition to this process was the conversion of the Dutch SfB
classification table (nl-SfB, elementenmethode) to a similar chapter structure and
adding the links from these chapters to the specification items. Without changing
anything in the original data, this second chapter structure could be combined with the
resulting specification items and transformed to HTML as an alternative building
specification.
To be more accurate, the first specification structure is a work breakdown structure,
which is the structure of the Dutch building specifications. The second classification (nlSfB) is normally used (in the Netherlands) for costing applications and CAD drawing
layering. As a side note, work is underway to make the nl-Sf B an alternative for the
work break-down classification in the building specifications.
4 DISCUSSION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION AND FURTHER
RESEARCH
4.1 The basic scenario as a whole
Storing the base data in ontologies worked well. Both the support application and the
specification generator could use it as a basis for communication. The possibility of
subclassing (inheritance) was used well by both applications. The client support
application displayed different kinds of houses (subclasses of House), the specification
generator needed a House instance as a starting point, but reacted also perfectly to an
instance of a subclass. This might not seem like a big deal, but there are not many current
applications that have such a thing build-in.
The real support of the client by warning him for common pitfalls etc., was not
undertaken because of time constraints. In this way, only the generation of a simple
specification as a basis for a contract provides a bit of support. On the other hand, the
ontologies contained common solutions for house extensions, preventing possible
omissions.
Regarding further work on the instance model, the next stage is obvious: a real
interaction with CAD-based data. The only currently realistic option is IFC. When
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On a higher level, both can be seen as a matching process between supply and demand.
Objects and properties can be viewed from a functional perspective (demand) and a
technical perspective (offering, supply).
Functional objects have functional attributes, or better, functional requirements.
Unless the client demands a specific object, the demand specification will normally be
phrased with functional requirements. An example is provided below. A technical object
or, technical solution is a specific object like a brick wall.
In between the functional demand specification and the possible technical solutions
there ought to be a matching process. The functional objects in the ontology should
therefore be specific enough to allow suppliers to automate the matching process of those
fimctional objects with their products.
4.2.3 Some implications
Ontologies can perhaps best be seen as basic pieces of infrastructure, the costs of which
should be shared. Non-proprietary and a shared workload: open source. If the advantages
of generally available ontologies are realistic enough, investing in coordination, some
infrastructure and the man-hours needed to fill the ontologies should be possible. In other
(richer) industries like the medical industry huge ontology building efforts are taking
place. Their ontology web, UMLS is said to contain over 700.000 objects. The advantage
of ontology based information and knowledge sharing are obvious: a priori integration (if
based on the same ontology, applications can communicate) instead of the commonly
used a posteriori integration. It seems that in Building Construction the government has a
large stake in the development effort (provided that the results are open and given enough
momentum market forces can take over) because there is so much at stake and so much
tax payer money spoiled each year.
4.2.4 Future work
The approach followed in the presented research, combined with the indicated
demand/supply direction, gives us a few very interesting research topics.
First ontologies: The functional unit/technical solution FU/TS paradigm proposed in
the General AEC Reference Model GARM (Gielingh 1988) seems useful, but it needs to
be tested with a sizeable set of data. This directly draws attention to the part-of relation
semantics. Taking just eConstructs ontology as example, it was never clarified whether
the parts indicated in the ontology were a definitive list or just a suggested list of
common parts, or a set of obligatory parts. FU/TS includes the decomposition of a
technical solution into a few smaller functional units and so could be a good basis for a
clarification. The ISO standard 120062 is partly ftmctional-based, partly technicalbased, so this common classification needs attention.
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clear license. Preliminary think work suggests that a creative commons license
(http://www.creativecommons.org/) might be a good choice.
4.3 Web services
This section provides a view on the possibilities of web services. Information from
several sources, available in web-readable formats, is combined into a new result. The
actual implementation of the client support application is independent from the
specification generation, as only the readable result that is transferred over the Internet
matters.
Note that in this case we only transfer files (XML, RDF) using the normal Internet
protocols (HTTP), we are not defining a custom SOAP API for every application that has
to be implemented by the other applications. It is recommended to not use SOAP unless
absolutely necessary.
SOAP raises the coordination costs with the num ber of attached applications. For
each different application (identified by an address) you need another API. HTTP is
always the same, so more applications do not raise the coordination costs, apart from the
extra addresses (naturally).
4.4 Semantic web as knowledge support
A other interesting area of research is to look beyond the obvious advantages of semantic
web based ontologies. The obvious part is having easily usable object and property
definitions. The less obvious part is the built-in support for knowledge support. OWL
supports a basic level of reasoning. It allows you to define classes as the set of objects
fulfilling a set of criteria. A certain class of houses can be defined as having an internal
sound level that is lower than a certain value. Existing houses (or designed houses) can
than be tested if they are part of that class. This allows an integrated handling of some
types of regulations.
Likewise, regulations can define a certain class of doors to have a minimum width (for
safety reasons). A public building can require all doors to be part of that safety class.
5 CONCLUSIONS
A common network of object definitions (including properties and units) first should
satisfy the needs of the national industry. This has been one of the lessons learned from
the European eConstruct project where endless discussions about the nature of very
common objects (like inner doors) proved beyond reasonable doubt that different
concepts are applied in different European countries. French inner doors differ from
Dutch inner doors and German inner doors. The same is true for most objects, large and
small. Standardisation efforts of data describing Building Construction object definitions
should realise this fact. Only after each country has defined its own objects, European or
even ISO standardisation comes into play. The case study presented above clearly
confirmed that conclusion. Everything contained in the ontology is coloured by national
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regulations: the type of houses, the type of extensions, the type of walls, foundations and
roofs, the details of the constructions, everything.
Interesting is that the purpose of the ontology reflects in its structure. Supporting the
client in his decision making process makes it mandatory to distinguish between a
functional view and a technical view. In the small this has been implemented and demonstrated. How it should be done for large projects is a question for the future.
Also rather interesting is that ontology-based web services might well change the
future of software and service providers. Ideally web services should be implemented as
Virtual Experts. Paying only for the time the service is actually being consumed and not
for the availability of the applications seems quite interesting for the clients, though
maybe somewhat fearfiil for the vendors or their service staff (vendors only have to
support one version of their software!!). The case study learned that it might well be
possible to develop support for all kinds of knowledge-rich services like cost analysis,
risk analysis, specification, feasibility, maintainability, and much more, and make that
support available on every PC over the Internet.
Also interesting is the possibility that new players may enter the market. R&D
institutions can transfer results of research into usable services instead of new
regulations, for example to provide knowledge intensive services, such as analysing
designs for possible design errors, or transaction risks.
All in all the case study proved to be useful. The semantic web brings challenging
opportunities for improved information and knowledge sharing which, in time, will
change Building-Construction as we know it into an industry that intensively co-operates
to truly fulfill the clients demands.
REFERENCES
DAML/OIL 2001. Reference description of the DAML+OIL (March 2001) ontology markup
language. Available on-line at http://www.daml.org/2001/03/ reference
Ekholm, A. 2004. ISO 120062 and IFCcould they be harmonized? Unpublished, w78 workshop
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Ezowl 2004. Visual semantic web ontology editor. Available on-line at http://iweb.etri.re.kr/ezowl/
Gielingh, W.F. 1988. General AEC reference model (GARM). Delft: TNO bouw.
OWL 2004. OWL Web Ontology Language Reference. Available on-line at
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-ref-20040210/
Protege 2004. Protege ontology editor. Available on-line at http://protege.stanford.edu/
Rees, R.van, Behesthi, R., Tolman, F. 2002. bcXML enabled VR project information front-ends.
Ework and ebusiness in architecture, engineering and construction. Lisse: Balkema
Rees, R. van 2003. Clarity in the Usage of the Terms Ontology, Taxonomy and Classification.
Proceedings of the 2003 cib w 78 conference. Auckland. Available on-line at
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
An ever-existing theme/concern during the development of any ontology is the clustering
of industry concepts in a flexible and meaningful manner. Clustering is the task of
dividing a knowledge domain into coherent subsets of classes (or concepts) that share a
common thread (use, meaning, origin, etc.). Classification refers to methods and
algorithms for placing (or classifying) concepts in relevant clusters. Both tasks are illdefined, non-deterministic task, in the sense that, using only the training data [initial
concept pool], one cannot be sure that a discovered classification [or clustering] rule will
have a high predictive accuracy on the test set, which contains data instances unseen
during training (Freitas, 2002).
The development of clustering mechanism is the cornerstone for taxonomy
development. It is inherently an exercise in the balance between the art and the science of
doing so. Several advanced data mining techniques are available for automatically
discovering common patterns in industry databases. Through Formal Concept Analysis
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(FCA) and advanced algorithms, these patterns could be used to create taxonomies. The
complete reliance on data mining tools cannot produce a usable taxonomy. This has to be
balanced with human interference to assure practical analysis and modeling of industry
fundamental concepts.
Several attempts have been made for developing concept clusters in the construction
domain. Most of these have followed a top-down modeling approach, i.e. through
dependence on human knowledge, a group of researchers using different modeling tools
(IDEFO, EXPRESS, UML) have created several cluster structures for construction
concepts. This is very suitable for an industry with ill-defined data structures like the
construction industry The overwhelming portion of these clustering mechanisms was in
the form of classification systems (Masterformat, UniClass, BS6100, for example). Most
of these classification systems are rich in industry-friendly terms. However, their
fundamental drawback are in their structured (in contrast to object oriented) approach,
their static nature, product-orientation, and the lack of coherent underlying clustering
principles.
In contrast, other industries, with well established databases, have relied on the
bottom-up approach for establishing some of these taxonomies (Michalski and Stepp,
1983; Fisher and Langley, 1985; Fisher, 1987; Hull and King, 1987).
The objective of this research is to develop a flexible scalable clustering mechanism
for construction concepts that balances the industry need for practical terminology and
the needs of automated machine-based concept mining. The research also aimed at using
the clustering mechanisms to equip each concept with a full reference to its metadata
(attributes, constraints and related concepts) in a manner that will allow a distributed
agent-like environment where inter-industry concepts can interact in a virtual
collaborative process.
2 RESEARCH SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
To develop an effective clustering (or taxonomy) architecture, we need to create a set of
metadata (referred to here also as clustering concepts), which give us all a place to record
what a document, or concept, is for or about. To achieve that, we need to establish a
standard syntax, so metadata can be recognised as such; and one or more standard
vocabularies, so search engines, producers and consumers all speak the same language
when describing concepts.
The proposed architecture clusters construction concepts into two main dimensions.
The first: Practical Concepts, encapsulates the main entities in the construction industry
(Project, Process, Actor, Resource and Product). The second: Clustering concepts, are
meant to capture the attributes, types and constraints of these entities. Each concept is
then represented as a gene that will carry within itself full reference to its metadata
(parameters, domain, attributes, constraints, etc.). Concepts, acting as agents, can
enquire about other concepts domain of application, constraints, attributes, etc. Such
self-describing concept representation is also invaluable in machine-based
knowledge/pattern discovery, where FCA and other data mining techniques could be used
to automatically generate construction taxonomies and/or concept lattice.
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To achieve that, the research first identified a set of motivating examples describing an
industry need or situation. These were represented in the form of use-cases. A set of
industry needs were then developed to guide the development of the clustering
architecture in parallel with an extensive literature reviews of clustering
methods/ontology/knowledge management/data mining/lattice theory. The research
project, which spanned 3 years, then developed a set of taxonomies for several industry
domains (highways, telecommunications, buildings, sustainable infrastructure systems,
project finance, and land development). These taxonomies were built on the same lines of
the e-COGNOS taxonomy. Overall, these taxonomies encompass about 15,000 unique
concepts. Iterative revisions of these taxonomies were conducted over time.
Throughout the development, 36 industry experts were involved in one-on-one
interviews to assess the validity of these taxonomies. Analysis of recursive industry input
led to the development of a top-down model for the clustering architecture. i.e. a model
that is dependent on researchers and industry views of construction concepts. In other
words, the base architecture did not depend on a data mining approach (which is referred
to hereinafter as bottom up approach). This is mainly due to concerns for external validity
(Cook and Campbell, 1979). External validity refers to the reusability and ease of
application of a system.
3 TOP-DOWN APPROACH: ENTITY MODELING
This research contribution is in the creation of a top-down clustering scheme that could
help future bottom-up discovery of construction taxonomies (through data mining
techniques). The research developed an extended model of IDEFO. It includes an
extended semantic description of its four dimensions: Input, Output, Controls and
Mechanisms. Furthermore, the research attempted to generalize the use of these four
dimensions beyond Process to secure more comprehensive representation of Actors and
Products. The research project has developed a generic mechanism to extend the use of
these four dimensions to the e-COGNOS Entity. An Entity is a Project, a Process, a
Product, an Actor or a Resource. Figure 1 shows the extended IDEFO representation of
Entity:
Controls: represent an umbrella for all Laws, Code, Specifications, User requirements,
Conditions (such as Site restrictions, Topography, Weather) and other controls like
Cultural and Environmental requirements.
Mechanisms: have been defined to include:
Theoretical dimension: this is a fundamental mechanism that helps us formalize a
metaphorical model for analyzing a problem, a process, a product, etc. This
include:
Theories: such as the Theory of Structures and the Theory of Architecture.
Algorithms: such as Clustering Algorithms and Genetic Algorithms.
Principals: such as the Least Energy Principle.
Strategies: where formal theoretical representations are not available, strategies
represent the fundamental mechanism that supports the handling of our work.
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573
Measures: After theorizing a metaphor for Entities, modeling their aspects using
Abstract Concepts and Parameters, specifying their attributes, and using some
Techniques for executing them, we have to measure the conformance of the output to
our objectives. This includes conducting Tests (for physical Entities) and using
Metrics (for the logical and tacit Entities).
Input and Output: this defines the input and outputs of Processes. It is also applicable, to
an extent, to Actors (Inputs and outputs of an organization) and Projects.
It can be immediately noticed that this is not the only way to cluster construction
concepts. The definitions used are also not universal. Since the classification task is
studied in many different disciplines, there is a wide variety of terminology in use to
describe the basic elements of this task. For example, a data instance [in data mining
domain] can be called an example, an object, a case, a record, or a tuple. An attribute can
be called a variable or a feature (Freitas, 2002).
Another important note that can be observed is the need for developing means for
capturing the polymorphic nature of our concepts through what could be called typedevelopment, i.e. we need consistent ways to drive flavours of Entities from an abstract
Entity (Steimann, 2000). For example, Safety Code, Accounting Code, Zoning Code,
National Code, Provincial Code, Municipal Code, are flavours of Code derived along the
dimensions: Domain (for Safety, Accounting, and Zoning) and the Setting dimension
(Local, Provincial/Sate, National/Federal). Agreeing on unified sorting/clustering
dimensions will enable consistent generation of concept flavours.
It can also be further noted that, due to the multidimensional nature of our concepts,
any clustering mechanism has to allow for multiple inheritance. For example, Best
Practice can be a Theoretical tool that supports the design of a product. It can also be an
execution Technique for a process.
4 BASE CLUSTERING ARCHITECTURE
Figure 2 represent a clustering framework proposed by this research. The framework
used two main dimensions to cluster knowledge: Practical concepts and Clustering
concepts. The practical concepts encompass the Entity concept and some Basic concepts.
The Clustering concepts encompass the extended IDEFO model discussed above and
type-development mechanism.
The Horizontal dimension in Figure 2 shows the main types of Entities in
Construction: Projects, Processes, Products, Actors, Resources. The Vertical dimension
shows the clustering concepts or metadata used to describe these entities. The
mechanism, controls, inputs and outputs related to these entities are shown in the lower
part of the vertical dimension. The upper portion shows the types of these entities.
Systematically, the clustering concepts are used to develop types and sub elements of the
practical
concepts.
They
also
could
be
used
to
link
related
attributes/constraints/mechanisms to their relevant entities. As can be seen in Figure 2,
this allows an out-of-domain taxonomy (Operations Research taxonomy for example) to
be easily integrated in a construction taxonomy (items in the construction taxonomy will
refer to operations research terms as their mechanisms or theories, etc.). Similarly, a
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taxonomy for sustainability or even engineering design could be easily blended into the
main taxonomy.
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Whole-Part sub-ing: The first obvious sub-ing mechanism is the traditional whole-part
relationship. For example, in Figure 2, a Project can be divided into several contracts.
Phase-ing: Processes and Products have life cycles that span several phases. It is
proposed that four generic phases be used to express the timeline of Entities:
conceptualization, planning, execution and utilization. Figure 3 shows a sample Phaseing of some construction processes.
The self explanatory Figure 4 shows an amended e-COGNOS taxonomy that is based on
this clustering architecture.
5 CONCEPT GENES: SELF-DESCRIBING CONCEPTS
It is proposed that each Practical Concept carries in its definition a reference to its
Clustering Concepts, hence providing a genetic signature for each concept. Figure 5
shows a self describing concept in the form of a gene. It includes a unique Name and an
ID that are relevant to a certain domain or an industry. It also includes a reference to
other synonyms. It also includes a reference to the mechanisms used in its operation (if
any), any input, output and controls. For example, the gene for a Civil Design Process
could include a reference to the Theory of Structures, Structural Engineer, Structural
Design and Structural Code. In contrast, the gene for a Mechanical Design
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577
578
Underground
systems
Privatized
assets
Nonprivatized
assets
Infrastructure
product
Bridge
system
Telecomm
system
Water
systems
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580
581
Phrase
Taxonomy 1 concepts
Taxonomy 2 concepts
D1
P1
IP, BS, WS
D2
P12
IP,BS
D7
P10
IP, TS, WS
D7
P15
IP,WS
BOOT
D10
P8
IP
BOOT
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The AEC sector has embraced e-commerce and e-business, as demonstrated by recent
case studies that illustrate the use of electronic collaborative and commerce platforms by
the different AEC players. These applications can be as sophisticated as the best practices
found in Automotive, Aeronautics or Retailing sectors, though they are much less
frequently deployed. In order to create the enabling conditions for the deployment of the
electronic collaborative and commerce platforms it is fundamental to understand the
variables that may influence its development, and how they determine the configuration
of the e-platform.
E-COMMERCE AND E-BUSINESS FUNCTIONS
2.1 Informational
The initial use of the Internet technology for business purposes had mainly an
informational function. Web pages describing companies services and products were,
and still are, the simplest and most common usage of an e-platform. The informational
function has evolved and currently, more than just simple Web pages with descriptions,
some companies make available databases with sophisticated data about products,
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services and the interaction (through business intelligence tools), including 3D CAD
components to be embedded in 3D CAD applications. Architects, builders merchants,
contractors, consultants, suppliers, etc, widely use this function.
2.2 Transactional
The electronic exchange of commercial data relates to the transaction life-cycle, from the
request for quotation, order, etc. until invoice. Before the availability of the Internet as a
communication network, companies used X.25 based technology for Virtual Areas
Networks (VAN) to exchange Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) messages. There was
scarce use of this transactional ftmction in the AEC sector ten years ago (see Baldwin et
al, 1995 or Akintoye and McKellar, 1997), and its use was mainly restricted between
builders merchants and their suppliers.
This reality has changed in the last years. The emergence of the virtual marketplaces
has dramatically changed the use of transactional function, with contractors, suppliers,
builder merchants, consultants and clients exchanging request for quotations, orders,
invoice, etc. through these platforms (Flood et al, 2002; PRODAEC, 2004).
Often denominated as e-procurement, this functions is rarely exploited at its full. The
reason lies in the lack of integration of the companies internal ERP systems with the
marketplaces. Thus, most of the companies type the transactional information in a Web
browser and receive data in a file that print before re-introducing data manually in their
ERP system.
2.3 Collaboration
The oldest and simplest way of the collaboration function is the exchange of files through
e-mail. This is a pervasive way of companies using an e-platform for collaboration.
However, very sophisticated tools have emerged in the last years. Initially, the
deployment of private Extranets allowed disparate parties in construction projects to
share information by uploading and downloading files in a central server. More recently
several commercial collaborative tools have appeared in the market, with very complex
and complete functions like on-line CAD red-lining and markup, forums, logs
registration, workflow, etc. Examples are Buzzsaw (see Autodesk, 2004) of Autodesk
and ProjectNet of Citadon (see Citadon, 2004). These sophisticated tools are mainly used
in large-scale construction projects (see PRODAEC, 2004).
2.4 Configuration of the e-platform
These three functions can occur simultaneously between two companies. The degree of
sophistication can vary, from the simple usage of e-mail usage or having a Web page
with basic information, to intense marketplace transaction and use of a complex
collaborative tool with workflow and on-line CAD redlining.
The technology is availabe, it is reasonably inex pensive, de jure and de facto exist to
facilitate exchange of files and data. Security issues, once a concern for users, are hardly
an excuse as most professionals age below 40 years use home-banking, a much more data
sensitive world. Case studies have demonstrated that the AEC sector can deploy and use
587
sophisticated configuration of e-platforms (PRODAEC 2004). The main issue is, Why is
it not more widely used?The answer is on the business side of the problem.
BUSINESS FACTORS
3
3.1 Companies Individual Features
A determinant factor for the likeliness and readiness of a company to engage in any IT
development (Venkatraman, 1991) and particularly in e-business or e-commerce is its
internal features, namely:
Business Strategy, Organizational Infrastructure and Processes. Companies prone to
innovation in all sides of the business, aligned with a strong, centralized organization
and leadership are positive factors. Streamlined processes are fundamental to be able
to take advantage of collaborative and transaction functions. Teams IT proficient are
also crucial, particularly for collaborative functions.
IT Strategy, Infrastructure and Resources. Companies with low level of IT automation
and integration between application, with significant legacy systems, and non-Web
based applications may experience major difficulties. Availability of IT resources,
either internal or contract out is important, though cost of implementing these tools are
significantly low nowadays.
3.2 Relationship
The relationship between firms is very important for the deployment of an e-platform
between two firms. There are two main dimensions that should be analyzed (Hakansson
and Snehota, 1995):
Exchange Episodes. The more intense, frequent and regular are the exchanges of
information between firms the more likely they to use e-platforms, and the increased
sophistication of the system. This is reinforced when also occurs strong
product/service and financial exchanges. If the transactional type of information is the
more intensely exchanged it is likely that an e-platform with more transactional
function be developed. Conversely, if the nature of the relationship is mainly
regarding the exchange of information needing collaborative interaction then
collaborative type of e-platforms are likely to emerge.
Atmosphere. It is not only what is exchanged but also how it is that is important. Thus,
close relationships, with strong bonds, institutionalized co-operation, and mutual
expectationsthat develop and evolve over timeis a very important driver for
deployment of sophisticated e-platforms. The power dependency may also contribute,
though if not on a conflict basis.
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589
5 ECONSTROIAND MOTA-ENGIL
In order to illustrate the analytical function of the methodology, a case study is described,
based on PRODAEC research.
The econstroi.com is a construction-oriented initiative that targets the entire sector in
Portugal. It represents an ambitious attempt to integrate a value chain that potentially
involves 80.000 companies.
The econstroi.com project was launched in 2000. It started considering the use of the
Internet to improve the business processes as well as some functions that exist in the
fragmented construction industry where the buying process is particularly detailed and
demanding in terms of information flow.
Initially, econstroi.com .com .com provided only informational functions and by
October 2001, it has started to operate in its core business: an instrument to support the
electronic commerce for the construction sector. Nowadays, econstroi.com .com .com has
combined the three functions: informational, transactional (the most used), and also some
collaboration features.
Ask for information and share documents or project models among the participants in
the same project;
Request and answer to proposals;
Compare budgets and choose among them the best proposal and carry out the respective
orders and selection process;
590
Figure 2. EConstroi.com
this matching to happen in the same way that it takes place in the physical market.
The e-project management manages all information (technical, financing contractual
specifications) that is necessary to perform construction projects. This is a process that
demands the involvement of a large number of entities (promoters, regulators,
contractors, project managers, suppliers, etc) and demands a very intense and continuous
exchange of documents mainly CAD drawings.
Mota-Engil is a Portuguese general contractor, and is the company with the highest
number of transactions in the portal, and with 90% of procurement through
econstroi.com. Despite using the e-platform mainly for transacting exchanges, uses it to
591
its full extent. The degree of sophistication in terms of the transaction function is very
high, having Mota-Engil integrated their internal ERP SAP application with the portal, in
order to reduce re-typing, or manual upload and download of files. It does not cover
digital invoicing, since legally in Portugal it is not accepted.
Business Strategy, Organizational Infrastructure and Processes. Company has very
streamlined processes, with centralized supporting departments. It has been in the
forefront of innovation regarding construction methods, management, IT, quality
assurance and recently in environment and health and safety.
IT Strategy, Infrastructure and Resources. MotaEngil has most of the documents in
digital format, with workflow implemented. All sites are connected to central ERP
system. High degree of automatized processes.
Exchange Episodes. Mota-Engil exchanges mainly request for quotations, tenders and
supporting
Figure 3. Assessment of
econstroi.com/Mota-Engil readiness of
development of an e-platform.
technical documents with their suppliers. Despite the use of the portal has opened
the market for the contractor, in generic terms, previous relationships with higher
number of transactions are still the most frequent users of the system.
Atmosphere. Despite econstroi.com enables market to work, with new suppliers coming
in, most of Mota-Engil suppliers adhering to the e-platform, worked previously for
many years with the contractor, with strong institutional and personal bonds. The
market conditions (price, quality, delivery) are crucial, but still, new comers have to
pass a confidence threshold in the procurement process for buys above certain budget.
Governance Structure. Clearly Mota-Engil is a core leader in the network of its
suppliers. Traditional suppliers were warned that they have to trade through
econstroi.comdespite being given a period to adapt themselves, or are out of
592
business with the contractor. Most of suppliers are complying with the request,
showing the leadership governance capability of Mota-Engil. Curiously, the least
adherent are the companies that are on the loose end of the network ring, some of them
well known and large companies but that do not dependent much of Mota-Engil for
their overall business.
Input-Output Structure. The number of companies on Mota-Engil suppliers network is
high, and their characteristics very heterogeneous. This has clearly been a problem due
the need to convince them all to adhere to the system, training, etc. Particularly for
small supplier, to whom connecting to the Internet is far from trifle.
Figure 3 presents the assessment made. It is easily concluded that in this case Mota-Engil
had a reasonably high degree of readiness for the deployment of an e-platform.
The assessment graphic does also show that the Input-Output structure of the network
is the main hindrance to developments and sophistication of the system. Indeed, it was
this area of concern that has deserved the biggest efforts by Mota-Engil managers in the
last year for the full scale implementation of the digital procurement process.
6 CONCLUSIONS
This paper focused on describing a methodology in order to systematize the analysis of
development of e-business/e-commerce platforms and their degree of sophistication. It
was argued that technology in itself is hardly an important factor as business factors are:
Individual Features of companies, like their business strategy and organisational
infrastructure and processes, IT strategy, infrastructure and resources; the characteristics
of the Relationship between companies, addressing issues like the type of informational
and product exchanges as wel.l as the atmosphere between the parties; and the
Production Network where companies are embedded, with variables like their
governance structure and input-output structure. A case study was described, and it is
possible to conclude that based on this methodology, managers can act accordingly in
order to create the enabling conditions for the deployment of the electronic collaborative
and commerce platforms.
REFERENCES
Akintoye, A. and McKellar, T. (1997). Electronic Data Interchange in the UK construction
Industry. RICS Research Paper Series, 2:4, London
Atkin, B. (1995). Information management of construction projects. In Integrated construction
information. Ed. P. Brandon and M.Betts, Chapman & Hall, London
Autodesk (2004), http://usa.autodesk.com/
Baldwin, A., Thorpe, A. and Carter, C. (1995). An internal survey report on the Construction
Industry Trade Electronically GroupCITE, Loughborough University of Technology,
Loughborough
Citadon (2004), http://www.citadon.com/
Flood, I. Issa, R and Caglasin, G. (2002). Assessment of ebusiness implementation in US
Construction Industry. eWork and eBusiness in AEC; Turk & Scherer (eds), Swets and
Zeitlinger
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Grilo, A. (1998). The development of electronic trading between construction firms. Unpublished
PhD Thesis, University of Salford
Hakansson, H. and Snehota, I. (1995). Developing relationships in business networks. Ed.
H.Hakansson and I. Snethota; Routledge, London
Harrison, B. (1994). Lean and mean: the changing land-scape of corporate power in the age of
flexibility. Basic Books; NY
PRODAEC (2004), http://www.prodaec.net/, as in June 2004
Venkatraman, N. (1991). IT-induced business reconfiguration. In The Corporation of the 1990s:
information technology and organizational transformation. Eds M.Scott Morton
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The municipality of Rotterdam yearly receives around 2,500 applications for building
permits. Approximately 1,000 of these concern larger construction projects of new
buildings, such as office buildings, housing prqjects, and single private houses. The other
1,500 permits are requested for smaller projects, mostly for extensions and modifications
to houses. Of these, around 300 projects involve the extension of houses by placement of
dormers. The construction-costs of these dormers vary between 2, 500 and 35, 000.
The licensing procedure for dormers is relatively straight forward, compared to that of
most other building permits. The variety and complexity of this kind of constructions is
limited and the regulations for approval are strictly defined by most municipalities. This
offers an opportunity for automation of the process, from which we can learn to later
address other, more complex, projects as well.
An example of how governmental services can be made available online, mainly by
providing structured information to civilians and ofFering tools for the support of the
application process, is found in the UK (Planningportal, 2004).
The objective of the project described in this paper is to ease both processes of
applying for permits and granting permits for the construction of dormers. This is
achieved by the development of a web-based tool, called the Digital Dormer, that allows
civilians to design the dormer on their house and to submit the information that is
required to perform automatic checking with national as well as local regulations.
595
Ultimately, the tool also generates all documents (forms and technical drawings) that are
necessary to submit an online building permit application for the dormer.
Research on building codes checking already has some history. Acknowledging that
the main problem is not just in formalising the building codes, but in unambiguously
describing the building information, much effort has been targeted at standardisation of
building models, e.g. (Vanier, 1995). More recently, other approaches have been
developed that take advantage of more flexible technologies (Woodbury et al., 2000;
Tang and Xiang, 2001).
While dormers as the targeted kind of construction work are relatively small, the
technological challenges in developing the software for this tool are significant and the
potential impact on further automation support of public procedures is considerable. The
main technological challenges for developing the required functionality in this project
were:
to offer sufficiently simple graphical design tools for use by lay persons, with a good
balance between the realism of the representation and the level of user-interaction
required;
to provide an attractive and informative feedback system that acquires all information
from the user that is necessary to evaluate the design using criteria from zoning plans
as well as from the local policy on building aesthetics;
to perform the checking of both geometrical and non-geometrical criteria regarding the
position, size, and other characteristics of dormers with respect to the specific context
of the house and its location.
Additionally, important requirements for the application were:
to minimize the requirements of client-side software to what can be expected at
peoples homes: just a web browser;
to have a flexible software architecture to be able to vary the context in which the
software will be applied, regarding the type of houses and dormers and the contents of
the criteria.
The paper describes how these challenges were countered in the developed application. It
describes the functionality of the system which provides: parameterised stereotypes of
houses and dormers; a graphical engine for dynamically rendering the visual feedback;
code checking functionality; and a web application that provides interfaces for the users
activities.
The paper then discusses the further development of the system and concludes with a
discussion of the potential impacts of this project.
First, however, we will briefly discuss the regulations concerning building permits for
dormers in the Netherlands.
2 BUILDING PERMITS FOR DORMERS
The regulations concerning building permits for dormers in the Netherlands are
established on both national and municipal level. At the national level, there are
regulations by the Dutch Ministry of Housing (VROM) that state when a dormer can be
596
build without applying for a building permit. This largely depends on a number of
geometrical criteria for location and measurements of the dormer, and on the status of the
existing building as a registered monument.
If the particular situation does not fulfil the criteria of these regulations, a building
permit must be requested from the local municipality.
The local municipality will evaluate the building permit application on three aspects:
1. Zoning plan: does the spatial profile of the area in which the dwelling is situated allow
the extension of the built space with this dormer;
2. Construction law: these are the building codes related to structural safety and, e.g.,
energy performance. Which of these codes apply depends on the type of permit that is
necessary. Municipalities generally distinguish light permits (structural safety only)
from regular permits, where the latter are required for larger construction plans;
3. Aesthetical aspects: The municipal aesthetics committee assesses applications on
aesthetical aspects. Their working methods are generally laid out in a local aesthetics
policy note. As of 1 July 2004, municipalities are by law obliged to provide this policy
note. While these notes are the responsibility of municipalities, the Dutch Ministry of
Housing aims to have these municipal notes as unambiguous as possible, in order to
ensure equality of rights (VROM, 2004).
The aesthetics policy note for Rotterdam is published in (Gemeente Rotterdam, 2003).
The project described in this paper addresses the automatic checking of the national
regulations and of aspects 1 and 3 of the local regulations above. Building codes
regarding technical issues are not automatically checked at this stage.
2.1 Procedure of evaluation
The procedure of evaluation of the building permit application is driven by the
aforementioned criteria. The outcome of the evaluation of the criteria can be summarised
in the following schema, which states the consequences of satisfying and not satisfying
the criteria at the national and municipal level. It should be noted that the evaluation of
the municipal criteria merely functions as an indication for the eventual outcome of the
committees assessment of the application. If these criteria are not satisfied, the normal
procedure for building permits is followed.
Satisfied
Not satisfied
National criteria
Municipal criteria
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Design criteria: These relate to the shape of the dormer and, e.g., the design of its front.
Material usage.
Colour usage.
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599
600
601
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checking, by way of a traffic light in the upper right corner. The table shows the meaning
of the various lights.
4 IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES
4.1 Modules of the system
The system was designed as two communicating server applications.
1. The Dormer Render Server (DRS) is an internal process that contains the procedures
regarding the parameterised geometry, produces the graphics of the requested
geometry, and performs the code checking.
If satisfied, then
Basic test
Always
Input is logically
correct
VROM
test
If basic test
satisfied
Building
permit is not
required
Aesthetics
committee is
likely to agree
Approval of aesthetics
committee is not sure, at this
stage the normal procedure for
building permit application is
followed.
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2. The Dormer Web Application (DWA) is a web application that generates the necessary
web pages and processes the related requests for the interaction with the user.
These two applications communicate internally with XML formatted data and using the
HTTP protocol in order to share the requested and generated data (see Figure 5).
4.2 Technical approach
The DRS application is a server application that accepts HTTP requests to perform two
tasks:
1. Requests to render graphical images of the house and dormer geometry;
2. Requests to perform the checking of the three kinds of criteria.
The implementation of this application involves two modules. The Open Scene Graph
rendering library is used to generate the images. A Perl scripting engine is used to
generate the geometry for the OSG calls, and to perform the code checking.
The DWA application is built upon an Apache web server and utlises PHP script to
dynamically generate and handle the user interface.
The development of the system was mainly done using the following software tools
and technologies.
Microsofts Windows 2000 Server operating system;
Apache web server with PHP programming environment;
XML data format for exchange between the two applications;
Autodesks 3D Studio Max for the generation of the basis geometries;
Open Scene Graph for the production of the graphical representations;
Perl script environment for the parameterisation of the geometries;
Microsofts Visual Studio 2003 for development of the DRS application.
While the objective of the project is to utilise only open source software and open
standards, commercial software was utilised only for the development of the applications.
The resulting applications can operate on an open source basis.
4.3 Parametric geometry
The parametric geometry for the house and dormer types is generated from a geometric
basis created in 3D Studio Max. Including its textures and light sources, this geometry
can be exported using a plug-in for the production of Open Scene Graph files. This plugin was enhanced for the purpose of this project to export a Perl script that contains a
version of the geometry that includes labelled vertices. These vertex labels can be added
to the geometry in 3D Studio Max by the developer, prior to performing the export. After
this Perl script with labelled geometry is produced, it can be manually modified by the
developer into a parameterised version, based on the parameters defined for the user
interaction.
Besides the Perl script, a configuration file is exported that contains additional data
concerning the configuration of the cameras.
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605
user interface and the enhancement of the feedback of test results. A detailed discussion
of these issues is not relevant within the scope of this paper.
6 IMPACT AND UTILISATION
The potential impact and utilisation of the results of this project are manifold. Firstly, the
type of technology developed and applied in this project enables civilians to be well
informed about the possibilities of their plans without the need to go through lengthy
procedures before taking any decisions.
Secondly, the online application for building permits is strongly supported by the tool:
information is gathered, checked, and made available to municipalities in a format that is
easy to handle. This will reduce the administrative workload related to these relatively
low-cost construction works.
Thirdly, the organisational approach that underlies this project makes it possible for
municipalities to promote best practices and preferred designs and constructions with
respect to dormers. A commercial spin-off of this development could also be achieved by
relating the site to a digital market-place for construction companies that specialise in this
type of construction works. However, legal issues need to be studied with respect to such
direct relationships with commerce.
Finally, while this project deals with permits to build dormers, it is part of a set of
initiatives that aims to provide digital support for applying and granting building permits
in general. As such, the Digital Dormer project functions as a pilot project in the context
of the afore-mentioned initiative for a central server for building permits that centralises
the communication between civilians and their municipalities regarding building
activities. While these developments are still in preliminary phase, the Dutch Ministry of
Spatial Planning, Housing and the Environment (VROM) has already expressed strong
interests in these projects.
The Digital Dormer website will in the near future be made available to municipalities
and civilians, probably under the management of a foundation. Municipalities will have
access to tools that enable the specification of their local criteria. Civilians will have
access to evaluate their plans and, with minimal costs, to apply for the permit if
necessary.
Extrapolation of the concepts developed in this project, with respect to other kinds of
building permits or even other kinds of civil services, may seem obvious but must be
considered with caution. Much of the success of this project relies on the ability to
express building information in parametric form. Whether this success can also be
achieved in other circumstances remains to be proven. Also, a broad social discussion
should lead to an indication of the limits to automating design and design evaluation
processes. Although the authors believe that the increased responsibility and active
participation of civilians in the development and design of our built environment are
strongly desirable, the value of expert knowledge and experience must not be trivialised.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Information regarding the open source sofrware used in this project can be found here:
OpenSceneGraph: http://openscenegraph.sourceforge.net/ Perl: http://www.perl.com/
ActivePerl: http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
Apache Webserver: http://www.apache.org/
PHP: http://www.php.net/
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Several studies have been conducted to assess the use of information technology in
construction. Most recently, Rivard et al. have investigated information technology use
patterns in the Canadian construction industry through case studies and surveys (Rivard
et al. 2004, Rivard et al. 2000). Similar studies exist for other countries (see, for example,
Issa et al. 2003, Samuelson 2002). These studies generally share an emphasis on the use
of information technology in various construction and business activities. In contrast, our
focus in this paper is specifically on the current needs and habits (which may or may not
be supported by electronic tools) of building practitioners with respect to acquisition and
processing of building product information. In the context of this paper, the term building
product primarily refers to manufactured components that are used to construct buildings.
In the past decades, various research efforts aimed to improve the information flow
between manufacturers and design professionals. Most of these projects developed
solutions that would address the limitations of traditional paper-based media such as
paper-based product catalogs. Work by Amor and Newnham (1999) and Jain and
Augenbroe (2003) demonstrates the potential of tight integration of electronic product
information into the work flow of architects and its impact on the product selection
process. In Austria, Seiffarth (1989) initiated a project for an Austrian building product
information system based on television display technology. A survey gathered user
expectations from such a system. As the tools and processes in architectural firms have
changed dramatically since then, a re-evaluation of those expectations is necessary to
inform future research and development efforts. More recent case studies of
608
manufacturers and architects by Jain & Augenbroe (1999) document decision and process
patterns related to product information. Finne (2003) investigated the potential impact of
electronic commerce on information intermediation services in the construction industry.
With improved internet accessibility, many product information providers nowadays use
the internet as an additional communication channel (see, for example, Heinze 2004).
However, as research in economics and human interaction research suggests, this requires
considerable and often costly adaptation of existing documentation to take full advantage
of electronic media (see, for example, Katz and Byrne 2003, Hoque and Lohse 1999). So
far, especially product information offerings on the internet appear to have been driven
by technology rather than actual information and processing needs of user groups. Still,
comparatively little factual data is available concerning the actual patterns of product
information acquisition and processing by those involved in the building delivery
process. This paper presents the results of an exploratory, local effort to address this
knowledge gap. It reports on an empirical inquiry into the patterns of product information
habits and needs of architects and building owners in Austria. Within the constraints of
the study, which was funded by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, these two groups
were chosen mainly because they are usually deeply involved in product-related decisionmaking in construction projects. Respective data was collected using internet-based
questionnaires as well as telephone-based and personal interviews. The paper entails a
summary and discussion of the findings and highlights their implications for
computational research and development efforts in the areas of building product selection
support.
2 ARCHITECTS
2.1 Approach
This portion of the paper presents the results from a study that investigated the building
product information acquisition and processing habits of architects (Hausler 2003). It was
carried out with an online questionnaire followed by on-site visits with participants who
agreed to a personal interview. The decision for the former was made because many
architectural offices in Austria nowadays have Internet access. The survey was limited to
three provinces in Austria. Altogether 485 licensed architects were contacted by
electronic mail. The mail included an explanation of the project objectives and a link to
an internet page, which included instructions and the questionnaire itself. The response
rate was 88 or 18% out of the 485 contacted architects, which is good for this type of
survey (Table 1).
The items in the online survey included questions about the participants background,
product selection responsibilities, product information content/presentation, sources, and
integration in work flow/processes. Whereas the questions in the online survey were
asked in multiple-choice style, those in the personal interviews were more open-ended.
The objective for the personal interviews was to gain a better understanding of survey
trends and the habits of individual architects.
609
2.2 Results
Results from the online survey were processed electronically and, in some cases,
aggregated and weighted
1360
Licensed architects
880
540
Emails sent
485
88
Interview participants
12
to facilitate analysis. This was done with those questions to which participants could
respond by selecting more than one answer among alternative answers. An alternative
answer would carry more weight if it were the only one that had been selected compared
with the case where other alternative answers had been checked as well.
Tables 2, 3, 4 and Figures 17 show selected results from the online survey.
2.3 Discussion
According to the results from the survey and the interviews, architects view themselves
as playing an active, leading role in the product search and selection process. Decisions
regarding the use of a product in a building project tend to be made by design architects
(46%) rather than owners (17%) or project leaders (15%, Figure 1). Although product
information is relevant in all project phases, the selection of a product is often finalized
only in design documentation and procurement stages (Figure 2).
Number of respondents
Self-employed/partner
68
Employed
20
Free-lancer
Consortium member
Other
610
Number of respondents
Percentage of respondents
0 employees
10
11.4
15 employees
48
54.5
515 employees
24
27.3
1530 employees
3.4
3.4
88
100.0
Total
Number of respondents
Percentage of respondents
13
14.8
3040 years
22
25.0
4050 years
28
31.8
25
28.4
Total
88
100.0
611
612
613
Architects who agreed to be interviewed mentioned that electronic drawings are often
adapted to a working documents level of detail and representation style. Threedimensional drawings are significantly less important for reuse in an architects
workflow. This finding is hardly surprising in light of abundant anecdotal evidence as
well as feedback from the interviews suggesting that architects continue to rely on twodimensional drawings although most CAD tools provide fiill three-dimensional modeling
capabilities.
Paper-based catalogs (so-called Architektenmappe) appear to remain the most
effective medium for manufacturers to promote and explain their products to architects.
However, architects increasingly rely on a combination of information sources (Figure 6).
For example, they contact sales representatives for specific technical questions because
pricing and delivery information might vary among customers and locations. Somewhat
surprisingly, the electronic media are still secondary in the product information
acquisition process. Among electronic product information offerings, manufacturer sites
are viewed as more effective for product search than online catalogs (Figure 7). This
could be because the latter often resemble company directories rather than rich
repositories of product information. Furthermore, even popular general-purpose search
engines are viewed as slightly more effective for product search than online or CD
catalogs. Since the latter often merely mirror company sites, their only benefit appears to
be persistent access to certain product information for future reference. Although younger
architects tend to rely more on the internet for product search than older ones, the overall
product information acquisition and processing habits identified in this study appear to be
largely independent of age, firm or area of specialization. Beyond index-based
organization of paper-based catalogs and manufacturers internet sites, we have not found
evidence that architects organize product information in a systematic way that would
make the product search and selection process more effective across projects.
614
615
industry, (b) office, (c) residential (single houses, apartments, and adaptations), and
(d) technical upgrades (mainly elevator installations).
(ii) We limited our search to requests published early 2002 and considered only those
with an identifiable building prqject category. This resulted in a total of 423 projects.
(iii) Using this list and publicly available electronic information directories, the telephone
numbers of 73 building owners could be identified.
(iv) An attempt was made to contact the building owners via telephone. 35 could not be
reached and 6 declined to participate. The remaining 32 building owners participated
in the study. Table 5 provides a comparison of the distribution of different project
categories in the initial project the sample of sample versus the participants in the
study.
Industry
Office
Residential
Technical
76
12
13
72
Industry
Office
Residential
Technical
Over 40
75
68
48
100
Under 40
25
32
52
Industry
Office
Residential
Technical
25
70
50
2 or more
75
100
30
50
Industry
Office
Residential
Technical
Office workers
100
100
52
Trade/industry
25
32
13
35
100
Non-active
616
(v) Telephone interviews were conducted based on a questionnaire, which included three
main sections: (1) general information about the background of the participants (age,
profession, prior experience, etc.); (2) areas of interest in product information search;
(3) types of building product information sources.
(vi) Upon completion and analysis of the telephone-based interviews, additional in-depth
personal interviews were conducted with 5 building owners.
3.2 Results
Tables 6 to 8 and Figures 8 to 10 entail selected results from the telephone interviews.
3.3 Discussion
Compared with the architects survey, sample size (88 vs 32 respondents) as well as the
type and breadth of data obtained from owners are less amenable to detailed analysis.
Nevertheless, some general observations can be made. Other than in the residential
category, the majority of building owners are in the older than forty age category.
Other than in the technical category, owners in industry/office project category are more
experienced with building projects. Note that the interviewees in these categories are
often technically educated professionals representing building owner groups and
organizations.
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618
As far as the preferred building product information sources are concerned, personal
conversation with product representatives represents undoubtedly the most important
source of information. The relative large number of those who do not express any clear
preference means that many building owners use multiple sources and compare the
information content they offer. Prevalent building product brochures constitute also a
relatively popular product information resource for the building owners. However,
brochures typically represent the starting point for information acquisition, which
subsequently leads to the collection of more detailed and complete information via other
resources. Electronic media (Internet and CD-Roms) find apparently the least level of
acceptance amongst building owners.
Generally, most building owners are interested in information on all kinds of products.
The somewhat higher frequency of expressed interest in information on floor systems is
probably due to the fact that they can be implemented in smaller residential projects by
building owners themselves.
The results of the personal interviews with the building owners may be summarized as
follows. As with the architects, two kinds of search habit may be found by building
owners. The first is project-dependent and is typically triggered by mailed brochures on
building products. Apparently such material, if prepared professionally, can catch the
attention of the addressees and thus be remembered, once a concrete building project is at
hand. The project-centric search is tied with a concrete project and follows the overall
scheme of the building delivery process.
Personal conversations with product representatives or other knowledgeable people
are (as already established in the course of telephone interviews) the most important
source of product information. Product brochures are also used quite frequently as the
basis for selection of specific products. Actual buildings as well as trade fairs and
expositions with sample buildings and building products represent an important source of
information for many building owners. They are seen as opportunities not only to gain a
first-hand impression of specific products, but also benefit from the professional advisory
service typically offered in such occasions.
Regarding electronic media, there are many CD-Roms produced and generated by
various product manufacturers, yet there is a lack of interest on the side of the building
owners to put together for themselves CD collections as the source of product
information. Likewise, internet is still not acknowledged as an effective information
acquisition tool. This circumstance is not only due to the absent or slow internet
connections but also an expression of the dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of
information offered in the internet. The typical search scenario involving the internet is
when a building owner looks into the homepage of a manufacturer she already knows.
Search engines are used when the homepage is unknown or when additional information
is desired. None of the building owners interviewed had knowledge of online building
product catalogs.
4 CONCLUSION
The results of the preceding inquiry permit a few high-level conclusions:
619
(i) The generally postulated potential of electronic media (see, for example, Scoones
1997) in view of decision making support for product information acquisition is not
exploited in practice. Building catalogs are still the dominant source of information for
architects. Both architects and building owners heavily depend on personal
conversations with representatives of building product manufacturers and distributors.
Electronic media represent de facto a negligible factor in product information search
by building owners.
(ii) There is a certain contradiction in the views of architects and building owners
regarding decision making responsibility. Architects believe to be the main decision
making agents regarding the selection of building products. However, this is
confirmed by building owners only in the case of industry, office, and large residential
buildings. Building owners believe to be the main decision makers in the case of small
residential projects and residential renovation projects.
(iii) Architects and building owners differ somewhat with regard to both the attributes
and the presentation of the product information they search for. Building owners are
more interested (particularly in the initial stages of design) in qualitative product
features, as well as price and service information. Architects are, in addition,
interested in information on details, specifications, technical attributes, and applicable
standards. Accordingly, building owners prefer a mixed presentation of product
information consisting mainly of photographic and 3-D depictions together with some
2-D and text information. Architects require in addition information included in
technical details and tables of product properties.
(iv) Both architects and building owners commit to product selection decisions rather late
in the design process. Especially in the case of building owners, decisions seem not to
be based on extensive proactive search, but rather in response to contingencies of
the building delivery process.
(v) Both architects and building owners display a rather unorganized, often ad hoc
product information acquisition behavior. This may be more or less understandable in
the case of building owners whose search activities seem to be literally triggered by
immediate requirements of the building construction schedule. However, in case of
architects, one would expect a more organized, efficient, and long-term product
information acquisition and collection behavior. It appears as though the architects
have not fully internalized the product information acquisition and product selection
activities as important and integrated constituents of their professional self-perception.
For practical reasons, the surveys on product information needs and habits have been
limited to architects and owners. Given the finding from these surveys, one can expect
that the behavior of project engineers or contractors, which are equally important product
information users, will again be different. Similar surveys, interviews, and case studies
are necessary to learn about the needs of these groups.
These conclusions highlight some of the difficult challenges facing those
computational systems and electronic environments that intend to support building
product selection. In the short term, they may provide more comprehensive search
mechanisms and a better presentation of product information. More substantial progress,
however, depends on overall improvements in the building delivery process in general.
This implies that the provision of computational support for building product selection is
620
more likely to succeed, if it is seen and pursued as part of a larger agenda toward building
delivery process support.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The studies were supported in part by a grant from the Vienna Chamber of Commerce.
REFERENCES
Amor, R., Newnham, L., Parand, F. and Nisbet, N. 1999. The ARROW data model specification,
BRE publication, Watford, United Kingdom.
Finne, C. 2003. How the internet is changing the role of construction information middlemen: the
case of construction information services. ITcon 8:397410.
Husler, S.2003. Beschaffung und Verarbeitung von Bauproduktinformation bei Wiener
Architekten, Diploma Thesis. Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
Heinze, 2004. http://www.heinzebauoffice.de/.
Hoque, A. and Lohse, G. 1999. An information search cost perspective for designing interfaces for
electronic commerce. Journal of Marketing Research 36/8:387394.
Issa, R., Flood, I. and Caglasin, G. 2003. A survey of e-business implementation in the US
construction industry. ITcon 8: 1528.
Jain, S. and Augenbroe, G. 2000. The role of product catalogues in design management, CIB W78
Conference on Architectural Management: 271288.
Jain, S. and Augenbroe, G. 2003, A methodology for supporting product selection from ecatalogues, Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction 8:381396.
Katz, M, and Byrne, M. 2003. Effects of scent and breadth on use of site-specific search on ecommerce sites. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 10: 198220.
Kernstock, S. 2003. Beschaffung von und Umgang mit Bauproduktinformation bei Wiener
Bauherren. Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
Rivard, H., Froese, T., Waugh, L., El-Diraby, T., Mora, R., Torres, H., Gill, S.M. and OReilly,
T.2004. Case studies on the use of information technology in the Canadian construction
industry. ITcon 9:1934.
Rivard, H. 2000. A survey on the impact of information technology on the Canadian architecture,
engineering and construction industry. ITcon 5:3756.
Samuelson, O. 2002. IT-Barometer 2000the use of IT in the nordic construction industry. ITcon
7:125.
Scoones, A. 1997. Technical information. Automation in Construction 6:2327.
Seiffarth, HP. 1990, Entwicklung einer Osterreichischen Bauproduktdokumentation,
Forschungsvorhaben F 1004, Baden, Austria.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
IT adoption in the construction industry is a crucial issue that has been studied by
numerous researchers (e.g. Betts, 1999; Flood et al., 2002; Stewart and Mohamed, 2004).
Several reasons have been found to influence it at different levels, such as the industry
structure, the enterprise resources, or the individual skills. The potential
inappropriateness, or at least the limitations, of the current IT tools has also been
mentioned as a hindering factor (e.g. Amor and Faraj, 2001).
Distinct methodologies were used to obtain these research results, such as surveys
(e.g. Doherty, 1997) or case studies (e.g. Rivard et al., 2004). This paper adopts another
strategy: the combination of an experimental test and some interviews.
2 IT ADOPTION: THE TAM MODEL
The Information Systems discipline has studied the IT adoption problem from a generic
viewpoint and several models have been proposed to study the factors that influence the
mechanism of technology adoption by individuals. Three of these models are especially
622
famous: the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), the theory of planned
behaviour (Azjen, 1991), and the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989).
After a review of the IS literature, it appears that Davis TAM model (Technology
Acceptance Model) is considered as one of the most influent models for studying the final
acceptation of a computer-based application (Davis et al, 1989; Veiga et al., 2001). The
TAM model aims to predict the degree of acceptation of new technologies by users. It
relies on two key concepts: perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use. Perceived
usefulness refers to the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system
would enhance his or her job performance (Davis, 1989). Perceived ease of use, in
contrast, refers to the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system
would be free of effort (Davis, 1989).
623
construction projects (Otjacques and Post, 2002; Otjacques et al, 2003). Four basic
features of this application are under examination in the context of this paper.
First, the prototype integrates several tools within a unique application, such as an
enhanced electronic messaging system, an organizer, an address book, a project
management module (see hereafter), and a conversation visualization module. This
feature will be called integration in the study.
Second, BBeLink2 offers a module dedicated to handle small construction projects.
This includes the following features: a standardized description of any project with meta
data, a mechanism to invite companies to join the project, and the synchronization of
project data. This is called project management module.
Third, BBeLink2 is able to store in unified format some metadata (e.g. project phase,
content type, communication medium used, people concerned) about potentially every
communication occurring during the project. On this basis, the module allows to visualize
all these information flows in a single user interface. In the experiment, the module is
referred to as information flows module.
Fourth, the security issue has been specifically tackled in the prototype. On the one
hand, it supports digital signature and encryption. On the other hand, it provides
additional features, such as a reliable system to date messages, an automated message
receipt handling system, the ability to individually encrypt the documents attached to a
message, the encryption of the data stored on the local hard disk These functionalities
are grouped under the security label.
4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The evaluation of BBeLink2 combines two complementary methodologies: an
experimental test with students and some semi-structured interviews with practitioners.
4.1 Experiences with students
The purpose of this experiment is to assess the perceived usefulness and the perceived
ease-of-use of the four above-mentioned basic features of the BBeLink2 prototype.
The test has been applied to a sample of 20 students of a Belgian School of
Architecture. They were all students in penultimate year (4th) of the Master in
Architecture class. They had already spent significant periods of time as trainee in real
offices of architects, which qualif ied them to give some valuable feedback in the context
of the experiment. The sample was composed of 10 men and 10 women, on a voluntary
basis.
Before the actual test, a pre-experimental phase has been carried out with 5
individuals, in order to ensure that the experimental methodology was appropriate and
could produce usable results.
The experiment was conducted simultaneously by three researchers according to the
following schedule. First of all, the researchers explained the context of the experiment
and asked the subjects to fill a questionnaire about their degree of familiarity with
computers, the Internet, and IT tools. Second, one researcher made a presentation of the
BBeLink2 application with a special focus on the four features to be evaluated. The
624
presentation mixed static slides and live demos. In this phase, the subjects played a
passive role. Next, the students were asked to actively interact with the software to do
some exercises relating to the features to be evaluated. After the exercises the subjects
were asked to fill a paper-based questionnaire about their perception of the usefulness
(PU) and the ease-of-use (PEU) of the related features, as well as their intent to use them
(I). The questionnaire mainly included some Likert scale-based questions having 7
modalities.
In order to reduce biases, they have been consolidated into three major opinions as
explained in Table 1. Comments are based on consolidated results. Nevertheless, the
figures are provided with detailed Likert scale results.
Retained opinion
+3 and +2
(rather) positive
1, 0 and +l
(rather) neutral
3 and 2
(rather) negative
The questionnaire also included a few open questions at its end. The experiment ended
with an open discussion about the prototype. The comments were registered by one of the
researchers. The total duration of the test was 1 h 45 min. Each session of the test
regrouped 4 students.
4.2 Interviews
The methodology used was semi-stuctured interview, that focused especially on the four
major featuresintegration, project management module, information flow module and
securityto be evaluated. The prototype was demonstrated during the discussion. The
session took around one hour.
The interviewees all had experience in project management and had been involved in
projects in Finland. The positions and experience of the interviewees varied as follows:
an architect that had worked as architect and project manager, over 15 years experience;
a young designer, 3 years experience;
a researcher that had no construction experience but had managed other projects and
researched at the time the challenges of construction projects.
5 RESULTS
5.1 Experiment with students
The profile of the subjects may be summarized as follows. All of them use a PC for less
than 3 years for one third of them and for more than 3 years for the remaining part.
625
Ninety percents of them use a computer tool at least one time a day. The subjects are thus
very familiar with computer use. Moreover, they have a positive attitude towards
computers. Indeed, 85% of them think that computers add value to carry out their work
and 90% affirm that they are interested by informatics in general. All of the subjects use
the Internet at least once a week, for both professional and leisure reasons.
Before commenting the results, it must be mentioned that, considering the time
constraint of the test, the perceived ease-of-use has been evaluated only for the project
management module and the information flows module. This is consistent with the fact
that these two features have the most specific user interface. The integration and
security features are completely embedded in the whole environment and their ease-ofuse would be quite difficult to isolate. The usefulness as well as the intent of use has been
evaluated for the four features.
Neutral (%)
Positive (%)
Perceived usefulness
1.25
56.25
42.50
Intent of use
2.50
20.00
77.50
Neutral (%)
Positive (%)
Perceived usefulness
6.25
63.75
30.00
Perceived ease-of-use
8.75
28.75
62.50
Intent of use
5.00
25.00
70.00
626
The experimental results are first individually described for each of the targeted
features. Then, a global overview will be proposed.
The first evaluation relates to the integration feature (cf. Table 2). It has received the
most positive scores for intent of use and perceived usefulness. This result is not very
surprising as it confirms the interest to provide software that integrates features dealing
with communication, information diffusion, task management, planning and so forth.
The evaluation of the project management module has provided more subtle results.
The Likert-scale questions (cf. Table 3) shows that less than one third of the subjects find
it useful. Nevertheless, the informal discussion has shown that they valuate positively
many specific features at a lower level of analysis, such as the ability to disseminate
automatically some information about the project or to invite people to join the project.
Neutral (%)
Positive (%)
Perceived usefulness
2.50
73.75
23.75
Perceived ease-of-use
0.00
38.75
61.25
Intent of use
0.00
32.50
67.50
627
Neutral (%)
Positive (%)
Perceived usefulness
3.75
65.00
31.25
Intent of use
2.50
37.50
60.00
628
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5.2 Interviews
The tool as whole was seen very easy to use but the interviewees did not intend to use it,
however. The usefulness could have been greater if one could use only the prototype to
manage all the e-mails and project data of the architect company and also the
management information of the client. The interviewees pointed out the importance to
integrate everything into the same systemall project data should be there. The interface
did not either solve the problem of different tools needed to view the attached files.
The project management module was seen as useful for an architecta skilled
architect is able to do such things also with a normal tool but it requires more discipline
than with the prototype.
The information flow module was seen as too complicated. It was difficult to see
rapidly how a decision was made. The comments were that this type of information
should be somehow in the drawings too. The idea to use symbols in the message to show
the type of message was considered as a good idea.
Security was seen as very important and one of the claims of a normal e-mail was the
security issue. The interviewees again compared the function with a project intranet that
can also take care of the security.
The interviewees said they would not use the system since the project intranets take
care of informing via normal e-mail about changes and such events. The compatibility
with the classic e-mail system was seen as a very important factor.
In conclusion, we can say that some external variables that the formal questionnaire
did not study were used to explain the intent of not using the prototype. In other words,
the negative aspects of the prototype that the interviewees pointed out were linked to
external variables like the concurrent use of normal e-mail and the difficulties to manage
all the projects they had. External variables affected thus the attitudes and even the intent
to use the prototype.
5.3 Globalview
First of all, one must be aware that potential biases may have influenced the experimental
results.
As already mentioned, the sample was composed of Belgian students and a small
number of practitioners from Finland. The application of the results to professional
architects should thus be made careflilly. Nevertheless, the students had a limited but real
experience within offices of architects. Therefore, they had already been confronted to
real life problems.
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6 CONCLUSIONS
The evaluation has shown that the user interface of the prototype meets the expectation of
the subjects in terms of ease-of-use. It also highlighted some weaknesses concerning the
usefulness of some features.
The discussion confirms the role that usefulness plays for the intent of use of the
system. Despite the fact that the methodology does not allow to draw statistically
significant inferences, it seem to confirm, however, some components of the TAM
model.
The interviews also confirm that external variables might play a decisive role in the
perception of usefulness and ease-of-use. Indeed, some external factors (e.g. the features
of the applications that the users are familiar with) that were neglected in the formal tests
appeared to be significant in the open discussion. Similarly, very practical elements may
influence the intent of use, such as the ability to run the application concurrently with
other ones.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The emergence of various e-Hubs are changing the traditional approaches of marketing,
transaction and collaboration among enterprises. The e-HUBs project aims to develop a
new approach to facilitating collaboration among SMEs by offering transparent templates
during the engineering collaboration process. Such an e-Hub extends the capabilities of
its business partners with joint engineering, knowledge and other resources of individual
SMEs by providing brokerage of complementary engineering services. One of the key
research objectives of this project is to develop and implement a functional architecture
to support the e-Hubs generic engineering services.
To develop the functional architecture, two major research approaches have been
undertaken. Firstly, a top-down research approach was adopted to identify an appropriate
project planning (PP) platform and functional architecture which allow the users to define
projects collaboratively by taking advantage of the engineering services provided by the
e-Hub. Some of these research activities include: review of the Technical Annex (TA)
which represents the description of work to be undertaken; study of various business,
collaborative and engineering e-Hubs, their services and structures; analysis of eEngineering services; and study of prqject planning, process protocol and workflow
management systems.
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e-Hubs role as: The e-Hub could facilitate process of preparation of project in SMEs
proposing electronic templates for the documents, related to various areas of engineering.
Development of document templates, especially these containing macros and elements of
automation, requires significant effort and specific skills. Preparation of document
templates and instruction for filling in the formats as well as consultations in preparation
of contractual documentation may constitute a part of the business activities of the eHub.
3.2 Functional architecture
The e-Hubs functional architecture is developed to achieve these engineering functions
(Figure 4). Some key points of the functional architecture are summarised as follows:
The workspace provided by the e-Hub will mainly facilitate collaborative project
definition and planning, and contract negotiation between the Client and the ESP.
Essentially, the e-Hub workspace will be a generic negotiation platform allowing the
users to define, plan and negotiate various project engineering and contractual issues.
All these activities will be supported by the related Engineering Web Services (Ren et
al, 2003).
To facilitate the project definition and planning, workflows, representing the generic PP
process, are embedded in the e-Hub workspace. This PP workflows will guide users to
go through every key project definition and planning stage. First, it leads users to
define the project charter, address project scope statement, and then define detailed
project work statements (PMBOK, 2000). These project work statements address all
the key issues for project execution such as project execution plan and schedule,
quality plan, riskplan, communication protocol, change management protocol, and
resource plan, each guided by a sub-workflow.
Besides the generic PPP workflow, various attribute templates for each of the PP issues
are also embedded in the e-Hub. These templates, built based on both theoretical
studies and industrial scenarios, include all the key elements which every plan should
cover. The negotiation between the Client and the ESP is basically to address these
attributes defined in the templates. Also, these templates form the basis for the
development of the sub-workflows.
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Attributes to address
Activities
ID No.
Title
Description
Responsibility
Pre-conditions
Post-conditions
Dependencies
Precedent activity
Successor activity
Duration
Time
Deliverables/Inputs
ID no.
Title
Description
Responsibility
Date
Milestones
ID no.
Title
Description
Date
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5 CONCLUSION
Supported by Web-hosted engineering services, the developed e-Hubs functional
architecture provides users with a unique workspace to conduct project planning and
contract negotiation. Users are able to plan the details of the work to be outsourced
collaboratively and negotiate the contract with the support of
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necessary and adequate levels of knowledge capture and sharing, provides SME backoffice engineering tool support and fosters trust building, contract management and
marketing relationships.
The development of the e-Hub is done with open and reusable middleware components
and deployment of existing best of breed service components through a franchise
model of web hosted services. The system approach to the transparent hosting of these
services is based on open back end architectures of meta product and process models
of e-engineering scenarios.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The e-Hubs project is supported by the European Commission under the IST
programmed (Contract no: IST-200134031). The authors would like to acknowledge the
financial support of the European Commission, and record their appreciation to the eHubs project partners for their contributions to this study.
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URL 1: http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/
URL 2: http://elf.eurodyn.com:8080/edos/index.do
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URL 3: http://cic.vtt.fi/projects/elegal/public.html
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the main reasons for using information and communication technologies in the
construction industry is to increase the efficiency and accuracy of communications
through collaborative systems. The use of ICT in a business such as construction is a
good example where virtual organisations are commonly used for any number of
different projects. This paper uses the construction industry as an example to highlight
whether the legal and contractual challenges of using ICT in collaborative systems have
been addressed in IST funded projects of the EU. Communications generally operate
without contractual support, resulting in a number of potentially serious legal
implicationssuch as validity of contract notices, ownership of data and intellectual
property rights.
Effective use of collaborative systems are vital in the construction industry because of
the large number of project participants, often being geographically dispersed. Studies
have highlighted the problems inherent in construction communications. These include
inappropriate modes of communication, (i.e. document formats, insufficient infrastructure
etc), organisational frameworks that restrict intra-organisational communications and
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what will and will not be admissible. That is a matter for the court to decide. However, it
is open to parties to specify requirements for contractual validity (such as the requirement
that a notice be in writing) (TESEI ET AL. 2001).
2.3 Agreements with technology suppliers
Depending on the level of the technology employed on a project, the technology provider
will play a vital role in its success. Where the use of technology is extensive (for example
where a third party provides the design, maintenance and hosting of an on-line project
collaboration tool, usually an Application Service Provider (ASP)) the performance of
the other members of the project team will greatly depend on the performance of that
technology supplier (VALIKNGAS & PUTTONEN 2002).
Therefore, careful attention needs to be given to the question of who is liable for any
failure on the part of the technology supplier, as this will inevitably have a knock-on
effect on the performance of other members of a project team (JUNGEMANN-DORNER
2002).
Agreements with technology suppliers need to be carefully drafted to ensure that such
liability is properly identified and allocated appropriately.
2.4 Agreements between project team members in relation to the use of
technology
The use of new technology changes the way in which project team members
communicate. Therefore, there may be a need to formalise the way in which this
communication takes place (eLEGAL 2001). This may range from simply having an
agreed project-wide e-mail protocol to providing addenda and amendments to main
contracts and designers appointment contracts to regulate the use of other kinds of ICT
(SHUM 2002). On larger projects there could even be a contract specifically written for
the use of ICT. This contract could be the ICT contract that was developed by the
eLEGAL project (eLEGAL 2002).
The issue here is really one of good practice. Any party wishing to rely on any
document, whether electronic or not, can increase the weight likely to be given to such a
document by a court of law through demonstrating good practice in its creation and
storage.
2.5 Ownership of and access to data
With the increasing use of web-based project collaboration, increasing amounts of data
will be held centrally on project servers, which may be hosted by a third party. It is
important to address who is entitled to have access to this datanot just project
communications, i.e. correspondence, drawings, etc., but also to meta-data which is
data about data and which can provide information about any project team members
access to, and use of, the project information (SHELBOURN ET AL. 2002).
Where there is extensive use of ICT on a project this issue can and should be
addressed in the contracts between the various project participants (eLEGAL 2002).
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determined whether 8 key legal and contractual issues are being considered in RTD tools
and software.
The 8 key issues are:
1. Electronic/digital signaturesthese allow a recipient of a piece of information to know
when the information arrived and who has sent it, and to check whether the
information has been changed since it was sent;
2. Digital notariesthese provide a time stamping service, proving the existence of a
piece of information at a particular time. These are often used in conjunction with an
electronic/digital signature;
3. ICT contractsthese describe the ICT use and supporting environment in which all
parties involved in a project must comply with to enable the effective use of ICT;
4. ASP contractthese are contracts between an ASP and a client, and the ASP and the
other stakeholders involved within a project. The ASP sets up and manages services
on behalf of the client, providing facilities and functionality for all project participants;
5. End user licencesthese are determined by the ASP and the end users of the ASPs
services. They typically contain information on permitted use of the ASPs services by
the end users, a method of granting access to the services, training for users, IPR and
confidentiality conditions, and limits on liability;
6. IPR issues of informationthis describes the rights to the information contained
within the project for the different stakeholders involved within the project. Many
different levels of rights to access will exist that must be managed by the ICT
contained within the project;
7. AEC objectsthe increased use of object technology within construction projects
has raised a number of legal and contractual issues. These include ownership, access,
change rights, accuracy and management of these objects; and
8. Legal infrastructurethe legal and contractual issues highlighted above need an
infrastructure associated with them to enable them to be achieved.
To determine at what level each of these legal and contractual issues has been integrated
into RTD developments a number of projects have been recognised as appropriate for this
purpose. There are 7 EU funded and 2 national funded projects for consideration. Each of
the projects were given a score of between 0 and 4 for their recognition and use of the
legal and contractual aspects in their developments.
The scoring levels were:
4 deployed in the industry/commercial context
3 prototyped/RTD demonstrator
2 made a contribution to the research area
1 studied/conceptually considered
0 not addressed
A matrix was devised to show the legal and contractual issues along the top with the 9
projects down the side. The individual scores are shown in the central cells of the matrix.
The matrix can be seen in Figure 2.
The results are also shown in Figure 2, and more detailed information on the matrix
can be found in ICCI (2003). The implications of the results can be summarised as:
The AEC objects issue was the first in the list of resources dedicated to it by the
projects, as this was the issue that had the highest scores in the matrix;
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There were tools and methods that had been deployed in the industry/commercial
context in 3 of the issues, electronic signatures, ICT contracts, and ASP contracts. In
the ASP contracts issue there were three different deployments from three different
projects studied;
Although the legal infrastructure issue was ranked second in the results, along with
ASP contracts, there was no deployment in the industry/commercial context scores,
with only a single prototype/RTD demonstrator being developed by of the projects.
This is immediately an issue that requires further study;
Towards the end of the results came the ICT contracts and IPR issues of information
issues. They were ranked 5th equal. However in the ICT contracts there is an
industrial deployment from one of the projects and 3 RTD demonstrators/prototypes,
so although not many projects addressed this issue, those that did developed
technology that can be readily used by the industry;
The issue of the use of end user licences was ranked 7th in the results, but there was an
RTD/ prototype made available by one of the projects;
The digital notaries issue was the one with the least score, but again there was an
RTD/demonstrator available for organisations that wish to begin to trial its use in their
day-to-day workings with electronic transactions.
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To summarise the results have shown that there is a commercial product available for the
use of electronic signatures, ICT contracts, or ASP contracts directly from the projects
studied in this exercise. There are prototypes available for users to test and possibly
integrate into their day-to-day working in all of the other legal and contractual issues
studied. The number of projects that carried out research into each of the legal and
contractual issues differed significantly. For example the area of legal AEC objects
although researched by all projects, does not have commercially available tools to use to
overcome the legal barriers to the wider uptake of AEC objects (ICCI2003). However, it
should be noted that even though there are commercial products available for all of the
legal and contractual issues researched, the development of a complete legal framework
to enable the use of ICT on construction projects has yet to be fully realised. This is one
of a number of areas that requires further research. These areas are discussed in the next
section.
5 FUTURE RTD ACTIVITIES FOR LEGAL AND CONTRACTUAL
ISSUES
The acceptance of the legal accountability of electronic transactions is an area where all
stakeholders of the project have to be in agreement. Having transactions that a user has
trust and confidence in the use of ICT for electric transactions will be a real benefit to the
project. This can in turn lead to increased quality and profitability of the finished product.
Assessing and fully addressing the IPR, security, privacy, and ownership implications of
electronic data will have to be defined in contractual aspects of the project. Figure 3
shows a graphical representation of the different activities
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needed at different timescales to enable full legal and contractual governance for ICT and
collaborative working.
The development of comprehensive online smart contract configuration tools to enable
the editing of contracts from the negotiation to the final process of digitally signing the
contract will play a major part in addressing the IPR, security, etc issues. These tools
should also provide support for assigning and defining contractual liabilities, including
the liabilities of the partners in relation to the accessibility of electronic data as part of
these contract definition tools.
It is widely acknowledged that object-model based ICT will be the flavour of future
ICT developments for the construction industry, (ROADCON 2003) however, the legal
issues of using these objects, i.e. their specification in the ICT contract for example, still
needs to be further researched to be fully understood. Such legal issues would include the
ownership of the object, stakeholders who have the rights to view, manipulate or delete
the objects.
Virtual identity management is the next progression to allow document validation, in
such a way that it is possible to guarantee the author identity of a document. This ensures
that no changes have been carried out to the original when they should not have been.
The identification and clarification of the benefits of addressing the legal and contractual
aspects of using the digital signature and notary technology in any country is also a big
challenge for future research.
Digital rights management (DRM) systems that restrict the use of digital files in order
to protect the interests of copyright holders are also needed. DRM technologies should be
developed to control file access (number of views, length of views), altering, sharing,
copying, printing, and saving. These technologies may be developed to be contained
within the operating system, program software, or in the actual hardware of a device.
Trust models need to be used to assign different levels of trust to different
stakeholders within the project dependent upon the nature of the transaction taking place
between the stakeholders using the ICT. Transaction monitors should be used to monitor
the flow of electronic information and documentation to ensure that they meet the predefined levels of legal validity, e.g. it conforms to the terms of the clauses set out in the
ICT contract, the level of security, e.g. the level of digital signature required, and the
amount of trust from the party that has sent the information.
6 CONCLUSIONS
A barrier to the strategic use of ICT on construction projects was identified as being the
legal and contractual issues by the eLEGAL project. Studies identified that the legal and
contractual use of ICT was not covered by in traditional construction contracts in a
number of EU countries. A brief summary of the legal and contractual issues that require
studying to enable the strategic use of ICT to continue has been described. Solutions
developed by the eLEGAL project that include tools to enable the online negotiation and
signing of contracts by stakeholders in a construction project, with no legal experience
have been described.
Research into the use of these tools has also been discussed. The results show that
solutions (some of them being commercial products, but many being RTD
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demonstrators/prototypes) are available to the industry to enable the legal and contractual
issues identified to no longer be a barrier for certain aspects of ICT use on construction
projects.
From the conclusions of these results a number of new research areas have been
identified. These include the development of complete legal infrastructure that
incorporates virtual identity management, transaction monitors and trust models as new
research areas to compliment the ones already identified and described in this paper.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge the European Commission for their continued support,
and our gratitude and appreciation to all the ALIVE (IST-200025459), eLEGAL (IST199920570) and ICCI (IST-200133022) project partners for their contributions to these
projects and this paper.
More information on the eLEGAL and ICCI projects results, including document and
software downloads can be found at their website: http://cic.vtt.fi/projects.
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ALIVE (2002). Deliverable D13: Intellectual & Industrial Property Rights Legal Issues report.
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eLEGAL (2001). Deliverable Dll: State-of-the-art Assessment, eLEGAL: Specifying Legal Terms
of Contract in ICT Environment, IST-199920570
eLEGAL (2002). Deliverable D31: Specification of ICT support tools. eLEGAL: Specifying Legal
Terms of Contract in ICT Environment, IST-199920570
Goodwin, P. (2001). Effective integration of IT in constructiona partners in innovation project
final report. The Building Centre Trust
Guardian, ePUBLIC (2003). Get those staff up to standard, article published in the ePUBLIC
supplement of the Guardian newspaper in the UK, 8th October 2003, pp. 1118
ICCI (2002). Deliverable D41: State-of-the-art review on legal and contractual issues for ICT in
construction, ICCI projectIST-200133022
ICCI (2003). Deliverable D42 (issue 2): Identification of the potential Legal and Contractual gaps
and problems within the cluster projects, ICCI project IST-200133022
Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) (1998). Standard Form of Building Contract, 1998 Edition: RIBA
Publications, London
Jungemann-Dorner, M. (2002). Open Contracting TransActions in the New Economy (OCTANE
project). Proceedings of the eLEGAL 2002 European Conference on Legal Aspects of ICT
Application in Project-Based Business, 34th October 2002, Loughborough University, UK
Merz, M. & Mangini, M. (2002). eContracting and remote engineering consulting services.
Proceedings of the eLEGAL 2002 European Conference on Legal Aspects of ICT Application
in Project-Based Business, 34th October 2002, Loughborough University, UK
ROADCON (2003). Deliverable D52 Construction ICT Roadmap from the ROADCON project
IST-200137278
Shelbourn, M., et al. (2002). A review of the legal and contractual issues for the use of ICT in
construction. Proceedings of the eLEGAL 2002 European Conference on Legal Aspects of ICT
Application in Project-Based Business, 34th October 2002, Loughborough University, UK
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Shum, A. (2002). Legal Concerns by Hong Kong Building Professionals in Adopting e-project
Management. Proceedings of the eLEGAL 2002 European Conference on Legal Aspects of ICT
Application in Project-Based Business, 34th October 2002, Loughborough University, UK
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The efficiency and productivity of the construction industry is crucial for the whole
economy Nevertheless, as it is studied enormously in the literature, the construction
industry has many hindered problems, such as the fragmented and the inefficient nature,
and the technology-averse practices. The construction industry has not been successful on
combining high quality with productivity, and still, most of the decisions are made based
on the lowest cost instead of quality, sustainability, safety, and value. Most importantly,
the construction industry has not been able to realize the information integration fully,
which influences productivity and quality negatively
While all these problems still persist, there are some efforts to change. As a matter of
fact, many governmental institutions, industrial and academic organizations, and
construction firms, in US and worldwide, are investing in research to improve the
performance of the industry. In many of these research efforts, the problem of integration
issue is addressed and some solutions are proposed.
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On the other hand, the manufacturing industry has had the same problems of
integration, but was able to solve it with the aid of integrated information systems, such
as enterprise resource planning systems (ERP).
ERP systems are considered to be the greatest information technology innovation of
the 1990s in the corporate use (Davenport 1998). Solutions offered by tier 1 ERP vendors
such as SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft, have been installed by the largest manufacturing
firms. According to a recent study, it is evidenced that nearly 19% of organizations across
all industry sectors have installed ERP software, with the manufacturing sector leading
the trend (Computer Economics 1999). In another study, 70% of Fortune 1000 companies
were reported as having or in the process of implementing an ERP system (Hoffman
1998).
ERP systems offer real-time integrated information systems, which could solve some
of the information integration problems in construction firms. As a matter of fact, major
ERP vendors, such as SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft, have already tailored their software to
fit the construction market, and they are promising to solve these hindered integration
problems.
1.1 Enterprise resource planning
ERP systems can be defined as integrated information systems (Duplaga and Marzie
2003). These systems integrate all the information flowing through an enterprise,
including people across functions, and geographic locations (Davenport 1998; Kumar et
al. 2002). This integration includes all the business functions of the enterprise, and
included sophisticated reporting and optimizations. Furthermore, this integration and
automation is facilitated by the inclusion of best practices to facilitate rapid decisionmaking, cost reduction, and greater managerial control (Holland and Light 1999).
ERP systems consist of a suite of software modules, each responsible for a different
business function. These modules can be purchased separately, or they can be combined
together according to the needs of the firm. These modules include accounting
management, financial management, workflow management, production management,
project management, logistics management, inventory management, human resources
management, supply chain management, customer relationship management and others.
In a typical ERP, the modules would share and transfer information freely, thus an
integration of functions of the firm would be realized (Chalmers 1999).
Organizations have adopted ERP systems for several reasons. The most important
reasons mentioned in the literature are integration capability, reputation, and standardized
software. ERP systems streamline the data flows of organizations and provide
management with a direct real-time access to a wealth of information (Davenport 1998).
The ability to take advantage of real time information is cmcial for increasing
productivity in organizations. Also, the replacement of ERP systems with legacy systems
reduces the number of software programs and the needed support and maintenance. The
high cost of in-house system building will also be reduced (Holland and Light 1999).
On the other hand, such complex systems come with risks, both tangible an intangible.
Especially, with the absence of tedious planning, the amount of risk may increase
substantially. Since ERP systems may force a change in the business processes, it is
important to know the business implications of ERP systems before implementation
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way construction firms are doing business. Industry specific processes and accounting
standards should be designed comprehensively. Furthermore, there should be all the
necessary interfaces with standard engineering, scheduling, and office software. Internet
should also be utilized to access information worldwide.
1.3 Problem statement
As mentioned earlier, ERP systems have had a huge impact on many industries, and
mostly on the manufacturing industry. Yet, compared to other industries, these significant
impacts have not been realized in the construction industry. Although some large
construction companies have implemented certain modules of ERP, there are few
companies that have integrated their project-based information systems and their
enterprise information systems. Moreover, it is observed that there are barely any ERP
implementations in the mid-market construction companies.
The successful diffusion of ERP in the construction industry may have substantial
benefits and solutions to integration problems in the industry. However, research
regarding the implications of ERP in the construction industry is extremely limited. There
is an urgent need to know if these integrated systems could be implemented in the
industry or not. Empirical research is needed to identify the factors that affect the
adoption of ERP in the construction industry. Also, there is a need to investigate the
relationship between the extent of ERP implementation and the performance of the
construction firm. By knowing which factors may lead to the adoption of ERP and their
level of impact, the awareness of the possible outcomes of ERP adoption in the
construction industry will be revealed. Because of the absence of such a study, the real
compatibility and usability of ERP systems in the construction industry remains
undisclosed.
2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The overall aim of this research is to conceptualize the role of ERP in the construction
industry through a holistic perspective. More specifically, the research aims to study the
factors that affect construction firms in adopting ERP and to explore the impact of the
extent of ERP implementation on the organizational performance.
Given the gaps in the related literature and the stated problem statement, these
questions will be investigated:
What factors influence the decision of construction firms to adopt ERP?
Are the factors that affect the decision of ERP adoption different from the factors that
affect the extent of ERP adoption?
What are the critical barriers to the diffusion of ERP in the construction industry?
How would the extent of ERP adoption affect the organizational performance?
How would ERP success be measured in the construction industry?
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realized through personal interviews with key decision-makers within the selected firms.
The combined results of inductive and qualitative approach would formulate the ERP
adoption model for the construction industry.
5 CONCLUSION AND FURTHER RESEARCH
This study is expected to be beneficial both for the industry and for the academia. The
results of this research will facilitate to have the big picture of the ERP phenomenon in
the construction industry. This is crucial since many ERP providers are trying to tailor
their solutions to the construction industry, despite the lack of knowledge on the demand
and inner motivations o the industry. Also, this research will unearth any hidden
opportunities of ERP and what the construction firms lack that prevent them from
adopting these systems.
No study has attempted to investigate the ERP phenomena in the construction industry
with such comprehensiveness. With this research, many practitioners will be able to get
guidance regarding the factors that affects the adoption of ERP. In addition, the effects of
ERP on the organizational performance of the adopted firms might provide a good
knowledge map regarding the outcomes of such an investment.
REFERENCES
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Accounting Information Systems 4(3):205225.
Chalmers, R.E. 1999. Small manufacturers seek best ERP fit. Manufacturing Engineering 16(5):4
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Holland, C.P. & Light, B. 1999. A critical success factors model for ERP implementation. IEEE
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ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 129(5):578585.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Innovation and advancement in information and communication technologies (ICT) is
moving at a rapid pace. Many EU-funded projects using state-of the-art technologies
have produced, tested and implemented advanced software solutions for the construction
industry.
In the wake of the 6th framework projects like ICCI (http://icci.vtt.fi/) and
ROADCON (http://cic.vtt.fi/projects/roadcon/) were supposed to prepare the funding
bodies as well as the researchers for new tasks in the coming years and the thinking on
what we (construction informatics professionals) are, where we are headed and what kind
of obstacles are on the road. Specifically the ROADCON project (Zarliet al., 2003)
tracked the way forward; ICCI was more involved with analysing and harmonizing the
current research.
The objective of this document is quantify RTD technical advancements within the
ICCI
partner
projects,
(OSMOScic.vtt.fi/projects/osmos/,
eConstruct
http://www.econstruct.org/,
DIVERCITY
http://www.nicve.salford.ac.uk/divercity/index.html,
ISTforCE
http://www.istforce.com/, eLegalhttp://cic.vrt.fi/projects/elegal and GLOBEMEN
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human-computer interaction
computationally intensive applications (FEM etc.)
knowledge intensive applications, AI, expert systems
knowledge management
3D modelling and drafting
databases, information retrieval
business process reengineering
e-business infrastructures
e-legal infrastructures
The list is further elaborated in Section 3.
2.4 The survey
As a general method on getting the empirical data on the current an future research and
problems that may lie ahead, a survey among the project partners of the ICCI member
projects as well as the general research community was conducted in October and
November 2003. Had five sets of questions:
General information about the project in which the respondent took part
Questions about the person responding
Theme and contribution of the project
Future research plans
Barriers and risks
This paper focuses on the results related to the 3rd and 4th set of questions. Another
paper (Turk, 2004) focuses on the barriers and risks.
2.5 Member projects
The Figure 2 shows the projects there were studied. Most answers in the survey were
related to the ICCI member projects, however, some also came from other parties.
2.6 General demographics of the respondents
The survey was taken by 50 persons. The average age was 42 years. The average size of
the company was 2600 employees, the median size 500. They spent 17.1 PM on average
on the project on which they are responding. The business and work profiles of the
respondents are shown in Figure 3.
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12
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11
12
13
14
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The changes are perhaps better understood from Table 2. It is quite apparent that the
respondents feel a need for a stronger transfer towards the practice, commercialization
and the study of the economic and business impacts (text in bold). On the other hand,
pure research and application of computer science to AEC is loosing the attention (text in
italic).
4 SELECTED ICT TOPICS AND DISCUSSION OF THEIR
REPRESENTATION IN THE SURVEY
This section details the themes of RTD projects, both current and future and presents
some results related to those themes, from the survey. Each topic is briefly introduced.
Then, based on the survey, four facets are discussed:
Status: how was the topic represented in the current research (question 3.1)
Trend: how is the topic represented in the future research (question 4.1)
Future themes: what topics will in the future (question 4.1) study the persons, who
thought that their current project did an above average contribution (question 3.1) in this
topic
Barriers: what barriers were found most severe by persons who did an above average
contribution in this theme?
4.1 Collaboration, concurrent engineering infrastructures, project
webs(common infrastructurescollaboration)
Infrastructure to enable the movement and communication of information over networks
(e.g. The Internet, the Web, portal and communication infrastructures).
Status: strong
Trend: up-stable
Future themes: more of the same, knowledge management
Barriers: funding, business case, demonstrators dont scale up.
4.2 Person-person communication technologies, videoconferencing,
email (communication person-person)
Communication of information between individuals to support coordination and
collaboration in human activities and work processes in the construction business.
Software and technologies serving this function can support distance working, virtual
workspaces, concurrent engineering and the virtual enterprise. Software like email, chat,
ICQ, on-line conference, project webs, groupware and workflow tools and technologies
like Internet technologies, Web technologies, Mobile technologies, Workflow
technologies.
Status: weak
Trend: up-stable
Future themes: collaboration, e-business infrastructures
Barriers: fixation to old problems, enlightened managers missing.
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Status: average-strong
Trend: up-stable
Future themes: knowledge management, more of the same, interoperability, HCI.
Collaboration not a future issue!
Barriers: stakeholders not involved, educators, software developers, standardisation
bodies not involved in the project team, does not address user needs, funding.
4.7 Knowledge management
Knowledge management involves the identification and analysis of available and
required knowledge assets and knowledge asset related processes, and the subsequent
planning and control of actions to develop both the assets and the processes so as to fulfil
organisational objectives.
Status: average
Trend: up
Future themes: more of the same, databases, information retrieval, business process
reengineering, e-business infrastructures
Barriers: funding, old problems not solved.
4.8 3D modelling and drafting (processingcreate information)
In themes 4.54.7 new information is created by software. However, in the AEC, a
substantial body of information is created by the designers by drafting (2D) and
modelling (3D).
Status: averagelow
Trend: down
Future themes: more of the same, collaboration, knowledge management. Not
interested in e-business infrastructures.
Barriers: old problems not solved, demonstrators do not scale up, enlightened
managers missing.
4.9 Databases, information retrieval (processingmanage information)
Support for human activities in managing collections of data and information, in the
construction business, over its life cycle. Manage information includes the representation
and structuring of the physical information (e.g. format, schema, ontology, data structure,
XML), modelling it (e.g. business information modelling, enterprise modelling, product
modelling, STEP, IFC, process modelling, IDEF0), software and technologies for
physically storing and organising it (e.g. relational and OO databases, product model
databases, data warehouses, knowledge management, document management) and
retrieval and search technologies and mechanisms (e.g. data mining, search, query,
classification, thesaurus, vocabulary, glossary).
Status: above average
Trend: slightly down
Future themes: more of the same, collaboration, knowledge management. Not
interested in e-business infrastructures.
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Barriers: old problems not solved, clear business case with ROI study missing,
demonstrator does not scale up, industrial robustness not achieved, difficult to use.
4.10 Business process reengineering
The study of how technological advances translate into new ways of organizing and
doing business.
Status: average
Trend: slightly up
Future themes: collaboration, knowledge management, e-business infrastructures
Barriers: funding, community closed for new ideas, enlightened managers missing.
4.11 E-business infrastructures (common infrastructurescommerce)
Infrastructure to support and facilitate, the business process, in delivery, buying and
selling of products and services, sales support and communicating information to
business partners in business and commerce and by means of electronic transactions (e.g.
e-Business, e-Commerce and e-Procurement systems).
Status: above average
Trend: down
Future themes: collaboration, interoperability, HCI
Barriers: clear business case with ROI study missing, demonstrator does not scale up.
4.12 E-legal infrastructures (common infrastructureslegal)
Creating, owning and distributing electronic information is of legal consequence.
Methods, technologies legal standards, laws and regulations designed to protect
information owners, information users, legal documents and contracts, intellectual
property rights, authentication of information and safe transport of information over the
global network (e.g. digital signatures, digital encryption, digital contracts etc.).
Status: low
Trend: will stay low
Future themes: collaboration, more of the same, integration, e-business
infrastructures.
Barriers: demonstrator does not scale up, industrial robustness not achieved, difficult
to use, old problems not solved.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The survey is providing an interesting insight into the RTD advances and migration risks.
The 5th frame-work projects seem to have made a decisive/sufficient breakthrough in the
themes related to e-business and e-commerce (which were, to be fair, quite popular at the
time). In spite of the large proportion of the efforts that was related to collaboration,
integration and data management, further work in this area is likely. Among the new
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themes identified are those related with the knowledge management, intelligent software
and intelligent interfaces.
Major effort of the projects was in the requirements analysis and prototyping. In the
future, more eifort is expect related to commercialized industry deployment and the study
of the impacts of the technologies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work reported was conducted in the context of the IST-ICCI Project. The financial
support of the European Commission under the IST program as well as the contribution
and comments of the ICCI partners, particularly Gudni Gudnasson, Vlado Stankovski,
Tomo Cerovek and Matev Dolenc is acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Rezgui, Y. & Zarli, A. 2003. ROADcon: a European strategic roadmap towards knowledge-driven
sustainable Construction, Civil Engineering Journal, October.
Turk 2002. Elements of an Ontology of Construction Informatics, In Y.Rezgui B.Ingirige
G.Aouad (eds), Proceedings of the European Conference on Information and Communication
technology Advances and Inovation in the Knowledge SocietyeSMART 2002, University of
Salford, ISBN 0902896415, 155167, http://www.zturk.com/.
Turk 2004. Migration Risks of Construction Informatics Research, position paper in D.J.Vanier
and T.El-Diraby, Integrated IT to support Sustainable Construction, Toronto, Canada, May,
2004, http://www.zturk.com/.
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Collaborative working
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 9384
1 INTRODUCTION
Best utilization of the productive resources is a vital need for construction companies.
While any unpredicted need in important resources may result in difficulty in fulfilling a
contract or in loosing a business opportunity, a temporary and unexpected business
decline may result in having idle resources. Construction companies really need a fast
and dynamic way of acquiring specific resources to cope with work peaks and a way of
exploiting their idle resources and compensating for their fixed expenses. The modern
technology that offers high capabilities in interconnecting systems and users, fast and
intelligent information searching and advanced electronic bargaining methods, make the
concept of a virtual shared pool of idle resources, feasible.
The e-Sharing system is based on powerful resource and task type models, which
further extend existing standards in Construction Equipment and Tasks. e-Sharing
combines them with each other and provides a formal specifications in an XML schema
dialect. Sharing of resources is achieved by the introduction of a virtual resource pool
that includes the company-users own available resources and the idle resources that have
been declared in the e-Sharing system by other company-users. To facilitate the data
flow towards the pool of idle resources, e-Sharing allows data extracted from the users
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ERP systems to be loaded to the system by means of XML messages and a web
connection.
Data Mining technology is used for analysing data from offers and requests. The users
of the e-Sharing system describe their requirements regarding resource special
characteristic, leasing period and price and the intelligent recommendations engine of the
e-Sharing system presents all the available solutions in a list with the most suitable
resources in the first positions. Estimated initial values auctions and negotiations are also
specified.
Various types of electronic auctions, various types of electronic negotiations and
various types of bidding agents that can participate in the electronic bargain on behalf of
the users, give a sample of the trading facilities that accompany the system and can be
used for achieving fast and profitable deals between the owners of the resources and the
potential lessees.
The various characteristics of the e-Sharing system are presented in the next sections
as follows: Section 2 presents the resource description models, section 3 presents the
matching and recommendation mechanism, section 4 presents the e-sharing Trader, while
the strength of the approach and the users benefits are discussed in sections 5 and 6
respectively. We conclude in section 6.
2 RESOURCE DESCRIPTIONS
A prerequisite for the spreading of the e-Sharing service is the existence of strong
resource and tasks description models. The models compatibility to the users practices,
their completeness, extensibility, and broad acceptance from the construction industry, is
the key factor for pulling together users so that a resource sharing community is formed.
The basis for the development of the integrated resource model in the e-Sharing
project was an analysis of existing standards and catalogues describing construction
equipments, construction tasks, and qualification profiles to select the most detailed and
general content descriptions and the appropriate models. The analysis was divided into
two sub-tasks: Firstly, content information for equipments and tasks as well as
qualification profiles in the construction sector was analysed. In a second step the content
specification was compared to existing standardized schemata in order to define the
appropriate schema to manage and maintain resource information. The evaluation process
was conducted in close cooperation with industry partners and further potential end-users
of the e-Sharing sy stem to continuously consider their requirements and experiences
[Menzel, 2004].
2.1 Equipment types
The BGL 2001 [BauGerteListe, 2001] specifies technical and relevant financial
information about equipment types in the construction sector. The BGL 2001 is used for
the estimation of costs as well as technical performances of construction equipment. Each
equipment type is specified by characteristic technical properties like height, load
moment or velocity. Based on the BGL 2001 the so called EUROLISTE has been
developed in cooperation of French and German authorities. The aim of the EUROLISTE
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external systems, and secondly, the content for skills and knowledge (as described above)
has to be represented in the schema. The HR-XML [http://www.hr-xml.org/]
specification supports these requirements to the best.
2.6 ERP data transfer
The XML representation of the resources allows for simple communication berween eSharing and the customers ERP systems. Lists of idle resource extracted from the
companies ERPs, are coded to
Content descriptions
Equipment
bcXML
BGL-2001
Task
bcXML
STLB
Qualification profiles
HR-XML
CISCAEC-Qual.Prof.
XML messages containing the resource descriptions. XML messages are send to eSharing by agents that reside on computers of companies-users. The incoming XML
messages are processed in e-Sharing by an XML-Parser and are inserted into e-Sharing
database.
3 INTELLIGENT RECOMMENDATIONS ENGINE
The e-Sharing intelligent recommendations engine, detects all the offers that could be
interesting for a specific lessees request, and evaluates them on the basis of the
probability of a successful negotiation between the lessor and the lessee.
In e-Sharing when a user registers a new offer or request for a resource, he has to
specify the following parameters: (1) Resource type & specific characteristics, (2)
Leasing period, (3) Price For each parameter, the users have also to specify how flexible
they are on accepting different values by selecting one out of three different values of a
flexibility indicator: (a) high flexibility (b) medium flexibility (c) low flexibility [Morris,
2000].
Based on the specified parameters value, and the flexibility indicator (high, medium,
low), for each parameter the system estimates automatically the flexibility factor for each
parameter. The flexibility factor is the system estimation of the percentage of the increase
or the decrease of the specified parameter value, which would be accepted by the user.
The flexibility factor takes a different value for each transaction and depends on the
specified value for this parameter and the values and the flexibility indicators for the
other parameters of a transaction (e.g. the flexibility factor for price depends on the
resource type, on the period of the year, on the leasing interval, etc). The system
estimates the flexibility factors by mining the data of all previous transactions [Han,
2001, Michlski, 1998].
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Second Price Sealed-bid (Vickrey) auction: each bidder submits a sealed bid without
knowing others bids. The object is awarded to the highest bidder. However, contrary to
the first price sealed-bid auction, the winner pays the second-highest bid.
English auction: it is an open process, with price ascending progressively. In
particular, the price starts from the lowest acceptable level and proceeds to solicit higher
bids from the bidders until no one is willing to increase the bid. The object is awarded to
the highest bidder, who pays his bid.
Multi-object Auctions. When multiple identical items or multiple units of a divisible
quantity are to be traded, the respective mechanisms are defined as multi-unit auction
mechanisms.
Sealed bid multi-object auction: bids are submitted in sealed envelopes. The K units
available axe allocated to the K highest bids.
Ascending clock auction: this is a progressive auction mechanism; hence it is
conducted in rounds. A clock indicates the current per unit price, and bidders report the
quantity demanded for this price; the clock price is then raised again. Bidders gradually
reduce their demand (they are not allowed to increase it) and units are awarded to bidders
when demand matches supply.
Combinatorial sealed-bid auction for 23 objects: bidders are allowed to submit any
combination of units they wish at a single price. Examining all possible overall
allocations and finding the most profitable one perform winner determination.
4.2 Agents in auctions
e-Sharing enables users to select among various types of bidding agents to participate in
the English type auction on their behalf. Users presence in the system is not necessary
during the auction any more. The agents developed by e-Sharing are based on input of
certain parameters given by the user. They pertain to auctions taking place for a
predefined time period. In particular, three types of agents have been defined and
implemented.
The Simple Agent, which increases the bid up to the users maximum willingnessto-pay without taking any special care if the auction is nearing its completion.
The Smart Agent, which increases the bid by a small increment until he realizes that
the auction is nearing its completion. It then places one last bid, which is computed
according to a formula giving the optimal such bid under certain assumptions.
The Adaptive Agent, which is applicable when the users willingness-to-pay is not
accurately known, or can be influenced by the bids of the other players/ agents.
4.3 Negotiations
The e-Sharing Trader supports negotiations among users by means of a semi-structured
negotiation protocol. Inclusion of this functionality is primarily motivated by the fact that
in the construction sector, negotiations are very common. This implies that the Traders
users are familiar eith the basic principles of negotiations. Moreover, researchers studies
[Bichler, 2003] also agree that electronic negotiations are very promising. The users
negotiate by exchanging messages of standardized structure and content eliminating
misunderstandings and save time and money for the parties involved. This should be
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contrasted with traditional negotiations that are conducted either face-to-face or by using
the telephone, or simplified electronic negotiations that are conducted by means of
exchanging unstructured details. The latter type of negotiations suffer from high
transaction costs and limited number of negotiation parties since negotiations among a
lessee and many lessors for the leasing of a resource is impossible over the phone.
Electronic negotiations can only be effective if resource description and negotiation
objects structure are standardized. Project e-Sharing has performed innovative work on
accurate resource description and related ontology. This motivates the use of automated
price negotiation agents that exchange negotiation messages on users behalf. The
following types of negotiations are supported by e-Sharing.
Multi-attribute negotiations; The users negotiate for multiple parameter e.g. the price
and the leasing period. Two-object negotiations, AND-type negotiation: this feature
allows a lessee to lease two complementary resources that are offered by generally
different lessors or none of them, e.g. both an excavator and a truck that are needed for a
construction project.
Two-object negotiations, OR-type negotiation. Negotiation for exactly one of two
substitute resources, e.g. one of two cranes that are offered by two different lessors (ORtype negotiation). The support of this functionality is strongly motivated from the needs
of the constructions sector, where the existence of such complementarities or
substitutions among resources is common.
4.4 Agents in negotiation
The e-Sharing Trader provides a family of negotiation agents, each reflecting different
behavior regarding the urgency to make a deal and the risk aversion degree.
Impatient agents that approach (or even reach) their reservation value very quickly.
Patient agents that reveal their reservation value when time is almost exhausted.
Regular agents that approach steadily the reservation value until time is exhausted.
STRENGTH OF THE APPROACH
5
The strengths of the approach, which make it appealing for exploitation are the following:
in the particular sector of construction, the high investment cost of certain equipment
and the difficulty to maintain a large usage rate of this equipment, leave a large space
for benefits to both lessors (income from idle equipment) and lessees (less investment
requirements).
e-Sharing explores new approaches to flexible work forms that will allow enterprises to
be more competitive in an increasingly global business environment and at the same
time to keep their employees, increase the work stability and reduce the
unemployment. Compliance with EU efforts in employment is worth noting.
the owner of e-Sharing business is only a mediator and does not have to invest in
purchasing the resources to be leased. The value of the leasing transactions is large
enough to allow a descent revenue to the mediation service provider.
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The main effort in developing the e-Sharing platform is in shaping the applications
according to the special needs of the resource sharing scenario. Additionally, effort is
targeted to the development of special components with advanced characteristics such as
sharing-specific matching agents and intelligent recommendations. A number of these
components, triggered original R&D work, including an advancement in the
corresponding research. The compilation of characteristics tailored to real workscenarios
provides e-Sharing with a competitive advantage.
The e-Sharing approach will contribute to new ways of working by supporting easy
co-operation of SMEs in the construction sector. It contributes to easier establishment of
new organizational patterns, such as Virtual Organizations (VOs), and therefore
strengthens and extends the competitiveness of SMEs and the construction sector in
general. Especially in the very fragmented and specialized construction sector this will
lead to productivity gains. Moreover, the e-Sharing approach enables access to modern
and up-to-date construction equipment on a cost-effective basis. By leasing high-tech
construction equipment SMEs can immediately improve their market position without
having the need for heavy investment.
6 BENEFITS OF THE E-SHARING SYSTEM
The e-Sharing system has been designed on the principle to be a practical and useful tool
for professionals which provides a quick and reliable way for seeking or exploiting
resources and a great flexibility in transactions between users.
The benefits for all the involved parts are significant:
Lessors (Equipment owners)
Exploitation of idle resources
Targeting of the offered resources to a special and attentive audience
Fast agreement completion
Profitable deals by means of advanced auctioning and negotiations features.
Lessees (Companies undergoing resource shortages)
Constantly available resources to select
Many alternative types of resources to select
Combinations of resources to accomplish a task
Access to rare resources
Fast seeking of the most suitable resources
Profitable deals by means of advanced auctioning and negotiations features.
Service provider
Marketplace domination by unifying highly fragmented markets
International market penetration by exploiting the systems multilingual capabilities
System extensibility to other business environments by including new resource
categories
Big profit possibilities by maintaining a continuous stream of transactions.
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7 CONCLUSION
e-Sharing system presents a pioneering service which allows companies that undergo
resource shortages to lease equipment or services form companies with temporarily
vacant equipment or personnel. e-Sharing supports resource type models based on XML
Schemas, employs intelligent functionality for matching offers and requests, and provides
advanced auctioning and negotiation procedures by using software agents. e-Sharing can
cooperate with the individual companys ERP systems, providing a fast and dynamic
Resource Management tool.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The Construction industry is one of the major sectors with 780 billion Euros: it means
that the construction industry is the largest industry in the industrial employment in
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Advanced administration tools for distributed personal, team, and project information
repositories;
Access to virtual building models and collaborative environments through wireless
networked technologies and low cost virtual reality environments;
Appropriate security levels for sharing the information over the inter/intranets;
Process and workflow management tools to support variations in working practices
between different projects;
New generations of ICT tools that facilitate collaboration and communication with endusers.
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Discontinuities between the different software tools. This makes the reuse of the results
of one technical domain as an input for another technical domain practically
impossible;
Lack of 3D real-time inspection features. Consequently, members of the project team
spend too much time trying to (i) understand the project information (ii) to describe
this information to one another.
In order to greatly reduce the above limitations, in the DIVERCITY context an
interactive design review workspace that allows the project teams to visualise and interact
with the project on a multidisciplinary basis has been created. The main features of the
design review workspace are as follows:
Supporting continuous design between different phases and within the detailed
design phase using IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), which means that the
calculation results yielded for one technical domain can be reused as an input for
another technical domain.
Model Driven Approach that allows project teams to share the same view about
the prqject through a visual and shared conceptual model. As a result substantial
improvements can then be made on the communication level between the project
teams.
Design Review applications within the DIVERCITY scope are:
Lighting Simulation by means of which user can visualise, with a photo realistic
rendering, the lighting conditions of each space taking into account both natural
and artificial light sources.
Acoustic Simulations allowing the user to experience what it would be like to
live and work in the spaces of the building.
Heating and Thermal simulations in order to assess both energy consumption of
a building and thermal comfort conditions in each space.
4.2.3 Lighting simulations
The lighting simulation module of DIVERCITY provides realistic simulation of light
transfers. Moreover, it is the first time that a lighting simulation involving radiosity
provides interactive solutions to the user. They can change and move objects or lights in
the building and see updated simulation interactively.
The lighting application will enable the user to look at different ways of lighting the
spaces by clicking and dragging objects into spaces and placing them at different
locations within the space. The reflections and contrasts from surfaces of flirniture, walls,
windows, etc can be viewed, enabling the user to place lights in their optimal positions
for best lighting in the room. Some example layouts are provided for the client or user to
see how different positions affect the light in the space. Furthermore, the effect of natural
daylight on the spaces can be viewed in the simulation. Figure 2 shows some lighting
simulation analysis from different perspectives.
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package and there is a need to update the IFC 4D building model with this data.
Secondly, the additional processes facilitate the conversions between IFC task model and
the used project management software package. Afterwards, updated 4DIFC model is
converted to VRML format for simulation. Subsequently, the software makes it possible
to simulate the building schedule for example, day by day. The stage that will be reached
at the construction site can be seen on the computer display. The easiest way to use the
software is to access it by using an Internet browser, but it is also possible to take
advantage of it in virtual-reality studios. Figure 3 shows the process flow and simulation
display of the Visual Product Chronology.
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Brandon, P.S., (1999) Product Process Development in 2000 Beyond, Berkeley-Stanford CE&M
Workshop, Stanford 1999.
Christiansson P., Da Dalto Laurent, Skjaerbaek J.O., Soubra S., Marache M., 2002, Virtual
Environments for the AEC sectorThe DIVERCITY experience. ECPPM 2002 Proceedings
European Conference of Product and Process Modelling. eWork and eBusiness in AEC.
(Editors: Ziga Turk, Raimar Scherer). Swtes & ZeitlingerPublishers, Lisse The Netherlands.
ISBN 90 5809 507 X. 911 September 2002, Portoroz, Slovenia. (pp. 4955).
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Environments for the AEC sector, ECPPM conference, Slovenia, September 2002, paper 465.
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Berkeley-Stanford CE&M Workshop, Stanford 1999.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Since several years, product models are beginning to be adapted in mainly the design
processes of construction projects. Within the actual building process the application is
limited. However, demand is growing for a broader application of product modelling
systems and a sharp increase of their application is expected in the years to come. While
developing product models and systems, developers implicitly developed prerequisites
for the use of these models. If these prerequisites are not fulfilled by the construction
industry, the potential benefits of the product models will not come forward.
This paper describes a pilot study (Blokpoel 2003) where the application of product
models in construction and the consequences for the cooperation in these projects have
been investigated. Especially the relation between partnering as an emerging building
process organisation model and the potential use of product modelling has been
evaluated. From this analysis we derive directions for implementation and future
research.
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that the right people communicate, on the right levels of different organisations. A
product modelling system makes different information flows explicitly possible. By using
a product model, the communication can go more efficient, more accurate, direct and at
any time.
The benefits for an entire project organization are rather abstract. A project
organization is responsible for the business cases of the different actors as well.
Modelling systems are project based systems. Product modelling systems make the
integration of different phases possible (Fischer 2002). In this way, costs are saved, time
is won and quality (both in product quality and in performance) is guaranteed. This is
explicitly done by e.g. the better communication. But considering a project with a more
business orientated view; other derived benefits can explain the eventual benefit of saving
costs and time:
First of all, a product modelling system makes it possible to focus more on actual value
adding activities than on processes (flows) around them. This tnakes lean (efficient)
production possible and can enlarges the margins (Koskela 1992).
Product models can contribute to integration of the process in three directions (1)
between the various actors, (2) between various phases and (3) between the various
projects (Laitinen 1998).
The product development can be improved. A model allows an improved prediction of
time and costs in the early phases, allowing a client to make the right decision about the
extension or reduction of the design (Suhanic 2001). Finally, by using a product model, a
designer uses time more efficient. Details and different views can easily be withdrawn
from a product model. In this way, he saves time to focus on the actual creative part of
his job and to cooperate with the client and the other actors to ensure the quality of the
design and the performance criteria of the client (Laitinen 1998).
4 PREREQUISITES
Prerequisites for the use of product modelling systems are made implicitly, but can keep
a system from being successfully used.
The most important part of a product modelling system is the storage of data and the
information exchange between the various actors. A prerequisite is that the information
exchange and the use of information in a modelling system is greater than the sole
digitalisation of current documents (Laitinen 1998). Another mayor prerequisite is that
actors actually open there internal information to other actors in a project (Adriaanse
2003). If actors do not do that, the potential advantages for project management and
communication do not come true.
It is a prerequisite that the project organisation has one project management board that
manages the entire project containing all the phases. In this way, the potential benefits on
configuration management can be derived. Looking at the decision making process, a
prerequisite is that the decisions are made on demand, at any time needed in the model.
Next, a prerequisite is that all actors in a building project have the same goal of building a
good building, with the intended specifications, within the planned time and costs;
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creating customer value. A product model can only be designed for the goal of the project
and will otherwise not function as desired (Suhanic 2001).
Although product modelling systems are developed for a project, the intended use for
a specific company is for multiple projects. Old information can be reused and, looking at
cooperation, long term cooperation with other parties can be pursued. This long term
relationship is needed to get the full benefits out of the model.
Concerning legal issues, the use of a product modelling system contains a number of
prerequisites. First of all, the previously mentioned authority to make decisions must be
based on digital documents. Suggested designs, costs, changes and many other subjects
must be agreed for on in digital document or system. The supplementary need is that this
document is unique and has a version and date attached to it, as the models suggests to
eventually have multiple documents of the same object due to easy to implement
changes. The documents must have a legal basis by which the tasks and responsibilities
of the involved parties are compulsory. Next, errors can occur in exchange files due to
conversion or wrong interpretation. Actors should be responsible for own
made/converted information and perform a check on their data, certifying it with a digital
signature. It is a prerequisite that actors take this responsibility. A log file of all
exchanged data, decisions, etcetera is needed. This file should be kept at a third party,
being updated with digital signatures in an encrypted data format. This ensures a proper
legal relation and the possibility to fulfil the contract.
Furthermore, the clear ownership of the information is a prerequisite of a product
model. The information that is entered in a product model should belong to a certain
party, or otherwise be destroyed after the completion of the project. One of the (potential)
benefits of a modelling system is the reuse of information. Except, not all project data has
to be shared. By using a middleware and a core data model only relevant parts are
exchanged, decreasing the risks for errors, sharing classified information, changing
internal company systems or exchanging irrelevant detail levels. Companies can connect
to the (core) product data model by using a standard slot and connect their internal
systems to the relevant module for specific activities, such as cost calculation.
This prerequisite is closely related to the one concerning the mutual project goal. If
actors try to manipulate information, communication and other actors for their own
advantages; this will damage the potentials of the system.
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no use of putting these agreements in a contract, because then the whole thought of
partnering will be lost. A definition that summarizes some existing opinions of partnering
is:
Partnering is a (possible long term) commitment between two or more organisations
for the purpose of achieving specific business objectives by maximizing the effectiveness
of each participants resources. This requires changing traditional relationships to a
shared culture without regard to organisational boundaries. The relationship is based on
trust, dedication to common goals, and an understanding of each others individual
expectations and values (Briscoe 2001).
Project partnering is a high-risk high-gain approach (gain share, pain share). By
opening up business processes to other actors, an actor is vulnerable to be abused.
Especially in a sector where high risk avoidance and focusing on company goals instead
of project goals is common. This means that partnering can be compared with the
prisoners dilemma. The dependencies between two or more actors are high. The
behaviour of one actor affects both its own success and other actors successes. Positive
behaviour of all actors creates synergy and a positive project result for all actors, negative
(or: strategically) behaviour will lead to minor results for all actors involved. Keywords
in partnering are (Carr 1999):
trust
open and effective communication
commitment from senior management
clear understanding of different parties roles
consistency of objectives
flexibility to change
continuous improvement.
Within a partnering organisation, a total openness of information is given and an effort is
done to understand each actors dependencies and issues. Communication is one of the
most important parts of partnering.
Partnering will not take away the cause of problems in the building process. Changes
in the environment and at the client will always occur. Partnering creates a way to deal
with those errors and solve them quickly without getting into a formal dispute. These
benefits are the cause of fewer claims and lawsuits because (Kruus October 2003):
Problems are solved in the project team;
Problems are avoided due to good communication;
Insight in other actors processes.
The risk allocation is an important cause for behaviour in a project. The complexity, the
project view and the lack of trust are reasons for risk avoiding behaviour, such as
opportunistic behaviour, legal claims and strategic communication (Dorree 2001). The
soft word of trust turns out to be important in partnering. The inappropriate risk
allocation is also a source for mistrust. The lack of trust is another cause for e.g.
opportunistic behaviour. Without trust, actors feel the threat of being misused and, again,
try to avoid risks. The issues and behaviours above lead to the major shortcomings in the
sector; errors due to e.g. poor communication, budget and time exceeding projects,
mismatch between requirements and the eventual product. The lack of a central project
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management (and thus configuration management) is one of the technical causes for
errors in communication; others are behavioural such as strategic communication. The
paradox of Bresnen states that a complex environment needs specialists, but also
coordination between those (differentiation versus integration); needs contracts to
allocate risks, but also flexibility. These paradoxes can only be undone with sufficient
trust, for which mutual goals, a project view and open communication is needed in a
project.
To derive these benefits, a partnering organisation needs tools to actually make an
improved communication and an open organisation possible. Good communication is
essential for partnering. The right actors have to be reached at the right time, and relevant
information has to be communicated. The unwillingness to share information and open
up ones business process is a great threat for partnering.
Steps to come to partnering are first of all to pay attentions to the keywords. But
giving the facts that partnering also means taking responsibility to try and pursue a good
project, the right start for partnering is at an individual company.
6 MATCHING
From the sections on the prerequisites and partnering it can be concluded that in a
partnering project, most imminent prerequisites are fulfilled.
In the research leading to this paper, the potential possibilities of the modelling
systems and the prerequisites have been outlined in a matrix. The matrix was ordered in
project management, communication, organisational and product development. Scores in
the matrix indicated which possibilities of the systems were dependent of prerequisites. It
turned out that the most crucial part was the organisational prerequisites. Once further
research showed that these prerequisites were not fulfilled at all by the current
construction industry, more focus was given to new ways of cooperation.
To verify the results from theoretical research, projects in Helsinki, Finland, were
examined. The construction of a new headquarter for NCC Finland, application of design
analysis by Granlund and the HUT600 pilot project were examined, mostly by
interviews. In most of these projects, the relative good match between needs of the
construction industry and potentials of the systems were confirmed. The nature of the
projects confirmed as well that close cooperation was needed for mayor project
advantages. Next to that, it was found that internal company benefits can form a good
start for applying modelling systems.
7 DISCUSSION
The construction sector is strongly project based, each project is unique and produces a
prototype as final product resulting in risks and uncertainty, the projects are divided in
phases that are often strongly separated and there is a lack of long term vision.
The risk allocation is an important cause for behaviour in a project. The complexity,
the project view and the lack of trust are reasons for risk avoiding behaviour, such as
opportunistic behaviour, legal claims and strategic communication:
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The inappropriate risk allocation is also a source for mistrust. The lack of trust is
another cause for e.g. opportunistic behaviour. Without trust, actors feel the threat of
being misused and, again, try to avoid risks;
The issues and behaviours above lead to the major shortcomings in the sector; errors
due to e.g. poor communication, budget and time exceeding projects, mismatch
between requirements and the eventual product;
The paradox of Bresnen states that a complex environment needs specialists, but also
coordination between those (differentiation versus integration); needs contracts to
allocate risks, but also flexibility. These paradoxes can only be made undone with
sufficient trust, what needs e.g. mutual goals, a project view and open communication
in a project;
The needed change in cooperation such as open, errorless communication and the reuse
of information needs tools to facilitate these changes.
The potential advantages of product modelling systems seem to offer possibilities to
improve the construction sector. But the, often implicit, prerequisites for the use of the
models keep the advantages of coming true. Partnering offers a new way of cooperation
by which the construction sector fulfils in most of the important prerequisites. By using
partnering, the potential advantages of the modelling systems can actually improve the
construction sector. In that way, there is a great synergy between partnering and product
modelling systems as displayed graphically in figure 4.
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8 CONCLUSION
Product modelling systems offer possibilities to the construction sector that match
relatively good with the needs of the sector. These needs come forward from the main
shortcoming in the sector; a lack of a common project view of the different parties
involved, an inappropriate allocation of risks, firm contracts and price focussed
organisations.
Important consequences of these shortcomings are opportunistic behaviour, strategic
communication, errors due to old, wrong or irrelevant documents, a mismatch between
the clients requirements and the eventual product and time and budget exceeding
projects. The application of modelling systems is not the ultimate solution for the
construction industry. Solving the shortcomings of the construction sector is a relevant
goal; modelling systems can be a useful tool, and maybe even an enabler for change.
Most of the unfulfilled prerequisites are related to the way of cooperating between
different parties in a project. New building process organisation types, like partnering,
offer a better way to approach a project and offer a good basis to use the modelling
systems. By taking trust as a basis, defining a mutual project goal for the main actors,
communicate openly and understand other actors processes a lot of the shortcomings can
be taken away in a project. Product modelling systems can be a good tool for this
development, and maybe even an enabler. The potentials of the models are to facilitate an
open communication, a good configuration management, more reuse of data and virtual
prototyping in 4D.
The application can result in fewer errors, better decision making, more insight for the
client, more efficiency and better (performance) quality in a project. Legal issues are no
roadblock, but need attention. The current contracts are sufficient, but need an add-on for
procedures in the use of ICT. A third party should keep an encrypted log file to ensure
traceability of changes. Model errors in exchange files can occur and cause problems.
Producers of data should be responsible for the produced data and check it on
consistency. A middleware is needed to exchange only core model information and to
allow company based ICT systems that connect through a shared modelling system. The
promising opportunities for facility management with as-build product model data could
be the right initiator for a building owner. At all time, a companys internal ICT benefit
should be started with.
The research on, the development of and the application of product modelling systems
should go hand in hand. The focus should be on application of the models in practice
with small steps, while at the same time focusing on:
Application in individual companies, gaining internal benefits first;
Developing KPIs for the measurement of results and the business justification;
Developing modelling systems on indicated issues;
Combine application with new or improved ways of cooperation in the construction
industry, like partnering.
The very first steps should be taken in the individual company; where internal benefit
must be reached. ICT strategies and employee training should set a basis for changes. In
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cooperation, especially the search for trust is important. Partnering is a useful concept,
and can be further exploited. Research on Product modelling systems should focus on
following the actual application and supporting a stepwise introduction, developing a
proper middleware with a definition of core models and solving practical legal issues.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The financial support from SBUFDevelopment Fund of the Swedish Construction
Industry, NCC and the Centre for Information Technology in Construction (eBygg) at the
Lule University of Technology is acknowledged.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Building projects follow the Pareto Principle or 80:20 rule, where 80% of the decisions
affecting the project outcome are made during the first 20% of the projects life. Thus the
decisions made early in the design process have the most far reaching consequences and
should be made with an appropriate level of care. However, this stage of the design
process is poorly supported by current CAD systems. The aim of the project described in
this paper is to assess how well three major architectural CAD systems and a CAD
system aimed at mechanical design, support the parametric description of building
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designs across multiple disciplines. While the results of the comparison are not yet
complete, this paper describes the current status of the project and the deliverables to
date. A side effect of the main deliverable is the implementation of a decision support
system for the early stage of building design that interfaces with four different CAD
systems. This demonstrates the benefits of interoperability in providing shared
information services.
This is one of the projects supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for
Construction Innovation (CRC CI) (CRC CI, 2004) as part of its charter to change the
way that the AEC-FM industry operates. Some of the deliverables from previous projects
have been adapted to suit the needs of early design problem solving.
2 IDENTIFYING KEY SYSTEMS
The starting point of the project was to identify the major building systems that should be
considered during early design. Discussions with the industry partners and a literature
review identified these key systems and the relevant parameters within the systems.
Systems were only chosen if they had major implications for the shape and layout of the
project. The systems selected were:
Architectural spatial layout
Structural
Environmental
Fire protection
Hydraulics
Electrical
Vertical transport
HVAC
Cost/budget
The types of projects and the level of detail used are illustrated in figure 1.
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3 BUILDING SYSTEMS
Even at the early stages of design with which we were concerned each of the building
systems is interdependent with the others. We were not able to identify any one view that
could be modeled independently of the others. We were also not able to identify one
system on which there were no dependent systems.
Each of the design advisors within the software has its own view of the shared
information in the database. The development of the advisors has assisted in defining
these specialist views at the early design stage.
An overarching parameter that applies to all building services systems is the quality
or level of service that the building will provide. Normally the rental return on a building
will be closely linked with the quality. In Australia and, presumably, in other countries,
there is a list of requirements for the various grades of office accommodation which
make the requirements very explicit. The rental charged on space is then negotiated with
this standard as the starting point.
3.1 Architectural spatial layout
The way that spaces can be laid out depends on the type of space and how flexible it
needs to be over the proposed life span of the building. The types of user space that are
handled in this system are residences, office accommodation and car parking. All of the
space types have a scaling factor applied to allow for shared communication space. For
example, the area of residential units is scaled up by a factor that caters for corridors and
lobbies that are shared on a floor. This factor is user configurable to allow adjustment for
different layouts and requirements.
Residences are treated as a single space representing the entire unit. The parameters
that are used cover the number of bedrooms and the standard of accommodation based
on local real estate categories. Connection points for the plumbing are also required to
assess whether a vented stack is required or not. Constraints on the minimum width of the
space are applied and some adjacency to an external wall, for views and ventilation, is
required. The requirements for services are applied to the unit as a whole since they do
not vary much within a residential unit.
The office accommodation is much simpler to handle from a geometrical perspective
since most office accommodation is designed to be flexible. There are no inbuilt
constraints on shape or adjacency to external walls although these can be added. There is
an increased requirement for detail on the building services. Briefing documents from
completed projects were used to define a standard template for space data. The space data
is aggregated under user control to provide the appropriate level of granularity for the
particular design requirements.
The information stored for office spaces includes:
Location/access requirementspublic or private space, access to other spaces. Etc
Occupancynumber of people
General surface finishes
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The required inputs are the geometry of the building and indications of the overall
physical building system configurations. The outputs are graphs that allow assessment
and comparison of the building performance.
3.4 Hydraulics
The hydraulics system is concerned about two issuesidentifying needs for water
storage within the building and passing this information on to other components and
ensuring that vertical service ducts are appropriately located within the building
envelope.
The population of the building provides the necessary information for the estimation
of tank sizes. The output is a requirement for a tank size in floor area and headroom.
3.5 Fire protection
Fire protection systems are pervasive in modern multistorey buildings. Local building
regulations will often mandate the type of system that must be used for buildings of
various heights, occupancies and areas.
The applicable input parameters in Australia are the building height, area and
occupancy type. The outputs are whether an automatic sprinkler system is required and if
so, the capacity of any storage tanks, whether a fire control centre is required and whether
diesel/electric booster pumps are required. Assessment for smoke protections systems
could be added in the future.
3.6 Electrical
The major impact of the electrical system in the early stages of design is in deciding if a
substation is necessary in the project and if so, where it should be located. Obviously, on
large sites this may not be a major constraint, but on smaller, highly developed sites this
can be a major decision.
Whether a substation will be needed can be identified by taking the area of the
building and applying a load density appropriate for the particular usage(s). Electrical
loads from the other building services systems, especially HVAC also need to be factored
in. This gives the total estimated load, which can be used as a basis for discussion with
the local supply authority. If a substation is required the size can be given in a simple
lookup table based on the total electrical load.
Other spaces which may be needed include:
Switch room
Batteryroom
Emergency generator
However, at the level of detail at which we are working these can normally be added to
the substation.
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The quantities are shared with the life cycle assessment module through a shared
quantity calculation module that writes the calculated quantities back into the shared
database. In some instances different quantities are required across the life cycle
assessment and cost modules due to differing classifications of building systems and
elements.
3.10 Server database
The server database uses the EDM Express server (EPM Technology, 2004). This
provides single writer/ multiple reader capabilities that comply with the ISO 10303
standard. A connection manager has been implemented as an interface to the EDM server
to handle the event notification required to keep all of the co-operating components
synchronized.
The EDM Server can store multiple projects by storing them in separate repositories.
Within each repository there can also be multiple models. This provides a useful
mechanism if there is a need to store different versions of the one project model for
comparative analysis. Separate models are necessary if two alternatives differ in more
ways than just substituting one material for another within a building component. For
example, if a steel frame was being compared with a concrete frame it may be necessary
to use different column and beam spacings to produce efficient structural designs for each
construction type. Trying to track such alternatives within a single model is difficult. It is
easier to clone the entire database and then vary one of the copies to suit the new
alternative.
3.11 CAD customisation
The CAD customisation provides the interface between the inbuilt facilities offered by
the CAD software and the information stored in the shared database. The implementation
consists of three functions:
User interface elements that provide access to the information and services that underlie
the entire system;
Data import facilities that read the information in the shared database and convert it to
the internal structures necessary for manipulation within the CAD system; and
Data export facilities which map the internal information on to the schema used in the
shared database.
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1. The user interface is provided from within the CAD system. This is the
sole interface to the various services which sit behind it.
2. The shared database which provides access to all of the shared
information within a project.
3. The individual components which read and operate on the shared
information within the database.
An event model has been defined to support the interaction between the various
components. This is a synchronous model that assumes that only one human is interacting
with the system at any particular time.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper describes work undertaken in CRC for Construction Innovation project 2002
060-B, Parametric Building Development during Early Design. The authors
acknowledge the contributions of Professor Mark Bury, Julian Canterbury and Alison
Fairley of RMIT, Peter Bowtell of Arup Australia and David Marchant of Woods Bagot.
REFERENCES
CRC CI (Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation), 2004,
http://www.construction-innovation.info/ourprojects.php
Drogemuller, R. An ICT Platform for AEC, Proc. INCITE 2004, Bejaya Beach Resort, Malaysia
EPM Technology, 2004, www.jotne.com/epmtech/
Ferry, D.J. & Brandon, P.S., 2002, Cost Planning of Buildings
Gielingh, W.F., 1988, General AEC Reference Model, TNO Tech. Rep., P.O. Box 46 2600 AA, the
Netherlands, BI-88-150, October
Haymaker J., Suter, B., Fischer, M., and Kunz, J., 2003, The Perspective Approach: Enabling
Engineers to Construct, and Integrate Geometric Views to Generate an Evolving, Integrated
Project Model Working Paper Nr 081, CIFE, Stanford University
Parlour, R.P., 1990, Air Conditioning: Design at the Early Stage, Integral Publishing, Sydney
Parlour, R.P., 1994, Building Services: Egineering for Architects, Integral Publishing, Sydney
Schevers, H., Tolman F.P., 2001, Modelling the first building life cycle stages, in Proceedings of
the CIB W78 conference, White River, Mpulanga, South Africa
Stein, B., 1997, Building Technology: Mechanical & Electrical Systems, 2nd Edition, John Wiley
& Sons
Stein, B. & Reynolds, J.S., 2000, Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings, 9th Edition,
John Wiley & Sons
Tucker S.N., Ambrose M.D., Johnston D.R., Newton P.W., Seo S. and Jones D.G., 2003,
LCADesign: An integrated approach to automatic eco-efficiency assessment of commercial
buildings, Proc CIB W78, Auckland
van Leeuwen, J.P. and R.H.M. van Zutphen, 1994, Architectural Product Modellinga Case
Study. In: Proceedings of the CIB W78 Workshop, Helsinki, August 1994
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the handling of information and its access has been converted into essential
factors for the economical development and business success.
In the last years, Information Society and basically Internet, has become the main
information transmission and communication media among companies.
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intensive that have resulted in higher costs and inefficiencies (Figure 1).
Coordinating the numerous parties involved to take a project from initiation through
construction is often a daunting experience. Owners/developers, architects, engineers,
general contractors, specialty contractors, material suppliers and government and
regulatory bodies have all traditionally communicated using methods such as fax, face-toface meetings, email, couriers and mail to exchange ideas, provide progress updates,
schedule labour, deliver documents and make supply requests.
The complex process required to turn around a RFI (request for information)
illustrates some of these inefficiencies: today, a RFI is hand-written by a specialty
contractor, faxed to the general contractor, reviewed/rewritten and faxed to the architect.
The architect may fax it to a sub-consultant (electrical, structural, mechanical) for review,
who in turn may fax it to a sub-sub-consultant (lighting, acoustical) for input. The
response is formulated, documented and sent back to the sub-consultant for review, and
then faxed back to the architect. Assuming no further clarification is needed, the architect
faxes the RFI back to the general contractor and the owner. Once approved by the owner,
the RFI is faxed back to the specialty contractor with action items. Finally, the general
contractor needs to ensure that the response is received on the job site by foremen, staff,
specialty contractors, suppliers, project managers and administrators, all in their
respective office locations.
As the above example demonstrates, we believe the AEC industry is ready to take
advantage of current developments in online project collaboration tools. Incorporating
these tools into current industry practices can make a significant difference.
Collaboration software enables organisations to centralise electronic documents, thus
allowing users from a number of different organisations to work in a more collaborative
fashion. The primary objective is to move away from traditional sequential paper-based
systems, thereby breaking down barriers to communication.
In the construction industry, there are typically 50 to 250 organisations involved with
the execution of building contracts, (construction professionals, contractors, specialist
contractors, suppliers, statutory authorities, health and safety, highways agencies etc.).
Traditional paper based administrative systems mean that for every document issued,
there is need to copy (sometimes in part, sometimes whole) and pass down the supply
chain sometimes for information, sometimes for comment and return and usually in
accordance with some level of contractual obligation.
Bearing in mind the number of organisations in a typical project supply chain, this
creates two major problems:
the system is inherently challenging in terms of effective communication and
the administrative burden is tedious and expensive. Ineffective communication and
poor administration lead to bad management.
The essence of collaboration software is to develop a process whereby documents are all
electronic, thus enabling them to be located at a secure central location that can be
accessed by those to whom access rights have been given while maintaining business
processes, supply chain relationships and organisational hierarchies. In Figure 2 both
situations, traditional project management and web based project management are shown.
The basic improvement is the centralisation of the information as it can be noticed.
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Project collaboration services focus on tools and services that make it easier to manage
the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) design projects. Common services
include backing up files, keeping a document revision history and tracking who accesses
what files. Such sites also offer online document viewing, online markup, and plotting.
Three main services are available in Web Based Project Management Systems:
Business Process Automation, Online Document Management andTeam Communication.
Many other services are also available but they can be grouped in one of these three main
services.
On line project management provides an instant, on-demand, secure online solution
for all team members to communicate, share documents and collaborate using a standard
Web browser.
The heart of some on line project management systems is a secure document
management and workflow system that stores all project documents and forms. The
information repository can be updated daily to ensure that everyone has access to current
information. It enables everyone in the project team to work from the same page,
improving productivity. It helps accelerate time-to-market, reduce cost, increase revenues
and to minimized rework due to communications errors. With a minimal investment in
Internet technology and personnel, On line project management systems provides the
tools for instant information access anytime, anywhere as it can be noticed in the
following Figure, collaborative software offers any kind of information services (consult,
procure, maintain, modify, etc.). Throughout the lifecycle of the project.
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Figure 5. Implementation of
ProjectCenter in Spain by type of
companies.
Spain.
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By autonomic communities, Madrid, Catalonia and Andalucia are the regions that use
more these kind of tools.
2.3.2 ProjectNet
Bidcom Ltd is the leading provider of online collaboration solutions for the design,
engineering and construction industry. Bidcom Ltd, based in London, provides sales and
service solutions throughout Europe. Originally founded in 2000, Bidcom Ltd has
developed lasting relationships with some of the worlds leading companies, including
owners, architects, engineering and construction firms.
Bidcom has developed a very powerful tool for the management of on-line projects in
construction, ProjectNet.
ProjectNet is a way for all team members to share and access project documents
around the clock and around the world.
ProjectNet is powerful and scalable, and includes project management tools such as
RFIs, Submitted Samples, Architects Instructions, Meeting Minutes, Action Items,
Logs, and more.
ProjectNet is the glue that brings all of the disparate systems from multiple
organisations together in one environment, the web. Some of the key features of
ProjectNet are: Automatic file conversion for browser viewing of all file formats; Folder
creation and access control by multiple users. For example, both the architect and the
contractor can create folders that the other cannot see. Individual users or groups can be
given rights to create subfolders under one folder without giving them the right to create
folders everywhere; External Reference file management for AutoCAD, Microstation and
Primavera. All Xrefs are automatically uploaded and downloaded. If you upload 100
DWGs all pointing to the same Xref, the Xref is only uploaded once; a user or group can
have multiple workflow roles. For example: the contractor may only be allowed to submit
RFIs to the Architect; and the Architect can only submit RFIs to the Owners rep.;
Workflow (RFFs, Meeting minutes, Submittals, etc.) items can link to multiple
documents previously uploaded; and automatically create calendar and task items.
ProjectNet has over 6.000 active users in the UK. Bidcoms customers include facility
owners and operators, architecture, engineering and construction firms.
After analysing these services, we reach the conclusion that the majority of Web
Based Project Management Services are addressed to Architecture and Engineering
Studies, Contractors and Owners.
All the other participants like suppliers; quality control entities, etc. usually use these
services not for the management of the project but for consulting. This means that they
will have certain accesses and privileges but they wont be the direct users.
Basically, Web Based Project Management services are only focused on document
management and communication management, other services like electronic transactions
are not offered in these services. They are very complex and specific tools.
Because of this, we have analysed and studied some architecture and engineering
studies, contractors and owners who are working with some kind of Web Based Project
Management services.
The aim was to have a general view of the application of these services. It must be
said that we have chosen solid companies with a high degree of innovation. This means
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that this analysis is not to reach conclusions on the use of these tools in SMEs of the
construction sector. The majority of AEC SMEs in Spain dont use any kind of
Management System and sometimes neither PCs for their day-to-day work.
2.4 Study of some companies using Web Based Project Management
services
2.4.1 JG Asociados
As a representative for the role of designer in the construction Project (Architect,
Engineer, etc.) we have chosen the engineering company JG Asociados. Although JG
Asociados has a Web Based Project Management tool called COBRA, its an internal
service for the organisation of the companys information.
It has three servers: one for Internet and e-mail, another for projects that is divided by
delegations and the last one is for models and software. The server also stores all the
particular information of all the workers of the office in a space called Users.
The Web Based Project Management COBRA is divided by areas: projects, bids, time
and cost, general data, turnover, consultations, accounting and payments.
The project area allows generating new projects or edit the old ones. The
nomenclature to define a project is characterized for an initial depending on the
delegation, 3 correlative digits and the starting year of the project. For example the
project B00103 is the first project from Barcelonas delegation of 2003 year. Each project
includes the options of Payments, General Data, Attributes (class, type, surface, budget),
Contacts (architect, acoustic consultor, promoter, etc.) Prevision (person, hours, etc.),
Images, Results (comparison between the expected results and the real ones to do a
balance of the project), Web link. All JG Asociados workers have access to incorporate
their personal data like the hours they invest in a project but other information like
biddings, contact persons, etc. are restricted to some persons.
The bidding area allows creating new offers or consulting the state of the offers. Other
options are the management of hours and costs, introduction and control of the
collaborators hours and costs.
Relating to general data, information like contacts, collaboration data, Cobra help, etc.
is available and can be edited.
In the turnover area, the allowed people can insert, control and consult the turnover.
There is also an area of general people consults (working charges of a current project,
costs, etc.) bids (total, accepted, etc.) costs graphs, hours, etc.
Another functionality is the accounting and payments that includes consults of
companies and delegations.
As a conclusion, COBRA is basically a human resources and project accounting
control and management systems, a system that allows the classification of the basic
information of the projects in each delegation. It works as an Intranet but some areas of
information can be viewed on the web, so it works partially as an Extranet.
Moreover, they are working in some projects that they were required by the client to
use some collaboration platform.
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2.4.2 IDOM
Idom Architecture, Engineering and Consulting opted for creating their own Web Based
Project Management System focused on the specific characteristics of their projects. With
this application they aimed to solidify the digital management of the company activities
processes reducing drastically the paper based storage of information, to facilitate the
exchange of information (easy, faster and cheaper) and to improve their working
methodology.
The tool is structured as a Lotus Notes (.nsf) database stored in a server of the
company and published in Internet (D.Prosper et al, 2002).
When developing the tool they opted for a simple and friendly (loolk & feel)
application to guarantee a fast access to the information.
From IDOM a very relevant aspect of having the information in digital support was
the easiness of finding information in a multidimensional classification. They have
chosen three ways of document classification: firstly, a Decimal Classification due to the
way they organise paper based documentation, secondly, a classification for types of
documents, sometimes more useful for certain external collaborative spaces, and the third
option by keywords. In all cases, the responsible of the project can chose the
classification that fits better to the object and participants.
Each agent that takes part of the project has the information that has stored previously
available, the information that other agents have put at the disposal of them and a tool to
store information. The document publications between agents can be enclosed by an email message.
They basically store document in .pdf format. When a document comes from different
applications (text, images, excel, etc.) the .pdf format helps the readness of the document.
The only problem is that its never editable.
When publishing a document, the person who publishes it should specify to who is
addressed so as he or they will be the only people who will visualize it and because of a
major control of the information, major flexibility and trying not to charge agents with
superfluous information. The management of biddings is also done via Internet.
According to IDOM this application has been successfully accepted in the company.
By the end of 2002, more than 200 projects were using it.
The experience created some problems that can be summed up in:
The digital management of a project is not easily assumed by all the involved agents. In
general terms, the tnost effective way would be the obligation at contractual level by
the Client to use these tools. But, although a Web Based Project Management tool
were imposed, certain suppliers will have limitations for not having and adequate
technical infrastructure.
The digital edition of documents like a letter is easy to implement. But, certain type of
reports or the technical documentation of the project with a complex structure, need a
complementary paper based edition.
Digital management wont avoid paper based communication and documents of
specific characteristics. Normally a notice is given by letter, projects are visados in
paper, etc. But it is also a fact that interesting experiences are beginning like electronic
visado, digital signature, etc.
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When the information project is stored in the server of a partner company, the other
agents can doubt of the manipulation of the information. In this sense, the acceptance
of the electronic signature can be used as a validation element to increase the trust.
The development of this tool was initially for the management of internal aspect, but for
IDOM it can be very useful for external agents. To improve this factor, they want to:
Provide specific formats for some type of documents like reports, minutes reports, etc.
Create an option to visualize documents. Currently there is only the possibility to open
documents with the programmes that are installed in the PC.
Create a fast and informal communication modality, like chat, incorporating and agenda
for the control of the development of activities.
Currently, the tool develops functions as a repository of information. In a near future,
they want to incorporate collaboration tools to allow a common generation of
documents.
2.4.3 Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC)
At the beginning of 2001, FCC created an Intranet for the management of the company.
The solution was a private IP net with the following services: e-mail, web publication,
documents transfer, net remote management, corporative database and Internet access.
Referring to the e-mail, they have a global addresses list, which is a public archive
system, controlled by electronic permissions and forms.
The web publication is formed by a Technical Boletin, Topics of Informatics (relation
of applications, specifications and equipment costs, reports and manuals), Training
(indexes and texts of the internal courses), Quality and Environment (agreements of the
Quality Committee, General Procedures, experiences to transmit, improvement
equipment), Machinery (internal norms and machinery utilization, norms for the risks
prevention, etc.), Spain Constmction (list of current sites).
Referring to document transfer, the Intranet includes documents of the Quality
System, Drivers and Controllers and software installations.
From the net remote management, remote login, net monitoring, inventory and
hardware management can be obtained.
In relation to the corporative database, biddings, catalogs of suppliers and photographs
of different sites are stored.
The tool also allows Internet access and access to public databases.
Concluding, and based on the study carried out by FCC and presented in the seminar
ConstruTIC (FCC, 2001) the implantation of the Intranet obtained: faster and better
fiability of the information distribution, fluidity of the communication between Central
Services and Sites, quality of the information, awareness of the advance grade of the
sites.
2.4.4 GISA
GISA as a reference of the construction sector in Catalonia is leading, together with
Accenture, the development of a Collaborative portal based on a unique data repository,
accessible via Internet (GISA, 2002). This portals allows to deliver documentation to
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Gisa through the portal, in a agile and structured way, to publish monthly reviews and the
advance of the site, to identify the different actors that are in each stage of the project
participating on it and to make easy the communication between them.
After some time using this collaborative portal the following results are extracted:
In reference to the usability of the system and based on the improvements suggested
by the users, the number of folders and levels should be reduced to a maximum of two
and its necessary to define document forms where the nomenclature and the document
structure to publish were established.
Site directors valuate positively the save of time, and both internal and external
workers consider the system very useful to add value to their diary tasks.
In a near future they foresee integrated the digital signature.
3 CONCLUSIONS
Concluding, some companies have leaded the application and development of Web Based
Project Management System, creating their own platforms. However, the majority of
SMEs dont use any kind of Web Based tool, even they dont have web page or dont use
PCs for their current work. Taking into account that the tendency of the sector turns to
the use of these management tools, these SMEs will be forced to start using them.
Nevertheless, big and some of medium companies are investing in creating their own
Intranets for the Management of their business and in a near future these tools will be
used as collaborative spaces with other partners of the project.
The main problem will be the differences between these services. Each company is
adapting these services to their necessities and obviously, each company has different
organizational and ftinctional systems. Its therefore, necessary a common organisational
modeltounifyalltheavailablesystems.
REFERENCES
Wesek J., Cottrez V., Landler, P. (2002), A Benefits Analysis of Online Project Collaboration
Tools within the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry. Price Waterhouse
Coopers
Prosper, D., Rey A., San Emeterio, I. 2002. Experiencias en el desarrollo y utilizacin de una
herramienta extranet de archivo y comunicacin en la gestion de proyectos de construccin. VI
International congress on Project Engineering, Barcelona, pp 160
GISA, 2002, rea Col.laborativa per a la gesti de Direccions dObres. Jornada sobre Posibilidades
de Internet en el Sector de la Construccion. Barcelona 26 de Junio de 2002.
FCC 2001, Seminario sobre las tecnologas de la informacin y comumcacin a la construccin.
ConstruTIC.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Efficient provision and management of information are key requirements for planning
processes in the construction industry. Building construction and management demand a
coherent information management considering the multitude of companies and
stakeholders involved as well as the broad variety of electronic infrastructure and standalone information management systems deployed.
The current state of the art in project centred information management in AEC/FM is
still represented by web based extranet platforms. However, being mainly based on the
client-server paradigm and used over the internet these systems do not adequately address
the information management requirements. They require a homogeneous organisational
and software structure that cannot be automatically assumed for teams assembled from
participants of different companies and for one single project or even for a part of a
project. Moreover, the time-consuming explicit management of information performed
manually (check-in, check-out, etc.), expenses for renting the portals, and the difficulties
in integrating the platforms with internal electronic infrastructure are crucial aspects.
The objective of the research work presented in this paper is the realisation of an
extensible dynamic distributed ICT infrastructure for cross-company teamwork in virtual
organisations dealing with one-of-a-kind products, processes and events. This
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and (Jennings & Wooldridge 1998) for an elaborated introduction to Multi Agent
Systems, to (Milojicic et al 2002) to gain an insight into P2P computing and to (Guarino
1996) for a short familiarizing with the ontology concept.
In Multi Agent Systems (MAS) specialised agents representing the users, the
information resources, and the system itself cooperate to address the information
processing requirements of the users, allowing for easy, dynamic reconfiguration of the
system and its resources. The key aspect of software agent technology is autonomy,
which allows the agent to decouple the sequence of operations from the user interactions.
The use of agent technology provides a high degree of decentralisation of capabilities
which is the key to system scalability and extensibility (Bayardo et al. 1997).
The P2P communication model allows PCs and other computational entities,
connected in a network, to communicate or share computational tasks and resources
without the explicit need for a server (as in web-based models). Each node is equal (peer)
to all others, and may operate as router, client, or server according to the task to be
performed. In addition, some protocols (e.g. Napster, Gnutella) use message routing
mechanisms based on broadcasting and time to live marker techniques. However, pure
P2P based tools have fundamental limitations, such as limited expressiveness of
messages (languages can only talk about objects/data that are well defined and uniquely
identified by their names, e.g. MP3 files, images, etc.) and rather simple data models
covering mainly file directories (Panti et al 2002). The power of P2P systems emerges
from their remarkable efficiency in self organising robust dynamic systems of
independent peers at runtime, enriched with advanced capabilities of modern P2P
frameworks, as e.g. JXTA (Sun Microsystems 2003), like peer-grouping and elaborated
security for communication channels. This is where almost all modern agent frameworks
provide pretty poor performance, although they are internally based on the P2P
communication model too.
Ontologies as domain models can provide for a concise, uniform, and declarative
description of semantic information, independent of the underlying syntactic
representation or the conceptual models of information bases. Domain models widen the
accessibility of information by allowing the use of multiple ontologies belonging to
diverse user groups (Bayardo et al 1997).
Several projects have combined two or three of these essential concepts. Most
prototyped systems apply the advanced Multi Agent System approach for intelligent
distributed information and knowledge management, e.g. the projects CoMMA (CoMMA
Consortium 2000), InfoSleuth (Bayardo et al 1997), and MAP (Weiss et al 2003), the
later emphasizes the mobility of the user and his/her devices. These projects utilise the
standard P2P functionality of MAS frameworks for establishing their own distributed
networks. However, these projects lack an advanced methodology for building robust
dynamically changing distributed networks, in particular in an ad hoc manner.
All MAS based systems deploy their own proprietary ontology to leverage inter-agent
communication and information exchange. Some of them (cf. e.g. CoMMA), provide
ontology inference mechanisms enabling automatic derivation of new information/
knowledge about information resources. Whereas projects five years ago developed their
ontologies more or less from scratch, the majority of present approaches revert to
available ontology standards, such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) (W3C
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2004a), as well as DAML+OIL (W3C 2001) and OWL (W3C 2004b) as more
appropriate specialisations of RDF.
The potential of a powerful semantic web framework harnessing P2P technology was
demonstrated in the SWAP project (Ehrig et al 2003). Unfortunately, this project did not
realise the potential that agent technology could contribute to the SWAP framework.
3 HYBRID AGENT-ENABLED PEER-TO-PEER INFRASTRUCTURE
3.1 Speciflc development objectives
The general objectives mentioned in the introductory chapter can be broken down to
more specific design
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availability of its associated resource. Lifetimes enable the deletion of obsolete resources
without requiring any centralised control, what is an essential feature for the developed
distributed platform. An advertisement can be republished (before the original one
expires) to extend the lifetime of a resource.
For the sake of not going beyond the scope of the paper, security issues concerning the
transport layer security are omitted here. The interested reader is referred to (Sun
Microsystems 2001) which outlines the trustworthy security mechanisms JXTA comes
with.
3.4 The agent layer
After the principle discussion of the P2P layer communication model, this section
describes how the agent technology layer facilitates that functionality in order to establish
the MAS hosting the advanced application agents.
Establishing a MAS utilizing a pure JADE platform is performed by running a main
agent container hosting the AMS and the DF, and subsequently starting optional agent
containers on the same or other machines. The crucial aspect is that this architecture is
more or less comparable to a Client/Server architecture with the main container acting as
the central server-like instance. If the main-container disappears, the agent platform runs
out of service. Moreover, a permanent network connection between the main container
and its sub-containers is essential.
This JADE basic principle is not compatible with the intended P2P-based distributed
architecture, where peers dynamically build groups and are free to join and leave the
network as they want. Therefore, the basic JADE architecture had to be broken down into
distributed single JADE platforms, each with its own main container, only connected by
the underlying P2P infrastructure, as shown in Figure 4.
Although this approach seems quite simple, it entails several consequences. The most
apparent consequence is that now every peer has to run a main container with an AMS
and a
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The benefit is that each agent retains its freedom to interpret any specific concept but
on a high-level commits to understand what it is asked to do. In this way the complexity
of the interoperability problem is reduced to a lean common ontological model and a
number of mappings to/from the application-specific knowledge intensive datastructures.
Five design criteria have been adopted from (Katranuschkov et al 2003) dominating
the development of the ontology that is currently under way:
Clarity. The ontology should effectively communicate the intended meaning of
defined terms. Its definitions shouldbe objective and, where possible, stated by means of
appropriate logical propositions.
Coherence. The ontology should be coherent, i.e. it should sanction inferences to such
that are consistent with basic ontology definitions.
Extensibility. The ontology should anticipate the use of a shared vocabulary. It should
offer a basis for a range of envisaged tasks, but it should also be possible to extend and
specialise its concepts.
Minimal ontological commitment. The ontology should make as few claims as
possible about the modeled real world products, allowing the actors in the environment
certain freedom for their own interpretations.
Web-enabled. Whilst not directly related to the conceptual design of the ontology
framework as such, this final issue is an essential prerequisite for its efficient use in
distributed internet environments.
Considering these design criteria the ontology framework will be based on the OWL
DL standard (W3C 2004b), a specialisation of the Resource Description Framework RDF
(W3C 2004a). The Web Ontology Language (OWL) enables the definition of domain
ontologies and sharing of domain vocabularies. OWL is modeled through an objectoriented approach, and the structure of a domain is described in terms of classes and
properties. From a formal point of view, OWL can be seen to be equivalent to description
logic (DL), which allows OWL to exploit the considerable existing body of DL reasoning
including class consistency and consumption, and other ontological reasoning.
Utilising the advanced OWL DL framework and available free tools for ontological
reasoning, the currently developed ontology framework for the construction domain will
be an integral part of the generic agent-enabled Peer-To-Peer infrastructure, providing
semantic interoperability, agent-based ontological reasoning as well as it provides for
improving the User Interface Agent with user-friendly ontology based interactions.
4 DEMONSTRATOR
The hybrid agent-enabled Peer-To-Peer infrastructure was designed and developed to
support cross-company teamwork in virtual organisations of the construction industry.
An early demonstrator developed at the TU Dresden (Groer 2003) provides first results
and insights to the current development work.
The demonstrator provides the following features:
Distributed information management based on documents, managed without the need
for a central storage device, as e.g. a file server.
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Support for dynamic work groups. Thereby real organisational structures are mapped to
hierarchical peer-groups representing projects and teams. Users are represented with
their respecting roles within the groups. Furthermore they can switch easily between
the projects.
Autonomous agents are responsible for keeping track of the distributed resources their
user is interested in. Furthermore, they generate appropriate views that map the
resources to organisational structures based on resource patterns and support resource
exchange.
An User Interface Agent mediates the communication between the system and the user.
The screenshot of the German demonstrator below illustrates the feature of switching
between different projects using the tabs on the upper screen.
The navigation bar on the left side facilitates easy resource management as a Project
Agent automatically assigns the resources to a structure specific for construction projects.
A resource may have more than one representation within the navigation bar in order to
represent different organisational structures. E.g. a construction plan can be found within
a document type hierarchy, related to a company or assigned to a specific building,
element or system. The resource window on the right side presents standard resource
information as name and resource size, as well as the name of the owning peer.
Resources without an owner entry are available locally
The advanced underlying P2P network infrastructure is transparent for the user. The
look and feel is similar to standard project server software. However, there is no checkin/check-out mechanism as there is no central instance. The user stores his/her resources
in shared directories, that may be different for several projects. The agents propagate new
resources in the network to interested project members and provide advanced search
mechanisms for locating resources that match specified search attributes.
Most of the work in the background is performed by two specialised software agents,
namely the Project Agent and the Resource Agent. Each peer owns exactly one of each of
these agents, residing on the agent application layer.
The Project Agent manages all project information of the projects the user participates
in and is responsible for searching, updating and managing the project resources. The
local project information is updated by requests the user initiates and by inform actions
the Project Agents of other peers are sending if specific events occur.
The local resources itself are managed by the Resource Agent, which administrates the
local resources and responds to local and global search requests respecting the particular
project IDs.
These two agents that act in cooperation with the User Interface Agent, that currently
owns just reactive behaviours, result in a powerful ensemble managing a lot of daily
information resource management tasks the user is currently forced to perform manually.
However, it was only possible to develop this lightweight smart demonstrator in a
straightforward manner by exploiting the powerful generic agent-enabled Peer-To-Peer
infrastructure presented in chapter 3, even without the currently developed ontology
framework that could represent the resources on a meta-information layer.
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5 NEXT STEPS
The described generic infrastructure as well as the demonstrator can be beneficially
extended in several ways.
Further stages of the generic infrastructure are:
The anticipated conceptual and technological progress regarding the generic
infrastructure, will be dominated by the ontology framework, that is currently being
developed. Following the criteria outlined in chapter 3.5, the ontology concepts
described as classes and properties as well as logical implications are being compiled
within a layered ontology structure. Furthermore, generic ontology processing
facilities supporting agent development are currently under construction.
Many tasks currently performed by the demonstrators Project Agent can be delegated
to a generic agent that comes with the infrastructure itself. This agent will
automatically perform peer-group based information management in a generic way
and provide its services to application specific agents that utilise the ontology to
reconfigure the offered information.
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6 CONCLUSIONS
The developed agent-enabled Peer-To-Peer infrastructure approach proved to be feasible
to meet the requirements of dynamic distributed cross-company teamwork in virtual
organisations. However, what was achieved so far is still to be evaluated according to the
specific objectives described in chapter 3.1.
The goal of facilitating the information management process is met by the
decentralised architecture presented in chapter 3. The P2P communication model proved
to be the best choice for constituting the basic information layer.
Support for virtual project spaces is provided by the peer-group concept. However,
only with the added value of software agent technology in the background, an advanced
framework for sharing distributed information resources can be offered.
Utilising software agents in general is the crucial point for making the system
efficient. Only if agent technology and an advanced ontology framework can provide for
intelligent user-friendly services and allow the engineer to delegate information
management tasks, the system will be competitive with centralised client/server
approaches.
REFERENCES
Bayardo J.R. Jr., Bohrer W., Brice R., Cichocki A., Fowler J., Helal A., Kashyap V., Ksiezyk T.,
Martin G., Nodine M., Rashid M., Rusinkiewicz M., Shea R., Unnikrishnan C., Unruh A. &
Woelk D. 1997. InfoSleuth: agent-based semantic integration of information in open and
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dynamic environments. In: Proceedings of the 1997 ACM SIGMOD international conference on
Management of data. ACM Press, Tucson, Arizona, United States.
CoMMA Consortium. 2000. Corporate Memory Management through Agents. In: Proceedings EWork & E-Business. Madrid, Spain.
Ehrig M., Haase P., Staab S. & Tempich C. 2003. SWAPA Semantics-Based Peer-to-Peer
System. In: Gronau N. & Benger A. (Ed) Proceedings of JXTA WorkshopPotenziale,
Konzepte. Berlin, Germany.
Ferber J. 1999. Multi-Agent Systems: An Introduction to Distributed Artificial lntelligence.
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Groer A. 2003. Untersuchung des Einsatzes von Agentenbasierten P2P-Netzwerken fr das
Informations management in der Bauplanung, Diploma Thesis. Institute for Construction
Informatics. TU Dresden, Germany.
Guarino N. 1996. Understanding, Building, And Using Ontologies. In: Proceedings of Tenth
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Jennings N.R. & Wooldridge M.J. (Ed.). 1998. Agent Technology. Foundations, Applications, and
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Katranuschkov P. & Gehre A. 2003. An ontology framework to access IFC model data. ITcon Vol
8, Special Issue eWork and eBusiness. (available from: http://www.itcon.org/)
Milojicic D.S., Kalogeraki V., Lukose R., Nagaraja K., Pruyne J., Richard B., Rollins S. & Xu Z.
2002. Peer-to-peer computing. Technical Report HPL-200257, HP Laboratories, Palo Alto.
Panti M., Penserini L., Spalazzi L. & Tacconi S. 2002. A Multi-Agent System based on the P2P
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Rimassa G. 2003. Runtime Support for Distributed Multi-Agent Systems. Ph. D. Thesis, University
of Parma, Italy.
Sun Microsystems. 2001. Security and Project JXTA. Palo Alto, USA. available from:
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http://www.jxta.org/docs/JxtaProgGuide_v2.pdf
W3C. 2001. DAML+OIL (March 2001) Reference Description. W3C Note. available from:
http://www.w3.org/TR/daml+oil-reference/
W3C. 2004a. RDF Primer. W3C Recommendation available from: http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfprimer/
W3C. 2004b. OWL Web Ontology Language Overview. W3C Recommendation. available from:
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Weiss M., Busch C. & Schrter W. (Hg.). 2003. Multimedia Arbeitsplatz der ZukunftAssistenz
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Band 44, Germany.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Communities of practice are communities of professionals and others who share
knowledge and resources (Wengler, 1998). Hildreth et al. (2000, p. 35) defines a
community of practice as the community which has a common set of interests to do
something in common, is concerned with motivation, is self-generating, is self-selecting,
is not necessarily co-located, and has a common set of interests motivated to a pattern of
work not directed to it. The key to a successful knowledge dissemination strategy is to
channel the knowledge to the communities of practice and at the same time provide
means for information exchange and peer-to-peer collaboration (Wengler, 2000).
An online community has to satisfy three main objectives. It has to supply content to
the user, it has to encourage members to participate in the community by contributing,
and it has to facilitate communication and interaction between them (Pickles, 2003). In
the design of a virtual community space some functionality should be provided to push
content to members. There are a multitude of techniques for pushing content to and from
members but the aim is for members to generate as much content between them as
possible (Pickles, 2003). These push functionality features include Knowledge
Repository, News, Workshops/E-learning modules, Classifieds and Job offerings.
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practice to directly and actively participate in the knowledge creation and scientific
dissemination process. The Virtual Laboratory, as part of the Knowledge Portal, enables
joint research work on common documents, databases, projects, and contains domainspecific software tools, like, for example, UNESCOs Electronic Support for Cooperative
Scientific Research Project (UNESCO, 2004).
In order for a Discussion Forum, within the Knowledge Portal, to be a place where
scientific discussion, knowledge sharing and exchange will happen and new knowledge
will be created, the Discussion Forum must be supported by a comprehensive digital
Knowledge Repository. The participating research organizations, private companies, and
industry practitioners can submit artifacts (raw data, research results, photographs,
reports and preprint papers) into this Repository. A peer review process of submissions,
by content experts from the user community, should be undertaken to assure the quality
of submissions, as it is done in the OneFish online scientific community (oneFish, 2004).
The processing of knowledge in the repository into value-added products for the
industry could be done by knowledge workers as in the SciX portal (Gudnason et al,
2002). Knowledge workers are the new actors in the value chain of the electronic
publishing process. The concept of value added services is quite important; it brings up a
new model of electronic publishing, which is totally different from the old paper-based
publishing model by virtue of facilitating new knowledge creation and aiding in
technology transfer to the industry. To achieve this, the virtual community needs to
attract highly skilled content experts as knowledge workers that are able to extract
information contained in different research studies and aggregate it into new knowledge.
Value adding could also be achieved by involving virtual community members into joint
creation of new knowledge by participating in the creation of a common document,
knowledgebase, or in general a knowledge artifact. This process brings a stimulating
quality into the life of the virtual community of practice (Hildredth et al, 2000).
The Knowledge Portal model is a model of the future professional community of
practice. To investigate the design and functionality of existing professional community
of practice portals and the implementation of the above-mentioned features of the
Knowledge Portal, a pilot research study was conducted as described in the following
sections.
2 STUDY ON DESIGN FUNCTIONALITY OF ONLINE
COMMUNITIES
This research study involved the evaluation of different online community portals, by
collecting and analyzing information about the design features and ftinctionality of 30
community portal websites. The following community portal types were studied:
1 Business
2 Government and Organizational
3 Professional
4 Social.
Business community portals are also known as commerce communities. In order to
provide information about their product or service companies tend to create these types of
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portals for the community of users. The business rational for creating this type of
community is that Informed customers may be picky, but they can also be devoted
customers. (Powazek, 2002, p. 219). It has also been noted, that people who participate
in online communities are more likely to buy from the same site (Powazek, 2002, p.
228). By providing a place for their consumers to meet, companies get a chance to get
client feedback, learn about areas of improvement, learn about the demographics of their
clients, about their needs and wants, and establish a loyal clientele, etc. A total of six
business community portals were evaluated in this study.
Government and organizational community portals are normally created and run by
the government or an organization. Their purpose is educational and informative to the
government/organization employees and to the general public. In addition, organizational
communities frequently accentuate the importance of their initiative and try to recruit
volunteers online. A total of four government/organizational community portals were
studied.
Professional communitiesalso known as communities of practiceare communities
of professionals who share knowledge and resources (Preece and Maloney-Krichmar,
2000). These communities usually have a common goal to achieve as their main purpose.
The main purpose of these communities is knowledge creation and knowledge
communication (Lueg, 2004). A total of eleven professional community portals,
representing the most interest to this research study, were tested.
Social community (also known as communities of interest) portals were tested as well.
The purpose of these communities is to bring together people with similar interests,
hobbies, such as gardening, golf, computers, cooking, etc. These communities can also
bring together people of the same religion, ethnic background, or demographic, for
example teen forums, seniors communities, etc. (Preece and Maloney-Krichmar, 2002).
A total of nine social community portals were evaluated in this study.
3 PORTAL STUDY PROCEDURE
The virtual community portals were tested according to 80 different criteria arranged into
the following categories, as suggested by USAID Knowledge Management for
Communities of Practice Functional Requirements Matrix (USAID, 2004):
1 Content: the Knowledge Repository and articles published on the site
2 Discussion Forum functionality
3 Features: chat, news, e-newsletters, workshops, events, web-conferencing
4 Tools and learning modules
5 Search functionality
6 Membership: Access to knowledge, tools, and collaboration by members and guests,
how open this community was to outsiders, member directory
7 Topic Experts as well as Moderator capabilities for forum and content submissions.
The portal study template is shown in Figure 2. Study results for each online community
portal were entered directly into the study template forms in the relational database. At
the end of this research project, the study reports were produced for each portal category.
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The summary of the findings for the Community Portal study for different categories of
portals is presented in Figures 3 and 4.
4 PORTAL STUDY FINDINGS
The techniques used to improve member engagement and participation in online
communities, in the order of increasingly stimulating effect on member participation,
range from Pushing content to members (content generated by community Manager) to
Pulling content from members (most of the content generated by members) and to
peer-peer content generation when content is generated by members for other members,
as for example in special interest groups, or sub-communities (Pickles, 2003).
On this scale, as follows from Figure 3, business communities were mostly at the level
of pushing content to members, with very little opportunity provided for members to
contribute their own content (only through forum discussions) and with little opportunity
for engagement. It is interesting to note that the Discussion Forums for online business
communities were quite sophisticated, with multiple features used and, seemingly,
constituted the heart of the portal. In addition, only business community portals were
extensively utilizing the option of sending updates by
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However, some member feedback was accepted in the form of document ranking
(more than 75% of portals had this functionality). In addition, polls and the survey option
were quite popular with Government/ Organizational portals indicating desire to receive
users feedback and collect members opinion. It is interesting to note that the Topic
Expert option was used by Government and Organizational portals the most, so was the
option to create sub-communities. However, these sub-communities did not constitute
special interests groups created by members for peer-to-peer collaboration and content
creation, as mentioned earlier, but rather were organized for administrative and content
management purposes.
We found that Professional community portals encouraged the submission of
documents and articles by members in to the repository the most, thus acting in both, the
pull and the push content modes. It is interesting to note that the option to rank
articles was not available for the Professional community portals studied. On the
contrary, the option to comment on articles was quite popularabout half of the
Professional community portals had this option.
Other common features of the Professional community portals, found in more than
half of the portals we studied, were as following: the portal repository was moderated and
the members had the option to submit and categorize content in the repository. The
search option for the Professional community portals was mostly well developed and
quite comprehensive and, among others, included options to search people, forum
postings and documents in the repository.
Member directories were available for seven out of eleven Professional community
portals studied, with comprehensive member profiles that included the total number of
documents submitted by the author and a picture or avatar of the member. Topic Expert
functionality was also quite popular with the Professional community portals, where the
Expert directory and information on the field of expertise of the expert were found in
more than half of the portals evaluated. According to Hildredth et al. (2000), one of the
most difficult parts of operating in a distributed environment is to facilitate the evolution
of the community and the development of the relationships.
The case study conducted by Hildredth et al. (2000) confirmed the importance of
maintaining face-to-face contacts for community building. Thus, offline events conducted
by the community of practice can potentially become quite important for online
community building.
As shown by our study, offline events were popular with less than half of the
Professional portals studied, revealing the missed opportunity for professional
communities to maintain face-to-face contacts alongside with online contacts, as it is
done much more frequently in government/organizational communities.
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sub-communities
was
only
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available
for
5 CONCLUSIONS
Knowledge sharing in virtual organizations and communities of practice is facing major
challenges and defeats due to a misalignment between the incentives system and the
objective of creating value through knowledge sharing (Kondratova and Goldfarb, 2003).
As well, private companies and their employees tend to be inherently hostile to
knowledge sharing (Husted and Michailova, 2002). To overcome this knowledge-sharing
hostility, some organizations utilize innovative knowledge-sharing tools such as, Xerox
Companys Docushare tool for document sharing by virtual teams. Olson and Olson
(2000) describe the subtle suggested improvement in the shared document repository
system design that potentially could increase the adoption of shared information
repositories. According to their observations, a simple design change that would make the
reading activity of the manager who monitors team contributions to the shared
information repository in groupware, visible to the contributing team members, would
dramatically increase the level of contributions to the repository. Clearly, there is a need
for similar studies and improvements for virtual collaborative spaces on the Internet, that
are intended to serve as knowledge creation and sharing spaces not for employees of the
individual company, or a group of companies, but by the diverse participants in
communities of practice.
Our pilot study is a first attempt to evaluate the use of particular design functionalities
for online community spaces in order to influence the level of member participation. As
an outcome of this study, we developed a study template and a study procedure for
studying community portal functionality; we evaluated the study procedure by
conducting a pilot study of different community portals.
The limitation of this study is that some of the Professional and
Government/Organizational community portals that were studied had paid membership
or membership by request option. Thus, information on the functionally of these types of
portals was gathered based on the description of the portal functionality posted to attract
new members and was not experienced directly. For our future study program, a
procedure that helps to overcome this limitation will be developed. It is planned to test indepth a large number of professional community portals to draw more precise
conclusions on the functionality and design features used in these portals. This will allow
the generation of better recommendations on how to improve the design and fimctionality
of Professional community portals to enhance member participation and knowledge
sharing for online communities, as well as improve learning opportunities that are
currently underutilized.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided for the project by the
National Research Council Canada, valuable input from my colleagues at NRC on the
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study design, and the hard work and dedication of the University of New Brunswick
Computer Science student Magda Piasecka that participated in the development of study
template and conducted the pilot study of more than 50 community portals.
REFERENCES
Gudnason, G., Bjork, B.-C. and Turk, Z. 2002. SciX: open repository for scientific information
exchange and value added services for the construction industry. eWork and eBusiness in
Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Proc. of the Fourth European Conference on
Product and Process Modelling in the Building and Related lndustries, A.A.Balkema
Publishers: 667672.
Hildreth, P., Kimble, C. and Wright, P. 2000. Communities of practice in the distributed
international environment. Journal of knowledge management 4(1): 2737.
Husted, K. and Michailova, S. 2002. Diagnosing and fighting knowledge-sharing hostility.
Organizational Dynamics 31(1): 6073.
Kondratova, I. and Goldfarb, I. 2003. Design concepts for Virtual Research and Collaborative
Environments, in Knowledge Management in Architectural, Engineering and Construction, 10th
ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering: The Vision for Future Generation
in Research and Applications, J.Cha et al. (eds), Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, Portugal, 797803.
Lueg, C. 2000. Where is the action in Virtual Communities of Practice? In Proc. of the D-CSCW
2000 German Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Conference Verteiltes ArbeitenArbeit
der Zukunft September 1113, 2000, Munich, Germany. Published electronically. http://wwwstaff.it.uts.edu.au/~lueg/papers/commdcscw00.pdf
Olson, G.M. and Olson, J.S. 2000. Groupware and computer-supported cooperative work. In Julie
A.Jacko and Andrew Sears (eds), The human-computer intemction handbook: 583595. New
York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
oneFish. 2004. OneFish research community. Online. http://www.onefish.org/
Pickles, T. 2003. Practice Guide: Techniques for Engaging with Members. Published electronically.
http://www.sift.co.uk/practice/tips/index.html
Powazek, D.M. 2002. Design for community. The art of connecting real people in virtual places.
Indianapolis.
Preece, J. and Maloney-Krichmar, D. 2000. Online communities: focusing on sociability and
usability. In Julie A. Jacko and Andrew Sears (eds), The human-computer interaction
handbook: 596620. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
UNESCO. 2004. UNESCOs Electronic Support for Cooperative Scientific Research Project.
Online. http://www.unesco.org/webworld/build_info/virt_lab.htrnl
USAID. 2004. Knowledge for development: Best Practices: Technology and systems. Published
electronically. http://knowledge.usaid.gov/techandsys.html
Wengler, E. 1998. Communities of Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Indiana:
New Riders, a division of Pearson Technology Group.
Wengler, E. 2000. Communities of practice: the key to knowledge strategy. Knowledge and
communities. Butterworth Heinemann: 321.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Target industry and mode of operation
Steelwork and plant design are just two samples of areas where designers work in parallel
at digital building models today.
Engineers working in the same model domain subdivide the model into partitions.
Each designer owns a partition and works on it but needs read access to the whole model.
Several designers mutually access intersecting sectors.
Engineers in different domains (e.g., HVAC and steelwork) access the same geometric
areas.
1.2 State of the art
Recently, the building industry uses two approaches in supporting cooperation.
On one hand, commercial providers run Internet platforms which host project
documents. This works pretty well but addresses the classical document-centric approach
only: Drawings and other documents represent the design goal. But in many domains
(steelwork, timber construction, glass, HVAC etc.) these documents are just the outcome
of a digital building model (or partial model). Here, the model is both design medium and
goal. Models reside in local systems and remain isolated. Documents are potentially outof-date.
On the other hand, product modeling technology provides a means of forwarding real
models between different design systems which use native data models internally. This,
of course, does not include any automatic conversion between different partial models.
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But in many projects, product models like PSS (DSTV 2000), and the LPM (Eastman
2001), have succeeded in passing relevant design information. The more general IFC
standard (e.g. ST-4 2003) still has to show its impact. Roundtrip engineering is not
inherently supported by product models. This is due to the lack of means of partial access
and navigation as well as the usual bottleneck problem. Even the transfer of models can
serve sequential design only. Designers cannot collaborate directly.
2 THE DESIGN FRAMEWORK
2.1 Idea and architecture
The Design Framework (DFW) links design systems (CAD) into one design
environment. Different systems run in different places, they may even address different
partial models. Figure 1 shows that every CAD system is wrapped by a specific adapter,
resulting in a uniform interface on the connector part. There is one connector per CAD
system and one connector for the central management components. All the DFW
connectors form a kind of design bus.
Each CAD system uses its own native data model. The design bus employs a uniform
product model, e.g. the PSS. The wrapper components do the mapping.
Designers work on different model partitions. The complete building model instance is
virtual: It is the
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The DFW does not support version branches. The short transaction principle normally
allows for a single branch only. If designers break the rules and work both offline and
without locking, two or more branches of the same object can be created. This requires
synchronization by hand.
Long offline phases lead to large model caches, see below. This might compensate
some advantages.
There is no overall model versioning. In a living framework, we would need to stop
all processing in order to get a total snapshot.
3 ABSTRACT DESCRIPTION
3.1 Abstraction levels
The framework has been described on two levels.
The system level abstracts from concrete building elements. It uses general concepts
like object, model, owner etc. The single designer sees the DFW as one system which
deals with the (building design) project. He can use and control that system through the
local workstation. The user knows that he owns only a part of the whole digital building.
At the component level, the DFW is decomposed into units which are distributed and
loosely coupled via the Internet. In terms of software development, each
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consistent state only. This is the problem of synchronization. Offline phases are necessary
to support. The DFW tracks object locks and prevents parallel updates of objects.
In a distributed environment, a local designer wants to get notified of model changes
of interest. In turn, he wants that the DFW notifies others of changes he made.
4.2 Is synchronization always necessary?
Surveys have shown that designers do not want always be synchron. They need a reliable
environment, they want to control an update of their model part, they do not want to be
disturbed by instant messaging or changing.
For this reason, the DFW introduces the concept of views. Remote model parts are
presented locally in views. The actual representation depends on the local design system
and can even be a BOM in a report system. People can choose among different view
types.
A static view is just a snapshot of a model portion. The view client is responsible for
any update.
The status view enhances the static view: Modifications are reported automatically to
interested clients. The client knows that an object has been changed, but he does not
know how. Again, he is responsible for any update.
In a live view, all model changes are immediately communicated to clients.
Both the server and the client of a view choose their view type. This results in a
combined behaviour.
Relevant model versions must be kept. At the moment of clearance, the objects have
to be up-to-date, subsequent changes must not alter that version any more. This is
supported by the framework through a clearance concept. Technically, a copy of the
appropriate model part is being made.
4.3 Explicit vs. implicit synchronization
Normally, the DFW supports implicit synchronization. The system takes care for
synchronization of the distributed model as part of every user command. The user does
not need to explicitly perform any sync. command, he gets notified according to the
chosen view types.
On the other hand, explicit synchronization is necessary in case of errors. The system
needs to provide the means to fix corrupted data.
4.4 Online vs. offline
Synchronization does not necessarily require permanent online status. The local wrapper
as well as the central project component do a caching. If the system goes online again,
changes are communicated.
On the other hand, isolated changes require the reservation of objects for exclusive
access. This is supported. Finally, the user might be allowed to over-write even objects
which have not been reserved. In this case, synchronization cannot be executed
automatically. The user needs to choose the valid object version branch.
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REFERENCES
Christensen, E.; Curbera, F.; Meredith, G.; Weerawarana, S. 2001. Web Services Description
Language 1.1 (WSDL)
Eastman, C. 2001. Overview of CIS/2. Georgia Tech University
German Steel Construction Association (DSTV) 2000. Standard description for Product Interface
Steel Construction. Dsseldorf: Deutscher Stahlbauverband DSTV
HuhnM. 2004. Abstract and concrete scenanos m concurrent in concureent engineering. In Proc.
of the international Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering. (in press)
Pegels, G.; Huhn, M. 2004. Grundlagen vernetzt-kooperativer Planungsprozesse fr Komplettbau
mit Stahl, Metall, Holz und Glas. Report II. Wuppertal: Bergische Universitt
Pegels, G.; Koch, A. 2002. Grundlagen vernetzt-kooperativer Planungsprozesse fr Komplettbau
mit Stahl, Metall, Holz und Glas. Report I. Wuppertal: Bergische Universitt
Structural Analysis Model and Steel Construction. IFC Project ST-4. 2003
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Effective collaborative work practices are important to any organization trying to
increase productivity in their knowledge capital. Knowledge work is typically complex,
requires multi-disciplinary teamwork and employs a variety of emerging information
communication technology (ICT) tools that are multi-faceted and imperfect. Currently
the AEC sector of Turkey is transforming from a manufacturing base to a hybrid with the
service sectors and therefore investing more resources into their intangible assets. It is in
this context I explore the relationship between knowledge workers, where they
collaborate with clients, consultants and partners and what their ICT tool preferences are
to facilitate those exchanges. The broader objective of this research is to frame a
methodology and practice of workplace-making that can deliver sustainable office
accommodations in Turkey. The outcomes and insights from this endeavor benefits the
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AEC sector in better industry collaborative practices and in developing future workplace
services and products in office markets locally and internationally.
Contemporary workplace makers give various theories to the significant relationship
between work activities, physical and electronic places, and ubiquitous ICT tools. The
first is an EU Fifth Framework research consortium led by the design consulting firm
DEGW, developing a model to generate Sustainable Accommodations for the New
Economy (SANE). The SANE Project is defined by the changing workplace in the new
economy with a broader vision of making propositions towards the intelligent city.
SANE maintains the potential impact of ubiquitous computing is greatest for
collaborative work, since virtual collaboration liberates the individual from having to
move to a colleagues current location to work with them (Harrison et al. 2002). Another
workplace-making proposition is from the US research group, Appliance Studio, trying to
understand how technologies interact with people. In their New Knowledge Environment
white paper they assert most teams undertaking knowledge work are performing
significantly below their potential because of the poor state of the environment and tools
with which they work (Sharpe 2002). A further theory is from the MIT Workplace
Group who recently partnered with Cambridge University to investigated how physical
and IT infrastructure can foster the involvement of customers into corporate research and
development environmentstermed embedding (Joroff et al. 2004). The general idea is
that work cannot be described independent of the circumstances and settings in which it
is conducted (Horgen 1999).
Through interviews with management, observation of their workplace environment,
and inventory of ICT tools employed I anticipate to reveal the preferences to use physical
or virtual places and to employ various ICT tools. In each case study the organizations
objectives for collaborative work activities are highlighted and their current utilization of
virtual and physical work settings, communication technologies utilized are learned to
understand how they use these modes to support their objectives.
The research is a reconnaissance approach to identify opportunities for actions and
indicate where workplace-making practices are currently positioned in Turkey. I will
share unexpected findings as well as common themes amongst the situational cases. In
conclusion, I make recommendations to advance collaborative environments in Turkeys
workplace accommodation paradigm.
2 CONTEXT
The AEC sector of Turkeys is one of the countries leading industries and many Turkish
based construction corporations with internalized architectural and engineering services
take part in international civil and large scale building projects. In recent years, pervasive
computing has been a key driver for Turkish organizations to access and share knowledge
as well as to enhance project team coordination. Mobile telecommunication has a higher
penetration than the US and telecommunication investors are focusing energies into value
added services. Recently, the government has laid the infrastructure for broadband
communication, but mobile computing has only recently taken roots. The McKinsey
Global Institute Report on Turkey looked at eleven growths sectors of Turkey. Of those
sectors identified three (residential construction, steel and cement) are within the AEC
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sector and two (telecommunication and electricity) have meaningful implications for the
workplace accommodation markets. McKinsey highlights organizations are working
below the productivity potentials and significantly below best practices in other nations.
Operating under potential capacity was more severe for the service sector, but their
investigation found organizations changing management styles learned from best
practices abroad or non-traditional management styles are far more productive than those
still operating within Turkeys traditional management models.
3 CASE STUDIES
The five case studies are selected on four criteria: they are within the AEC sector in its
broadest terms; identified by peers as innovative organizations; investing in their
knowledge assets; and working internationally. I also selected a range of organizational
sizes and years of establishment. This has resulted in: an office furniture manufacturer; a
contracting corporation with many building product manufacturing companies; a midsized structural engineering office; a technology company offering services and products
in IT networks, rapid prototyping product design and simulation; and a leading 3D
software development startup based in the US with one of their senior software
developers situated in Istanbul. In each case I first conducted an interview focused on: a)
how the organization engages four activities of collaboration (learning and training,
information exchange/coordination, idea creation/solutions and deliberations), b) where
these activities occurred, c) which tools would be employed and d) how given no limits
on resources, time or management support, what changes could be made to foster teams
to perform more effectively. After the interview their workplace was observed with
special attention to any place (virtual or physical) they identified where their
collaborative work occurred and surveyed the tools and IT resources supporting
collaborative work. Some office observations allowed for impromptu conversations with
the people in the office and further conversations with the interviewees. The cases are
presented by the number of years the organizations have been established.
3.1 Nurus
Nurus is a manufacturer of office furniture established 70 years ago by the two current
holders grandfather. Since then Nurus has evolved into Turkeys leading up-market
office furniture manufacturer expanding and competing in Europe and the Middle East.
After a decade of advancing their manufacturing (including mechatronic technologies)
and supply chain management they have shifted their management energies into strategic
changing management practices and IT infrastructure planning. This later change has
heightened their awareness to leverage their knowledge capital and value-added services.
Recently, NURUS made a spatial shift to move the exports, marketing and sales
groups to one location in a central business district on the European side of Istanbul. This
shift was to consolidate their human resources and synergy amongst internal groups, as
well as allow better access to international partners and clients. Within the year they will
implement an extensive extranet service for information sharing, project coordination,
data management and customer service/sales service support feedback. This investment
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intends to electronically link their network of international and national sales agents,
internal groups, the Ankara factory and their new showrooms abroad. They expect the
former shift into a hybrid, virtual and physical office environment will be a catalyst for
changes in their human resource underpinning.
3.1.1 Objectives of collaborative working
Extract clients or design teams needs.
Exhibit and disseminate product information, details and material specifications.
Train agents in foreign markets of new products, services and sales practices.
Coordinate proposed offices products with project design team.
Collecting data and information about a client environment and current workplace.
3.1.2 Interesting findings
Institutionalized various work forms to ensure interviews and observations with clients,
project visits and project design team coordination is standardized internally from
sales groups to design groups.
NURUS highlighted they approach the office market with the intention to share their
experience and knowledge.
The future extranet will integrate agents and showrooms from abroad, but a strategy to
integrate these stakeholders into the physical environment has not been established.
3.2 Yapi Merkezi
Yapi Merkezi was established in 1965 as a civil and building engineering project based
organization. Today they are a one of foremost contracting corporations in Turkey for
rail, heavy construction, building complexes, and restoration. Through their evolution
they have internalized many services and expertise including engineering, architecture,
real estate development and manufacturing a variety of building products. Yapi Merkezi
has always given great importance to their engineering and project design groups
expertise. They have dedicated resources to an internal research and development group
who publishes articles and attends international conferences as well as invested in a
substantive on-site library including an online catalog search engine. Yapi Merkezi is
currently located in the Asian side of Istanbul in their self built Campus. In planning their
campus they constructed a purpose built facility for meetings and external collaborations.
This building consists of two small sized meeting rooms, one mid-sized meeting room
and a larger conference room. Each room is equipped with broadband access and
telephone conferencing, while the larger rooms include digital media and white boards.
The conferencing room is also equipped with a printable whiteboard, a stationary
computer (with relevant software) and furniture that can be easily moved into a variety of
configurations.
Yapi Merkezis has developed a corporate culture in focusing on reliability and
highest quality products, services and professional practices. This corporate culture
extends to how to engage consultants, partners and clients in electronic and physical
settings. Since the mid-1990s they have prioritized investments in advanced IT
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infrastructure and intranets both on the campus and on construction sites (including
satellite services in remote regions). More recently Yapi Merkezi enhanced their
management and communication practices to comply with International Organization for
Standardization (ISO). They found the time and resource invested to comply with ISO
professional practice standards noticeably improved communication flows and made
project coordination more effective. Yapi Merkezi is also very conscientious on
protecting their know howparticularly in the physical environment of the campus
seeing it as the keystone of the companys assets.
3.2.1 Objectives of collaborative working
Coordinate design with internal and external stakeholders.
Frame broad picture project concepts, strategies and implementation approaches with
project team stakeholders.
Solve design and technical problems amongst internal and external team members.
Market to clients and partners quality, reliability and advanced know-how.
3.2.2 Interesting findings
Invested in a significant intranet and off-site IT infrastructure to communicate to project
teams for over a decade.
Put cameras on construction cranes, but till date only used information captured for
marketing purposes.
To transfer the highest density of information in the shortest amount of time, face to
face communication was seen most effective.
3.3 Erdemli engineering
Erdemli Engineering is a structural engineering firm established over 20 years ago by Mr.
Erdemli. They are currently 12 people, half are structural engineers and the others are
either drafting or support staff. Erdemli Engineering has established a local reputation for
bringing advanced knowledge into existing local construction abilities and practices in
both civil and building projects. They are keen to export their services to foreign markets,
but to date have only collaborated with foreign consultant teams on projects situated in
Turkey.
Erdemli Engineering is located in a building originally built for apartments in a central
location of a mixed-use district on the European side of Istanbul. The organization prefers
to collaborate with external partners, consultants and clients outside their offices and
conduct project coordination via email. For meetings that occur in the oifice, they have a
larger meeting place in Mr. Erdemlis office which is sized to accommodate large groups,
while colleague to colleague meetings occur at individual desks. The office is about to
implement a comprehensive data management and project coordination intranet to take
advantage of a more immediate access to shared information. Yet in the physical
environment, the engineers direct horizontal and vertical surfaces are filled with project
information including reference materials, project details, and project scheduling. The
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work activities undertaken where described as highly routine but each project is seen as a
new opportunity to advance and strengthen their knowledge, practices and experience.
3.3.1 Objectives of collaborative working
Learn design preferences of clients and consultant team.
Project design coordination with consultant teams.
Design and technical problem solving with internal engineers and consultants.
Transform product specifications and make product modifications with suppliers.
Attend local university seminars and lectures.
3.3.2 Interesting findings
All the engineers are from the same University. The engineers felt this nurtured the
offices social dynamic and a priori understanding of how things are done.
Digital cameras were used to capture site observations to relay information and
coordinate findings with internal engineers and consultant groups.
The walls and desks where treated as surfaces to visualize project information and
personal expressions.
3.4 InfoTRON
Founded ten years ago, InfoTRON is the leading distributor of advanced software,
hardware, and services for product design and development, IT networks, digital media
design, and simulation sectors in Turkey. One of their recent services is to broker the
unused capacity of rapid prototyping facilities, powerful multi-media computing facilities
and freelance technical persons in Turkey to European and local markets. Currently
InfoTRON has their head offices on the Asian side of Istanbul with three other locations
offering different core competencies. The software development core is located in Ankara
at the Middle Eastern Technical University Techno park, the rapid prototyping product
development core is located further eastward on a major artery in Istanbul and their
European interface is located in Siemens E-Excellence Center in Munich, Germany.
InfoTRON is unique in that many of their customers for their products are intern
clients and partners for their services. This has led to a very conscious effort to train sales
staff into knowledge network human resource management. It was explicit that sales
people should not be in the office, but out in client spaces and fostering their networks.
The sales people are responsible for the project management and coordination with a
team of technical experts. In projects where the know-how extends beyond the human
resources or facilities available within the organization the companies knowledge
network is tapped into to identify the most capable expert or facility. This informal
network has become a substantial intangible asset in their organization.
3.4.1 Objectives of collaborative working
Assessment and benchmarking customers environments for product specifications.
Render design services with complex technical teams.
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Third is knowledge transformation, this is the ability of an expert team to work in concert
to generate new knowledge from discrete or multi-disciplinary sources and add value to
an organizations knowledge capital. Knowledge transformation involves acquiring,
organizing, producing, manipulating and synthesizing concrete and abstract information.
The last principle, distributive collaboration, operates similar to the face-to-face
collaborations, but is the ability to coordinate, exchange data or information and create
new knowledge when teams are located in different places.
The New Knowledge Environmenfs believes teams can be more effective given three
potential in the ICT tool and the physical environment: shared surfaces, persistent
information and extended presence. It demands a shift in the traditional teamwork
practices of information handling towards a practice of rich visual representations,
democratic access to information and dynamic team manipulation-transformation of the
teams information.
4.2.2 Case study findings
The three potentials outlined were feeble in the observed organizations collaborative
practices. When looking at the foundations of teamwork behavior I found the
organizations behaviors underdeveloped. Although there were idiosyncratic exceptions,
ICT tools and the physical environment was not seen as an opportunity to enable more
effective collaborations, for example: whiteboards or flip-charts to note the important
content in a collaboration, pin-up space which everyone could share the same vantage
point of the information being presented, or cameras to easily record and distribute shared
notes or meeting material in real time where atypical in collaborations. Interestingly the
organizations dexterous in electronic project coordination tools or using the physical
environment, even in a minimum way, to visualize project information were most
effective in project braiding. Project braidings objective to maximize the potentials in
other team members was understood enigmatically by the organizations and viewed as
determined by a team social dynamicsorganizations had difficulty conceptualizing how
tools or the environment could foster this objective. The organizations observed
infrequently engaged in knowledge transformation in their collaborations. Instead what
was found is knowledge creation is generated by an organizations expert in the
individuals work arena and presented as solution to the team. The collaboration was then
to coordinate the discrete solution into the greater team project, deliberate on
appropriateness of the solution, or to make ref inements in the technical dimensions of
the solution presented. Distributed collaborative practices utilized electronic tools.
Electronic tool where limited to accessing shared information, project coordination
scheduling, tracking project correspondence and better workflow management for
internal groups, it was neither seen as a public or privileged place to transform
information or opportunity maximize team members potentials.
Important to note is all organizations impromptu or intimate (34 person)
collaborations in the physical environment where not readily (in the room) or casually
(not daunting) equipped with shared writing surface, pens and paper, internet access, a
projector for an shared laptop, a place to post and re-organize information, a copier or a
printer. This may clarify why the two modes to synthesize collaborative work were either
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verbal understanding or with meeting notes prepared by one participant and circulated to
the other team members after the meeting concluded.
4.3 Embedding customers
4.3.1 Summary
MIT Workplace Group partnered with Cambridge University (Joroff et al. 2004) to
review how physical and IT infrastructure can foster the involvement of customers with
the multiple objectives and processes of corporate research and development. The reports
initial findings expand the bounds of workplace-making and explore propositions of how
experience of virtual and physical places can foster constructive collaborations. Their
notion of customer is defined as any person who seeks to engage the enterprise, to
serve its purposes, or who may benefit by connecting to activities This could include
the end-user, market analysts, individual who inform researchers about his needs, person
who influences public opinion about its products and services, distributors with insights
about demands of users, internal researchers who contributes or learns from colleagues,
persons with direct feedback from customers, a researcher from a partner company or
university, or even an organizational leader whose support and approval is critical for
continual resources. The potential benefits of embedding the customer in an
organizations collaborative activities are to strengthen institutionalized learning, reduce
risk by understanding customer preferences and needs, and can allow products to be
developed jointly with customers and partners which engages customers interests and
identification with the future products and services.
4.3.2 Case studyfin dings
Each organization observed is considered to be on Turkeys forefront in organizational
innovations. The organizations observed who directly integrate their customers into their
privileged work settings find this external stakeholder collaboration invaluable for their
sustained development of services and product. Splutterfish has IRC rooms and on-line
forum rooms for customers, partners and external colleagues. They noted the importance
of collaborating with the external stakeholders allows direct market concerns and an
immediate feedback-loop into their product development. InfoTRON was unique in that
their customers typically became their clients and partners and therefore their
engagement of external stakeholders has proliferate into a practice of institutionalized
networkingclients and partners where a direct source of knowledge to identify future
aspirations, trends and product needs in the market. All the other organizations are
intuitively driven to consider this non-traditional knowledge creation collaborative
practice with external stakeholders, but are insecure on how to set a course of action that
does not render them vulnerable to their competitors. The organizations using the
physical environment in traditional customer engagements (meeting rooms,
showrooms/demonstration areas and trade-show tours) do not capture this opportunity to
embed customers in the organizations knowledge creation.
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5 NEXT STEPS
Like abroad, Turkish organizations decisions for workplace change are driven by
economic and market conditions outlined by sustained competition advantage, continual
renewal of products and services, and obtaining and retaining the best know-how on the
market. Although the following suggestions for action may seem daunting to busy
mangers, it is important to keep in mind small and thrifty, but effective steps can
demonstrate new approaches.
The SANE Report highlights how evaluation approaches, measurements and tools for
workplace-making reflect current concerns and the way organizations and cultures think
about work. Maybe more importantly evaluation techniques can change the way society
thinks about what is being measured (Harrison et al. 2002). In retrospect of conducting
the case studies, I came to realize this insight is significant if we extend our
considerations to the collecting, organizing and synthesizing dimensions of evaluation.
Workplace evaluation and practices coming from Europe and North America assume
substantive organizational management groups and human resources underpinning
driving the collection, dissemination and implementation of the evaluation process. In
Turkey, only in the past decades have business management and human resources
education been available in higher education and hence these critical dimensions of
workplace-making are relatively new in the context of Turkey.
Regardless, knowledge work in any context requires us to think about work activities
in a different way and suggests a practice of situational awareness (Horgan 1999).
Situated awareness asserts settings within which work takes place need to be described in
ways that reflect their richness and their multi-layered complexity in order to detect ways
in which they affect how individuals play out their lives and work. The most common
theme amongst all the case studies is the dismal awareness of collaborative activities
(concentration, duration, continuity, importance, predictability, formality, participants,
geographic distribution, relationships needed, current relationships and confidentiality),
collaborative tasks (collect, organize, transform, manipulate and distribute information),
collaborative communication modes and mediums used to transfer, transform and create
knowledge (verbal, shared writing surfaces, remote awareness technologies, rapid capture
devices, or conferencing appliances); and where those collaborations occur (forums, chat
rooms, on-line conferencing, break-out project rooms and hotel lounges).
The first action plan is based on a concern given the current circumstances of meager
situational awareness the workplace-making evaluation tools presented would be
overwhelming without first becoming familiar with the fundamental tool-kit of
workplace-making. Grounding Turkish organizations in the fundamentals could be
conducted through a series of focused workplace-making workshops. The first workshop
would be an initial brainstorming of all the different activities the knowledge workers of
the organization may undertake to get their work done; including all the places employed
to carryout those activities. The facilitator of the workshops would suggest activities and
places not mentioned by the participants to open their vocabulary and imaginations of
where they work. The second workshop would focus on specific activities and
preferences that occurred or they modified in their work activities and places when they
became aware they where observing their practices to foster creativity in thinking or
increase their potentials. This workshop could include a take-away questionnaire
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introducing tool preferences to track their behaviors and exercises to rehearse new work
practices. The final workshop could be an opportunity to share stories amongst the
participating organizations that enabled them to be more effective in their work
objectives, reveal places and tools hindering their collaborations and identify a series of
new collaborative practices in knowledge transformation founded on workplace-making
theories suitable for this activity. With this foundation of preliminary situational
awareness behind them, these innovative organizations could meaningfully employ tools
like SANE or Appliance Studio to suggest workplace approach on the most suitable
choices of loosely coupled settings working in concert with available ICT tools.
The second action is taken from MIT-Cambridge University proposal to leverage the
physical and IT infrastructure to embed the customer into an enterprises knowledge
creation. They suggest to launch rehearsallets try activitiesas alterations in the
organizations existing physical environment. The notion is rehearsals, like any form of
experimentation, are thrifty in their use of resources. And they reduce risk because they
do not fail; they merely inform us about how to be better. For example, organizations can
openly display the works team members for visitors to learn, explore and speculate on
emerging products and services (strategy used by the MIT Media Lab), provide an
interesting and highly readable history in waiting areas, or have a trained staff to
encourage customers to explore new products, recombine products and suggest new
products and services and ways of using them. If the organizations can institutionalize the
learning from these exchanges and experiments, they will be adept to take a course of
action to meaningfully integrate external stakeholders and immediate market feedback
into their value creation infrastructure.
REFERENCE
Harrison, A., et al. 2002. Sustainable Accommodation for the New Economy (SANE): Final Space
Environment Model. European Commissions 5th Framework Contract No. IST-200025257,
D3, v 1.1.
Horgen, T., et al. 1999. Excellence by Design: Transforming the Workplace and Work Practice.
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,NewYork.
Joroff, M., et al. 2004. Embedding Customers in the R&D and Marketing Process of Research
Parks. Report for Cambridge-MIT Institute.
McKinsey Global Institute. 2003. Turkey: Making the Productivity and Growth Breakthrough.
[http://www.mckinsey.com/knowledge/mgi/turkey/]
Sharpe, B. 2002. The New Knowledge Environment. White-paper for Appliance Studio Ltd.
[http://www.appliancestudio.com/publications/whitepapers.htm]
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
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2 ARCHITECTURE
Compared to traditional business processes, the complexity of interorganizational
processes rises considerably as a result of the numerous possibilities of interaction as well
as the strategic, structural and cultural differences between the partners. Coordinating the
business partners turns out to be more difficult, especially because of the differing
objectives and the lack of inherent organizational arrangements and behavior guidelines
as they exist within an enterprise (Scheer et al. 2000). The allocation of performances and
resources of the business partners, the determination of responsibilities for material and
financial exchange relationships, as well as the information and data exchange over
interfaces have to be planned, arranged and lived together. Thus the demands on
Business Process Management (BPM) increase.
Existing BPM methods and phase models are used as a foundation in the architecture
presented here, which had to be adapted to the specifications of collaborative scenarios.
Especially because of its completeness of vision and its proven practicability, both in the
scientific and the economic context, the ARIS House (Scheer 2002) is accepted as a
generic framework for business process management and serves as a basis for further
considerations. The ARIS House describes a business process, assigning equal
importance to the questions of organization, functionality and the required
documentation. First, it isolates these questions for separate treatment, in order to reduce
the complexity of the description field, but then all the relationships are restored using the
Control View introduced for this purpose.
Below, the Architecture for C-Business Process Management is represented in a threetier framework that is connected through control loops, following the concept of business
process excellence of Scheer (Scheer & Borowsky 1999), which consists of a model to
track a complete life-cycle model of business process management, including modeling,
real-time control and monitoring of business processes. The first layer focuses on the
collaboration strategy. In the centre of the second layer, the C-Business process
engineering, there are design, optimization and controlling of both enterprise spanning
and internal processes. The third layer, C-Business execution, deals with the
(operational) implementation of business processes in value-added networks as well as
their support through information and communication technologies. The structure of the
layer model is clarified in Figure 1.
2.1 Views on business process models
As described above, the framework is based on the ARIS House and divides it into a
vertical axis of global knowledge of all collaboration partners and a horizontal axis of
local knowledge of the single participants (cf. Fig. 2). The organisation view and the
output view are global knowledge because a goal-oriented collaboration is impossible
without them.
At the time the interaction occurs between two partners, local knowledge is shared
(bilaterally) between the partners, i.e. additional information, like data structures and
semantics are exchanged. Updates of the local knowledge do not influence the network as
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network knowledge has to be available for all partners. This information is stored in the
description of the interfaces in the Process Module Chain (cf. section 2.4). Changes in the
global network knowledge and as a consequence changes in the output and organization
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(classical) business process and data modeling used at the C-Business Process
Engineering layer.
The question of core competences in the enterprises is directly associated with the
question which processes remain in the enterprise and which are supposed to be assigned
to partner enterprises or collaboratively operated (Jost & Scheer 2002).
2.4 C-Business process engineering
On this layer each partner considers their part in the inter-enterprise process. Each party
models its own internal processes. The event-driven process chain (EPC) is used for the
design of the process flow within an enterprise. A possibility to reduce complexity and to
focus on special aspects is the usage of different views like the data view, the
organizational view, the function view or the output view. The ARIS House delivers all
necessary methods for this step.
To generate a public view the EPC had to be enhanced by a new construct, the
interface, which is marked by the letter I and stands for the interfaces that link private
process models within the collaborative scenario. For the collaborating partners only the
data at the interfaces, that is the input respectively output data of the single process
modules (resp. EPC), are relevant for the realization of the collaboration. Thus it is
guaranteed that the enterprise-owned EPC is only internally visible. Fuelled by the global
need for organizational and output information, parts of the local business process models
can then be visualized by an appropriate graphical method in order to gain knowledge of
the common processes and to reduce the complexity of integrating the participating
organizational units into one virtual unit. The Process Module Chain clearly and
understandably represents the collaborative processes (Grieble et al. 2002a). It consists of
single process modules or components, in which again more detailed EPCs, that contain
the local processes, are lodged (Grieble et al. 2002b). Process Module Chains are
particularly suited for the illustration of collaborative process flows because the single
process modules form a logically terminated unit and the interfaces, located between the
single modules, contain input data for the following modules.
The collaboration partners have to continuously compare the result of the
implementation with their goals and adjust deviations. Hitherto the management has
obtained its knowledge about the companys success from figures of the past, e.g. cashflow, trading volume or profit made. The causes for fluctuations, requiring immediate
counter measures, are not discernible. Until the problem is recognized, valuable time has
elapsed. Therefore new measurement categories, which allow a reliable and contemporary evaluation of the process efficiency, are required. The information needed
cannot be extracted from the record and transaction oriented applications alone. Key
performance-indicators must be defined based on records, log-files, time stamps etc.
These can be measured and analysed by means of intelligent tools (Jost & Scheer 2002).
The controlling function is a must when there is a high degree of uncertainty as with
C-Business projects. The management can permanently control the implementation of the
strategic collaboration configuration and promptly evaluate whether the expected addedvalue potentials have been reached.
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dimensional metaphors for the immediate working space and processed objects and/or
tools up to a three-dimensional Virtual Reality representation of the enterprise.
The recording of the activities of the respective employee in the virtual working
environment is done by using the INTERACTIVE Process ModelerVR. Semi-formal
process models needed for the data processing-supported analysis and evaluation can be
produced by the click of a button. The automatically provided process models are based
on the method of the extended event-driven process chains (eEPC) and can be handed
over to a process modeling repository, for example the one of the ARIS Toolset, to
process the model.
By playing through the processes no further knowledge of modelling methods is
required and so the process recording can be accomplished by the functionally
responsible employees. In this way several advantages can be achieved: information loss
due to communication problems between employees as knowledge carriers and method
experts as knowledge modellers are reduced to a minimum. In addition,
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When the optimization should go across corporate-frontiers the challenge gets more
demanding, because of the higher complexity, as described in section 2. There the
distributed modeling approach combined with the usage of close-toreality metaphors can
achieve an immense boost for the success of business process management within
distributed modeling environments.
2.5 C-Business process execution
Instead of closed systems that have been used so far, C-Business requires the integration
of different applications. Component based architectures that are process-driven and rely
on fully developed standards and interfaces can be seen as a state-of-the-art approach to
overcome these problems (McMichael 2003).
Process-driven emphasizes the importance of the process models created on the
preliminary layer. At the execution layer these models are used for process orchestration.
Orchestration in this context describes the composition of business objects in a process
flow. In detail, it defines the complex interaction between business objects, including the
business logic and execution order of the interactions. Without orchestrating business
objects the overall context between the single process steps would be lost.
So far these semantics are stored in the isolated process descriptions and models
(business process knowledge) on a conceptual level. However, the automation of crossorganizational business processes must be based on a system that allows the
transformation of semantic into formal models.
With the use of XML the technological basis for interoperability has been established,
the interoperability between the semantic business process definitions however is still
missing. EfForts like BPMIs Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) promise
standardization for the management of inter-organizational business processes that
involve different applications, departments and business partners (Arkin 2002). This
standard, which is based on XML, complements existing B2B protocols like RosettaNet,
Biz-Talk and ebXML. On the one hand BPML acts as an intermediary between business
process modeling tools and IT. On the other hand BPML enables the interoperability
between model-ing tools. Besides, a wide acceptance of the Business Process Execution
Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) by BEA, IBM, and Microsoft as well as the
newly finalized specification of the Web Services Choreography Interface (WSC I)
mainly driven by BEA, Intalio, SAP and Sun show the importance of such
standardization efforts for interoperability (Shapiro 2001). While BPML is seen as more
conceptually-oriented, the latter two focus on the transformation into the system-level by
or orchestrating web services.
3 COLLABORATIVE BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT LIFECYCLE
The life-cycle-model presented in this section serves as a manual for the process-oriented
setting-up and operation of cooperations. Using a consistent phase model and
standardized modeling methods increases transparency and structuring of cooperations
and creates a basis for comimmication between participants; these include the
803
management who lay down strategies as; those responsible for the processes in the
departments and IT-experts who integrate the different application systems. Despite the
increased complexity of a network process in comparison to internal processes, those
involved have to adapt to constantly occurring changes in a fast and flexible way.
The life-cycle-model presented above is a fusion of classic phase-models with lifecycle-models of virtual enterprises (Mertens & Faisst 1995). The resulting dynamic
model is consistent with the structure-oriented architecture of Collaborative Business
Process Management and follows the classification of the view model into global and
local knowledge. It represents a cyclical approach.
Protecting internal know-how is of paramount importance to the network participants,
even though the business process knowledge has to be used jointly. From this
perspective, global and local knowledge finds itself, regarding the processes, in internal
(private) and enterprise-spanning (public) process representations.
3.1 Pre-phase and reconfiguration
Prior to the use of the architecture is the awareness of one or more enterprises that they
can profit by collaboration with complementary core competence partners. Afterwards, in
the formation phase, mostly referred to initiation and agreement of the enterprise
network, the collaboration partners are determined by the shared goals of the
collaboration and the aspired win-win situation of all partners. In this model, it is
assumed, that a set of potential network participants is given.
The decision if and with which enterprises out of the basic set a C-Business scenario
should be implemented is taken by every single enterprise individually and rationally; for
this reason it depends highly on the expected economical profit of the individual partner.
After conducting the cooperation the companies regroup or split and reconfigurate
themselves. The life-cycle returns to its starting position awareness.
3.2 Main-phases
In the next step, the joint aims of the collaboration have to be defined as synthesis of the
individual aims.
To facilitate the collaborative service production, graphic methods, like product
models, are used in this stage for the determination of a common service bundle. They
simplify and put the often implicit objectives into concrete terms. In addition to the
characteristic features of a service or a product over its entire life-cycle, the
organizational units participating in the service production are contained in a product
model (Genderka 1995). By means of product trees enterprises can conceal detailed
service descriptions in an internal view that puts special focus on the organizational
aspects of the product offered by the partners. In an external view they just provide the
information required for the configuration of the common service bundle in form of
product bundle models (Scheer et al. 2004).
After the basic parameters of the collaboration are determined the procedures and the
interactions are planned in more detail at the engineering layer.
Having completed the strategy finding, in the next step the local (private) processes of
each partner are adapted and the processes regarding the collaboration (public processes)
804
are generated as an aggregation of all internal views of the network partners. The
business processes will be designed by using reference models based on best practice and
theoretical considerations. Like design patterns that show a generic solution of the
network architecture on a technical basis reference models are used to show possible
solutions for a process description on the conceptual level.
Each partner considers their part in the inter-enterprise process. Starting with process
modelling and optimisation over process controlling up to implementation, the processes
involved are aligned with the requirements of the collaborative scenario agreed on at the
strategic level.
In order to automate inter-organizational processes the conceptual models are
transformed into formal models that are used as configuration data for the orchestration
of business objects. The applications of the partners have to communicate bilaterally to
negotiate the interface specifications based on the formal models, defined in the
repository. The local knowledge is generated by this negotiation for a certain situation.
After this collaboration task has ended no updates of configuration changes etc. are
reported to any other party except at the time when a new direct interaction occurs. In this
context multi-agent systems offer a solution to achieve an automated or at least semiautomated interface-configuration (Blake 2003, Denti et al. 2003).
4 TOWARDS AN INTUITIVE COLLABORATION MANAGEMENT
The described conceptual design of inter-enterprise business processes is currently
elaborated in the research project Architecture for Collaborative Scenarios (ArKoS),
finded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As a proof
of concept the presented methods will be implemented in a software prototype and will
be used in real-life showcases. ArKoS is one project in a research effort conducted by the
Institute for Information Systems to improve business process management across
organizations. ArKoS uses e.g. the results of the successfully accomplished project
InfoCitizen. The project, funded by the European Commission under the 5th Research
Framework Program, aimed at creating a pan-European Information Architecture for
European PAs as well as to develop specific information technology that supports this
architecture and ensures a seamless information exchange between public administrations
on a pan-European level. Moreover, with this solution the EPAs are enabled to provide
transparent and integrated public services for their customers, i.e. citizens and businesses.
Eleven organizations within five different EU-countries (Germany, Greece, Italy,
Portugal, Spain) worked together for two years to succeed in the challenge of panEuropean interoperability. A prototype of an agent-based inter-operability platform with
a service repository as described in the conceptual part of this article was developed. The
business processes are stored in an XML-representation and the agent platform invokes
dynamically the service offers which are implemented as distributed web services.
On this basis a broad and intense dissemination and deployment impact is conducted.
The generic methods developed herein will enable ACE enterprises to seamlessly
integrate partners, building owners and subcontractors in collaboration scenarios on the
technology but especially on the conceptual level. Each user will experience intuitively
understandable business process design, planning and controlling, so that cooperation
805
procedures will be very clear. Userspecific views on the Business Process Models will
enable new user groups to use BP models. Moreover ICT can support actively business
process management by checking, verifying or even automatically negotiating
consistency and interoperability of models.
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Arkin, A. 2002. Business Process Modeling Language. Working Draft.
Blake, M.B. 2003. Coordinating multiple agents for workflow-oriented process orchestration.
http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/~blakeb/pubs/blake_ISEB2003.pdf.
Denti, E., Ricci, A. & Rubino, R. 2003. Integrating and orchestrating services upon a MAS
coordination infrastructure.
http://www.ai.univie.ac.at/~paolo/conf/ESAW03/presentations/E0011.ppt.
Jost, W. & Scheer, A.-W. 2002. Geschftsprozessmanagement:Kernaufgabe einer jeden
Unternehmensorganisation. In: Jost, W, Scheer, A.-W. (eds), ARIS in der Praxis: Gestaltung,
Implementierung und Optimierung von Geschftsprozessen. 334, 38, 42 et seqq. Berlin:
Springer.
Genderka, M. 1995. Objektorientierte Methode zur Entwicklung von Produktmodellen als Basis
Integrierter Ingenieursysteme. 13. Aachen: Shaker.
Grieble, O., Klein, R. & Scheer, A.-W. 2002a. Modellbasiertes Dienstleistungsmanagement. In:
Scheer, A.-W. (ed.), Verffentlichungen des Instituts fr Wirtschaftsinformatik. No. 171,
Saarbriicken, 22.
Hack, S. 2000. Collaborative Business ScenariosWertschpfung in der Internetkonomie. In:
Scheer, A.-W. (ed.), E-BusinessWer geht? Wer bleibt? Wer kommt?. 21. Saarbrcker
Arbeitstagung fr Industrie, Dienstleistung und Verwaltung., 85100, 88 et seqq. Heidelberg:
Physica-Verlag.
Kanter, R.M. 1991. Transcending Business Boundaries: 12,000 World Managers View Change. In:
Harvard Business Review 69 (1991) 3, 151164.
McMichael, C. 2003. Business process integration may eclipse EDI, EAI. In: HP Chronicle 17
(2003) 6, 1, 6.
Mertens, P. & Faisst, W. 1995. Virtuelle Unternehmeneine Organisationsstruktur fr die
Zukunft?. In: Technologie & Management 44 (1995), 6168.
Naisbitt, J.: Megatrends 1986. Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. 6th edn., New York:
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Picot, A., Wigand, R. & Reichwald, R. 1997. Information, Organization and Management
Expanding Markets and Corporate Boundaries. Chichester: Wiley.
Scheer, A.-W. & Borowsky, R. 1999. Supply Chain Managementdie Antwort auf neue
Logistikanforderungen. In: Kopfer, H., Bierwirth, C. (eds), Logistik ManagementIntelligente
I+K Technologien. 314,. Berlin: Springer.
Scheer, A.-W., Erbach, F. & Thomas, O. 2000. E-BusinessWer geht? Wer bleibt? Wer kommt?.
In: Scheer, A.-W. (ed.), E-BusinessWer geht? Wer bleibt? Wer kommt?. 21. Saarbriicker
Arbeitstagung 2000 fr Industrie, Dienstleistung und Verwaltung. 345. Heidelberg: PhysicaVerlag.
Scheer, A.-W., Beinhauer, M. & Habermann, F. 2000. Integrierte E-Prozessmodellierung. In:
Industrie Management 16 (2000) 3, 1926, 20 et seqq.
Scheer, A.-W. 2002. ARISVom Geschaftsprozess zum Anwendungssystem. 4th edn. Berlin:
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Scheer, A.-W., Grieble, O., Hans, S. & Zang, S. 2002. GeschftsprozessmanagementThe 2nd
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(ed.), ECollaborationProzessoptimierung in der Wertschpfungskette. 30 et seq.. Wiesbaden:
Deutscher Universitts-Verlag.
Scheer, A.-W., Feld, T. & Zang, S. 2003b. Vitamin C fiir UnternehmenCollaborative Business.
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http://www.istanbul2003.org/main.html.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The construction industry has a very heterogeneous IT landscape, which makes an
economical integration of software systems more difficult. The integration is prevented
by the existence of different software systems and their proprietary data standards.
Therefore the necessity of a standard for information exchange within the construction
processes is ever more obvious. These construction processes begin for example, with the
first request for bids by the project owner that could end with the distribution of
construction material and elements from the supplier to the contractor. Between the
construction processes there usually lies a multiplicity of individual activities, which
must be accomplished frequently by different project participants by means of different
software systems. According to these fragmented processes often a complex information
exchange with multiple data input follows, which increases information errors and time
delays (Kalantari, B., Diaz, J. 2001).
The infrastructure of the internet is an ideal platform for the integration of prqject
information in the construction industry where heterogeneous partners are working
together. By the possibilities of an online co-operation tool in the tendering and bidding
procedure, and material procurement, a large cost-reduction potential is achievable.
808
Using a comprehensive information exchange the transparency and the quality of the
construction processes increases. Simultaneously the costs decrease.
Generally the tendering and bidding procedure is divided into three business domains:
planning, execution and supplying (see fig. 1). Furthermore there are two main sectors
within the tendering and bidding procedure: e-commerce and project communication. On
one hand the task of the GAEB project was to develop an efficient method of
collaboration. On the other hand it would also develop an enterprise wide exchange of
information within the tendering and bidding procedure (Diaz, J. 2002).
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Structuring and standardizing the product descriptions is a significant challenge for BAB
processes. It helps customers to find efficiently the products they are looking for. There
are different schemas and standards for product classifications and product catalogs,
which are important for the BC industry. In the following are the most important
standardizations addressed (Leukel, J., Schmitz, V, Dorloff, F.-D., 2002).
3 STANDARDS FOR PRODUCT CLASSIFICATIONS AND
PRODUCT CATALOGS
3.1 A. The BMEcat format
The BMEcat-format (http://www.bmecat.org/) was developed with the objective of
standardizing and simplifying the exchange of product data catalogs, that are used
between suppliers and purchasing organizations. In the basic model, a supplier compiles a
catalogue in electronic form which complies with the BMEcat standard. The
Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e. V (BME) [Federal
Association for Material Management, Purchasing and Logistics] in Frankfurt/Main is
responsible for the BMEcat standard. Many renowned companies have taken a very
active part in this initiative. These
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Mobile computing
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1
INTRODUCTION
Construction affects the overheads of all industrial and commercial activities, and the
international competitiveness of all industries can be improved through better
construction productivity and quality.
In order to genuinely improve construction project performance against key criteria of
time, cost, quality, safety, the environment and respect for people, the organisations in the
construction supply chain need to become more integrated through increased internal and
external collaboration.
Collaboration requires communication and mobile, point-of-activity, digital tools
clearly can make a significant contribution to improving project performance. Computer
tools have already changed the ways buildings are designed, procured and constructed,
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This activity provided the COMIT community with a mechanism to decide on which
processes should be implemented on real construction projects (the demonstration
projects) in order to verify the theoretical benefits that were postulated.
3 INFORMATION NEEDS OF MOBILE PERSONNEL
There have been many attempts to categorise and identify construction information.
Researchers have filtered site information to a greater or lesser extent, from a high-level
division into technical, commercial, management and control (BT, 1995) to a more
detailed level where different types of documentation are classified, e.g. technical
queries, dayworks, requisitions, and method statements (Murray & Thorpe, 1996), to
classification by job-type (Tenah, 1986).
Bowden (2002) conducted a survey of site-based personnel which concluded that they
are both recipients and producers of paper-based information. The paper-based tasks that
they carry out in their normal work are numerous (85 different tasks were identified).
These were grouped into different document types revealing the most commonly
identified tasks as completing data collection forms (25%), dealing with correspondence
(18%), viewing and reviewing drawings (13%) and reading and writing specifications
(6%).
It was shown that the documentation to which sitebased personnel would like to have
access in the field is related to the paper-based tasks that they carry out as part of their
normal work. This provides support for Tenah (1986) who found that information needs
are inextricably linked to the management responsibilities of each member of the project
team. The survey results showed that the document types site-based personnel would find
most useful to have access to/record in the field (out of the office) were drawings (24%),
data collection forms (12%), correspondence (8%), progress information (7%) and
specifications (7%).
4 MOBILE IT APPLICATIONS
Since the late 1980s, both the academic and industrial sectors have been investigating
the use of Mobile IT for developing applications used in field data collection.
Researchers have looked at the application of Mobile IT to the following processes:
Progressrecords(Cox et al., 2002)
Site diaries (Scott, 1990)
Resource management (McCullouch & Gunn, 1993)
Construction documentation (Williams, 2001)
Quality inspections (Cox & Issa, 1996)
Maintenance conditions (Rojas & Songer, 1997)
Snagging/Defects management (Mobbs, 2002)
Health and safety (Hawkins, 2002)
Site design problem resolution (Liu, 1995)
Monitoring piling activities (Ward et al., 2003)
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The benefits identified by this research can be broadly categorised as follows (Bowden &
Thorpe, 2002):
Improving efficiency of data capture
Improving access to data
Reducing errors and improving data integrity
However, it is clear that for any proposed system to be acceptable it has to be technically,
economically and operationally feasible. For a system to be economically viable, the cost
savings must be sufficient to justify the investment concerned and pay back the
investment within a realistic time-span given the technology involved and the business
environment concerned (Baldwin et al., 1994).
5 PROCESS MAPPING
Many people have argued that construction products are one-off with each project being
uniquehowever, the same underlying procedures and processes are adopted time and
again (McConalogue, 1999). The quality, quantity and timing of information can either
hinder or facilitate the successful completion of projects. It has been suggested that the
cost of construction can be reduced by 25% through the efficient transfer of information
(Davidson & Moshini, 1990).
To fully understand these construction procedures and processes and to identify the
opportunities to increase the efficiency of information transfer, a consistent approach
must be utilised. Process Mapping is a management tool initially developed and
implemented by General Electric as part of their integrated Work-out, Best Practices,
and Process Mapping strategy to improve significantly their bottom line business
performance (Hunt, 1996).
There have been many research projects investigating how to map construction
processes (Baldwin et al., 1999). Numerous systems are available, these include:
PetriNets
Function Decomposition
Structure Charts
HIPO Diagrams
Warnier-Orr Diagrams
Action Diagrams
Decision Trees
HOSCharts
IDEF0
Entity Relationship Diagrams
Data Flow Diagrams
Karhu (2000) provides a comparison of six commonly used methods; scheduling method,
simple flow method, IDEFO, IDEFOv, IDEF3 and Petri Nets. He concludes that these
process modelling methods have been developed for specific purposes. Therefore, a more
general method is required that eliminates the difficulties associated with the process
821
model graphical representations being too complicated for the employees involved within
the process to interpret and hence make meaningful contributions.
6 METHODOLOGY
To identify which construction processes would benefit most from the introduction of
Mobile IT, the following four stage approach was adopted (see Figure 1):
Stage 1: Identify ten processes to look at in further detail
Stage 2: Map out the As Is process for each of the ten
Stage 3: Map out the To Be process for each of the ten
Stage 4: Select four processes to be implemented on the demonstration projects
822
they thought had most potential. Finally, they voted for their top ten processes. This
resulted in the following ten processes being selected to be investigated further:
Goods received notes
Drawing distribution and usage
Task allocation
Monitoring progress
Monitoring health and safety on site
Quality inspections
Site design problem resolution
Site diaries
On-site accounting of operatives/visitors
Maintenance inspections
6.2 Stage 2: Map out the As Is processes
The primary objective of the process maps that were developed was to present an
illustration to the COMIT community of the possible efficiency gains Mobile IT could
provide in order that the community could determine which processes should be selected
for implementation on the demonstration projects. Hence, it was decided that a simple
graphical representation, readily understood by construction professionals, should be
used.
As these maps were to be developed by several parties and it was vital that they should
be in standard format to enable comparison by the COMIT community it was decided
that a suitable software product should be found. This product should also provide the
capability to publish the maps on the Internet so that the maps could be viewed and used
by anyone without the need for the process mapping software.
Following a search and review of available tools the Triaster product Process
Navigator was selected. This is powered by Microsoft Visio, and designed for nonprocess specialists, hence it was very simple and easy to learn to use.
Data was collected from the COMIT community, and other relevant external contacts.
This was provided in the form of project procedures, form templates, or narrative
explaining what the construction company currently does. Input was received from 25
companies, including most of the major UK contractors. This information was then
collated to map out the generic As Is process for each of the ten.
The contributors then verified the As Is maps to ensure that they reflected the
current situation accurately.
6.3 Stage 3: Map out the To Be processes
Once the As Is maps had been verified, areas for improvement were identified. These
included:
Activities where information was collected on paper at the point of activity
Activities that could be fully automated if electronic data was collected at the point of
activity
Activities involving the delivery of paper information
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The difficulty with producing the form for the PDA would be that the content of the
form would change on a weekly basis according to the project programme. Greater
benefits would be gained from enabling the forms to be automatically generated from the
project programme. The data collected could then be fed straight back in to update the
project programme.
Alternatively, relevant programme information could be distributed such that the site
engineer can see each programme activity and simply select the completed tasks e.g. they
could tick completed drainage
To Be
Planner copies and distributes blank progress System distributes any revised/new blank progress
sheets to site engineers
sheets
30 minutes each week
run from A to B and automatically the materials usage is calculated. Linear activities
could use GPS to show the distance completed but this may need to be supplemented by
GPRS and Inertial Navigation data to obtain a desired accuracy of position. Potential
areas for improvement to the generic As Is process were identified (see Table 1 and
Figure 3).
The times given above are indicative only and will be verified on the demonstration
projects. Using these times an overall time saving of at least 1 day each month of the
planners time is achieved by using Mobile IT. However, there are other benefits that are
more difficult to map and measure.
Capturing progress information directly in the field provides contemporaneous
information, eliminating errors typing up information from handwritten notes or from
memory. It also allows the site engineer to spend more time out on site undertaking work
that enables the project to be completed on time and on budget.
Providing an easy way for site engineers to capture the information may lead to the
information being collected on a more regular basis. This increased feedback could help
in the early identification and troubleshooting of many problems, thus avoiding
unnecessary escalation of issues on site.
Slippage alerts could be generated automatically and emailed to the appropriate person
who can initiate remedial measures.
827
The correlation of the progress information is automated, monthly progress reports can
be generated at the touch of a button, and the information can be manipulated and
displayed easily. Many potential error-prone manual paper processes are skipped, saving
worker time and resources.
The project team will have access to more timely and accurate programme information
and will be able
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8 MOBILISATION PLAN
The mapping approach that was followed enabled the identification of common
deliverables and personnel across the ten processes e.g. the Project Plan is
829
Quantitative data will be collected to verify the costs to the contractor and the benefits
that Mobile IT brings. This data will be collated and compared across the four projects to
demonstrate real-life business cases for Mobile IT. In addition, human factors and
cultural barriers will be analysed and reported on to provide the construction industry
with comprehensive guidance in order to aid future development and implementation of
appropriate Mobile IT solutions.
10 CONCLUSIONS
Mapping the As Is processes provided the research team with a sound basis on which
to determine the To Be processes. Mapping each activity and deliverable and
highlighting the areas for improvement enabled ideas for the To Be process to be
developed, often resulting in unforeseen improvements. The knock-on effects of
implementing a Mobile IT solution were also much more clearly identifiable.
One of the difficulties with illustrating the changes through the process maps was that
the To Be map often appeared more complicated than the original As Is map. This
was due to the use of a central database which created feedback loops on the maps, and
automated activities still being included on the maps. It would be useful to illustrate the
changes in activities for each individual participant so they can see graphically a real
reduction in activities and the time taken to complete them.
Although the maps provide an indication of the improvements that could be made
there is no real substitute for the information that can be gathered from a pilot project and
the demonstration projects will enable us to improve on the process maps by providing a
real view of the To Be process and the associated quantitative information.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Multimodal interaction can be described as the integration of visual and voice interfaces
through the delivery of combined graphics and speech, on hand-held devices (Hjelm,
2000). This technology enables more complete information communication and supports
effective decision-making. It also helps to overcome the limitations imposed by the small
screen of mobile devices. A small screen size, and the need to use a pen to enter data and
commands, presents a great inconvenience for field usersespecially if their hands are
busy using other equipment, or instruments. Speech processing is one of the key
technologies to simplifying and expanding the use of handheld devices by mobile
workers (Burkhahardt et al, 2002; IDC Viewpoint 2002).
2 MULTIMODAL INTERACTION TECHNOLOGY
There are different models for implementing multimodal interaction on mobile devices.
The fat client model employs embedded speech recognition on the mobile device and
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allows conducting speech processing locally. The thin client model involves speech
processing on a portal server and is suitable for mobile phones.
Currently there are two markup languages proposed for creating applications that use
voice input (speech recognition) and output (speech synthesis) and support multimodal
interaction. Speech Application Language Tags language (SALT) is a lightweight set of
extensions to existing markup languages, in particular to HTML and XHTML (XHTML
is essentially HTML 4.0 adjusted to comply with the rules of XML), that enables
multimodal and telephony access to information, applications and Web services from
PCs, telephones, tablet PCs and handheld devices. SALT applications can be
implemented using the thin client model with speech processing done on the speech
server (Moraes, 2002).
Another markup language that is currently proposed for developing multimodal Web
applications is VoiceXML+XHTML (X+V) (W3C Multimodal Activity, 2004). It
combines XHTML and a subset of VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language).
Currently VoiceXML is the major W3C standards effort for voice-based services (W3C
Voice Browser Activity, 2004). VoiceXML provides an easy, standardized format for
building speech-based applications. Together, XHTML and VoiceXML (X+V) enable
Web developers to add voice input and output to traditional, graphically based Web
pages. This allows the development of multimodal applications for mobile devices based
on the fat client model that includes a multimodal browser and embedded speech
recognition on a mobile device, and a Web application server (Figure 1).
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generate different versions of the application for each execution environment (for
example, mobile phones or PDAs from different manufacturers).
X+V technology for multimodal interaction with mobile devices is based on
VoiceXML technology for voice access to Web services. VoiceXML technology and
examples of VoiceXML field services prototypes are described in the following section
of the paper.
3 VOICEXML TECHNOLOGY
VoiceXML technology follows the same model as the HTML and Web browser
technologies. Similar to HTML, a VoiceXML application does not contain any platform
specific knowledge for processing the content; it also does not have platform specific
processing capability. This ability is provided through the Voice XML Gateway that
incorporates Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) engines
(Kondratova, 2003).
VoiceXML allows providers to deliver Web services using voice user interfaces
(VUIs). Developers can use VoiceXML to create audio dialogues that feature synthesized
speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and touchtone key input (DMTF),
recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed-initiative conversations (Beasly et at,
2002). The words or phrases that a VoiceXML application must recognize are included in
a grammar. Large grammars can cause application problems because they can result in
recognition errors. Small grammars can cause VUI problems because they require
prescriptive prompts that limit the use of natural language dialog. However, small
grammars could be used successfully in designing applications for industrial users that
are trained in using the application (Kondratova, 2003).
The advantage of using the VoiceXML language to build voice-enabled services is
that companies can build automated voice services using the same technology they use to
create visual Web sites, significantly reducing the cost of construction of corporate voice
portals. A voice portal provides telephone users, including mobile phone users, with a
speech interface to access and retrieve Web content. In the next section of the paper, to
demonstrate the capabilities and mobile applications of voice technology, the author
describes several prototype systems developed for the mobile workforce.
3.1 VoiceXML for field applications
The full potential of speech-based information retrieval for industrial purposes is not yet
harnessed and there are only a handful of existing field applications of VoiceXML
technology. For example, Florida USA Power and Light Co. is using a VoiceXML based
system for field restoration crews. Using mobile phones, restoration crews can find out
about storm-damaged equipment, and report back to the system on the status ofthejob.
Considering the widespread use of the mobile phone in industrial field applications,
there is an opportunity to apply VoiceXML technology for field applications in
construction, manufacturing, power and resource industries. These industries can benefit
from voice-enabling their operations. The ongoing NRC research program on Voice and
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Bluetooth technology enabled headset piece. This information could be entered directly
into the inspection forms on the handheld device and stored locally in the embedded
database or wirelessly transmitted to the backend database server. Thus, field inspection
information could be communicated in real time to facilitate timely decision-making on
the construction site and at the ready-mix plant. This information will be stored in the
project database and retrieved easily, if needed, in case of litigation. By combining a
multimodal mobile handheld device with a GPS receiver and a Pocket GIS system, the
gathered inspection information could be automatically linked to its exact geographical
location. In addition, other environmental sensors, such as temperature and moisture
sensors could also be connected to a handheld device, if needed (Giroux et al, 2002).
4.1 Wireless field quality control data entry
Our current project on wireless, field quality control data collection is based on concepts
of both multimodal and voice field data collection. In this project, a field concrete testing
technician will be able to enter field quality control information into the Concrete Quality
Control Database using various interaction modes such as speech, stylus and keyboard on
the handheld device or speech on the mobile phone.
The multimodal field data entry application (MFDE) includes a fat wireless client on a
Pocket PC that has a multimodal browser and embedded speech recognition, and is based
on X+V technology, described previously in this paper. The voice-only data collection
application is based on the VoiceXML technology that allows data retrieval and input
using natural speech on the mobile phone, similar to the VIMS and VTMS applications
described in the previous section. The high-level system architecture for the prototype
MFDE application is similar to the one shown in Figure 1. This proof of concept
prototype was developed for the wireless Pocket PC utilizing multimodal NetFront 3.1
browser and a fat client with embedded
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current. The grammar for the application is dynamically updated by updating information
in the database.
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limited number of multimodal browser vendors. We hope that the mobile industry will
resolve these issues in the near future. However, one challenge will remain and will
require extensive research and testing: the usability of this technology in the field. The
usability evaluation for the multimodal field data entry prototype will be conducted
during the next phase of our research project.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The advantages afforded by the field use of multimodal and VoiceXML technology to
retrieve corporate and project information and enter field data could be substantial. The
availability of real-time, complete information exchange with the project information
repository is critical for decision-making in the field of construction site inspection, as
information frequently has to be transmitted to and received from the project repository
right on-site.
In some cases, when the security and safety of people and infrastructure are at stake,
the importance of real-time communication of field data becomes paramount, as, for
example, in assessing the damage to buildings in emergency situation (Bacheldor, 2002).
In such cases multimodal applications for data collection could be used to collect other
types of information such as digital pictures or video of the site.
In this paper the author described applications of VoiceXML and multimodal
technology for field data collection on the construction site. The multimodal field data
entry prototype allows concrete technician in the field to enter testing data using speech
and stylus via the handheld device, as appropriate. On a site with wireless connectivity
the testing results are transmitted in real time and entered into the concrete quality control
database, enhancing decision-making on the construction project.
In spite of the current multimodal technology limitations, mentioned previously in this
paper, this technology has great potential to overcome user interface weaknesses for
mobile devices, in the field, and speed up the data collection and communication process.
However, the usability issues for this novel interaction technology require special
attention as user acceptance of this technology in the field will be, to a large extent,
determined by its ease of use.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to acknowledge the support provided for the project by the
National Research Council Canada and by New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, and
the hard work and dedication of the University of New Brunswick Computer Science
students that participated in the development of the multimodal prototype.
REFERENCES
Bacheldor, B. 2002. Handheld system assesses damage to see how buildings survived, Information
Week, March 18, 2002.
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Beasly, R., Farley, M., OReilly, J. & Squire, L. 2002. Voice Application Development with
VoiceXML. New York: SAM Publishing.
Burkhahardt, J., Henn, H., Hepper, S. & Rintdorff, K. 2002. Pervasive Computing. Boston, NJ:
Addison-Wesley.
Hjelm, J. 2000. Research Applications in the Mobile Environment, in Wireless Information
Services, John Wiley & Sons, 2000.
Giroux, S., Moulin, C., Sanna, R. & Pintus, A. 2002. Mobile Lessons: Lessons based on georeferenced information, Proceedings of E-Learn 2002:331338.
IBM Pervasive Computing. 2004. Online. http://www-306.ibm.com/software/pervasive/
IDC Viewpoint. 2002. Five Segments Will Lead Software Out of the Complexity Crisis, by
A.C.Picardi, December 2002, Doc#VWP000148.
Kondratova, I. 2003. Voice and Multimodal Access to AEC Project Information, Mobile
Computing in Architectural, Engineering and Construction, 10th ISPE International Conference
On Concurrent Engineering, J.Cha et al. (eds), Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, Portugal: 755760.
Kondratova, I. 2004. Speech-enabled mobile field applications. Proc. of the International IASTED
conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications, IMSA 2004, Kauai, Hawaii,
August 1618, 2004 (in press).
Meissner, A., Mathes, L., Baxavanaki, L., Dore, G. & Branki, C. The COSMOS integrated IT
solution at railway and motorway construction sitesa case study, Proc. of the Conference on
eWork and eBusiness inAEC (Turkand Scherer, editors), Swets & Zietilinger, Lisse: 623626.
Moraes. 2002. VoiceXML, CCXML, SALT. Architectural tools for enabling speech applications,
XML Journal, Sept. 2002: 3025.
W3C. Multimodal Activity, X+V, http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml+voice/
W3C. Voice Browser ActivityVoice enabling the Web! http:www.w3org/Voice
VoiceXMLForum. XHTML+Voice Profile 1.2.
http://www.voicexml.org/specs/multimodal/x+v/12/
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Extensive coordination, communication and data exchange processes are performed
during the planning, construction, and operation phases of built artefacts among the
different actors involved in one specific project. So far, advantages of using information
systems have been limited to office work and single tasks. Field personnel (e.g.
construction managers, foremen, facility managers, or inspectors) are not able to connect
to information management systems for the time being away from the office. Recently,
new technologies such as mobile devices and wireless networks became available and
support nearly unlimited accessibility to digital information.
However, the efficient usage of these new technologies requires deep understanding of
relevant activities and their inter-relationships. Current management and business process
models need to be analysed and re-engineered to fully exploit the potentials of mobile
technologies.
Furthermore, mobile technologies need to be complemented by flexible, sophisticated
information management systems. The user, working on construction sites should not be
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Definition: Within one specific WORK SCENARIO some ACTOR is using a specific
IT-INFRASTRUCTURE to obtain, enter, view or modify INFORMATION that he/she
requires to successfully accomplish his/her ACTIVITY at a specific LOCATION and
TIME under specific ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS.
Within the next paragraphs the individual aspects characterizing a specific working
scenario are explained in more detail.
2.1 The actor aspect
The term ACTOR describes a unit that is responsible to perform a specific activity or a
set of activities specified by a certain role; whereas a ROLE defines the required skills or
the qualification profile. An actor can either be an organisational unit or an individual
employee.
This short definition addresses two facets of the actor aspect. Firstly, the introduction
of mobile technologies on the construction site requires the involvement of a broader
scope of users. Not only engineering and management personnel should be able to use
mobile computers but also less qualified field workers. Therefore, systems need to adapt
to the individual qualification profiles.
Secondly, the integration of sub-contractors into complex, project-based IT-systems
requires efficient mechanisms for the management of their additional IT-infrastructure by
addressing the individual needs of small and medium-sized companies (SME).
2.2 The activity aspect
The ACTIVITY aspect describes and classifies single actions, or whole packages of
actions, their sequence and interdependencies among them. Activities can be
hierarchically ordered and grouped.
Activity specifications might be derived from already existing workflow management
systems.
2.3 The IT-Infrastructure aspect
The IT-INFRASTRUCTURE aspect describes and classifies the quality of the mobile,
end-user device as well as the performance of its network connection.
Discussions and surveys have proven that users in the field wish to access ITapplications by using mobile devices. Due to the much smaller screen size and different
in- and output interfaces of the mobile devices the applications should be able to adapt
to the specific hardware configuration.
2.4 The location aspect
A LOCATION is identified using a unique global position to the user. Based on these coordinates secondary, project specific descriptions of the location can be calculated as
result of a reasoning algorithm.
Typically, an organisation is involved in several projects. Therefore, field workers
often work on different sites. Automatic positioning services allow to conclude on which
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site and, therefore, on which project the actor is working. Location based services will
only deliver relevant information to the user.
2.5 The environment aspect
The ENVIRONMENTAL aspect describes and classifies the conditions under which a
mobile device is used. It includes both, the description, classification and evaluation of
natural environmental aspects as well as of technological environmental aspects resulting
from the type of the technical artefact to be constructed, monitored, or maintained.
The environmental restrictions are very often decisive when choosing the mobile
computing system, especially the device to be used.
3 THE CONCEPT OF THE MOBILE WORKER
CoMoWo is based on the paradigm of Virtual Organisations. Within CoMoWo a Process
Pattern Library (PPL) and a related three-layer pattern-management framework are
currently developed. Both parts will support easy and efficient set-up, management, and
dissolution of Virtual Organisations in the A/E/C-domain.
A Virtual Organisation (VO) is an identifiable group of actors that makes substantially
more use of information and communication technologies than physical presence to
interact, conduct business and operate together, in order to achieve common, projectcentred business objectives. The aim of the VO is to gather complementing competencies
of different actors in order to enhance efficiency and productivity while decreasing
overheads. [see also: Camarinha-Mathos]
Within the A/E/C & FM-domain star like organisational structures are often used to
manage construction projects (see Fig. 1). The project manager and the project-centred
information system are placed in the centre of this structure. Participants of the project
team can join and leave such a VO in different phases of the life cycle. However, each of
these organisations has its own information system which must be able to exchange
information of different granularity with the project information system. Different
granularity of information is required because besides the project manager two more
classes of actors can be identified: the domain manager and the f ield worker.
3.1 The three-layer-approach
The layer concept supports the easy decomposition of complex AEC & FM problems into
different levels of granularityso called layers of information management. Each of
these layers should have its own paradigms for modelling and representing the desired
information. However, the models have to be integrated into a homogeneous domain
description.
Consequentially, we suggest introducing a three layer concept consisting of: (A) the
strategic layer, (B) the tactical layer, and (C) the operative layer (see Table 1).
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Figure 1. Structure of a VO
information system.
Table 1. Layer concept for a construction project.
Layer
Content
Model
Strategic
goals, milestones
goal function
Tactical
formal sequences
workflow-management
Operative
scheduling
the goals in sub-goals in accordance with the prqject progress, milestones can be
determined. The project manager manages the strategic layer.
The strategic layer is the basis of all planning and management activities. It provides
general project information designated to the project management. The strategic layer
supports the progress monitoring and early detection and prevention of conflicts on
project level.
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VO-structures,
(4)
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distributed
software
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851
852
853
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855
This will lead to supportive IT-infrastructure providing information on demand and in the
right context to the mobile worker.
4.1 Data Warehouse Technology
Data Warehouse Technology provides methods and tools to systematically organize,
understand, and use complex data. Data warehouses integrate input data from already
existing information systems and data collected by (mobile) applications. They
consolidate and store data for fast access and retrieval and deliver requested data in an
appropriate presentation format.
Data Warehouses are based on a multidimensional data model. It is defined by
dimensions and facts. The metaphor of a Data cube allows data to be modelled and
represented in multiple dimensions. Dimensions are defined in Dimension Hierarchies.
Dimensions are the perspective with respect to which a user wants to have the data
presented or analysed. A formalised description of dimensions is presented in formulas
[1] to [6].
Facts are (numerical) values representing quantities by which one wants to analyse
relationships between dimensions. A formal fact definition is given in formula [7].
Definition: One schema DS of a dimension hierarchy DH consists of a partially
ordered set of category attributes.
({D1,, Dn, TopD}; ?)
[1]
TopD is one specific generic, maximum element, that is functional definable from all
other attributes.
?i(1=i=n):Di? TopD
[2]
Furthermore there exists exactly one Di, that determines all other category attributes
and defines the finest granularity.
?i(1=i=n)?j(1=j=n, i ?j):Di? Dj
[3]
Definition: The granularity G is a subset of the category attributes of all existing
dimensions of all dimension schemata DS1,, DSn
DS1,, DSn
G={G1,, Gn}
[4]
?i(1=i=k)?j(1=j=n):Gi? DSj
[5]
?i(1=i=k)?j(1=j=k)i?j:Gi? Gj
[6]
Definition: Facts F consist of a certain granularity Gand one specific summation
type.
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F=(G, SumTyp)
[7]
4.2 Schemata and navigation
A multidimensional data model can exist in the form of a star-schema, a snowflake
schema or a starflake schema. The star schema is the simplest schema, consisting of one
fact data table and a set of (smaller) attendant dimension tables. The snowflake schema
normalizes some dimension tables and thereby splits the dimension data into additional
tables. Starflake schemas additionally allow multiple fact data tables. Figure 8 illustrates
how the context aspects defined in chapter 2 are used to define the basic structure of a
star-schema. It clearly illustrates how different perspectives on the consolidated central
pool of fact data can be defined in order to reflect the various context aspects. Figure 9
depicts a detailed description of the different dimension hierarchies used to describe the
context aspects.
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material used and available (actor and location aspect), and other spontaneous notes
(environmental and location aspect).
User Access Records contain information about the access profile of each actor, the
requested service and the mobile device that (s)he is using (IT-infrastructure aspect), the
construction site described by GPS-co-ordinates (location aspect), the time of the request,
and the activity (s)he is working on.
External data do further specify the actor, activity, and environmental aspect. The
automatic collection of external data supports the user because of reduced necessary input
activities. Data collection processes are pre-determined by the specific business process
model.
Data warehouse meta-data describe the data warehouse architecture which is
characterized by dimensions. Meta-data define how to generate, request, modify, store,
restore, and delete the various dimensions. Furthermore, meta data contain rules for
interpreting the results of the user request profiles.
4.4 Functionalities of the DWEP
The functionality of each component depicted in Fig. 10 is briefly explained in the
following section. Currently, the agent paradigm is intensively discussed in the literature
and used in many software prototypes. Most of our system specifications require software
components which must be able to act independently on behalf of the user. Therefore, we
have called all of the described components agents. However, the authors are aware of
current discussions about limitations and negative aspects of the agent paradigm, such as
security features.
The data collection agent (DCA) is an external, reactive agent and carries out part of
the data pre-processing activities of the DWEP. Pre-processing activities cover all the
data input and consolidation activities. Two modes of activating the agent exist: first, if
the amount of modified data has exceeded a certain limit, or second, if time has exceeded
a certain period.
The information consolidation agent (ICA) belongs to the core of the DWEP. Its
behavior is controlled by using the meta-data of the DWEP. Since real world data tends
to be incomplete and inconsistent, information consolidation routines that will attempt to
fill in missing values and correct inconsistencies are necessary.
The Data transformation agent (DTA) is also part of the core of the DWEP Its tasks
are: (1) aggregation, (2) generalization, (3) normalization, and (4) feature construction.
Aggregation and generalization reduce the amount of data. Both functions are
described in more detail in the section about the dimension generation agent (see below).
Normalization will be used to calculate meaningful status descriptions for progress
reports instead of presenting total numbers to the user (e.g. work is due, overdue, with
lowerbudget, inbudget, heavily over budget).
The Dimension generation agent (DGA) is part of the representation layer of the
DWEP. To ensure fast data presentation and on-line analytical processing the DGA will
pre-compute the cuboids as subparts of the data cube. Depending on the basic technology
used, one distinguishes between the relational and the multidimensional approach. Cube
aggregation within relational environments uses sorting, hashing, and grouping
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operations to re-order and cluster dimension attributes. Partial grouping steps are
introduced to decrease the computation time of sub-aggregates.
The array-based multidimensional approach divides the array into chunks. A chunk is
a sub-cube small enough to fit into the memory In a second step, chunks are compressed
in order to remove wasted space from empty cells. Furthermore, the order in which cells
are visited can be optimised in a way that the number of times each cell must be
(re)visited is minimised.
The end-user-access monitoring agent (EUA-MA) is the only cognitive agent within
the described scenario. It can either be implemented as an external agent or as part of the
DWEP. The authors suggest implementing the EUA-MA as an external agent.
The EUA-MA monitors all user requests sent towards the DWEP which is only a
reactive feature. However, the EUA-MA is able to collaborate with the CDCA (see
below). The CDCA is able to interpret the core of the output-request context data. Using
this extended context description, the EUA-MA is able to decide whether a new
dimension should be generated or not.
The context data collection agent (CDCA) is a reactive agent. It is an external agent
and has its own knowledge base. Supported by its knowledge base, the agent is able to
interpret core context data and extend it with additional information.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Mobile computers are a relatively new technology that has not yet been adopted in the
AEC & FM industry. The implantation process will require changes in our industry. Even
in the basic sciences such as e.g. computer science or human computer interaction many
uncertainties still exist on how to apply this technology appropriately and efficiently.
This means there exist neither any formalized implantation strategy nor detailed proven
rules of thumb.
The development of context sensitive mobile applications complemented by multidimensional data management technology might be one possible approach for solving
some problems related with the usage of mobile devices on construction sites. However,
the lack of general design and development criteria leads to the consequence that only by
systematic, intensive field-testing of prototypical solutions the advantages, disadvantages,
and limitations of mobile computing technology can be revealed.
The analysis of these results will lead to the development of new business processes,
considering the availability and potentials of mobile, wireless technologies. Finally, it
will lead to an integration of wireless and mobile technologies into the core businesses of
the AEC & FM sector. To achieve this goal it is absolutely necessary to develop and
define guidelines, standards, and specifications for both software development and
business process re-engineering.
Therefore, the future work of our research group will focus on the integrated work in
the areas of business process modelling and software engineering for mobile computer
environments focusing on interface design and multi dimensional information
management.
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Alexander, Christopher 1977. The Timeless Way of BuildingPart 1: Architecture, Part2: Pattern
Perception. Oxford University Press.
Brgy, Christian 2002. An Interaction Constraint Model for Mobile and Wearable Computer-Aided
Engineering Systems in Industrial Applications. PhD Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University.
Camarinha-Matos, L. The virtual enterprise concept, In lnfrastructures for the Virtual Enterprise
Networking industrial enterprises, ISBN 0-7923-8639-6.
Fowler, Martin 1997. Analysis PatternsReusable Object Models. Addison Wesley.
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und SystemenFacetten einer neuen Technologie. dpunkt.verlag 1997, 3-920993-73-X.
Keller, M., Scherer, R. & Menzel, K. 2002. A personal planning approach for the integration and
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Kurz, A. 1999. Data WarehousingEnabling Technology. Bonn: MITP-Verlag.
Menzel, K., Eisenblatter, K., Keller, M. & Scherer, R.J. 2002. Context-sensitive process and data
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Mobile computing has become an important field in information technology. Specific
solutions are being offered to get access to data while outside office, on the road, or on
working site, and to feed information systems with instant data from distant locations.
Many business fields have been identified where mobile solutions are of high interest.
Construction is one of those fields that can gain a lot by applying mobile computing
technologies, since the main activity in the building process is taking place in the field,
outside of the reach of common information systems. Although quite interesting
applications of mobile computing in construction exist, the authors claim that the
potentials are by far not exhausted.
The term mobile computing or ubiquitous computing has no clear definition,
although some studies have already tried to survey this fast-growing area of information
technology. Mobile computing does not only involve mobile computing devices (such as
laptops, notebooks, PDAs and wearable computers), which are designed to be carried
around, but also the mobile (which in practice means wireless) networks to which these
863
computers are connected. Specialized services are the third component, rounding out the
definition of mobile computing.
Although the number of research papers addressing mobile computing is modest, there
is no doubt that a great deal of research is still going on, perhaps even too fast for papers
to be published. As one technology overtakes another (Jefferson and Orubeondo, 2000;
Mobileinfo, 2003), and technical solutions are undoubtedly becoming more consistent
and reliable, it is more reasonable to concentrate on general concepts and problems. One
such problem is the adaptation of existing information systems suitable for efficient
integration with mobile computing. But first of all we have to identify critical problems,
for which mobile computing can deliver effective solutions. In this regard, we agree with
Vizard that until then, mobile computing will just remain a troublesome niche
application for those, who can afford to pay for it(Vizard, 2000).
2 MOBILE COMPUTINGIN CONSTRUCTION
In using mobile computing, construction again performs some specific characteristics.
The problems are, however, much more common to other field operation industries. One
of them, the problem of controlling mobile computers by voice, which is also a
requirement for wearable computers, has attracted quite some researchers. In the field of
civil engineering, interesting reports can be found for inspection-oriented applications
(Garrett and Sunkpho, 2000), and navigation through drawings (Reinhardt and Scherer
2000).
In the field of construction, drawings are among the most important types of
documents, and therefore software for managing them is a necessary requirement for
mobile computing in construction. AutoDesks OnSite View offers viewing, mark-up
design changes, on-site project document queries using digital measurement tools, and
synchronization (Hernandez 2000). Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are already
available for some PDAs as well. Project management is another area where extensions
to mobile terminals can be very effective (Onsyss, 2003). On the other hand more and
more applications are becoming web-enabled (Alshawi and Ingirige, 2003), which
automatically extends their usability to browser-supported mobile devices connected to
the Internet. EBautagebuch is a web-based punch-list-like application, developed to be
used on a PDA for recording activities on a building site (Menzel et al., 2002b). Further
applications are related to site inspection and bridge inspection, most of them are
specialized on a specific task.
Another, more holistic approach originated in Japan, where the Daito Trust
Construction Company developed a large-scale mobile computing system called DK
Network (Daito 2000). This network consists of specially developed hardware and
software components. It remains to be seen how many companies working together on a
construction project would be able to follow this approach. For most companies, standard
devices, wireless networks and services must be available on the market at affordable
prices in order to be attractive. It is, however, perceivable that mobile computing
applications are becoming more complex, as for example in the case of pilling operations
(Ward et al., 2002).
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structures today. Existing processes could be rendered much more efficient by altering
older information structures to support newer ones, and rethinking the current philosophy
of computer use (Rebolj et al., 2002).
Despite the availability of hardware systems and high speed wireless networks, we are
still lacking software systems designed to support specific on-site tasks, provide helpful
guidance through these tasks, and support intelligent methods of human-computer
interaction that take into account the context of onsite construction and supervision
activities (Menzel et al., 2002).
An extended communication system, adaptable to the project and the user is one of the
possible solutions to improve existing information systems and to decrease the gap
between research in information technology and the state of the practice of everyday
work.
3 ESSENTIAL POTENTIALS OF MOBILE COMPUTINGIN
CONSTRUCTION
Two main aspects exist when looking at any system: the partial and the holistic aspects.
In construction this aspects can be defined as company view or project view, and
personal view or actor view. In both aspects, mobile computing can significantly
improve the efficiency of information flows or of information systems. Thus, we have to
be aware that mobile computing implies the following facts:
a mobile computer is bound to a specific person
the location of a mobile computer can become a significant piece of information
the mobile computer (and thus the person) is available anytime, anywhere
the person has access to the system anytime, anywhere.
These facts are of utmost importance and the basis for the core potentials of mobile
computing in construction.
From the company (or project) view any information system in use can improve as
follows:
information system boundaries extend to the maximum, which means that information
will flow to and from the destination/origin points without delays or obstacles
additional information is available from terminal points, like their position, user ID,
temperature etc.; in other words, terminals can help applications to become context
sensitive.
From the personal view following improvements are significant:
the person can be available anytime, according to her/his role in the relevant projects
any other actors in relevant projects are available
personal communication can improve significantly through automatic selection using
context parameters (date and time, location, activity etc.).
Based on these potentials we have built a concept of a communication system, which
uses the core potentials of mobile computing to improve the effectiveness of IT in
construction.
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user handle the connection, improve data manipulation and solve filtering problems.
Hence, more detailed context can bring a higher level of abstraction to mobile devices
and make them a better mediator to the virtual world. Similar to how human senses are
needed to help people understand and interact with their environment, senses are also
needed to understand and integrate virtual space to our lives.
There is also a need for new concepts of presence (Kindberg, 2000). If virtual
dimension should be fully exploited, real world entities should be present in the virtual
dimension as well. In this regard, more explicit representation of material objects and
everyday concepts should appear in virtual space. In making this abstraction, the
appearance of these objects in reality, whether they are live beings or things or even
concepts like roles or processes, is not tremendously important. Our opinion is that it is
important to define simple mechanisms for their representation and interaction. For
example, each object should have an identity in virtual space. One straight-forward
solution to this problem involves the use of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI).
The basis for interaction, communication and grouping can be linked to spatial and
other context attributes of real counterparts where this information is easily transferable
through virtual space. Methods for context creation become very important here, since
they represent a tool for mapping and establishing relations between real and virtual
instances of the same object. We can see many advantages as a result of the presence of
objects in virtual space in the appropriate context. Appliances are available to users no
matter where they are or where they are coming from. Services can better adapt to
capabilities of appliances and user needs. All of this considerably improves the mobility
ofusers.
Having an enterprise environment in mind, virtual space mediates communication
over different organizational levels. People can work closer to each other in terms of
more direct communication. Organization can become structured on a single level, and
due to more open communication, risks can be mitigated more effectively From the
personal viewpoint all persons needed are in reach and therefore information flow can
become direct and undisturbed. However, classification and structuring of personal links
are inevitable.
Work processes can be organized more tightly together, with less documentation
waiting. Once a document is available to one party, it can be available for all interested
parties as well. Parallel processes bring higher productivity to the organization. The same
information is not transferred from hand to hand throughout the organization, which is a
significant source of errors. The organization can focus on product development and
hence make better quality products more efficiently.
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and spatial distribution of products and actors at the same abstract denominator of an
object in a virtual space (Fig. 2).
4.2 System design considerations
This section discusses the main issues of system design to achieve a dynamic
communication environment for construction projects. These key issues include the
architecture of the proposed system. However, this paper is not intended to discuss all of
the details of the system architecture, instead, it elaborates only on issues directly related
to the paper subject. Figure 3 illustrates some major components of the proposed system
architecture.
From a general sense, the proposed system connects the existing product, process
models and project frameworks into the personal communication networks. Process and
product models are used as integrators for all the information needed (Tibaut and Rebolj,
2003). In this case, data flow can become fully automated and individuals will not have
to worry about which communication link to choose or which file to download or upload
in order to exchange the desired information. A user-friendly interface (client software)
to such a system is required as well.
In order to achieve inter-operability structured information is needed instead of
conventional documents and non-standard data formats. New technologies such as the
eXtensible Markup Language (XML), XML Schema, SOAP (Simple Object Access
Protocol) and XML/Object Serialization have now emerged and could solve problems for
future exchanges of information. Their main objective is the development of a system
that is not only extensible enough to meet future requirements but is also adaptable and
flexible enough to incorporate the new innovative technologies of the future as they
emerge.
With the availability and the maturity of such technology, heterogeneous systems can
share the semantics of information objects by sharing an XML schema that defines the
information objects. Between heterogeneous systems, SOAP as an industry standard, can
be used as a data exchange protocol. Once a system receives some XML data sets, it can
use the XML/ Object marshalling tool to map the XML data set to its internal object
model.
Thus, with these technologies, a system can manipulate objects from other systems
just as if these objects were local to it. However, the most critical issues of implementing
these technologies are XMLbased standards. Namely, the shared XML schema allows
cooperating systems to correctly interpret information exchanged between cooperating
companies. Many software vendors have developed and implemented their own
proprietary XML schemas. These proprietary schemas may not be compatible with each
other. At the industry level, XML-based standards such as aecXML and ifcXML are still
under development. Described possible use of XML-related technologies only shows
major design considerations that support the proposed system.
By reaching into such complex structures as product and process models, getting the
parameters that influence the current constellation of a personal communication network
can become a complicated task. Therefore, a modular, multi-layer approach is necessary
to make the system work. This simply means that the current selection of persons in
reach can be influenced by more or less parameters. The parameters can either include
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very specific information on the current activity regarding the process model, and on a
current location, which is relevant to the part of the construction site or building (e.g.
specific column of a bridge), or just on the person and her or his item in the calendar. The
most important part is that the communication system is able to adjust to the information
available.
5 CONCLUSION
Research and applications in various domains have proved the high potential of mobile
computing. In the case of the construction industry this is even more obvious due to the
characteristics of a building site. The authors of this paper even believe that mobile
computing is the key technology for the IT break-through in construction. The
importance of mobile computing is not merely in bringing information to the external
terminals of common information systems, or in having this information and the
computing power available anywhere and anytime, but in some important new
conditions: in the permanent availability of the key project actors in the virtual space. Of
course this circumstance should not be abused to the human detriment. Instead, the
computer should take the role of a sophisticated assistant and automatically process as
much information as possible.
For this reason we have integrated existing applications (including the instant
messaging service, personal calendar and communication software), common information
sources (such as project data, product and process models), and specific terminal
information (such as location) to build a Dynamic Communication Environment (DyCE)
by measure of the humanthe actorinvolved in various projects and tasks. In this way
the mobile computer can really become a sophisticated personal digital assistant (PDA),
which will provide the human with necessary information for making good decisions, and
to leave the human more time for creative work. From the aspect of a project, this means
a much smoother flow of information and thus a higher level of quality. The proposed
DyCE concept does undoubtedly represent a much higher degree of IT use in the
construction industry, which fits well into the virtual enterprising of the future.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor& Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Construction industry in general and under the current economic situation the German
construction sector in particular is suffering from increasing complexity, tight timeschedules and budgets on the one side and decreasing profitability on the other side. ICT
is offering many opportunities to counter this situation, while huge improvements had
been achieved in this field at the level of functionality, workflow support and data
874
integration, during the recent years. Still there is room left for further innovation,
especially in the area of data integration.
New hope is rising from the benefits which are expected from new approaches in
mobile computing. Actors in the construction sector are ready to take care of these new
attempts, especially when they feel that mission critical processes could be improved,
which are cost- and time-relevant.
The MOBIKO-research therefore is following a multilevel approach which is covering
application as well as underlying and supporting technology:
MOBIKO is strongly related to future industrial application and therefore the research
of adequate scenarios with strong relevance to costs and time is one of the main tasks
in the project
Another important task is the usability-analysis of available mobile devices and user
interfaces. The construction sector has specific and challenging requirements due to
the dimensions of buildings and of their technical documents (plans). Under this
aspect also questions of wear-ability, e.g. hands-free data-entry, and robustness are
playing an important role.
In huge construction projects in addition challenges are rising from the problem of
localization issues on the site and at the same time in the documentation.
More technically MOBIKO is working on server-based services for collaborative
scenarios. The tasks
1
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in this field are trying to find out the needs where to install servers and to define
their specific roles.
A collaboration platform is intended to serve as an infrastructure through which mobile
applications used on the construction site are able to share data with their counterparts,
the main applications in the office.
Quasi the backbone of the MOBIKO-architecture is a mobile middleware which is
offering a series of basic mobile services, which can be used by the mobile
applications and server-based applications. Main functionalities of the mobile
middleware are mobile availability of IPs (IP-roaming) over the various mobile
network services (UMTS, GPRS, GSM, WLAN), secure single-sign-on of all
participating applications (based on LDAP) and others.
An additional topic of MOBIKO is a mobile portal, which should serve as an
information service for the public.
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Another consequence of late knowledge of the project status is, that partial payment is
invoiced late, as well, which results into loss of interest. Any day invoices can be made
out earlier, means less loss of interest.
A new tool, the so called Progress-Manager (PM)3, should help in future to support
especially these needs:
A mobile front-end component of the PM has the role to collect progress data on the
construction site and to report back the status of the sub-processes to the back-end part of
the PM. While the back-end part is a database application, the mobile front-end is
designed to run on mobile devices. Possible candidates are either notebooks and tablet
PCs for the cases where also graphical plans have to be displayed or PDAs for the cases,
where the status can be reported alphanumerically.
The basis of the progress data to be managed by the PM is a concept called BuildElements, which helps to define the smallest process-entities which need to be
controlled. Build-Elements are also serving as containers, collecting and carrying all
additional data needed to monitor the progress status.
The source data are coming from legacy applications which are CAD and project
management software. For the import of plans an SVG interface was implemented, which
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allows to import CAD drawings. For the import of prqject management data, which are in
particular processes, tasks and trades, interfaces for the most widely used project
management applications in the construction sector (Microsoft Project, Power Project and
Primavera) had been implemented.
At the start of the controlling workflow, progress data are loaded form the database
application into the mobile client. This can either be done by synchronization in the
office or also over any TCP/IP network. With this the synchronization can also be done
on the construction site, using wireless networks based on UMTS, GPRS or WLAN.
The next step in the workflow is the actual controlling on the construction site by
assessing the progress of single work-tasks. The collected status can be synchronized
back to the data base application, either ad-hoc on the construction site using wireless
network in time-critical situations or some times later using a cradle in the office in
normal cases.
It turned out, that there is a need to get access to the results of the monitoring not only
in the office by using the database application but also on any places outside the office.
Therefore a web-front-end for the database application was developed in addition, which
is accessible on any place, where internet connection is available. Thanks to wireless
technology based on UMTS, GPRS or WLAN, nowadays this can be done almost
everywhere.
2.2 Defect-manager
As a second valuable scenario it turned out, that management and handling of defects
gained so much interest, that also for this scenario potential end-users were willing to
provide their expertise.
It is one of the natures of building projects that unfortunately a lot of defects are
caused during the design and construction work. The bandwidth of defects is starting
from small scratches and is ending in totally wrongly constructed or wrongly designed
parts of a building. In case of big buildings the number of defects are summing up to
thousands of issues (e.g. in the case of the new Reichstag-building in Berlin, the seat of
the German Parliament, over 50.000 defects had to handled).
In the workflow of defect management, each issue has to be detected, rated, localized,
documented, related to a specific trade, fixed, controlled and its resolution finally
accepted. It turned out, that many contractors and controllers already are using database
applications for the management of defects, but that the current practice of
documentation and localization on the site has a lot of shortcomings, and that data-quality
issues caused by media gaps and manually data-reentry, are day-to-day challenges. In the
recent time already some mobile defect management application front-ends had been
offered, but they were not accepted, because they were too complicated to use. In practice
a defect inspector has only some seconds per defect as an average.
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Therefore the goal is to find a mobile solution, the so called mobile Defectmanager4 (DM), which is accepted due to easy usability and which gets rid of data-gaps
and manually data-reentry in the further workflow.
The concept, which is widely welcomed by future potential end-users, is to develop a
mobile client, which can import the topology of buildings and a catalogue of defect-types
ordered by ontology. This front-end has to have an open export-interface, so that the
collected defects easily can be sent to the already existing database defect management
applications. The mobile client itself allows localizing a defect on the basis of the
topology and space-structure of a building. The entry of documentation has to be simple
and has to be supported by the catalogue of defect types, so that defects can be described
clearly without ambiguity and without using synonyms for the same issue. The building
topology and space structure can be imported through XML-data coming e.g. from stateof-the-art building-component-oriented CAD applications.
2.3 Audit manager5
The mobile client application developed for this scenario in MOBIKO is the audit
manager6, which represents the mobile client application for construction
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site acceptance. The next figure highlights the realized within the audit manager.
Construction site acceptance generally is about comparing and documenting the progress
of construction projects with the standard conditions and contracts. Because various types
of construction acceptance are recognized within the project, different actors are involved
according to the type of acceptance.
In the audit manager, a mobile collaborative scenario is performed by highlighting the
Final Construction Acceptance. The Final Construction Acceptance officially concludes
any construction project and is significant for the initiation of the guarantee phase when
completed successfully.
At the beginning of the process, a wireless connection to the collaboration platform
via wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b) is established. Due to the personalized information of
the project manager stored in an LDAP directory on the collaboration platform, a project
milestone (generated by the project management client application Progress-Manager) is
imported into the audit manager. The project milestone indicates that the construction
site. Final Acceptance is due, and additionally has an XML reference to the standard
conditions and contract. This information is required by the audit manager in order to
automatically generate an electronic acceptance template. The template consists of
questions regarding the quality and the dimensions of certain objects within the building.
These questions are to be answered by the actors during the acceptance procedure.
Eventual insufficiencies are commented and documented electronically by the project
manager. The result of the acceptance is an acceptance protocol, list of insufficiencies
and (multimedia) documentation.
It is quite common for the owner of the building and the project manager have
different opinions about the status of a certain object. In such a case, it is likely that a
neutral expert or construction authority must be consulted wirelessly per video
conference in order to discuss the subject and find a solution. This is a good
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example for where mobile collaboration can have a time- and money-saving impact.
3 THE WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE AND ARCHITECTURE7
The wireless infrastructure employed in MOBIKO consists of three servers fulfilling
specific roles as well as the mobile terminals used by the workers in the field (next
Figure).
Individually, the servers are:
Central (Mobiko) Server
Construction Site Server
Security Server
The Central Server is situated at the headquarters, and hosts the Collaboration Platform as
well as the main data storage for the audit manager and Progress Manager. It acts as the
central data repository and exchange server for the entire infrastructure.
The Security Server may also be located at the headquarters, and hosts the so called
Governikus Intermediar8 security application, which is used to facilitate the digital
signing of important documents generated by the system, such as Final Acceptance
Reports.
The Construction Site Server is connected to the Central Server either by a fixed wire
(e.g. DSL), GPRS or UMTS connection, depending on the construction sites location.
The Construction Site Server forms the heart of actual operations on the construction site,
as it provides the basis for the WLAN positioning of mobile terminals on-site by hosting
a Positioning Engine, and furthermore represents the major communication node by
means of which the majority of information exchange is carried out.
The MOBIKO architecture provides a Communication Layer (next figure) consisting
of a Web Service9 API covering a wide range of low-level functionality shared by all of
the applications contributing to the software suite. It furthermore offers the opportunity
for future applications to be quickly and efficiently added to the MOBIKO systems by
simply integrating them with the CL. As the CL adheres to the Web Service XML SOAP
standard, a wide variety of applications developed under diverse platforms can be
coupled to the system.
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and user roles and rights management in a user-friendly manner detached from the
individual application, these issues are handled by the CL. On the basis of an LDAP
directory, both users and projects as well as user roles and rights are stored, managed and
replicated across the individual servers and terminals participation in a collaboration by
the CL. E.g. if a new user is added to the system in the collaboration platform and a new
project initiated on the Central Server, the CL stores the respective data into the LDAP
directory which is replicated across the system when the respective devices are next
connected. Likewise, the login of a user on a specific mobile terminal is registered and a
session established which is recognized system-wide due to the replication mechanism.
When considering mobile applications, network roaming is a primary requirement,
depending on network availability or individual applications QoS needs. The MOBIKO
CL fulfils these requirements by providing an open Web Service API for the applicationside control of IP network roaming based on existing IP-roaming products. The basic
functionality replaces the terminals network layer with an IP-roaming layer which
presents the applications with an always on situation regardless of the true network
status. If the real network status is offline, or the required QoS is not fulfilled by the
current network connection, network transmissions are cached until the requirements are
met and only then sent. This procedure is invisible to the running applications, which
continue to function normally. The user is thus not affected in his work by network status
or roaming operations. Finally, the CL also provides all MOBIKO applications with a
common, Web Service interface to the digital signature functionality of Governikus
(which is located on the Security Server as described above).
4 PROJECT STATUS
The project, which started in 2002, is currently in the state of finishing and demonstrating
functional models. Big contractors expressed already their deep interest in the results of
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this project and offered to provide their requirements in the beginning, and test fields
during and at the end of the project. The project will end in 2005.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to express his gratitude towards the German Federal Ministry of
Trade and Labour and the associated MobilMedia initiative for supporting and enabling
the research underlying this paper. Furthermore, the author would like to thank the
MOBIKO consortium as well as its subcontracting parties for their excellent cooperation
during the course of the project.
Knowledge management
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Requirement traceability refers to the sets of relationships that exist between
requirements, design solutions and other products of the design process. Current design
computing practice makes only limited use these sets of relationships. There are
commendable approaches to structuring the requirement information management
process (Kamara et al. 2002, Erhan & Flemming 2004), but their manual approach and
lack of overall integration with building models make them expensive and time
consuming to use. Most of the existing methods of computational requirement
traceability rely on sequential or ad hoc processes. Such processes force the designers to
either juggle the requirement information among many applications, or customize generic
applications, such as databases or spreadsheets, to fit their needs. The consequences are
not only inefficient use of the requirement information, but also bottlenecks in change
management, consistency checking and design compliance verification. Introducing
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data and information management issues (Eastman 1999). Many of the data modeling
studies target problems of information exchange and design collaboration (Amor et al.
1995, 1999, Bjork 1991, Clayton et al. 1999, Ekholm & Fridqvist 2000, Eastman & Jeng
1999). A building data model is a product model and describes a solution instance. The
completeness of the information represented is crucial; however the format of the
information is not necessarily in the form of requirements. In a building data model, the
product-specific information is specified by design values. While building data models
bring uniformity and provide a milieu where building information can be shared, they
focus on solution aspects of the building design process. The modeled relationships
match closer to design representations, i.e. they are mostly geometric, where as
requirements do not always come as geometric constructs. For example, requirements
may denote how many stories or rooms a building has, but not necessarily how high it is
or its form. Similarly, requirements may specify the purpose of a space, but not
necessarily how large it will be. All such correlations require information mapping from
requirements to designs.
Design information exchange systems with a building product data model enforce the
participating applications to commit to a common data model. The common data model
makes it possible for the applications to share the information since they use the same
input-output mechanisms that are made possible through the data model. There are many
advantages of this system design. One is that data exchange and sharing are no longer
problems. Moreover, such a scenario structures the domain of the applications that share
the data model around a consensus which enforces communication between the
fragmented parties. The users do not have to know anything about the structure of the
data model. The whole responsibility lies on the application to format the information
created during the session in the acceptable structures described by the model.
On the other hand, there are some limitations too: a) the successful application of a
building data model requires a priori agreement on the domain objects to be used by,
including their properties and behaviors, and b) the applications that read and write the
data are predefined for successful data exchange. Referred to as the fully integrated
approach (Rolland & Cauvet 1992), this approach in which all the subsystems have to
conform to the shared model also has integration drawbacks. The data output of other
applications are hard to decompose into acceptable formats by specific applications, the
model cannot track and coordinate applications that have been applied to the model and
most importantly for our purposes, the model cannot carry the historical data and
incremental updates (Eastman 1999).
These drawbacks also have direct impact on the implementation of information
traceability. The inability to trace the applications manipulating the data and the lack of
incremental updates break the data dependencies, hence make traceability harder to
implement. These limitations are currently circumvented by employing one central model
in one phase of building to a central model used in the succeeding phase, for example
from design to construction, referred to as the federated approach (Rolland & Cauvet
1992). The federated approach supports using one central model in one phase of building
to a central model used in the succeeding phase, for example from design to construction.
This approach puts the responsibility of controlling the information to be shared to the
specific applications, each of which is responsible of managing its own interactions with
the rest of the information sources and targets in the system.
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There are a total of six floors, each of which houses about 25 rooms plus service areas.
Scale wise the ICC space corresponds to 1.6% of the total building area; hence is a small
scale problem.
3.1.1 Forming hierarchies
Forming hierarchies refers to the process of establishing parent-child relationships, which
also is commonly known as is-a relationship.
Requirement A: Classrooms shall have an area between 144 sf. to 400 sf.
Requirement B: Tutoring rooms can have the smallest area.
Structural Relationship: Requirement B is a requirement A; both specify spatial
requirements.
The generality of the parent requirement is in defining plausible areas of classrooms.
This is further specified by the child requirement for tutoring rooms. They share spatial
requirement specifications as their inherited trade. Notice though the parents and children
do not need to be both specified quantitatively. Numeric versus string, fixed versus
ranges, ordinal versus coordinal values are possible to model when the overarching
definition encapsulates the hierarchy semantics, in this case the fact that they are both
spatial requirements.
The depth of the inheritance tree can grow as much as needed, i.e. the children can
also have children in this structure. A hierarchical treatment of requirements, as the
example demonstrates, supports the requirement-to-requirement, requirement-to-design
and design-to-design relationships to be explored. Consequently, lateral relationships, i.e.
relationships on the same level of the hierarchy tree are also possible for requirements.
3.1.2 Indexing
In the context of CHARM, indexing refers to metadata about requirements in general
such as date created, priority, creator, deadline and the like. It is important to note that
these are not simply attributes of a requirement, they may change across prqjects and the
user may need to alter their definition.
Requirement A: Teaching staff office spaces shall have area between 30 sf. to 144 sf.
Requirement A.Priority: Medium
Requirement A.Source: ANSI Standards on schools
Requirement A.Created by: Ozkaya
Structural Relationship: Priority, source and created-by are example metadata
categories.
The indexes can be user defined. A metadata based approach allows project
organization capabilities. For example a decision as assign all requirements from ANSI
standards high priority can be propagated easily. The priority then can be used in
constraint satisfaction. Moreover, the indexes also aid in filtering the information.
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3.1.3 Classification
A class is a defined grouping of entities in which the members fulfill the definition of the
class and can be listed. Classification is the process of associating a requirement with one
or more requirement classes.
Requirement A: In class activities require the students to practice out loud. The
neighboring spaces of classrooms should be allocated accordingly.
Structural Relationship: Acoustic requirement, privacy requirement, adjacency
requirement are possible classes for Requirement A.
Classification of requirements enforce a type based structure on the data, hence
facilitates the treatment of commonalities between several requirements. A hierarchy of
categories can also be constructed. Multiple categories can be assigned to requirements.
While classification relationship can be a lower level, application programming decision
where classes are predefined, it can also be a run-time functionality to offer flexibility to
the users.
3.1.4 Association
An association is a simple relationship between two or more entities. When one
requirement has, uses, knows about, or is acquainted with another requirement there is an
association between these two. This concept is widely used in object-oriented
programming.
Requirement A: The staff needs a separate working space.
Requirement B: Certain activities can share spaces provided that sharing a common
space does not degrade the service capacity of ICC for that activity.
Structural Relationship: Requirement A is associated with Requirement B; association
type: uses.
3.1.5 Dependency
Dependencies cover the relationships that may not necessarily be represented by a
hierarchy. In conventional requirement management tools, like those used in systems
engineering Rational Requisite Pro by IBM, Doors by Telelogic, Caliber by Borland are
typical examples, dependency structures are represented as traced-to and traced-from
tuples. Further information on how we evaluate requirement management and traceability
methods in close disciplines can be found in other publications (Ozkaya et al. 2004).
While these provide a mechanism to navigate through the requirement space, they are not
always cognitively clear for users. Dependencies that can potentially denote the direction
of change are easier to structure; hence make the application more usable.
Requirement A: All the teaching spaces should be in close proximity to each other.
Requirement B: In class activities require the students to practice out loud. The
neighboring spaces of classrooms should be allocated accordingly.
Structural Relationship: Requirement A depends on Requirement B; the level of
proximity can be defined as a function of the characteristics of the activities.
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The structure referenced here should not be mixed with a building product data model.
The dependencies on a building product data model span constructability relationships.
Relationships like part-of, is-a, has-a, and associations are the main relationships in this
context. These relationships do not always include requirement dependencies which
expand on associations as multiple types of associations. Moreover, inverse relationships,
e.g. as day light increases artificial lighting should decrease, are not covered directly, but
most of the time these are embedded in procedures. These forms of relationships surface
more in requirement information structures, which are not necessarily required in
building product data models.
3.1.6 Implication
Implication is a special form of dependency relationship. Implications are requirements
that are not stated explicitly, but emerge as a result of the other conditions imposed on the
problem. Implications are very easy to confuse with parent-child relationships. Parentchild relationships involve commonalities to exist in between requirements. Dealing with
implications requires active user participation.
Requirement A: There is a need for a reception/ waiting area where the students can
sign up without interfering with the rest of the activities.
RequirementB: Reception, sign up and waiting activities shall be supported.
Structural Relationship: Requirement A implies Requirement B (note that
Requirement B is not initially given).
Another example is:
Requirement A: All the teaching spaces should be in close proximity to each other.
RequirementB: In class activities require the students to practice out loud. The
neighboring spaces of classrooms should be allocated accordingly.
Requirement C: The acoustic performance is a function of the proximity of the spaces.
Structural Relationship: Requirement A and Requirement B imply Requirement C.
Implications also emerge as design progresses and affect the rest of the requirements.
All structural component decisions are loaded with implied requirements that the
designers not only have to be aware of, but also trace to the rest of the design.
3.2 Modeling implications
Forming hierarchies and classification can be modeled as is-a, and categorization of
metadata can be covered by has-a relationships. Dependencies are more challenging, they
require more input from the designer, therefore, tools to assist dependencies need to build
on top of a requirement navigation strategy and associations can be left to the designer to
decide. Traceability paths also form during requirement generation tasks. The structural
relationships assist in formulating the traceability paths.
Table 1 presents these relationships using requirements for an individual language
tutoring room as an example. Wherever applicable the relationships are further explained
by the commonly known is-a, has-a, part-of relationships. An association covers both
part-of and has-a relationships. The both sides of the relationship are not always of the
same nature, i.e. in some relationships two requirements are related, in others
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requirements are related to higher level concepts. This further exemplifies the complex
nature of requirements structuring problem.
In order to observe the conformity issues of building information models to
requirements data we also modeled our example relationships using IFCs. IFCs are
incomplete for requirement data modeling; however in our exercise we observed a more
compelling outcome in terms of modeling requirements. The requirement information is
dispersed into a building information model. While it is possible to package requirements
information into a sub-model domain, providing traceability links to other design phases
inevitably enforces a dispersed approach where requirements information is represented
in conjunction with design information. The user interactions which will facilitate the
population of the information model and utilization of this information are critical due to
the nature of the situated semantic reasoning involved in modeling requirements.
Example
Association
A (part-of) B
Association
A (has-a) B
Hierarchy
A (is-a) B
Classification A (is-a) B
Dependency
A (depends-on) B
Implication
A (implies) B
Indexing
A (is-referencedby)B
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The selection of the building product data model is not dependent on how well it
represents requirements; therefore it brings flexibility to the design environment.
Handling implied requirements no longer depends only on a component based view of
the built environment.
The populated building product data model can be referenced based on the requirement
information. This approach facilitates increased usability of the data model as design
progresses.
Many-to-many relationships can be generated between requirements and design
solutions.
The designer can interact with the various components of the system such as
requirements and CAD domains, or she can interact with the CHARM system as a whole.
The purpose of the parallel structures (requirements graph in the requirement data
structure and the building product data model) is not to check the compliance of one data
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structure over the other. On the contrary, the goal is to use them together to ease the shifts
from requirements to designs. In fact, this scenario represents a very realistic situation in
CAD where not all parties always can agree on a feasible communication model.
Similarly, populating a data model is not always the solution needed. Most often, the
needs of the users are not limited with data sharing, but also involve the ability to use
complex operations during design. Augmenting an existing model with requirement
information does not provide the complex tasks to be carried out during requirement
traceability. Creating a data model for information exchange solves only part of the
problem. It is necessary to use the information that resides in the model in order to test
the viability of this information for computational design exploration during early phases
of design.
Most exemplary commercial applications that use a product data model claim objectorientation to be their governing principles. However, most are in fact object-based.
That is abstractions to object level representations from the domain of the user are
supported, such as wall, door, etc. CAD applications like AutoCAD Architectural
Desktop, Microstation Triforma, ArchiCAD and the like are object-based systems (Amor
& Faraj 2001). Any data model compliance is an export operation. The users can only
benefit from the dependencies supported in the data model during the design sessions if
the underlying information framework of the application uses the same logic as that of
the product data model. This paradigm is significantly different in truly object-oriented
prototypes, where reuse, ftmctionality and inheritance are supported. The designer can
utilize the advantages of the underlying data structures for design support. In the
CHARM system the RDC, requirement manipulation tasks and the requirement structure
are demonstrated using an object-oriented paradigm.
The prototype CHARM system needs to interact with multiple components. To
demonstrate the interaction of requirements with design, the drawing capabilities of an
existing CAD tool can be used. The system design approach can assume a CAD tool to
utilize its application programming interface (API) for design components. The core
requirements on the CAD tool selection are a flexible API with an object-oriented
structure and product data model compliance. Among the CAD tools surveyed the
capabilities of Revit is the most suitable for experimenting with parametric design and
requirement information, however Revit does not have an API for third party application
developers. MicroStation recently switched to a C# based API and is integrating research
based efforts, but does not support a core product data model. ArchiCAD is the most
compliant CAD tool with IFCs, the most widely used building product data model
standard. Its API kit uses the C language, which is not an object-oriented language. The
lack of an object-oriented API introduces bottlenecks such as labor intensive mapping
modules between different languages, inability to define complex relationships using
object-oriented constructs, and being too dependent on the CAD tool of choice. In order
to address these challenges and changing CAD scenarios, CHARM system design
implements the possibility of integration with a possible prototype design environment as
well.
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broken and the CAD application can communicate with the building product data model
as well as the requirement manipulation layer.
4.1.1 Requirement manipulation layer
The purpose of the requirement manipulation layer is to encapsulate the functionalities
for managing requirements information. Requirement manipulation layer is further subdivided into requirement manipulation tasks and utilities layers.
The requirement manipulation tasks layer accesses the utilities layer for any
realization mechanisms such as consistency checking, traceability path generation, and
visualization, to aid information traceability. An important advantage of the layered
system design is leveraged in this layer. During low level design new tasks may arise to
assist the predefined requirement manipulation tasks (constraint management, tracking,
propagation, relationship building, and verification as represented in Figure 1). Or as
stated earlier, each task may require multiple sub-tasks, which may share realization
mechanisms. For example constraint management and propagation, which are
requirement manipulation ftmctionalities in CHARM, both will need to use consistency
checking, a realization mechanism which other tasks may also access. The requirement
manipulation tasks provide the logic of the requirement manipulation functionalities,
while the utilities layer provides the utility services to be used.
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requirement graph as well as the process integration through RDC. Similar to the
requirement manipulation layer the requirement structure is separated from the RDC
implementation to allow flexibility and extendibility.
4.1.3 Drafting environment layer
The drafting environment layer is the CAD application-specific layer. This layer is the
most unstable layer because there are not true object-oriented CAD systems and they do
not integrate information management capabilities. This layer places the integration
responsibility on the CAD suite should the CHARM system become a useful extension to
CAD applications. There may be multiple possible candidate applications for this layer,
each with its own interpreter. The internal logic of this layer would then be as shown in
Figure 4. This structure minimizes the integration with any necessary mapping engines
and interpreters. The challenges that lie here are mostly CAD application specific issues,
which will change with application of choice. While this is not a desirable overhead, it is
necessary to test the viability of integrating information management with design.
In this design, the CHARM tool will not need to be aware of the CAD tool. This will
increase the integrability of the tool with multiple CAD applications. It will also allow
the tool to be used as a stand alone requirement manager only relying on the structuring
on the explicit requirements, not considering the requirements that emerge during design.
This implies that the application could be operated in two modes, one as a stand alone
requirement manager, and one as a component of CAD. Such a dual mode operation will
increase the usability of the prototype system. When running as a stand alone application
the CHARM system can serve as an information management tool.
4.1.4 Building product data model layer
The lowest layer, the data model will supply the design information. In the CHARM
system an existing product data model will be used because the objective of the project is
not to demonstrate a feasible data model, but the goal is to prototype connectivity of
requirement and design spaces. Due to its wide acceptance and support in commercial
CAD tools we are using IFCs with CHARM.
4.2 Implications of the system design
In the hybrid system, each layer needs to provide the view to its neighboring layers, the
control for layer specific operations and model for the domain representation of the layer.
Hence an internal layer will have two views, one for its server, the layer below, one for
its client the layer above. Through these strict separations we aim to facilitate the use of a
complex behavior such as traceability over the existing requirement information.
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, we presented our approach to integrate requirement traceability with design
computing environments. After briefly presenting the process framework, CHARM, we
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mainly focused on the requirement relationships that form the core of the traceability
functionalities we envision. We described the high-level system architecture we use. We
pointed out in our system design the design decisions to facilitate integration of
requirement information with existing building information models for achieving
traceability functionalities as a behavioral aspect of building information models.
Traceability functionalities are centered on the ability to track the decisions both back
and forth. When changes occur, traceability allows the notification of the designer,
automated propagation of changed values when possible and automated checking for
inconsistencies. We envision that the requirement relationship structures suggested by the
CHARM framework will provide a structure where tool based requirement traceability
can be studied and integrated with CAD environments.
We consider the possibility of augmenting computational design with a robust
requirement tracing functionality most promising for improving design computation. A
sound requirement structure which has design awareness using relationship building,
constraint management, propagation, tracking and verification tasks has several
immediate contributions to the computational design process. These can take different
guises: as a design assistant, as a change manager, as an intent tracker, as a stakeholder
communication enhancer, as an error tracker, and as an information navigator. Our future
work involves completing the prototype implementation and testing it for viable design
scenarios.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
In the construction industry most business and engineering knowledge is still captured
implicitly, in large project and corporate document repositories. Even with an increasing
integration of model-based systems with project information spaces, a large percentage of
the information exchange will still rely on isolated and often little structured text
documents. Current product model standards such as the IFCs provide classes to
reference documents, but the efficient interlinking among the numerous documents and
related modelling objects remains an unsolved task. To be able to integrate document
information with operational model based information systems there is a need to
automatically externalise and track information from common text documents.
Numerous standardised document schemata have been developed for exchanging
machine and at the same time human readable information e.g. for bidding, tendering and
controlling. Furthermore, AEC/FM specific ontologies providing for more detailed
content tagging based on common semantics have been explored to more flexibly access
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document information from applications not directly related to a source document (cf.
e.g. Lima et al. 2002, Tolman et al. 2001). Within related domains we expect these
structure based approaches to quite successfully allow for exchanging and versioning
information among intelligent or smart documents and corresponding modelbased
systems. However, developing expressive and consistent ontologies spanning multiple
disciplines as well as monitoring the numerous relations among documents and
information models remains a challenging (if at all possible) task.
For a flexible and sustainable reuse of information supporting ad-hoc location of
information in documents for operations as well as knowledge management, it is
necessary to utilise additional context information and appropriate background
knowledge. A more detailed analysis of the document content is required in the absence
of suitable structure and semantics. Information needs of diverse disciplines, different
types of information requests and various mental models need to be considered to
effectively retrieve and re-contextualise information from the heterogeneous document
repositories in AEC/FM.
In recent years several studies have demonstrated the applicability of respective Text
Mining techniques in selected fields of AEC/FM e.g. for information and keyword
extraction and document classification (cf. e.g. Kosovac et al. 2000, Caldas et al. 2002).
However, most of these approaches assume widely harmonised repositories and/or
require a great amount of background knowledge and training for single, domain-specific
analysis tasks.
To externalise document information in AEC/FM practice a flexible framework is
required that allows for recognising available context and domain knowledge as well as
for combining results of structure as well as context based document analyses at the same
time. For information integration with semantic product models both numerical and
statistical methods for language processing and knowledge discovery as well as model or
even logic based methods for model integration should be supported.
This paper presents a probabilistic information mining framework proposed by the
authors that first of all allows for recognising product model information as a source of
background knowledge in information retrieval. Using a Bayesian Network approach it
provides for modelling related probabilistic retrieval, mining and reasoning processes.
The framework is not intended to replace existing models optimised for common retrieval
and mining tasks, but to represent a common basis to rapidly explore alternative
combinations of the available information on the document and its content as well as to
integrate additional methods for their analysis.
Central to the framework is a four layer Bayesian Network adapted from probabilistic
Information Retrieval models developed during the 90s. Capturing, combining and
visualising the results of various text and model analyses as well as representing aspects
of the current mining context, the network allows for explicitly representing the
knowledge on the repository in personalisable semantic content networks. The network
first of all provides for retrieving and mining information from documents repositories.
However, we expect the explicit interlinking of the document and the product model
domain to also support the understanding of the available interrelations and the
exploration of new retrieval, mining and integration strategies.
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a single probability function considering pre-computed index and/or term weights that is
called during the propagation process.
The concept nodes are typically used to represent classical index terms extracted from
the text. However, the concept nodes can also indicate other concept representations such
as manually assigned keywords, document type features, related metadata or differently
weighed index terms. Conceptually this is a major advantage to the traditional
Information Retrieval models in that it allows for considering multiple document
representation and weighing schemes in parallel.
The above brief discussion shows that Bayesian Network based retrieval models
enable flexible storing and interrelating various information and evidences used in
Information Retrieval processes. The explicit visualisation of the diverse variables and
their influence on the retrieval results supports the understanding of the relations among
the text and document as well as the users information domain. For these reasons the
Bayesian Network Retrieval Model has been chosen as basis for the suggested mining
framework described in the following.
3 THE DOKMOSIS MINING NETWORK
Central to the suggested mining framework is the four layer Bayesian inference network
shown on Figure 2.
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2 The concept layer represents knowledge on the engineering and mining context e.g.
acquired through user interaction or provided by AEC/FM specific ontologies and
context services.
3 The descriptor layer represents knowledge on the content of AEC/FM documents e.g.
their structure, language and elements. It can be built from general thesauri and
content schemata as well as from indices of the collection.
4 The document layer represents the knowledge on the specific document collection to be
searched for information, which can again be obtained through an analysis of the
collection itself.
To evaluate the suggested mining network a document and knowledge modelling suite
(dokmosis) is being implemented, that integrates several analysis modules to build the
respective sub-networks. A first basic network configuration utilising selected text and
model analyses is described in the following subsections, discussing the networks
variables and functionalities in more detail.
3.1 Building the repository network
The repository (sub)network is comprised of the document and the descriptor layer. In the
basic version of the network it mainly implements the pure Bayesian Network Retrieval
Model discussed in section 2. It represents the knowledge on the document collection
using document nodes dj and fragment nodes fk on the document layer as well as
descriptor nodes ti on the descriptor layer. The two layers are built using three text related
analysis modules of the dokmosis suite.
Firstly, a document collection module provides for importing documents and
converting them to a common format based on a small subset of the DocBook
specification (http://www.oasis-open.org/). The intention is to preserve basic structural
information on sections, headers and figures for subsequent analyses.
Secondly, a heuristic fragmentation algorithm is used to compile text paragraphs into
equally large, self-contained text fragments to allow for more focused information
retrieval. The resulting part-of relations are represented by arcs connecting the
corresponding fragment and document nodes.
Thirdly, the fragments text content is pre-processed, performing tokenisation,
morphological analysis as well as stop-word removal.
Indexing the pre-processed fragments a vector space model considering raw term
frequencies is built. Using Boolean, natural, logarithmic or augmented term weighing, the
conditional probability distributions of fragment nodes are configured for exact Bayesian
inference as follows.
Considering all index terms to be equally important we can assume a marginal
probability distribution of p(ti=true)=1/M and p(ti=false)=11/M with M being the
number of index terms for each concept node. For the possible value combinations of all
the conditional probabilities p(fk|t1, ti) are computed by the sum of the
respective normalized term weights. Thus, using exact Bayesian inference, for each
fragment we obtain the following posterior probability given a query Q and e.g. natural
term weighing:
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(1)
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within the fragments. The entities can be identified through previously assigned labels as
well as further content analysis. Due to the limited semantics of most AEC/FM
documents, the dokmosis suite implements the following two analyses to recognise
entities within the text content. All other content objects such as tables, figures, graphs,
etc. are omitted in the current dokmosis version.
Firstly, the text analysis module provides for direct, regular expression based entity
recognition of persons, organisations, addresses, codes and regulations, scales, formulas.
For a given collection this expressions-base can be supplemented with additional
expressions as well as lexica of e.g. building systems, product names or construction
equipment.
Secondly, an information extraction module based on the SpecEx Extractor (Grimme
2003) is implemented, that identifies information elements such as actors, tasks and
responsibilities within fimctional, full-text work specifications. Supporting the
information extractor the text pre-processing of the work specifications includes sentence
identification and part of speech tagging as well as the above described entity
recognition. Manually labelled work specifications are used to train instance-based
classifiers for different named entity types providing for automatic identification of
respective information in new documents. This exemplary implementation will provide a
first indication of the potentials of respective extractors.
4.2 Extensions to the knowledge network
The extensions to the knowledge network aim at providing additional background
knowledge as well as for an individual configuration of this knowledge.
4.2.1 Considering instantiated product models
Corresponding to the entity representation scheme an object representation scheme is
introduced on the product model layer. Differentiating between model classes and
instantiated model objects, denoted by the nodes pm and on, respectively, more detailed
background knowledge on a given project as well as additional retrieval paths can be
provided. It seems reasonable to first limit the extension to instance-of relations as
depicted in Figure 3. To also consider the various object relations embedded in product
models multinomial variables or additional representation schemes would have to be
used. Furthermore, comprehensive analyses and information deductions are required to
obtain meaningful relations from the product model information, to truly provide for
enhancing common Information Retrieval and mining tasks.
4.2.2 Extending the concept layer
The main idea of the concept layer is to allow for personalised configurations of the
applied background knowledge, without having to change the original model-based
information. Thus, distinctive concept nodes are added to the concept model layer for
every class and object node, their interrelations being recognised via the corresponding
product model root node.
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As previously discussed, the concept model sub-network is first generated on the basis
of pre-defined ontologies, filtering/sortmg/unifying certain levels of abstraction or
aggregating classes into more meaningful concepts. However, additional context and user
information can also be utilised to re-label classes or alter the discipline-specific concept
view. Furthermore, to also consider the influence of discipline-specific aspects without
having to rebuild the concept model network, mental models nodes denoted ml may be
used as depicted in Figure 3. Duplicating the concept nodes the relevance of each concept
node can be conditioned on distinctive mental models representing specific e.g.
architectural, managerial or engineering domain views. To reduce the number of
conditional dependencies to be considered, only Boolean filters deselecting (or selecting
in the case of fewer relevant concepts) inappropriate nodes given a certain mental model
will be explored.
Again, introducing yet another representation scheme or multinomial variables on the
concept layer this approach would also allow for modelling thesaurus-like concept
relations such as belonging to the same craft or made of the same material. However,
unless such relations are vitally important for a certain mining task, the modeling costs do
not seem to be justifiable.
4.3 Querying the extended networks
The additional representation schemes provide for numerous new ways to interconnect
the variables of adjacent network layers. However, to limit the complexity of the network
topology, we first of all focus on two separated retrieval paths as illustrated in Figure 3.
Thus, the network based Information Retrieval of the basic mining network using product
model classes is separated from the propagation of beliefs on respective instantiated
product model objects. Furthermore, we assume the variables of different representation
schemes on a layer to be independent among each other given the information of the
preceding layers.
The explicit representation of modeling objects and text entities very well
demonstrates the possibilities but also the challenges of directly interlinking product
model and text information. Via the concept nodes product information can be explicitly
connected with corresponding text elements to be automatically retrieved from the
repository. However, according to the various types of possible objects and entities, a set
of similarity measures needs to be established to determine the probability that c-e node
pairs really represent the same aspect. Furthermore, the previously applied ontology
based transformation to group, abstract or generalize product model objects to more
meaningful concepts will greatly affect the possibilities to identify the best matches
among the concept and descriptor nodes.
Even using only binary variables the conditional probability distributions can be used
to model different logical operation (mainly and, or, sum) for nodes with multiple
parents. Furthermore, the weighing schemes and probability distributions could be
optimised to more effectively support subsequent reasoning and mining approaches. Both
aspects will have to be further examined when a first mining network for testing has been
established.
Despite the computational costs of exact propagation we are planning to first of all
adopt classical Bayesian inference algorithm to most flexibly explore different mining
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methods on a small test collection, replacing them with computationally more efficient
algorithms when the mining methods are sufficiently tested.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Bayesian Network based Information Retrieval Models have been identified to be very
flexible technology that allows for representing various information resources and
evidences to retrieve relevant Information from documents repositories. We argue that it
provides a good basis to utilize appropriate background knowledge and additional context
information in the processes of externalising information from respective AEC/FM
documents.
Extending the query side of the Bayesian Network Retrieval Models to information
models of AEC/FM the illustration of respective aspects and concepts supports the
domain specific specification of queries and information needs. Capturing, combining
and visualising the results of various text and model analyses as well as representing
aspects of the current mining context, the network allows for explicitly representing the
knowledge on the repository in personalisable semantic content networks.
Due to the possibilities to encode the knowledge on the variables in terms of causal
relations as well as conditional probabilities the network can be configured to support
logic operations as well as numerical mining techniques. This is an essential capacity of
the networks enabling to interrelate the rigid world of model based systems with the
rather fuzzy world of text and language processing.
Explicitly interlinking product models and documents we expect the mining network
to also support the understanding of the available interrelations among the two domains
and to explore new retrieval, mining and integration strategies.
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DeCampos L.M., Huete J.F., Fernndez-Luna J.M. 2001. Document Instantiation for Relevance
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DeCampos L.M., Fernndez-Luna J.M., Huete J.F. 2002. A layered Bayesian Network Model for
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Grimme S. 2003. Untersuchung des Einsatzes von Methoden zur Informationsextraktion im
Bauwesen am Beispiel der Angebotskalkulation. Diploma Thesis at the Institute for
Construction Informatics, Prof. R.J. Scherer. Technical University of Dresden, Germany.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
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1 INTRODUCTION
The management of knowledge is becoming a distinct and critical branch of strategic
thinking. As organizations seek new ways to attain and maintain competitive advantage,
they are looking to exploit to the full their intellectual capital as well as their tangible
assets (Elhag et al., 2000). In construction, the knowledge required to deliver
construction projects are fragmented; it is held by different professionals who are based
in separate organisations. This reflects the nature of the project organisation, which is
essentially a temporary multi-disciplinary organisation. Because of these disparate
repositories of knowledge, a key aspect of project KM in construction is therefore the
capture and reuse of knowledge for the common good of the project at different levels
and subsequent projects. Knowledge capture and reuse are key elements in project
development. Developing a strategy for knowledge capture and reuse is particularly
challenging because of the number of special characteristics of the construction project
procurement. Amongst these are, particularly, the uniqueness of the projects, its
temporary nature, and its complex interrelated activities required to achieve the overall
goal (Kamara et al., 2003).
This paper describes the proposed strategy for the live capture and reuse of
construction project knowledge, doing so by addressing the technological issues. The
paper is based on research forming part of an on-going project (CAPRIKON) whose
primary objective is to establish a methodology for the live capture of reusable project
knowledge in the construction industry that will reflect both the organizational and
human dimension of knowledge capture and reuse, as well as exploit the benefits of
technology such as Project Extranets (CIRIA, 2002), agent-based systems (Nwana et al.,
1997), Case Based Reasoning (CBR) (Aamodt and Plaza, 1994), Data/text mining (Chou
and Chou, 1999) etc. In providing a topology of the proposed strategy, this paper explains
what project knowledge is and how it is exploited in the construction industry. In
addition, it will discuss the key imperatives for KM. This paper presents a proposed
strategy of managing project knowledge within the context of capture and reuse. The
strategy is based on a project knowledge file (PKF), an integrated workflow system
(IWS), and a project knowledge manager (PKM) that can be manual or automated.
2 CONSTRUCTION PROJECT KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge is a vital resource in project-based industries and has been described as the
product learning, which is personal to individual or organization (Orange et al., 2000). In
construction project, it also includes data and information required to conceive, develop,
realize and terminate a project. This definition shows that knowledge is a component of a
task performing systemthat is, a state of the system which warrants task completion
and future repetition of this task. Within the construction domain, project knowledge is
interconnected and includes knowledge about the end product, the processes involved in
its creation and the resources needed. Knowledge requirements therefore includes
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fimctional linkages, where different participants join a team with different viewpoints.
Such teams are often characterized according to the risk and synergy resulting from their
interaction with other team members (Huang and Newell, 2003). This interaction brings
in the need to organize, integrate, filter, condense and annotate the collaborative data and
other relevant information that these team members contribute (Fong, 2003).
Creating new knowledge and perspectives is fundamental to project development
(Huang and Newell, 2003). A project as discussed above can be considered as a package
of features and benefits, each of which must be conceived, articulated, designed,
constructed and maintained (Hamilton, 2001). The development of this constructed
facility can be viewed as a new product development, with customers or end-users
purchasing or using the facility (Fong, 2003). Fong (2003) argues that the development of
a new product entails the application of knowledge to new problem-oriented situations,
thus requiring uncertainty reduction. The same applies to a construction projects, with
each project unique in itself in term of design and construction, and the many constraints,
the construction industry faces (due to limited space, increasing project complexity,
limited budgets, tight programmes and constant demand for facility innovation). Prqject
teams are also faced with the challenges to utilize diverse knowledge and create new
knowledge in order to meet stringent requirements and fulfill ever-changing needs.
Project team members have to incorporate new information into their understanding in
order to solve the technical challenges they face. Thus, learning and knowledge capture is
inherent in the work they do (project development).
In a project based environment, such as construction industry, the need for KM is
fuelled by the need for innovation, improved business performance and client satisfaction
within the dynamic and changing environment (Kamara et al., 2002). Project based
organizations ought to benefit from the inherently innovative nature of project tasks.
Since projects characteristically involve the development of new products and new
processes, there are obvious opportunities for novel ideas to emerge and for crossfunctional learning to occur, thereby enhancing the organisations innovative capacity
and potential (Ramaprasad and Prakash, 2003). If this project based activities is managed
effectively, knowledge can be used to reduce project time, improve quality and client
satisfaction (Love, 2003).
Kamara et al (2002) in discussing the CLEVER project identified that among the
various initiatives for addressing the challenges facing the construction industry, it is now
recognized that the management of project and organization knowledge is necessary if
construction businesses are to remain competitive, and adequately respond to the needs of
their client. They went on to say that failure to capture and transfer project knowledge,
especially within the context of temporary virtual organizations, will lead to reinventing
the wheel, which will amount to wasted activity and impaired project performance.
The proliferation of research project demonstrates the increasing interest of
researchers in both academia and industry in the problems of project knowledge capture.
However, the construction industry still has a significant gap to bridge to reach best
practice in its use of KM tools. Fundamental changes are required to address the issues
evolving from the previous research and applications. The proposed strategy goes a long
way to address how the emerging KM techniques and technologies can be deployed to
improve knowledge live capture and reuse in construction projects. The next section will
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describe and discuss the proposed strategy, briefly narrating how this strategy will be
used to capture knowledge.
4 DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE CAPTURE AND REUSE
STRATEGY
The concept of KM has undoubtedly become a major force in business thinking in recent
years. Many large organisations are embracing KM and claiming significant benefits.
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) and Davenport and Prusak (1998) demonstrated this with
multiple examples and claimed that many of the worlds most successful organisations are
best at managing their knowledge. However, what is driving this success is how
effectively and efficiently various organisations have applied KM tools in their KM
strategies. Organisations use a number of methods and tools to support their knowledge.
Most of these tools have been developed as part of structured and unstructured
technological thrust. Hence a successful knowledge management approach requires
correct and effective strategy for it to enhance project performance. The strategy
proposed here will enhance collaboration between various distributed project participants
and thereby improving live project knowledge capture and re-use. The main focus of this
section is to present the proposed KM strategy that will enable live capture and re-use of
project knowledge.
4.1 Proposed strategy for live capture and re-use of project knowledge
The development of an appropriate strategy for the live capture of construction project
will combines both the KM technologies and techniques concepts and tools. The reason
for this is that research identifies that there are four main types of knowledge capture as
identified in Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), and it will be impossible to capture project
knowledge based on only one approach. The discussion put forward by Nonaka and
Takeuchi on knowledge creation shows that project knowledge can be captured as shown
in Figure 2. Starting with socialisation, which is the process of converting tacit
knowledge into new tacit knowledge through shared experiences in day-to-day social
interaction. This can be triggered off within an organisation or external with other team
members in a formal or informal manner. In case of externalisation, tacit knowledge is
made explicit so that it can be shared by others to become the basis of new knowledge. In
a project, this is apparent in informal and formal modes, such as minutes of meetings,
workshops presentations, etc. In the combination approach, explicit knowledge is
captured from within the organisation or external and then combined, edited, or processed
to form more complex and systematic explicit knowledge. This new explicit knowledge
is then disseminated among members of the project. The internalisation approach
happens when explicit knowledge is captured and shared throughout an organisation or
among project participants is then converted into tacit knowledge. This is apparent in
project, when knowledge is applied and used in practical situations and becomes the base
for new routines. For example, training programs can help team members to understand
the project process even better.
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Hence what this research is proposing is KM strategy that view the project knowledge
from generic perspective that has all the various types of knowledge capture present and
that allow the prqject participant to determine which KM tool that is most appropriate to
capture the type of knowledge required. Figure 3 shows a generic view of our proposed
environment that will be able to capture any type of knowledge present in a project, be it
site knowledge or expert knowledge. The environment will be able to have a structured
approach on how this captured knowledge will be re-used.
In Knowledge Management environment the realtime capture of project knowledge
can be effected through the following: a project knowledge file, an integrated workflow
system, and a project knowledge manager. Figure 4 shows an overview of the knowledge
capture procedure. During the course of a construction project, learning occurs not only
from many critical events but also from the normal day-to-day operations. This learning
can be about the facility being constructed, the project process or participants involved in
its execution. Within the knowledge capture procedure, the structure of how learning is
captured is determined beforehand in the project knowledge file. When a learning event
occurs, the integration workflow system is triggered and is sets in motion a flow of
actions to capture the learning at a particular point in time. The learning is compiled and
edited for reuse within the current project, or in subsequent projects.
The learning events can be captured using collaborative learning (Digenti, 1999),
Learning Histories (Kliener and Roth, 1996) or CBR. This is quite appropriate to the
context of construction projects, where network of organisations is involved in delivering
projects. These concepts can therefore be adapted to facilitate the transfer and reuse of
collective learning to the individual firms involved in implementing it.
Project Knowledge File (PKF)The PKF will contain information relating to the
project knowledge, but will focus on knowledge that can be reused both during the
execution (e.g. in subsequent phases), and after the completion of the project The kind of
knowledge to be captured and the format and contents of the PKF will be determined
through detailed research into reusable project knowledge, but the goal will be to develop
an ongoing learning history for the project within a collaborative environment. The PKF
will be agreed on by the project participants and they would be required to make
contribution to this at a later stage.
Integrated Workflow System (IWS)The role of the integrated workflow system is to
implement the PKF in real-time. That is, to facilitate the compilation of the learning
history for the project during its execution, in accordance with the parameters set out in
the PKF. A generic model will be developed following research into the format and
contents of the PKF, but it should be customisable to take into account variations in the
PKF. The integrated workflow system is triggered when a learning event takes place.
This can be, for example, problems and how they were solved, innovations,
breakthroughs or the normal day-to-day operations of a project. When such events occur,
the integrated workflow system will request the relevant participants to contribute their
views on how various issues were dealt with. A compilation of these different
perspectives will form part of the learning history at particular stages of a project, which
can either be reused at subsequent phases, or at the end of a project. The trigger for the
integrated workflow system can either be automated, done manually by a project
knowledge manager, or a combination of both manual and automated systems. An
automated trigger requires data and text mining capabilities or other means of detecting,
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say within a project extranet, when certain events occur. In both automated and manual
triggers, server push technologies will be utilised to ensure that the required prompt is
pushed to relevant participants. The integrated workflow system should also have
filtering capabilities to ensure that only the relevant learning is captured to prevent
knowledge/information overload. The integrated workflow system can be integrated with
existing project extranets or can be developed as a separate application that is compatible
with extranets.
Project Knowledge Manager (PKM)This is a role that will be charged with
developing and managing the PKF and the integrated workflow system. Again this can be
automated using an agent system or manually conducted using a person or persons that
will be familiar with the principle of learning histories and how they are developed.
5 POTENTIAL BENEFITS
The live knowledge capture system, through ensuring the currency and relevance of the
knowledge captured, will have a significant impact on the overall construction project:
1. Construction project team will benefit through the shared experiences that are captured
as part of the learning on key events, which can have both short and long term values.
2. Other project teams in an organization can use the learning captured from
previous/similar projects to deal with problems they encounter in another project.
3. In the longer term, client will benefit from the increased certainty with which
construction organizations can predict project outcomes.
4. Improved project management, as supply chain members would work more
collaboratively and share lessons learnt on construction projects.
5. Arguably, construction industry will benefit from an enhanced knowledge base as
much learning that is presently not documented can be captured and reused.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The work presented in this report shows that there are two main type of knowledge: tacit
and explicit knowledge of which all construction project knowledge fall under. In
addition, the work presented has divided this project knowledge into three categories:
general, specific and process knowledge. The importance of identifying this project
knowledge is necessary because this will help capture the relevant knowledge and
identify the ones that can be re-used within the project or subsequent project. As KM
approach develops and the construction industry moves towards developing knowledge
management, as is the trend now, we believe the industry will see an increase in
efficiency, quality, and the use of project knowledge.
This strategy proposed here, views the whole project knowledge from a generic
perspective. It argues that the proposed strategy for the live capture of project knowledge
addresses a key problem in the construction industry which had hitherto not been
adequately considered. This was due to the absence of support technologies to facilitate
the real-time capture of project knowledge, hence the emphasis on post-project reviews
and reliance on people. However, with the increasing use of web-hosted project extranets,
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there is now the possibility to make use of this, and other related technologies (such as
agent, Collaborative learning and Learning histories) to develop a suitable medium for
the live capture and reuse of project knowledge. This proposed strategy will also be a
timely addition to current efforts to improve the functionality of extranets (which are
mainly document repositories) by incorporating features from tools such as workflow,
agents and collaborative learning. However, further work is required to determine
precisely the nature and content of the particular kind of knowledge to be captured and
what available tools are best suited to capture reusable knowledge.
Knowledge Management (KM) is already delivering major economic benefits to
businesses as diverse as computer manufacturing, retailers, and construction firms, etc.
Properly implemented KM strategy should be implemented across the entire enterprise or
project organisation, from initial conceptualisation and design to the maintenance stage.
It will become more pervasive in organisations in the coming years, especially as the
need for knowledge capture heightens as relevant personnel leave an organisation or
move to other projects. It can enhance the project teams activities by being better able to
leverage knowledge internally and externally through improved knowledge capturing and
reusing techniques. Ultimately, improvements in the project procurement as a result of
KM can reduce the construction period and reduce the cost of projects. However,
fundamental changes are required to address the issues affecting efficient knowledge
capture and re-use. These issues will be addressed through the on-going CAPRIKON
project, exploring how existing KM tools can be used to harness knowledge capture and
re-use in a construction project environment.
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Variations, and System Approaches, AIComArtificial Intelligence Communications, IOS
Press, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp 3959.
Chou, D.C and Chou, A.Y. 1999. A Managers Guide to Data Mining, Data Mining, Information
Systems Management, Fall-1999.
CIRIA 2002. Project ExtranetsThe Real Benefits, Construction Productivity Network, Members
Report E2121, pp 17.
Court, A.W. 1997. The Relationship Between Information and Personal Knowledge in New
Product Development, International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp
123138.
Digenti, D. 1999. The collaborative learning guidebook: Learning Mastery, Somerville, MA.
Elhag, T.M.S., Deason, P.M., Morris, P.W.G. and Patel, M.B. 2000. Development of a Knowledge
System for a Construction Contractor, The PM Institute, New Zealand Chapter Conference,
Christchurch, October 26th-28th, 2000.
Fong, P.S.W. 2003. Knowledge Creation in Multidisciplinary Project Teams: An Empirical Study
of the Processes and their Dynamic Interrelationships, International Journal of Project
Management, vol. 21, pp 479486.
Hamilton, A. 2001. Management Projects for Success: A Trilogy, Thomas Telford, First Edition,
UK.
Huang, J.C and Newell, S. 2003. Knowledge Integration Processes and Dynamics within the
Context of Cross-functional Projects, International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 21, pp
167176.
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Kamara, J.M., Anumba, C.J. and Carrillo, P.M. 2002. A CLEVER Approach to Selecting a
Knowledge Management Strategy, International Journal of Project Management, Vol 20, No. 3,
pp 205211.
Kamara, J.M., Anumba, C.J., Carrillo, P.M. and Bouchlaghem, N.M. 2003. Conceptual Framework
for Live Capture of Project Knowledge, in Amor, R. (ed.) Construction IT: Bridging the
Distance, Proceeding of the CIBW078 International Conference on Information Technology for
Construction, Waiheke Island, New Zealand, 2335 April, pp 178185.
Kleiner, A and Roth, G. 1997. How to Make Experience Your Companys BestTeacher, Harvard
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Kidwell, J.J., Vander Linde, K.M and Johnson, S.L. 2000. Applying Corporate Knowledge
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Building design involves translating client requirements to a detailed design specification
for construction. Typically, building designers follow an integrated process where
architectural designs are detailed and refined gradually with considerations such as
structural integrity, safety, and others. This approach is well accepted and widely used in
practice, however, there are three emerging trends affecting building design that
motivates a reconsideration of different approaches.
Firstly, the productivity of building industry has been lagging behind the
manufacturing and service industry sectors (Filos 2000). One of the main reasons is that
prevailing design practices in the building industry are not conducive to take advantage
of repetitions and adapt to economies of scale. For instance, emerging industrialized
building methods, particularly prefabrication, have been recognized by several authors
with its potential to greatly improve economies of scale and productivity of building
systems (Warsawski 1999). However, when using current design approaches, it is
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difficult to consider modules and commonality in building systems. Hence, the adoption
of prefabrication and other industrialized building methods has been sluggish.
Secondly, several studies have found that customers are willing to pay more for
personalized and customized design of products that are designed to fit their needs,
indicating an opportunity for building designers to increase end customer satisfaction by
adapting the designs to diverse needs of building users by offering variety options to
customers. For example, Filos (2002) argued that buildings should be made to suit people
e.g. relevant to the market and adaptable across sectors.
Last but not the least, there is a trend in the building design profession, CAD/CAE
software industry and related community indicating a strong demand for information and
knowledge sharing and reuse. Such reuse can reduce errors, improve design quality and
shorten the design time. The development of IFC, Industry Foundation Classes, (Wix &
Liebich 2001) is an important contribution supporting designer collaboration through
standardized model-based exchange of building design data across applications. Still,
knowledge reuse often fails in practice due to a lack of technical and organizational
mechanisms (Fruchter 2002).
Considered jointly, these trends reflect a growing need for a new building design
approach that includes commonality, modularity and variety inherently in its
methodology, process, tools and information systems. In essence, the commonality,
modularity and variety of customers needs, designs, tools, materials, tools, equipment
and knowledge needs to be captured, shared and re-used. The foundation for this new
approach lies in the development of proper design descriptors that can represent common
structures and variety options within a coherent product family structure for the building
industry.
2 PROPOSED FRAMEWORK
The proposed framework originated from results of research and development projects in
the manufacturing industry where management of product variety has been considered an
important driver for productivity improvements. (Jiao et al. 1998 and Du et al. 2002).
Particularly, development of product platforms (Ulrich & Eppinger 2004) and product
families (Meyer et al. 1997) has been well accepted in product design as means of
systematizing management of product variety. Simpson et al. (2001) provides an
overview of approaches to product platform design. Meanwhile, approaches of
developing rigorous representations of product platforms and product families for the
building industry have not been reported.
We focus our approach on the development of product family structure to represent
physical design across building projects by highlighting the product variety The emphasis
is thus on the physical domain of design, as described by Suh (2001). In essence,
buildings will be described in terms of a specific base product and associated variant
modules. Both of them are derived from a physical building family framework which
represents the share commonality to accentuate the product variants aspects. In the
following sections, details of frameworks and approaches will be discussed. An
application in high-rise residential buildings will be presented as an illustration.
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Base product
Modular variants
Variety taxonomy
Module inter-relationships
Combination constraints
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The base product of the building family captures the concept of shared designs across
variants of the building family. It often can be expressed as a collection of modules with
common relationships. Modular Variants are characterized as parts of the design that can
be combined into unique buildings with the base product. The interrelationships between
the base product and its modular variants are termed variety taxonomy. Details of the
allowable combinations modular variants with respect to the base product are classified
as combination constraints under the framework.
Common building
modules
Distinctive building
modules
Include conditions
Parameter constraints
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components are here defined as building modules as illustrated in Figure 1. This and
subsequent family representations are based on object-oriented modeling represented
using Unified Modeling Language (UML) notation (Rumbaugh et al. 1999). With the
structure presented in Figure 1, IFC models are defined separately from building modules
so that they can be handled more independently. The collection of IFC objects i.e. any
object with IFCRoot as super class is aggregated under an IFCModel. The IFCModel thus
holds the representation of all physical details of each module through its internal IFC
data structure.
Adjustable design parameters of a building module are exposed by the
BuildingModule and maintained internally by IFCmodel that implements the constraint
relationships from the parameters to its IFC objects.
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OCL can also be used to describe constraints that apply on parameter values between
modules in the product family, similarly as above. These constraints may also apply to
internal structures of the module, if values of those structures are exposed externally. In
this case, the constraints are defined on the module parameter, based on the IFC model
value, which in turn is constrained by internal IFC structure values, all by using OCL as
the definition language. A combination of these constraints can serve to further refine the
variety design of the modular building product family structure.
3 PRODUCT FAMILY STRUCTURE FOR HIGH-RISE RESIDENTIAL
BUILDING
High-rise residential building is a building type where possibilities to achieve economies
of scale through re-use of modules exist, particularly when modules are re-used across
projects. Developers typically seek to adapt the composition of flat units of the building
to the expected market conditions by requesting design changes throughout the project. In
order to cater more efficiently for such changes, as well as modular construction
techniques and principles, the concepts of a product family structure is proposed and
exemplified in this project. Table 3 outlines the major aspects of the building family
structure in high-rise residential building and relevant knowledge sources.
Common modules
Distinctive modules
Apartment assemblies
Modular relationships
Core-apartment relationships
Adjustable parameters
Include conditions
Parameter constraints
Building regulations
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number of pre-cast staircase and pre-cast faade modules that will be included, as
expressed by the multiplicities of the pre-cast modules for various options of core and
flat.
Table 4 summarizes a set of example constraints enforced on the model of the product
family structure, which are applied as follows. An inclusion constraint for the building
family is enforced for fire safety storeys. Fire safety storeys are used in residential highrises for shelter in case of fire. Assuming that there must be one fire safety storey for
every 20 apartment storeys to accommodate residents safely, the constraint on the fire
safety storey inclusion can be defined in the context of Storeys as storeys.fire>size=(storeys.apartment->size).div(20)+1. The lowercase initial indicates the
association name of the class with the same name starting with uppercase to be navigated
to in the constraint e.g. apartment navigates to Apartment from the Storeys context.
self.fire->size=(storeys.apartment->size). div(20)+1
Under the building family structure in Figure 7, it is also possible to change between
Core A and Core B. Typically, this should not be allowed, as the core is generally
designed as a repetitive structure intended to be the same for all floors. To enforce a such
constraint, the core type could be defined as an primitive module of attribute of Storeys
and constraints could be added, e.g. for the context of Storeys, if
Storeys.coreType=A then apartment.core->forAll (oclIsKindOf(CoreA)).
For instance, if we determine that the use of more than 120 type B flat requires usage
of Core A due to structural engineering requirements, this can be enforced in the
Storeys context using if ((apartment.flat.select->(self.oclIsKindOf(FlatB))->size) >120
then apartment.core.forAll(self. isKindOf (CoreA)).
4 DISCUSSION
The developed framework of building family structure presents several cost- and timesaving benefits. Firstly, it can help to reduce building design time and improve design
quality through re-use of design modules. With development of industrialized building
and prefabrication, this allows benefits of prefabrication such as higher quality and
shorter construction cycles to be realized with better economies of scale. The ability to
re-use and improve modules within the building family in the design function serves to
enable sharing of the knowledge about product variety and commonality, not only
937
between different designers but also to developers and building users. By representing
these structures design data, members of the design team can make more informed
decisions regarding the design variety and define which structures that should be re-used
across building projects which can help to sustain productivity improvements.
Furthermore, the ability to represent variety information facilitates automation of tasks
such as determining bills of material/bills of quantities for different variants of the
building as well as simplifying plan checking on a family level of building design, which
can further shorten the design time and improve estimation accuracy. This can also help
designers to generate better design alternatives which can bring savings in material usage,
and improve sales by quickly adapting the design to changing market requirements.
938
To implement the framework, a set of proposed use cases for an implemented system
for the building family structure is given in Figure 8.
These use cases could be implemented as an integrated extension to CAD
environments using its Application Programming Interfaces, for example the
ObjectARX for AutoCAD series (Kramer 2000).
The object instance of the building product family can be used to generate a complete
representation of the building, which can be viewed as a single IFC representation if fully
integrated. This final specification is then to be used in the downstream construction
process.
To facilitate information sharing, IFC models can be managed using IFC model
servers or other means for repository functionality. IFC models can be edited using
building CAD tools or other design software. To facilitate systematic consideration of
customer needs in the product family, a framework which represents ftmctional
requirement of a building should be mapped to the building product family as constraints
to indicate how customer requirements are translated to a modular building structure.
Although the full implementation of the software has not been completed, we expect
additional benefits to be realized through further development and refinement of the
design framework and incorporation of more industrial design knowledge into the
building family model.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research is jointly funded by the Innovation Technology Commission Project
UIM/119 of the Hong Kong SAR Government and Tecton Ltd., a subsidiary of P.K. Ng
& Associates, Hong Kong. The authors are grateful for the support of Calvin Wong and
Elvis Li of Tecton Ltd. In addition, the authors wish to thank the members of the
Advanced Manufacturing Institute at HKUST for their feedback, particularly Pow Wa
Siu.
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Du X., Jiao, J., Tseng, M.T. 2000. Architecture of Product Family for Mass Customization,
Management of Innovation and Technology. ICMIT 2000. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE
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Du, X., Jiao, J., Tseng, M. 2001. Architecture of Product Family for Mass Customization,
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Du, X., Jiao, J., Tseng, M.M. 2002. Graph Grammar Based Product Family Modeling, Concurrent
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Filos, E. 2000. Moving construction towards the digital economy. In Gonalves, R., SteigerGaro, A., Scherer, R., Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Product and
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Filos, E. 2002., European collaborative R&D project related to the Smart organization. A first
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Fruchter, R. 2002. Metaphors for knowledge capture, sharing and reuse. In Turk, Z., Raimar, S.
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Hop, F.U. 1988. Modular House DesignThe Key to Complete Construction Efficiency, New
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Jiao, J., Tseng, M, Duffy, VG., Lin, F. 1998. Product Family Modeling for Mass Customization,
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Kramer, B. 2000. ObjectARX Primer, New York: Autodesk Press
Liebich, T., Wix, I, Forester, J., Speeding-up the building plan approvalthe Singapore e-plan
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Portoroz, Slovenia, 911 September 2002. Lisse: Balkema pp. 467471
Meyer MH, Tertzakian R, Utterback J.M. 1997. Metrics for managing research and development in
the context of the product family, Management Science. 43(1):88111
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Santos, I.A., Hernandez-Rodriguez, Bravo-Aranda, G., A normative product model for integrated
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PortoroS, Slovenia, 911 September 2002. Lisse: Balkema pp. 473480
Sarja, A. (ed.). 1998. Open and Industrialized Building, London: E & FN Spon
Simpson, T.W., Jonathan R.A. M., Mistree, F. 2001. Product Platform Design: method and
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Suh, N.P.2001. Axiomatic DesignAdvances and Applications, New York: Oxford University
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Ulrich, K.T., Eppinger, S.2004. Product Design and DevelopmentThird Edition, New York:
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Warmer, J.B., Kleppe, A.G.1999. The Object Constraint LanguagePrecise Modeling with UML,
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Warsawski, A.1999. Industrialized building systems, London: E & FN Spon
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, many changes have happened in the AEC sector concerning concurrent
engineering work methods. Many studies attempt to characterize specificities of prqject
and design in architecture, in order to introduce new tools.
This article is part of the concurrent engineering research works of CRAI (Nancy
School of Architecture). We present here a research theme, which is an extension of
works on tools propositions for architectural design concurrent activity. These works also
studied the role of images in architectural design. Our communication focuses on the use
of building construction digital imagery.
We will describe the specificities of architectural design activity and particularly the
differences between initial and technical design in architecture and the building
construction stage. These first statements will allow us to describe how the image can
assist these activities in which many actors are involved.
We will suggest a method to build and use a building construction image base,
describing relevant information needs. We will talk about image collection problems
(sources, index methods) and about possible uses of these images in coordination (or
communication) and in knowledge management.
We will present in the next part the experiment being developed at the moment, which
will illustrate the meeting reports. Our goal is to use the images as a communication tool
(around the meeting report) and to manage technical information thinking of future uses
(building site image based system to prevent construction anomalies).
Finally, we will talk about recent evolutions and conclude on these works.
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to the coordination mode based on contracts. This characteristic penalizes the group
because actors use specific tools!
2.3 Design assistance tools
Characteristics of architectural project collaborative activity described here have been
analysed in works developed in the MAP-CRAI [Malcurat 2001, Hanser 2003]. A model
representing the variety of these exchanges has been proposed following a logic guided
by the representation of relations between actors, activities and documents during the
project [Hanser 2003].
More other, we are at present seeing the development of quality charts: designers and
architecture studios need methods and tools to assist them
In this context, reflexions about new tools are based on two principles:
Architectural design assistance to increase project quality,
Assistance to the collaborative work between design/ construction teams based on
appropriate tools (communication and project management quality).
In part IV, our propositions are developed on these two basic principles.
3 THE IMAGE
The image is, nowadays, a support largely used to carry information. The reasons for the
efficiency of the image are well known and numerous. We are particularly interested in
the following characteristics:
Considerable physiological sensibility of the person whose perception is predominated
by visual images,
Great aptitude to memorization of images,
Great capacity of image encoding,
Instant global message,
Proof effect,
Iconic seduction.
[Bignon 2002]
3.1 The image in architectural design
Image plays an important role in architectural design mechanisms. Its both the first
material of creation and a tool to comprehend a problem. Its also the principal media
used to transmit architectural doctrines. This visual culture of architects leads them to
develop a specific meaning called visuo-spatial [Gardner 1992]. In this specific work
practice, meaning mechanisms are very often built by image.
Research works have been developed in MAPCRAI around this theme. Their
objective is to study the possible uses if images to access information during the
architectural design process: from idea emergence to project realisation.
944
According to the moments of design, the image can play different roles. We are
interested here in two major functions: the image as reference (in the early stage of
design) and the analogous image (the designer will search for and identify possible
solutions by making correspondence between the image of an object or a work and the
imagined solution to a project.) [Halin et al. 2003].
A study of the use of image as information search support has been developed to
access building product information [Nakapan 2003].
The information search by image uses image search for user needs formulation. The
user formulates his request by choosing or rejecting images. This request is analysed to
permit products selection. This process needs to use a common ontology for image index
and product index.
We introduce here a particular work issue based around building construction images.
3.2 Building construction images benefits
The particularity of building construction image is that it shows an object being
fabricated.
We must distinguish between two different uses: Image illustrates the building
constructions general progress, or particular works under construction. (Note: We
called work under construction a basic part of the building being built). In this case,
image plays aproof role.
Image can transmit information contained or be a tool to access other related
information (illustrated by images). It therefore enables the user to capitalise on
knowledge of the terrain.
3.2.1 Works realisation proof
Generally, the photo taken of the building construction site at a precise moment is a
building construction progress statement. Image is proof of this progress and can be used
in different cases (actor communication, archiving).
We introduce here a relation between particularities of images taken on building site
and the building construction meeting report. This document is the basis of the
coordination in the building construction stage. A brief analyse of its content permits us
to find the same notions: particular work progress statement, building work or actor
interface details.
Nowadays photos sometimes illustrate meeting reports. Architects largely accept the
role of image to increase communication quality but not everyone agrees on its regular
use in the meeting report. There is some opposition to these propositions, such as some
architect wish to produce short meeting reports.
We characterise this particular use of building construction images as a vector
enabling a project realisation context. We can note too that a particular objective of the
setting up of quality charts is the necessity for each actor to globally understand the
context of its intervention. Taking into account this environment (global work progress,
actor interfaces) lead to the auto coordination of actors.
Now we will see how these building construction images can serve knowledge
management tools.
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This investigation has shown a real interest in the use of photography, and everybody
agrees with its technical character. On the other hand, we have noted the existing needs
and the interest in new computerbased tools to assist design and realisation teams.
The tool developed is in an initial statement (prototype). At the present it only allows
users to manage particular points and progress points in the meeting report. In the
present version, the user can only insert one image and we notice that its too limited in
some cases. In fact, for some details two photos could increase the comprehension: a
large view of the building work and a closed view of the detail.
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Beyond this proposition of an everyday use of the photo, we immediately notice the
bringing-in of this media into the building life cycle. Many ways of thinking are open too
in the patrimony management. For example, illustration of building work sequences
enables us to keep a trace of what has been made and how it was made Thus, building
works construction information can be reused later, particularly when building works
are hidden by other works in the final state of the building (e.g. pipes passages). We
underlined too the interest in image in knowledge management. We are at present setting
up the structure of a construction risks prevention tool (called here pathology
prevention). The search by image described in part 3.1 seems to be adapted here to
allow the user to access information. The designer could navigate without a precise
request and be informed about possible pathologies (function of materials used, build
works or actors).
Technically the search engine could answer the requests (formulated by the image)
making the link between two ontologies: one indexing image and the other one indexing
a pathology case.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Introductive parts of this article show that the study described here follows other research
works which allow us to characterise cooperative activity of design and realisation
stages in the architectural project [Halin, Hanser]. These studies allowed us too to
demonstrate the major role of image in architectural design activity as an information
vector adapted to the architect cognitive reasoning. [Bignon et al.].
This article presents a research work focused on construction coordination and
knowledge management. Our propositions are based on the building construction image
or photography as information vector and navigation tool.
We want to demonstrate here the place of image as an accessibility vector to a
particular work environment: the building construction. The sequential tasks of building
construction, precisely described in many documents (progress charts) are important
characteristics to give sense to images. This temporal aspect is very important for every
future use. The information content in the meeting report particular points is very
interesting too because it introduces the particularity linked to the works building stage:
e.g. pathology, risks and defects.
The proposed functionalities of assistance tools follow these two particular properties
of images: general progress and particular points. A first proposition consists of tools
oriented building construction coordination (workflow), and a second type of tool
focuses on assisting designers during the initial design stage bringing terrain knowledge
(e.g. pathology risks information).
The prototype developed is at present tested on two building sites and will allow us to
verify hypotheses described in this article concerning the assistance to the actor
coordination by image. A parallel functionality will be developed and available for users
concerning the pathology information tool (described in part V).
951
REFERENCES
[Abeid 2003] ABEID (Jorge), ALLOUCHE (Erez), ARDITI (David), HAYMAN (Michael).
Photo-Net II: a computer-based monitoring system applied to project management.in
Automation in Construction 12 (2003) 603616.Elsevier Ed.2003.
[Al Hassan 2002] AL HASSAN (E), TRUM (H.) and RUTTEN (P.)Strategic Briefing. A
Conceptual Process Model for Building Design.In proceedings of DDSSO2, 6th Conference,
Ellecom, Netherlands, pp: 168185.2002.
[Bignon 2002] BIGNON (J.C.)Modelisation, simulation et assistance a la conceptionconstruction en ArchitectureHabilitation a diriger les recherches, Nancy2002.
[Gardner 1992] GARDNER (H.)Multiple Intelligence: The Theory in Practice.New York,
Basic Books. Ed.1992.
[Grezes 1994] GREZES (Denis), HENRY (Eric), MIC-QUIAUX (Dominique), FORGUE
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[Halin et al. 2003] HALIN (G.), BIGNON (Jean-Claude), SCALETSKY (Celso), NAKAPAN
(Walaiporn) and KACHER (Sabrina)Three approaches of the use of image to assist
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Design Research In Asia), Bangkok, Thailande.2003.
[Hanser 2002] HANSER (Damien), HALIN (Gilles), BIGNON (Jean-Claude).Toward a user
adaptive vision of architectural projects. Conference eCAADe, Education in Computer Aided
Architecture and Design, p.238245,Varsovieseptembre 2002.
[McCready 1992] McCready (S.)There is more than one kind of workflow software.
Computerworld,November 1992.
[Simon 1990] SIMON (H.A.)Sciences des systemes, Sciences de 1artificiel.Paris, Editions
Dunod1990.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The high rate of misfortune accidents within the workplace is one of the main challenges
faced by the construction sector. This is caused by three fundamental elements: The need
of specific organisation activity, the lack of information related to industrial health and
safety received by contractors and other employees responsible for safety procedures, as
well as related legislation regarding to risk prevention and finally the simultaneity of
different activities with numerous companies at every stage of work.
This situation joined to the intermittent participation of all the agents involved in each
construction site creates a very complex situation to guarantee that labour risks
information at every specific phase of the work site is enforced by the safety coordinator.
On the other hand, in nowadays competitive industry, it is a matter of fact that
differentiation can give the companies the key to get the leadership. Safety assurance in
the working environment in the construction industry is an issue that can help the
companies to get that differentiation.
Safety on construction sites demands the close interaction of the construction-site
players and public authorities, laboratories and project surveyors. Codes, standards,
regulations as well as guidelines have to be quickly at hand, interpreted and understood in
a common sense in order to ensure safety continuously. The right decision taken at the
right moment can avoid serious accidents thus preventing from damages and even deaths.
Gesprecons defines a cooperation model among the different work construction
representatives from the safety perspective: facultative guidelines, safety coordinator
during building phase, constructors, sub-contractors, personnel delegates, personnel
953
designated by the companies in security matters (according to the prevention law), and
the employees. This approach provides personnel dedicated to the control of health and
safety and risk prevention at the construction site with a tool that allows decreasing the
number of labour accidents existing within this sector. Therefore, it could guarantee the
application and fulfilment of the current safety normative by the personnel in charge of
assuring the achievement of the Health and Safety Plans (HASP).
In order to reach each subcontractor and agents involved in the work construction, the
model is based on the use of mobile and static Internet technology, as well as
communication through SMS to facilitate contact with autonomous personnel. The
system transmits information regarding labour risk prevention and safety alerts detected
by the integration of data capture sensors in the construction site. In a higher level, the
system is able to react to possible consults that the user might encompass at the
workplace. This is accomplished by linking the consults to a Safety Plan database and a
risk prevention database specific for building work activities.
In order to provide the different stakeholders with the updated information at every
moment, a huge effort has been done in the part of the documentation for the information
systems for Gesprecons. The information has been structured in two categories:
construction labour and risk prevention. In both cases, current way of working,
documentation, bibliography and experienced people have been consulted in order to
provide the final users with the most useful information and as well structured as
possible.
2 OBJECTIVES
The main objective in the development of Gesprecons platform is to offer a remotely
accessible collaborative tool for the creation and subsequent application of the HASP.
This main target can be detailed in the items described below.
In a general point of view it aims at decreasing the current high level of misfortune
accidents between the workers within the construction site thus decreasing the level of
deaths and serious injuries.
It intends to promote the Health and Safety law fulfilment in two aspects: the creation
of HASPs and its correct execution. This is done by means of facilitating the
knowledge of the contents of the law. Currently the preparation of most HASPs
consists of copying a previous project and slightly adapting it to the new environment.
Later on, the application of the preventive measures imposed by this HASP is very
low and difficult to control. Gesprecons facilitates the creation of the plans and
supports the responsible agents for its application.
As a positive side effect, the use of Gesprecons increases the construction companies
competitiveness. Most of them are SMEs, thus having difficult access to the research
on new technologies. Gesprecons facilitates them the advantages provided by
technology.
One major issue is the exoneration from responsibilities. This is a very important point,
because the responsible agent for the application of the risk prevention measures
(Safety Coordinator) has to demonstrate his part of the work in case of accidents.
Gesprecons, by keeping register of all the transactions, contributions, warnings, alerts,
954
etc. will provide a legal framework to demonstrate his part of the work was
accomplished.
In a naturally collaborative environment as the construction sites, where a rather high
number of different companies have to share their work space in a short period of
time, it is very important to ease the coordination amongst the different stakeholders.
This is usually called eColaborative work and Gesprecons provides the framework for
it.
In line with the previous point, it is also an important issue to ease the communication
flow amongst all the participants at the construction site. Gesprecons provides a
common panel to exchange information, either related to HASP or to any other matter
in the construction site.
The general Labour Risk Coordinator usually works in several construction sites at a
time. This tool provides him with a tool to concentrate the management of all the
different construction sites he is working on in one only location.
Gesprecons intends to provide a tool to establish and control work flows in the building
work amongst the participating stakeholders. Thus allowing to define the flow of
documents, alerts, hierarchical relations, etc.
One major concern is to get an application likely to use. It is a difficult environment
and the barriers to apply new technologies are very high, as the working people are not
very well prepared. In order to get people using it the application must be very
friendly and provide real help in the daily work.
Promote the eWork in the construction industry. It is an industry naturally distributed,
each company is working in several sites at a moment. Thus it is an ideal scenario for
the application of eWork. Gesprecons platform will extend the office to the
construction site, giving seamless connection to the workers.
Furthermore, and apart from all the previous objectives, Gesprecons is only the first
step towards the development of a platform for the collaborative work in the whole
life cycle of building. Thus including work plan scheduling, quality control, risk
prevention control, eProcurement, facility management, etc.
3 METHODOLOGY
In order to reach the ambitious objectives stated in the previous section, the application
has been carefully designed and developed according to the following steps:
Information compilation. Firstly a hard task of research in the building problem was
performed. This research was mainly focused on the Health and Security field.
Process modelling. Then the processes included in the application were modelled using
standard representation languages.
Data modelling. Thirdly a data model was deployed to cover the information needs
within the problem.
Web tool development. Finally, the tool was developed as a web tool.
In the following subsections these four steps are described giving more detail of the
actual procedures of development.
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the risks inherent in the selected work tools, substances, and work places conditioning.
This obligation has been developed in the chapter II, articles 3 to 7 of the Real Decreto
39/1997, Regulations for the Prevention Services.
3.2 Process and data modelling
In order to develop an application that covers the Risk Prevention Tasks the actual
processes have been modelled. To this end, all the compiled information has been
analysed. Special attention has been paid to the comments from the potential users. This
being so because they provide the real taste of the current processes.
By analysing the information managed within the processes, a data model has been
defined. This data model consists of the data structures needed to perform all the
operations in the Risk Prevention. It is shown in Figure 1.
3.3 Web tool development
The platform has been developed in the form of a web accessible application. The
objective was to maximize the accessibility to the application. By developing a web
application the users will access through any device equipped with an Internet browser.
Furthermore, updates in the application will not affect the users, as it needs not be
reinstalled in their PCs, thus producing a dynamic system.
The application development has been done following the criteria of technology
independence and cost minimization, always keeping the level of performance. This way,
the programming has been done with JAVA, the database system is MS SQL Server, and
the applications server is Apache Tomcat which allows for encrypted connections
through https.
One important issue to be commented is the use of web services in the development of
the alerts service. In order to provide independence between the communication module
and the rest of the application, they have been implemented as separated parts which
communicate through web services. This way changes in mobile technology (as the very
close use of UMTS) will not affect the application validity.
4 DEVELOPMENTS
In this section the main functionalities offered by the application are described. It is
important to highlight that one of the main issues taken into account has been the
usability. For this reason the design of the user interface has been specially studied. The
main criteria for the design have been:
To offer access to most important functionalities in every screen.
To reduce the number of steps to reach a determined function.
To show the user the path he has followed to reach a function.
To make the functionalities easy to use.
Allow different profiles.
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The development of the platform has comprised two main parts: The database generation
and the application implementation. In the following subsections these developments are
detailed.
4.1 Information database
As previously introduced, there has been a hard work in the side of the database contents
preparation. Not only in the selection of that information, but also in its structuring.
The information is divided into two types: construction labour, and construction risks.
The former is composed of the elements that describe a construction process: phase,
activity, materials, machinery, and tools. The latter is composed of the concepts related to
safety issues: risk, prevention measure. Of course both types of information are
interrelated, in fact any of the construction elements may have several risks and each risk
several preventive measures.
Number
Relations
16
20 activities
250
7 materials
8 machinery
45 risks
Machinery
74
12 risks
Materials
36
7 risks
130
14 measures
1200
Activity
Risk
Measure
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Figure 2 shows the structure of the information database. The concept is that a
construction work is divided into phases. Each phase consists of a set of activities. In
each activity a set of materials and machinery are used. All of the construction elements
(phase, activity, materials,) can trigger a set of risks. And finally a set of preventive
measures must be applied in order to remove or at least reduce the risk.
All the information related to construction labour and risk management has been
studied and fitted into the scheme shown above. The database is accessible and the
system administrator can easily do changes, such as adding new items, deleting others or
modifying the existing ones. So, once this structuring was agreed, the next step was to
organise all the compiled information according to it.
Table 1 shows some representative figures about the database.
This shows the huge amount of work dedicated to the information system in the
application. The first column of the Table 1 shows the different types of elements
contained in the database. The second column shows the number of elements contained in
the database for each type. And finally, the third column shows the average of relations
that each element has with each of the other elements.
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4.2 Application
The main objective of the application is to offer support to a user in the generation of the
HASP for a construction site. Furthermore, the aim is to allow for the collaborative
participation of several users in the creation and later treatment of the HASP.
Figure 3 shows the login screen for the application. Depending on the user
identification the application addresses the user to a different interface, one is addressed
to the system administrator, and another one to the normal user.
By means of the first view, the system administrator can maintain the system. This
includes two main operations: Administrative management, the administrator can sign up,
delete or modify the data of the user companies; and information database maintenance,
here the administrator can update the contents of the database including new elements or
modifying the current ones.
The second view is the user interface and provides access to the main functionalities
of the system. The contents shown in the different screens depend on the user profile. The
system allows for the users to access to different construction works with different
profiles. This way a user can be the main safety coordinator in one construction and only
a participant in the HASP creation in another one.
The list of functionalities offered to the user is the following:
Make the HASP in a collaborative way. The platform main aim is to allow the
preparation of the Health & Safety Plan in a collaborative way. To this end, the system
allows the users to define the hierarchy they want to follow amongst the different
companies participating in the preparation.
Gesprecons platform assists in the HASP execution. It can automatically send alerts
notifying the affected workers of a hazardous situation at the construction site. It can
send notifications about beginning or ending of phases, risks, etc.
Gesprecons allows for a coordinated management of the construction schedule. This
way several companies can work in a construction in a collaborative way using the
system as a communications tool.
One usual task for the H&S coordinator is to check the actual fulfilment of the
preventive measures in the construction site. This task is performed by means of the
preparation and fulfilment of the appropriate checklists. A checklist contains the set of
conditions that each preventive measure must accomplish. Gesprecons assists in the
preparation and later fulfilment of such checklists. Furthermore, it allows the user to
access from the construction sites through mobile devices.
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Firstly for the construction companies, which must accomplish the Health and
Security Law. They are the main actors in this scenario. They have the strength to force
the other participants to perform a complete and detailed monitoring of the HASR The
benefits that apply directly for them are:
It allows them easily generate and execute the Health and Safety Plan.
The expertise needed to prepare the plans is lower because the tool provides advice,
knowledge management and reusability of previous work.
Collaboration workflow with their subcontractors can be defined.
The invested money on the application of the HASP can be reduced. One of the main
benefits in this line is the automatic detection of overlapping preventive measures,
thus reducing the costs.
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Finally, the system provides high safety improvements for the workers on the
construction site:
They have a safest working environment.
They have an easily accessible channel to throw an alert in case of any emergency.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDlkba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The lack of accurate, reliable, and timely information exchanges between parties, due to
industry fragmentation has historically created inefficiencies, cost overruns, and interparty disputes that too often characterize the construction process. The perceived fact that
many actors in the construction process consider each project a customized one-off
activity, designed and built by different parties who then go their separate ways, reaffirms
the opportunity and need for standardized and repeatable procedures for information
exchange. Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) both express industry beliefs that information
technology (IT) should have a positive influence on direct field performance.
The owner communicates to the designer, who in turn communicates to the
constructor, who then communicates instructions to field trades, workers and suppliers.
The work that is produced is then inspected and results are relayed back to the
constructor who may then be required to affect any corrective work. The dynamic nature
of this information exchange frequently results in the inability to predict necessary
actions. The resultant inactions that may occur reduce on-site performance. The outcome
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function can now often be handled from a remote location. IT has reduced the
time/distance dimension and resulted in opportunities for ICS.
3 INTELLIGENT CONSTRUCTION SITES (ICSs)
Traditionally an intelligent building is defined by the latest software applications and
IT hardware within telecommunications, electronics, security, automation, and building
energy control systems (Stein and Reynolds 2000). Similar to an intelligent building,
an ICS is a designated project site, Figure 1, which
Dynamic Scheduling
Decision Support System
Electronic Forms
Electronic Inventory
Positioning Systems
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Virtual Collaboration
Web-based project management
3D Visualization
Interactive virtual walk-throughs and virtual construction
4D Scheduling
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other domain tools. For example, digital prototyping is a tool that has primary capabilities
for use within the domains of Digital Imagery Processing and Process Modeling and
Visualization. The objective of an ICS is to have access to IT tools and for the user to
select the right tool for the right task at the right time.
Notwithstanding improvement in e-communication, information delivery and field
processing, construction remains a traditionally paper-bound enterprise. Communication
among field office participants is done electronically yet the actual presence of
information within in the field environment is predominately paper-based. No one is
constructing by looking at the actual electronic object. Paper drawings are used to extract
information for construction, assembly, and placement. Due to changing stakeholders, the
construction process requires a set of unique, yet standardized electronic tools for on-site
information exchanges and performance improvements. An identifiable set
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of standard, yet customizable tools is available within the defined domains of the ICSs IT
toolbox.
5 PROBLEM SOLVING USING THE IT TOOLBOX ON AN ICS
Adrian (2002) notes that approximately seventy-two percent (72%) of the construction
workforces nonproductive time can be attributed to the lack of information or due to
information that is not available when needed to allow work to continue without delay,
disruption or error. Forty percent (40%) of this lost time can be characterized as waiting
for either instructions or resources, while twenty-two percent (22%) of lost productivity
is the result of late, inaccurate or poor information exchanges. The other ten percent
(10%) is a result of rework or defects list corrections. The absent of efficient and accurate
information exchanges are consistently generating non-productive field activities. Table 2
shows a matrix of opportunity for solving many of these performance deficiencies
through the avocation and implementation of ICSs domain intelligent tools.
The primary benefit of an ICS using tools from the IT toolbox are the reductions in
communication times and the costs associate with using a paper based documentation,
which has an inherent delivery and accessibility time lags. The potential problem of the
construction site is an ineificient communication flow through a paper-based system that
relies on a baseline ICS.
Virtual
collaboration
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REFERENCES
Abeid, J. and Arditi, J. (2002). Linking Time-Lapse Digital Photography and Dynamic Scheduling
of Construction Operations. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 4, 269
279.
Adrian, J. (2000). Ten New Themes for Productivity Improvement, Construction Productivity
Newsletter. Vol. 18, No. 6.
Dawood, N., Akinsola, A. and Hobbs, B. (2002). Development of automated communication of
system for managing site information using internet technology. Automation in Construction 11
(2002)557572.
Egan, J. (1998). Rethinking Construction. London, HMSO.
Latham, M. (1994). Constructing the Team. London, HSMO.
Olgesby, C., Parker, H. and Howell, G. (1989). Productivity Improvement in Construction. New
York, McGraw-Hill.
Stein, B. and Reynolds, J. (2000). Mechanical and electrical equipment for buildings. New York,
Wiley.
Sun, M. and Howard, R. (2004). Understanding I.T. in Construction. London, Sporn Press.
Unger, S. (2002). The trend towards an Internet-based communication standard in the A/E/C
industry. A Construct-ware White Paper, Atlanta, Constructw@re.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
In this paper, the business model is construction SMEs, where the project manager
usually works on several projects at the same time.
It is well known, that the construction industry is fragmented and construction projects
include diverse enterprises ranging from engineering to construction, to material
production, to several pre and post construction services.
There are many different points of view on the project and at least as many
organizational approaches: from pure project organization to matrix and functional
approaches (Litke H. 2002). When we take into consideration the whole project life cycle
it is essential to clarify the roles of the participants. The definitions of roles in particular
project is especially important because the construction companies are in different roles;
from investors on the market to main contractor to subcontractor. Also the term project
manager is often confusing while as on the same project the designers have a project
manager, the building company has a project manager and the investor also has a
project manager. When we talk about IT in project management it is wrong to isolate
only some activities or phases. IT support must in the first place take into consideration
the whole project cycle, although it is possible support only for required areas. On the
other hand it is essential to classify and standardize the project management process. At
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present there are no sufficient standards for important tasks in planning and management.
(Kuhne C. & C.Leistner 2002)
The purpose of this paper is based on case studies to open some dilemmas and reasons
and to clarify the relations important in this process.
2 PHASES AND ORGANIZATIONAL HIERARCHY
Construction projects have many different and independent people or institutions
involved within a particular phase or in several phases of the project. There are several
classifications of the investment project phases and relations among them. The most
overall division of the whole project life cycle includes the concept of the project, design,
building and exploitation.
When we talk about a construction project, often only the Design planning, Cost
estimating and scheduling, Technical design, Invitation to bid, Building, Project billing
and controlling are mentioned (Kuhne C. & C.Leistner 2002). But when we consider the
project managers point of view towards the whole life cycle of the project it is obvious
that the real estate procedures such as acquiring real estate, breaking up an estate and
geological research play important roles in time, cost and quality estimation. The
relations among them are usually much more complex than they look on the first sight.
On the basis of the different professions involved, legislation and stages of the
construction project, the following supporting processes have to be added into whole life
cycle of the project:
Initiative, Start up
Real estate procedures
Spatial plan procedures
Evaluations of all activities
Agreements
Supervision
Exploitation, maintenance.
All of the above phases require collaboration and the exchange of documentation, and all
of them produce documentation of the project When we talk about successful realization
of the cost, quality and time plan, all the phases have to be managed and IT is the tool of
optimization.
According to Hauc the project includes the project and all systems included in the
project. (Hauc A. 2002) The project system consists of: main system, managing system
and execution system.
The main system, that is usually investor or beneficiary, develops a vision for the
project, copes with operational and strategic chance on the project and sets the general
direction of the project.
Managing system has the task of coping with the complexity of developing and
implementing a management system for the project, maintaining oversight of the efficient
and effective use of resources designing and developing the management functions,
organizing, motivating, directing and controlling, the project, ensuring the
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communication process involved in the project works effectively. The project manager is
part of managing system and must both: lead and manage.
The execution of the activities is the task of external executants and internal
executantssubcontractors. They are chosen from inside the company or on the market
according to the rules of tender.
On a project as a whole we can define a project system, but executants of a particular
task see only their subscriber and supervisor.
3 CASE STUDY
With aim of optimizing the management process we have started to collect project
management data from the projects.
The basis were MS Excel tables that every project manager have had on their
computer and later also on networks. The upgrade to a relation database was logical
progress, where all employees registered every event and document to form, that was
related to the database.
For this purpose we have developed a simple and practical project management tool
called ITvPR, developed simultaneously with the progress of the project. Microsoft
Access has been chosen for Database engine. Even thought it is not considered a real
database engine, it has several advantages: like Excel it is part of MS Office, easy to use,
widespread all over the world and it can be exported to more powerful database engines
such as SQL Server. The database consists of several entities: companies, prqjects,
persons involved in the process, send and received post, offers, traveling costs, cash flow,
contracts, and invoices.
Over three years time in database there were about 100 project managed by 6 project
managers.
Projects have been deeply analyzed from the inside, i.e. from project managers side.
Comparison of them all would exceed this paper, so here are descriptions and
organizational schema of two of them. First is the investment in new shopping, second is
the reconstruction and adaptation of a castle into a library. Both projects have similar
budgets and useful business area, but other characteristics such as complexity, speed,
repetition and organizational approach are quite different.
The shopping center is a new building for known users in as short a time as possible
(less than a year from initiation to the realization). The project management spent
approximately 1790 hours; there were 15 contracts with direct subcontractors and they
made out 55 invoices.
Reconstruction of the castle into a library started in 2001 and it is scheduled to finish
in October 2004. The project is financed by the Ministry for culture and 4 municipalities.
Until now the project management has spent approximately 2825 hours; there were 64
contracts with direct subcontractors and they made out 158 invoices.
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4 ORGANIZATIONAL SCHEME
Figures 1 and 2 show the relationships, main phases, participants and deciding levels of
the described projects.
At the top of each figure there the authorities and legislation that give the principle
rules and framework for the specific location. Under them are the diversified levels of the
participants in the process. The connections among them show who commissioned
whom. Some link cross, which means conflicts. The collision of interest is especially
problematic when the commission is given across two or more levels as is the case in the
first project. Contractors who subscribe to different decision levels are also quite
problematic. In such cases one usually subscribes quality while the other one is the
financier.
Another problem of the project pointed out in Figure 2, is that the role of project
management is not well defined. The investor in this case is a public institution, so all
commissions are contracted with this public institution, so the external project
management have only a consultants role and cannot give effect to commissions.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Designing all but the simplest of products and artifacts on paper has now had its day.
Moving to VR affords greater clarity and understanding, facilitates simulations and
testing, and as a result, great savings. Cochrane(1997)
The most common way of distributing technical information at a building site is by
means of 2D CAD drawings. It is often necessary to consult more than one drawing to
perform a single task on a site. There is a clear need for ready access to these drawings in
updated, correct form. In addition, the information should be easy to understand in order
to avoid misunderstandings and costly mistakes. The use of Virtual Reality (VR) offers
one possible solution. However, there has been little empirical investigation of VR
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3 RESEARCH AIM
The questionnaire was designed to study how the visualised VR model of Centralhuset
in Gothenburg, Sweden, was experienced and assaessed by users and the extent to which
a model of this kind could complement the 2D CAD drawings that are generally
employed in this kind of context. The operational use of VR at the building site was the
primary concern. By studying people who had little or no experience of 3D CAD or of
VR, we hoped to reveal the attitudes of the average person working at a construction site
rather than those of a 3D CAD or VR expert.
4 METHOD
4.1 Design
The questionnaire consisted of 20/21 questions or statements (21 directed at the building
owner representatives, NCC Property Development). To obtain a general view of the
participants as individuals, the questionnaire started with three questions pertaining to
individual characteristics (age, profession and computer skills). Then, statements for
investigating participants attitudes towards the use of the VR model were presented.
Subsequently, various statements relating to the information flow at the building site
were presented. The questionnaire closed with a section containing general statements
concerning the use of a VR model in the respondents own profession. The statements in
the questionnaire as a whole have the same formulation for all participants, except in this
final section. Here, statements about customer relations were presented for the
representatives for the building owners. All statements were expressed as assertions
rather than negations.
Although leading questions or statements should be avoided in a questionnaire, (as
they could reflect the position the researcher, Ekholm & Fransson 1994), we nevertheless
decided that an approach of this sort was best for investigating the main questions of the
study:
1 How will the VR prototype be envisaged, experienced and assessed by the users, and
2 To what extent can a VR model complement the use of 2D CAD drawings.
The questionnaire comprised of nine pages, including a description of its aims, a
statement regarding the confidentiality of the results, the questions and statements and
space for the participants to write in any additional comments they wished to make.
A Likert scale was employed to convert the participants responses into numerical
data. The Likert technique involves various statements being presented and participants
being asked to express agreement or disagreement on a five-point scale: Strongly agree
(5), Agree (4), Undecided (3), Disagree (2) or Strongly disagree (1). A seven
point-scale can also be applied using the Likert technique (Trost 2001). Since numerical
values represent the participants attitudes expressed in points, different values represent
different attitudes (Patel & Davidson 1994). The Likert scale was used for all the
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5 RESULTS
5.1 The questionnaire
The main goal of the study was to establish whether a VR model could be a practical and
reliable information tool at the building site. We also wanted to investigate the
possibilities of the VR technology in improving the flow of information and co-operation
between the people participating in the construction work at the building site. The result
is not conclusive, but can serve as guidance rather than definite due to the limitations of
the study. The main results from the study are summarized in Tables 1, 2 and 3.
The final part of the questionnaire was the section that generated the most intense
discussions. Comments such as This is great, but how do we implement it in our
everyday work? or Interesting, but can we save any money by using a VR model at the
building site?. Further research is needed in order to provide answers to these questions.
However, the majority of the respondents were positive about using VR models at the
building site, as shown in Table 3. Some concerns regarding the financial benefits and of
how well they could manage a VR model was expressed. Despite their positive attitude to
using VR models, most of participants still felt the need for further investigation of the
benefits of VR.
Mean
value
Standard
deviation
4.57/5
0.54
4.30/5
0.69
4.12/5
0.68
4.16/5
0.80
Having the ability to navigate within the VR environment and thus being
able to scrutinise the model involved from different angles helps me to
understand details.
4.50/5
0.70
4.01/5
0.73
4.20/5
0.72
988
4.30/5
0.73
Mean
value
Standard
deviation
3.55/5
0.77
3.40/5
0.75
Personal situation
In my occupation, I receive information primarily from the following sources (several alternatives
can be selected):
1.
2D CAD drawings
2.
3D CAD drawings
3.
Personal contacts
4.
By telephone
989
5.
By fax
6.
7.
8.
9.
In my future job situation, I would like to receive information mainly from the following sources
(several alternatives can be selected):
1.
2D CAD drawings
2.
3D CAD drawings
3.
Personal contacts
4.
By telephone
5.
By fax
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
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Final section*
Using VR models in ones own work
I think I would benefit from using VR models in my work.
4.30/5
0.68
4.28/5
0.75
Convincing me of the benefits of Virtual Reality would require: (several alternatives can be
selected):
1.
2.
3.
Economic analysis
4.
VR presentations at the
workplace
5.
6.
Other factors
*Two additional questions for the representatives of the building owner are presented in Section
4.2. In addition, all the participants apart from the representatives of the building owner answered
the first statement in the Final section.
VR model was believed to be when a new task was about to be performed rather than
using it all the time. The rest of the comments related to problems associated with
keeping the VR model updated and the need for adaptation to the conditions on the
building site.
The representatives of the building owner responded to two additional statements:
I believe that using VR models can give me a more favourable position in relation to
my customers.
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I believe that by using VR, I can reduce the costs of errors sufficiently to cover the
costs of the modeling work. According to Josephson (1990) the reduction of errors is
estimated to 10% of the total construction. The estimated cost of the VR model is
2%o.
The last question is clearly speculative; however, the statement could give some
indication on costs assessment.
The first of these two statements yielded a more positive response, as all the
participants selected Strongly agree or Agree (Mean4.5, Standard deviation
0.58). The second statement received a response that, albeit it pointed slightly in the
direction of agreement (Mean3.25, Standard deviation0.63), has to be considered
Undecided. However, since only four building owner representatives participated, the
response is only indicative. A much larger number of participants is needed to ensure
reliable responses.
6 DISCUSSION
The aim of the questionnaire was to investigate the way work force involved in
constructing the Centralhuset building in the city of Gothenburg, experienced and
assessed the VR model as well as the intended use for information purposes. The VR
model focused primarily on the supporting structure, the foundations and the
prefabricated floor components of the building. We expected that some of the
occupational groups could have more use for the model than other groups. Therefore, we
endeavored to perfect the original version of the VR model to make it as suitable as
possible for all the occupational groups involved.
In the questionnaire, three objective personal characteristics of the participants; age,
occupation and computer skills, were determined. No relationship between these
characteristics and the views or attitudes that the participants expressed in their responses
could be found.
Although we did not perform any significance tests, the reasonably high mean values
combined with low standard deviations obtained for most of the test items relating to the
participants attitudes and assessments, indicates a high degree of consensus. This gives a
strong indication of the conclusions drawn.
7 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
The results of the study suggest that there is a genuine need to improve the information
flow at building sites. The usefulness of technical aids such as VR, appears to be obvious,
especially as a complement to the 2D CAD drawings. Indications that can inhibit
integration of VR into the building process was also found in limited technical
knowledge and financial considerations. The present procedure of distributing
information by means of 2D CAD drawings is ineffective. Moreover, planning in 2D
rather than directly in 3D considerably increases the cost of producing a VR model.
The views of the respondents on the different issues in the questionnaire varied very
little, between different ages, occupations and computer skills. Although the construction
992
workers were the group whose computer skills were most limited, they were particularly
positive in their assessment of the advantages of using VR in the construction process.
The fact that they receive information largely from 2D CAD drawings and personal
communication may well have contributed to the positive attitude to new and richer
forms of communication media.
This type of VR model needs to be carefully developed to complement to the
information given in 2D, especially in the sections and in details that are difficult to grasp
with 2D drawings. Therefore, we recommend that specialists on VR are used to produce
and maintain the model of the construction process. It is also important to inspire and
give confidence in the technology to people who are going to use the VR model.
Otherwise, the model will not be used in practice.
The developers of VR system have to adapt their systems to the needs in order to be
useful for the construction industry. Further studies regarding the planning and
performance of the construction work using VR modeling are therefore necessary to
provide the necessary facts for implementation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The study received financial support from IT Construction & Real Estate 2002, NCC AB
and Chalmers University of Technology. We are grateful to everyone who took the time
to participate in the study and to provide the necessary feedback. Special thanks are also
due to the companies at the building site; specifically NCC AB and its sub-contractors,
for allowing us to interrupt their work so as to administer the questionnaire.
REFERENCES
Calderon, C.P., van Schaik, P. & Hobbs, B. 2000. Is VR an effective communication medium for
building design? Proceedings of the Virtual Reality International Conference, Laval, France,
1819 May.
Cochrane, P. 1997. 108 tips for the time travelers. London: Orion Business Paperbacks.
Dahlstrm, E. 1970. Interview and survey techniques. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. (In Swedish).
Ekholm, M. & Fransson, A. 1994. Practical interview techniques. Stockholm: Norstedts Publishing
House AB. (In Swedish).
Josephson, P-E. 1990. Quality in buildinga discussion about quality error costs, Report 25.
Department of Building Economics and Management, Chalmers University of Technology,
Gothenburg. (In Swedish).
Lantz, A. 1993. Interview methodology: To carry out an interview. Stockholm: Studentlitteratur.
(In Swedish).
Niles, R. Statistics every writer should know: A journalists guide to using basic math to
understand data and statistical research. http://www.robertniles.com/ (accessed 10/7/2002).
Patel, R. & Davidson, B. 1994. The basics of research methodology: To plan, perform and report
an inquiry (2nd edition), Stockholm: Studentlitteratur. (In Swedish).
Retik, A. & Shapira, A. 1999. VR-based planning of construction site activities, Journal of
Automation in Construction 8: pp 671680.
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Roup, M., Sunesson, K., Wernemyr, C., Westerdahl, B. & Allwood, C.M. 2001. Perceived
meaning in Virtual Reality architectural models. Proceedings of AVR II & CONVR 2001.
Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 45 October.
Trost, J. 2001. Enktboken (2nd edition), Stockholm: Studentlitteratur. (In Swedish).
WALKTHRU PC Version 1.0, 3D Simulation, Users Manual, Bechtels Software, 1991.
Whyte, J. 2001. Business drivers for the use of Virtual Reality in the construction sector.
Proceedings of AVR II & CONVR 2001. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 45
October.
Woksepp, S. 2001. Virtual Reality in Constructiona state of the art report. Internal publication
02:3. Department of Structural Mechanics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg.
Woksepp, S. & Tullberg, O. 2001. Centralhuset: A Virtual Reality project at the building site.
Proceedings of AVR II & CONVR 2001. Chalmers University of Technology, Gorthenburg, 45
October.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The start of the new century has brought new challenges for firms, industries and
countries. Throughout its long history, competitiveness is highlighted once more as a
crucial concern for enterprises to survive. Accordingly, numerous studies evolved for
analyzing competitiveness issues. However, most of these studies aimed mainly for
manufacturing industries and produce frameworks for analyzing different aspects of the
term. These frameworks are usually employed for construction industry in second hand
and scholars commonly apply these models to construction to see the immediate results
of these tools. However it is obvious that there are major differences between the
manufacturing industries and construction industry. So, application of these
manufacturing industry oriented tools makes these analyses weak and suspect regarding
construction industry environments. Competitiveness issue is important since it would
provide different points of view to construction management studies and related
applications.
It is seen that despite growing concerns and research conducted about
competitiveness in construction, it is still a diffuse concept, and subject to many
interpretations. These varying interpretations also make the term difficult to define
properly and apply fittingly. Moreover, the actual scene about construction industry is
usually distorted by these varying competitiveness models and tools and their
applications. For this point this paper issues applicability, scope, strengths and
weaknesses of some well-known competitiveness models and tools in construction
industry and aims at bringing a categorization to business environments of construction
industry for the changing characteristics of the competitiveness term.
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2 DEFINITIONS
In following subsections, characteristics, environment of construction industry and
competitiveness related issues are highlighted.
2.1 Characteristics of the construction industry
In literature there are various definitions for the characteristics of the construction
industry. The classification made by Sugimoto (1990) provides a more theoretical and
fundamental one and the following list is formed to address some well-known and
provisional characteristics of construction which diversify it from manufacturing
industries.
Experience-Good and Customization Characteristics: Customization of construction
activities makes the output of construction production an experience good and
compared to a manufacturing good, whose quality is evident on inspection before
purchase, the quality is understood only by using it after purchase.
Specialization and Vertical Integration in Functions: The distinction between different
types of firms is defined by Sugimoto (1990) as often blurred through vertical integration
in functions. To illustrate, an engineering firm, which is basically considered as a design
firm could vertically integrate with all sorts of pre-construction activities and engage in
project management and contractor branches.
Unique bidding basis: According to Ball (1988) speculative construction can be seen as
an extension of manufacturing in construction industry but bidding arrangements are
special for construction for that every project is priced separately and distinctly in the
form of a bid for that particular project.
Relative subcontracting system: The subcontracting system is special in the construction
industry since it permits the kind of flexibility required whereby various mixes of
contractors and crafts must be mobilized to suit the unique requirements of a project.
Ambiguity of goods and service production of construction firms: Particular to the
specialization of functions of construction firms, there is a difficulty in defining their
production: Although the construction industry is usually categorized as a service
industry, firms in the construction industry produce both goods and services.
International Involvement of Construction Firms: Manufacturing firms usually supply
foreign markets in three primary modes: export, foreign direct investment (FDI)
including equity-base joint venture etc. However, in construction industry, the ways of
serving a foreign market is defined to be less straightforward because of the unique
production process and subsequent industrial structure of the industry.
Finally construction industry differs from manufacturing industry in referred points.
According to Sugimoto (1990), theoretical treatment of construction production has not
been sufficient enough to address these ambiguities in a systematic way and if
construction industry and its productions are unique, it is theoretically misleading to
apply ideas established for other industries to the construction industry and its firms.
996
997
Most of these models are criticized for being weak or some improvement possibilities
such as linked diamond models (Rugman, DCruz, 1993). In general, these models are
also criticized for having business school or power school approaches (Lall, 2001); static/
dynamic characteristics, and analysis/deterministic point of views. Their scope of
application is also varying from one model to another. Toprakli (2004) provides the
scope, strengths and weaknesses of some models (Table 1), it is concluded that, qualities
depending on microeconomics, five competitive forces model and value chain provide
a backbone for all level of competitiveness studies.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Diamond
framework (Porter,
1990)
National
industries
Provides an analytical
point of view
Supposed to be
dynamic
Five competitive
forces model
(Porter, 1985)
Presents a static
understanding
Provides an analytical point
of view rather than a
deterministic one
Value chain
Industry, firm
and national
level
Provides an analytical
point of view
Have a generic quality
and applicable to all
levels
APP model
(Momaya, 2004)
Generic
application
Presents a static
understanding
Entrepreneurship and
product issues are not
identified.
Firm level
Meaningfiil to
practitioners
Can also be used
among industries and
nations
Systematic
questionnaire and
presentation
Presents a static
understanding
Based on indicators rather
than theory
Firm level
Dynamic methodology
through changing
weights
998
999
Characteristics
Supra-national level
Global environment
Common industry/
National environment
1000
Value chain
1001
4 CONCLUSION
Having the main objective as providing an alternative frame about evaluating
competitiveness, which has been the growing concern in construction industry and a
crucial field of interest among researchers; appropriate categorization of construction
environments for competitiveness tools application is suggested in the paper.
As understood from the stated vertical classification, better frameworks could be
developed for future use in construction industry for researchers and practitioners.
Another important point to be emphasized in the suggested categorization is it would help
in determining hierarchical weightings for quantitative evaluations in a more systematic
way. Considering the chaotic environment of competitiveness related terms and their
applications, a process model could also be offered to guide practitioners about
competitiveness issues in eonstruction industry. Besides, IT based applications could also
be employed related with the developed process models.
REFERENCES
Ansoff, I.H. 1965. Corporate Strategy. McGraw-Hill, NewYork.
Ball, M. 1988. Rebuilding Construction. Economic Change and the Construction Industry.
Routledge, London.
Betts, M. and Ofori, G. 1992. Strategic planning for competitive advantage in construction.
Construction Management and Economics, 10, 51132.
Dunning, J.H. 1977. Trade, location of economic activity and the MNE: A search for an eclectic
approach. In Ohlin, B., Hesselborn, P.O. and Wijkman, P.M. (eds) The International Allocation
of Economic Activity, Macmillan. London, pp. 395418.
Flanagan, R. 1994. The features of successful construction companies in the international
construction market. In Warzawski, A. and Navon, R. (eds), Strategic Planning in Construction:
Proceedings of the A.J.Etkin International Seminar on Strategic Planning in Construction
Companies, Haifa, Israel, 89 June, pp. 30418.
Hatush, Z. and Skitmore, R.M. 1997. Criteria for contractor selection. In: Construction
Management and Economics 15 (1), E&FN Spon, London, pp. 1938.
Huovinen, P. and Kiiras, J. 1994. Spearhead strategy for cross-border exports within building
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Construction: Proceedings of the A.J.Etkin International Seminar on Strategic Planning in
Construction Companies, Haifa, Israel, 89 June, pp. 42143.
Lai, X. and Guan, K. 2001. A study of a large-scale contractors international competitiveness. In:
Building Science Research of Sichuan 27, Sichuan Institute of Construction Science, China, pp.
7375. (In Chinese).
Lall, S. 2001. Competitiveness, Technology and Skill Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK.
Langford, D. and Male, S. 2001. Strategic Management in Construction, Blackwell Science,
Oxford.
Lansley, P., Quince, T. and Lea, E. 1979. Flexibility and Efficiency in Construction Management,
Final Report. Building Industry Group, Ashridge Management Collage, Amersham, Bucks.
Momaya, K. 2004. Competitiveness of Firms: Review of Theory, Frameworks, and Models.
Singapore Management Review, Volume 26, No 1, 4560.
1002
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) is one of the most important active strike-slip
faults in the world and the most important active fault in Turkey. During the 20th
century, many destructive earthquakes occurred along this fault resulting in the collapse
of 450,000 buildings and the death of over 80,000 people. In this period twenty-five
destructive earthquakes (M>6.5) occurred and 7 of these earthquakes originated in the
Marmara Sea region (Barka and Nalbant 1998). Between 1939 and 1967, six large fault
ruptures formed a westward-migrating sequence of events along a 900-km-long near
continuous portion of the NAFZ (Barka 1996). According to recent studies, most of the
historical earthquakes in the Marmara sea region occurred on the northern strand of the
NAFZ (Ambraseys and Finkel 1991, Barka 1991). Izmit (Kocaeli) earthquake occurred
on the NAFZ in the northwestern part of Turkey. The earthquake started at the west,
lasted for 12 seconds, paused for 18 seconds and was followed by rupture in the east for 7
seconds. The maximum offset along the surface break was measured near Arifiye, east of
1005
Sapanca (between Arifiye and Adapazari), where the fault displaced a road horizontally
by about 5 m. This earthquake caused heavy damage in a density populated and
industrialised region. Some cities affected were Izmit, Adapazari, Yalova, Golcuk,
Istanbul, Bolu. The earthquakes epicentre was located at latitude 41.8 and longitude
29.9. The heaviest damaged area was around the Gulf of Izmit and the city of Yalova.
The dead and injured located approximately 18,000 and 48,000 respectively in city
centres (Barka, 1999). The distribution of those who died in city centres was: Golciik
(5,025), Izmit (also known as Kocaeli) (4,093), Adapazan (also known as Sakarya)
(2,629), Yalova (2,502), Istanbul (981), Bolu (264), Bursa (268), Eskiehir (86),
Zonguldak (3) (Sahin and Tari, 2000).
Monitoring and mapping change detection of urban area with time were the main
objectives of remote sensing study. In addition to this, satellite sensor images can be used
for many different application, such as land cover change (Yang 2002, Foody and Boyd
1999, Kaya and Curran 2003), mapping of earthquake damage (Lin et al. 2002, Fu and
Lin 2003), earthquake displacement (Massonet et al. 1993), volcano deformation
(Massonet et al. 1995), glacier dynamics (Mohr et al. 1998). Also land subsidence
monitoring can be evaluated by means of differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
interferometry (Strozzi et al. 2000, Strozzi et al. 2001). More specifically SPOT HRV
data have been applied successfully to the assessment of earthquake damage due to the
1999 event in Golcuk (Turker and San 2003, Kaya et al. 2003, Kaya et al. 2004). Remote
sensing techniques provide a rapid and powerful tool to detect natural disasters in the
remote, inaccessible and large areas.
1006
The main objectives in this study are (i) to examine land cover change in Yalova city
between 1993 and 1999 using SPOT HRV data (ii) to determine heavy damaged areas in
1999 earthquake using these data (iii) to investigate the utilization of SPOT HRV data for
determination of earthquake damages in urban area.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Study area (Yalova city)
Yalova city is located in the northwest of Turkey and southeast of the Marmara Sea. Its
geographic boundaries are between 39 and 40 S in latitude and between 29 and 31 E
in longitude. The area of the region is approximately 839 km2. According to census data
taken from State Institute of Statistics (SIS), the population of the city centre was 87032
in 1990, and 98.661 in 2000. Increase in rate of population in the year of 2000 was
12.54% in city centre. Yalova has become city since 6 June 1996. Altitude of Yalova is
2m and the highest point of the city is 926m. 17 August 1999 earthquake caused
considerable damage and deaths in Yalova city. The number of collapsed and heavy
damaged buildings in the city centre was 517 and 7606 respectively. The death toll in the
city centre was 1449 and reported injuries were 2543. Approximately 50% of buildings
and a great percent of the local roads were damaged in 17 August earthquake. Postearthquake ground photographs were shown in f igure 1. After the earthquake
immigration has occurred to other cities. The earthquake caused to damage to agriculture
such as 30% of the flower and plant greenhouses were destroyed. In order to mitigate
effects of the earthquake damages, 17777 tents were pitched up in a total of 10 different
areas.
2.2 Classification
The overall objective of classification is to automatically categorize all pixels in an image
into land cover classes or themes (Lillesand and Kiefer, 2001). Image classification is the
process used to produce thematic maps from imagery. Classification can be performed
either supervised or unsupervised. For unsupervised classification, the analyst employs a
computer algorithm that locates concentrations of feature vectors within a heterogeneous
sample of pixels. These so-called clusters are then assumed to represent classes in the
image and are used to calculate class signatures (Schowengerdt, 1997). In this study, an
unsupervised classification algorithm called ISODATA clustering was used. 50 clusters
were selected for ISODATA algorithm. After performing ISODATA clustering, these 50
clusters were merged and five classes (water, sand, urban, agricultural area and forest)
were formed (Figure 2).
1007
3 RESULTS
3.1 Land cover/use change
Yalova which is very important city for agricultural production also has been used as
touristic purposes during the summer time for two decades. After becoming city on 6
June 1995, the population of the city has been increasing and this caused expansion of
urban areas. In addition, in order to provide increasing accommodation demand, various
kinds of structures were constructed and new housing complex were built.
1993 SPOT HRV XS and 1999 SPOT HRV XI data were classified in order to obtain
land cover/use classes in the study region. Areal changes in land cover/use were
determine using classification results. Classification results of 1993 SPOT HRV XS data
showed that the areas of water, sand, urban, agricultural area and green area & forest
were 3863.9ha, 18.9ha, 393.2 ha, 2519.2 ha and 2027.9 ha respectively. The results of
classified post earthquake image illustrated that the areas of water, sand, urban,
agricultural area and green area & forest were calculated as 3867.7ha, 19.2 ha, 487.6 ha,
2448.8 ha and 1999.8 ha, respectively (Table 1). According to these results significant
changes had occurred in urban, agricultural, and green & forest categories. Especially,
change in urban area was determined as 24%. On the other hand, change in agricultural
area was found approximately2.79% and change in green & forest area was found
1.39%.
Date
1993
Area
(ha)
Date
1999
Area
(ha)
3863.9
3867.7
18.9
19.2
Urban area
1008
393.2
487.6
Agricultural area
2519.2
2448.8
2027.9
1999.8
1009
According to figure 3, A1, A2, and A3 are the unchanged urban areas in Yalova city
after earthquake. B1 and B2 are prefabricated houses which were done to provide
accommodation demand for after the earthquake. C1, C2 and C3 are the regions that
debris were filled. D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8 and D9 regions which were located
in the inner city, south and east of the study area demonstrate heavy damaged and
collapsed buildings.
Level slicing is an enhancement technique whereby the DNs distributed along the x
axis of an image histogram are divided into a series of analyst-specified intervals or
slices. It involves the grouping of image regions with similar DN (Lillesand and Kiefer).
Examination of level sliced difference image demonstrated spectral mixtures between
some land cover/use classes. Spectral mixture occurred between heavy damaged areas,
new constructed prefabricated houses, earthquake induced ruin roads and debris field.
Therefore, prefabricated houses, ruin roads and debris field were digitized from level
sliced difference image to determine the area of heavy damaged buildings in figure 4.
The area obtained by digitizing was subtracted from total changed area derived by level
slicing and earthquake-induced heavy damaged area found 76, 47 ha.
3.3 Usability of SPOT HRV data
Both panchromatic and multi spectral SPOT HRV data in conjunction with ground data
were used in a variety of applications such as disaster management, risk analysis and
regional catastrophes. SPOT HRV data with repetitive acquisition of the synoptic view
images are used to provide immediate and rapid access to disastrous regions. The location
and size of the regions which are severely affected in a disaster can be determined using
SPOT HRV data. In the study, results obtained from processed image were compared
with ground data obtained from www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/. The comparison results were
1010
1011
REFERENCES
Ambraseys, N.N. & Finkel, C.F. 1991. Long-term Seismicity of Istanbul and the Marmara Region,
Engineering Seismology Earthquake Report, 91/8, Imperial College.
Barka, A.A. & Nalbant, S. 1998. 1700 ve sonrasi Marmara depremlerinin modellenmesi, Aktif
Tektonik Aratirma Grubu Birinci Toplants, T Avrasya Yerbilimleri Enstits, stanbul.
Barka, A.A. 1991. stanbulun depremselliini oluturan tektonik yaplar ve stanbul iin bir mikro
blgelendirme Grubu Birinci Toplantisi, T Avrasya Yerbilimleri Enstits, stanbul.
Barka, A.A. 1991. stanbulun depremselliini oluturan tektonik yapilar ve stanbul iin bir mikro
blgelendirme denemesi, Istanbul ve Deprem Sempozyumu, naat Mhendisleri Odasi,
Istanbul, 7898.
Barka, A.A. 1996. Slip distribution along the North Anatolian Fault associated with the large
earthquakes of the Period 1939 to 1967, Bulletin of the Seismology Society of America 86:1238
1254.
Barka, A.A. 1999. The 17 August 1999 Izmit earthquake. Science 285:18581859.
Barka, A.A. & Reilinger, R. 1997. Active tectonic of the Eastern Mediterranean Region: Deduced
from GPS, Neotectonic and Seismicity Data, Annali di Geofisia XL: 587610.
Foody, G. & Boyd, D.S. 1999. Detection of partial land cover change associated with the migration
of inner-class transitional zones, International Journal of Remote Sensing 20:27232740.
Fu, B. & Lin, A. 2003. Spatial distribution of the surface rupture zone associated with the 2001 Ms
8.1 Central Kunlun earthquake, northern Tibet, revealed by satellite remote sensing data,
International Journal of Remote Sensing 24:21912198.
Kandilli Rasathanesi, http://www.koeri.boun.edu.tr/, 10 June 2004.
Kaya, S. & Curran, P.J. 2003. Monitoring urban growth on the European side of the Istanbul
metropolitan area, P.Aplin & P.M.Mather (editors), Proceedings of Remote Sensing and
Photogrammetry Society 2003, Scales and Dynamics in Observing the Environment, 1012
September. Nottingham: UK, (on CD ROM).
Kaya, S. Llewellgn, G. & Curran, P.J. 2004. Displaying earthquake damage and urban area using
vegetation impervious soil model and remotely sensed data, ISPRS XXth Congress, 1223 July,
Istanbul, Turkey (Submitted).
Kaya, S. Muftuoglu, O. & Tuysuz, O. 2004. Tracing the geometry of an active fault using remote
sensing and digital elevation model: Ganos segment, North Anatolian Fault zone, Turkey,
International Journal of Remote Sensing (submitted).
Lillesand, T.M. & Kiefer, R.W. 2000. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation. New York: John
Wiley and Sons.
Lin, A. Fu, B. Guo, J. Zeng, Q. Dang, G. He, W. & Zhao, Y. 2002. Co-seismic strike-slip and
rupture length produced by the 2001 Ms 8.1 Central Kunlun earthquake, Science 296:2015
2017.
Massonet, D. Briole, P. & Arnaud, A. 1995. Deflation of the Mount Etna monitored by spaceborne
radar interferometry, Nature 375:567570.
Massonet, D. Rossi, M. Carmona, F. Adragna, F. Peltzer, G. Feigl, K. & Rabaute, T. 1993. The
displacement field of the Landers earthquake mapped by SAR interferometry, Nature 364:138
142.
Mohr, J.J. Reeh, N. & Madsen, S.N. 1998. Three dimensional glacial flow and surface elevation
measured with radar interferometry, Nature 391:273276.
Sahin, M. & Tari, E. 2000. The August 17 Kocaeli and the November 12 Duzce earthquakes in
Turkey. Earth Planets Space 52:753757.
Schowengerdt, R.A. 1997. Remote sensing: models and methods for image processing, Academic
Press, San Diego.
1012
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 BACKGROUND
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a management tool for understanding,
identifying and controlling environmental impacts of a businesses activities, products and
services. The first formalized approach was introduced in 1992 with the introduction of
British Standard BS 7750 (ENDS 1992). This was then followed by the introduction of
the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), which was adopted within
the UK in 1995 (ENDS 1995). Following the arrival of EMAS, the European Standards
body (CEN) was provided with a briefing to devise an environmental management
standard that offered firms a practical alternative to registration under EMAS (ENDS
1995). The resulting draft was formally issued in 1996 and called ISO 14001. This
International Standard replaced BS 7750, which was formally withdrawn in 1997.
Following the publication of ISO 14001, an entire family of ISO 14000 standards were
published, each relating to EMS and related environmental management tools (ISO
1998).
Uptake of these formalized systems has gathered pace in the years following their
introduction. By 1999, nearly 3,000 sites across the EC had registered to under EMAS,
but more than three times as many had been certified under ISO 14001 (ENDS 2000).
1014
For many companies, however, there can be problems with implementing a system,
despite all the potential benefits (such as cost savings, increased awareness and
compliance with legislation). Major problem areas include a lack of senior level
commitment to undertaking such work, a struggle to make all employees aware of the
implications of the EMS and resistance to change in working practices (Institute of
Environmental Management 1998). Within Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs),
there is also the problem of limited financial, technical and manpower capabilities to
implement adequate enviromnental measures (Chiu et al 1999), as well as external
barriers including difficulties in obtaining useful and consistent advice, the high costs of
certification to a standard and the lack of drivers to obtain a system (Hillary 1999). SMEs
find formal systems such as ISO 14001 too rigid, and as such prefer a system that can be
broken down into elements to suit their individual needs (Hopkinson & Jones 2002). For
these reasons, phased approaches were suggested.
A phased approach of implementation was described in 1995 (Heijdra 1995). Here, the
EMS was broken down into six steps to show a simple project approach to implementing
such a system. Another approach was the Business Environment Association (BEA)
Environmental Healthcheck, which provided 5 levels
*Mandix is a private management consultancy company based in Cardiff.
of accreditation, with certificates provided for each completed level. Despite winning
funding from the European ADAPT programme, this initiative folded in 1999. The ISO
TC 207 working party (subcommittee 1) did consider adapting ISO 14001 to encompass
special issues of SMEs, but decided that no new standards of other documents would be
issued. Following this, in 2000, Project Acorn was launched by the British Standards
Institution. This project provided a five level approach to implementing an EMS
compatible with ISO 14001, with a sixth level providing compatibility with EMAS
(ENDS 2001). This project resulted in the creation of the first phased Environmental
Management Standard BS 8555, launched in April 2003. On a regional level, the Welsh
Green Dragon standard was launched in 2002, again providing a five level approach to
implementing an EMS compatible with ISO 14001. With both of these initiatives, SMEs
can obtain certificates to show achievement of a particular level of environmental
management.
A recent report by the European Commissions Enterprise Directorate indicated that
few SMEs have adopted EMSs. This report recommended the promotion of SMEfriendly implementation of EMS, especially using staged approaches (European
Commission 2004).
Phased EMS approaches have therefore been designed with SMEs in mind, and the
European Commission recommends these approaches for encouraging uptake of EMS.
However, there has not yet been any reported research on the effectiveness of these
systems within SMEs.
1015
1016
location of major clients), as well as assess the current level of knowledge within the
company of EMS.
The results presented are based on initial surveys administered to 25 companies during
the first year of the project, and represents responses to perceived benefits of
implementing an EMS. These surveys were administered to the key contact point
established within the company, and were therefore highly placed personnel (i.e. a
Managing Director, Proprietor or Quality Manager).
3.1.1 Reasons for implementing the system
Participants were questioned on their motivation for implementing an EMS against seven
key criteria, based upon experience from previous work (Hopkinson & Jones 2002).
Table 1 lists the responses in terms of percentage responses for each criterion.
The results of this question show that the SMEs involved were highly motivated
towards improving business management, then achieving legal compliance and
improving their marketing through such a system. To a lesser extent, the SMEs were not
as concerned with improving relations with regulators as many of the companies enrolled
reported that they did not have much contact with regulators.
Percentage
Management issues
To increase efficiency
84
76
72
Marketing issues
To enhance public image
80
76
Legal issues
To improve compliance with legislation
80
64
Customer pressure
Marketing reasons
16
1017
20
12
12
12
Setting targets
Job creation
20
12
Revealing opportunities
16
Management efficiency
16
12
Pollution prevention
1018
1019
1020
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
The evaluation of seismic vulnerability and seismic risk reduction by means of
retrofitting of existing building heritage is a significant problem in many countries.
Suitable software tools may support the evaluation process, providing environments
for data and models integration and scenarios simulation.
The development of this type of tools requires diverse types of knowledge, coming
from seismology, geotechnical engineering, seismic engineering and risk management.
From the information technology point of view, a supporting tool requires the integration
of databases and computational components in a GIS based environment.
The paper describes the capabilities of SEISMOCARE, a software package developed
to support users of different technical background (e.g. experts as well as civil protection
authorities), active in seismic risk analysis and strengthening strategy definition. The tool
is the evolution of a number of projects funded by E.U. and Italian National Research
Bodies.
Chapter 2 provides a general overview of the system capabilities. The remaining
chapters discuss the knowledge integration issues: what knowledge was integrated; how
the knowledge integration requirement and the evolutionary approach of the system
1022
development affected the software engineering process; how the knowledge was codified
and how was the unification of the knowledge accomplished through suitable
architectural and implementation choices.
2 SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The objective of the system development is to produce a software package for reliable
predictions of losses due to earthquakes in a city or region.
The software package is essentially a simulator with which the effects of damaging
earthquakes in an urban area may be simulated and the losses estimated. It can be used to
provide information useful for formulating seismic risk mitigation policies, planning and
taking measures, effective both in the long term as well as for emergency response.
The forecasted final users are people directly involved in the result of software
simulations at various levels of expertise, depending on the type of simulation (adopted
models, computing parameters and interpretation of the results). The basic planned
features of the system allow its use even by persons not highly specialized.
The simulator is composed by the following three basic inter-linked sets of modules:
The seismic hazard set
The vulnerability set
The loss estimation set
Each set is a toolbox, including various types of data and models, which may be used
according to specific goals and constraints (e.g. available data, costs).
A number of functions exploit the simulation capabilities linking together the basic
modules for defined purposes (global simulation, emergency preparedness support,
planning support). Through them, the user can explore possible scenarios following the
earthquake and simulate the effects of actions on the urban nucleus.
The person/machine interface supports:
The detailed control of the simulation step by step (seismic source definition,
propagation to the bedrock, site effects modeling, damage computation, losses
computation);
A recording functions allowing to execute a sequence of simulations steps in the
recording mode, to generate a scenario simulation to be re-executed;
The ability to re-use specific predefined scenarios (e.g. for civil protection support) that
were generated through the recording facility;
Special functions to exploit the scenarios for a specific use. A comprehensive set of
functions allows supporting the planning activities through the simulation of
strengthening actions for seismic reinforcement of buildings. Another set of functions
allows supporting emergency preparedness for civil protection.
The Seismic Hazard component is used to assist in selecting the scenario earthquake(s)
and to generate expected motion parameters at a grid of points on the surface, covering
the area of interest for the scenario quake. The module includes the following
components:
1023
SEISMIC INPUT. It includes the seismicity data (earthquake history catalogues and
related parameters (date, magnitude, location, depth, etc) and information related to
active faults (type of fault if known, length, activity rate, maximum possible event,
etc) as well as the attenuation models estimating the seismic input at bedrock. The
result of the computation is the seismic input in terms of bedrock acceleration and/or
intensities at the site under investigation (seismic hazard or seismicity measures). The
computation of the seismic input at the bedrock may be done in two ways by direct
specification of a scenario PGA or by specification of a scenario earthquake(s) at any
of the specified potential seismic sources and a subsequent attenuation to the sites of
interest.
SITE EFFECTS. This component computes the effects of bedrock motion on the soil
deposits at the area of interest and provides estimates of the ground motion at the
surface.
The vulnerability assessment component assists in defining the elements at risk and
producing the vulnerability and damage measures, required for estimating losses. The
module includes the following components:
INVENTORY: each catalogued structural object is described through a suitable
classification (General buildings, special buildings with high concentration of people,
critical facilities, utility buildings, lifelines). For each classified structure, a set of data
is included (e.g. exposure occupation density). Each object has to be geo-referenced.
VULNERABILITY: it includes data and models at various levels of detail (e.g.
GNDT1 model adapted to compute vulnerability and GNDT2 model) to compute the
vulnerability of buildings (masonry and reinforced concrete), lifelines and special
structures. The component allows managing all the data coming from the surveys,
which are needed by the vulnerability models. It is possible to run the vulnerability
models associated to each structural object and use the data to compute the
vulnerability indexes. Note that the systems may host models at various level of
accuracy, according with the available data. This feature allows the use of the software
in real situations according with different possible survey strategies. Moreover, it is
allowed to store data about possible strengthening techniques. The system manages
rules that modify the vulnerability indexes according to the application of each
strengthening technique. In such a way, it is possible to simulate the effects of a
strengthening strategy on an urban nucleus.
DAMAGE: it includes data, models and functions for estimating damage as follows:
Direct estimation of building damage without prior computation of vulnerabilities
(e.g. by means of the PSI model);
Estimation of damage from seismic input and vulnerability indexes (computed
through vulnerability models);
Conversion of damage indexes produced by various models or methods into a
uniform damage scale so that the user can compare them.
Moreover it is included the module INTENSITY MAPS which is able to manage the
computation of damage following a process which takes as input an intensity map and
transforms it through amplification at bedrock models and soil effect models. This is
1024
another way of simulate the structural damage (with no use of acceleration information
and Vulnerability/ Damage models).
The loss estimation component includes functions related to the management of data
that are needed to activate losses models and compute losses through losses models. It
also includes types of models, which may take as input the data of damage, intensity and
seismic input described using accelerations. The loss estimation module quantifies the
loss estimates in terms of:
Built environment damage;
Human losses;
Displaced people;
Direct and indirect economic losses.
The software package also includes functions needed to manage the simulator and exploit
it. This kind of functions may be added to the simulator without changing the structure of
the simulator itself. This is the way to specialise the product and improve its value for the
users.
An example is the module for EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS SUPPORT, which
provides specific functions useful to support the preparedness to deal with emergencies.
It may produce additional maps with the following information:
Expected number of safe buildings;
Expected number of safe buildings appropriate for temporary shelters;
Post-earthquake conditions of critical facilities;
Post earthquake conditions of lifelines;
Accessibility/evacuation routes of the urban system (related both to urban and suburban
roads and their connection points);
Gathering areas/structures and aid services (locations, availability and accessibility for
present conditions).
Another example is a module able to use the simulator to generate global scenarios for
PLANNING and LOSS REDUCTION SUPPORT.
It provides specific functions useful to support the urban planning and loss reduction
activities, allowing modifying the existing situation of the urban area and simulating the
earthquake effects in the new scenario.
It may produce additional maps with the following information:
Effects on the urban area after extensive buildings strengthening actions;
Effects on the urban area in case of removal of dangerous structures.
Simulated scenarios in case of new expansions of the urban area.
The system is based on a set of data layers stored into a Geographic Information System
(GIS) software needed to give information to the user about the simulation theatre (e.g.
administrative borders, active faults, lakes, main roads, motorways, railways, lifelines,
seismo-genetic zones).
This set of layers and the GIS capabilities act as integration environment. They allow
hosting the specific sets of data required by the simulator. The GIS software act also as
environment for the person/ machine interface.
1025
3 TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
The development of the system requires the cooperation of experts, coming from diverse
disciplines: seismology, geotechnical engineering, seismic engineering, and risk analysis.
Each discipline makes available a large amount of knowledge. Knowledge modules (data
and models) have to be selected to cooperate according with the aims of the system (the
forecasted users).
The knowledge is embodied into three diverse containers: data, models and
combination rules. Examples of data are an earthquake catalogue and the related
parameters (date, magnitude, location, depth, etc) or a set of data coming from a seismic
vulnerability survey of an urban nucleus or again a map of roads at regional scale.
A set of seismic vulnerability/damage models may be a models example. The set may
include models at various levels of detail to compute the vulnerability and the damage of
buildings (masonry and reinforced concrete), lifelines and special structures. Another
example is a set of acceleration propagation/ attenuation models to propagate the effects
of diverse types of seismic sources.
Combination rules describe input/output relations and constraints. The overall
functionality of the system is obtained linking together (through input/output relations) a
number of data and models. The simulation of the effects of an earthquake starts from a
seismic source (e.g. an active fault), propagates through a geographical region, takes into
account the contribution of the local soil under the urban nucleus and finally cause the
damage status of each building. Many modules may be available to solve a specific
simulation step for a defined purpose. The system hosts models at various level of
accuracy, according with the available data. E.g., the building damage may be evaluated
through a simple damage model based on a building classification. More detailed models
are based on data coming from a standard street surveys or a deeper evaluation of the
structural properties of the building.
The availability of diverse possible chains of data and models requires the definition
of constraints. E.g. a specific chain of data and models may be suitable for the simulation
of the earthquake effects at regional scale and not at urban nucleus scale and may be
appropriate for a shallow earthquake seismic source. The constraints may arise not only
from technical problems (the best solution for a given simulation problem) but also from
economical ones. E.g. the simulation goal could be a first level, low cost damage ranking
of an urban nucleus, given the data coming from a street survey.
4 KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
PROCESS
What does it mean knowledge integration? Are there specific requirements to be
satisfied to integrate the knowledge?
The first requirement, at the beginning of the project, in the specification phase, is to
define the goals for the integration. The integration is goal oriented and depends on the
intended uses of the system.
A second requirement, during the specification phase, is to develop an accurate model
of the interesting set of knowledge modules and their relationships.
1026
1027
1028
1029
(regional level and urban nucleus). At each simulation scale, it is possible to use all the
implemented functions, such as hazard, damage and losses. The sequence of steps may be
stored, classified and re-executed later. The recorded scenarios can be used for nonspecialist final users (e.g. for civil protection preparedness).
Finally, the tools level may be extended adding new applications that exploit the
simulation capabilities. The current implementation makes available a tool for emergency
preparedness support and another one for planning and loss reduction support.
The hardware/software platform is the following:
Personal computer with a Windows operating system;
Microsoft Access Data Base Management System;
Mapinfo Geographical Information System.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The tool is the evolution of a number of projects funded by E.U. and Italian National
Research Bodies:
CNR (Italian National Research Council)Progetto Finalizzato Edilizia, Expert
systems and mobile laboratory for seismic risk assessment of buildings (Cadei 1992);
TOSQAEarthquake Protection for Historic Town Centers (EV5V-CT93-0305)
(TOSQA Report 1 and 2, 1996);
SCENARIO: Time dependent seismic hazard estimate based on multi-parameter
geophysical observatory system (PL931989) (Salvaneschi 1996 and SCENARIO
1998);
SEISMOCARE (ENV4-CT97-0588) (Anagnostopoulos 1998 and SEISMOCARE
2001).
The tool, during the evolution steps, has been used for seismic risk assessment in a
number of situations. Among them: the urban nucleus of the Alfama district in Lisbon,
the area of Quartieri spagnoli in Naples, the region and the city of Chania, a Greek city
on the island of Crete and the town of Genova, Department of Quindo, Colombia.
REFERENCES
Anagnostopoulos S.A., Bonacina G., Gavarini C., Nistic N., Providakis C., Salvaneschi P.,
Sotiropoulos D., Woo G., 1998. Computer aided Reduction of Seismic Risk with Application to
existing Cities, Town planning and Construction (SEISMOCARE) SISM-98 Seismic Impact on
Structures and Monuments, Cambridge, UK.
Cadei, M., Panzeri, P., Peano, A., Salvaneschi, R., 1992. A mobile laboratory with an expert system
for seismic assessment of buildings. Proc. of the Tenth World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, A.A.Balkema, Rotterdam, 63116316.
Salvaneschi R., Mucciarelli M., Spinelli A., Console R., Valensise G., Stavrakakis G.N., 1996.
Time Dependent Hazard Estimate based on a Multi-parameter Geophysical Observatory System
XXV General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission (ESC), Reykjavik.
SCENARIO Final report, 1998. Environment project PL931989, Time dependent seismic hazard
estimate based on multi-parameter geophysical observatory system (SCENARIO).
1030
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
A very promising method in earthquake engineering for protection of heightrisk and
very important structures against destructive influence of seismic waves is anti-seismic
structural control. One of the critical problems there is the problem of forecasting in realtime of the behavior of seismic waves. Prognoses for further development of the waves
can be made from recorded in real-time data for certain part of destructive seismic waves
registrated in three directions. These prognoses are based on general, tectonic, seismic
and site parameters. During these prognoses is supposed that waves can be classified as
destructive or non-destructive and can be taken decision for switching on the devices for
structural control.
For making prognoses it is necessary to develop different kind of models. Modeling
gives possibility to study the behavior of seismic waves and relationships between their
parameters during their spread in soil layers, where for each point the parameters of her
displacement are presented with three components in three directions of the orthogonal
1032
axes. For practical purposes of possible records for displacements, velocities and
accelerations as time history, most often accelerograms are used, which are characterized
with certain duration, frequency and peak ground acceleration. They are involved in
models and systems for estimation of elasticity response spectrum. The most practical
usage in structural engineering and design has their peak values, independently of their
sign and direction. Thats why the modeling of the behavior of seismic waves is used as
input information in the process of calculation of the structural response spectrum.
The prognoses of earthquake occurrence can be classified according to the prognoses
time duration. The most popular is their dividing into long-term (for next ten years),
intermediate-term (for next few years), short-term (for next months-weeks) and real-time.
Other kind of prognoses is prognoses of the area of occurrence of earthquake excitation
of certain magnitude. Both approaches for prognoses are connected with difficult
problems, when are applied the traditional stochastic time series analyses instead of
applying methods for crash prognoses, where is dealing with reaching of certain critical
threshold, (Kossobokov et al, 2000). Concerning the gap stretch of expected earthquake
GLe it is necessary to take the space localization in more wide diapasons. The
classification of kind of earthquake prognoses is presented on Table 1.
Long-term
10
Long duration up to
100
Intermediate-term
Middle duration
510
Short-term
0.010.1
Short duration
23
Real-time
0.0001
Exact
In this paper we fix our attention on real-time prognoses of earthquake excitation, which
is very important, because we have to receive very precise estimation of the development
of the process. The method for classification is developed for fast estimation of strong
motion seismic waves on the base of their main characteristics. The fast estimation of
seismic waves is implementing for real-time prognoses, which is based on belonging of
prognoses waves to certain class and subclass.
2 INTERMEDIATE-TERM MIDDLE-RANGE PREDICTION
An earthquake prediction must specify the expected magnitude range, the geographical
area within which it will occur, and the time interval within which it will happen with
sufficient precision so that the ultimate success or failure of the prediction can readily be
judged. The two basic intermediate-term algorithms M8 and MSc are comparing in this
section.
1033
2.1 Algorithm M8
This prediction method was designed by retroactive analysis of dynamics of seismic
activity preceding the greatest, magnitude 8.0 or more earthquakes. Its original version
(Keilis-Borok & Kosobokov, 1990) were tested retroactively at 143 points, of which 132
are recorded epicenters of earthquakes of magnitude 8.0 or greater from 18571983.
The catalog of main shocks canbe described by {ti, mi, hi, bi(e)}, i=1, 2,, where ti is
the origin time, hi is the focal depth, mi is the magnitude and bi(e) is the number of
aftershocks with magnitude Maft or more during the first e days. On Figure 1 are shown
dependences between two main approaches for earthquake prediction with M8 provided
by Keilis-Borok (1) and Gardner-Knopoff (2).
According to M8, the prediction is aimed at earthquake of magnitude M0 and larger
from the range M0+= [M0, M0+DM], where DM<1. The magnitude scale should reflect
the size of earthquake sources. The algorithm is realizing via calculating overlapping
circles, with diameter D(M0)=(exp(M05.6)+1) in degrees of the Earth meridian, scanned
seismic region under study. The received sequence of overlapping circles is normalized
being the standard value of the
by the lower magnitude cutoff
average annual number of earthquakes in the sequence. Several running averages are
computed for this sequence in the trailing time window (ts, t) and magnitude
range
. They depict different measures of intensity in earthquake flow, its
deviation from the long-term trend and clustering the earthquake. The averages determine
range and acceleration of activity.
1034
1035
(1)
After determining the rate and acceleration of activity is determining linear concentration
of main shocks {i}Z(t) according to (2),
(2)
where magnitude range is mMi<M and the interval tsti<t is estimated as the ratio of
, when =0.46 to the average
the average diameter of the source
distance between them. For clustering characteristic is calculating the maximum over the
main shocks with magnitude mMi<M' and time interval (ts, t) as shown in (3).
B(t|m, M', s, maft, e)=max bi(e, maft)
(3)
Each
of
functions
N,
L,
is
calculated
twice
for
m,
where
1036
The territory U is coarse-grained into small squares (ss) and determines the centers
of the squares (i, j). Within each square the number of earthquakes and aftershocks is
calculated for consecutive, short time windows and k is the sequence number of a trailing
time window. Finally, the time-space considered is divided into small boxes (i, j, k) of the
size
1037
parameters are u=2 months, q=4 and s=3D/16, where D is diameter of the circle used in
algorithm A8.
The algorithm MSc outscores simple alternatives of narrowing down the area of first
approximation alarm, in which are included nonempty cells and most active cells that
contain a part of recent seismic activity. At second approximation is improving accuracy
by more detailed determination of the weight centers of the squares. Effective
prediction with MSc is reached in 18% of predictions.
3 REAL-TIME PROGNOSES WITH VECTOR QUANTIZATION
The suggested method for real-time prognoses is developed for fast estimation of strong
motion seismic waves on the base of their main characteristics. The fast estimation of
seismic waves is based on belonging of prognoses waves to certain class and subclass.
The proposed real-time classification and prognoses are realized with neuro model, which
is based on Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ). The classification helps to select
proper prognoses stochastic model for each of selected classes or subclasses. The
principle of it functionality is presented on Figure 3, where is shown an example for
prognoses model for destructive S-phase of class1classic. On the base of the registrated
input part of time series {xk,pn,, xkp} are made prognoses of the next values {xk,p+1,,
xk} of time series {xk}. The neural network has two layers: a first competitive and a
second linear. The competitive layer learns to classify the input vector. It learns all
subclasses that belongs to the linear target layer SM=SM1, SM2,, SMM. The module of
vector quantization (VQ) gives density distribution between classes in such a manner that
in each class we have the same number of target values. The linear layer transforms the
competitive layers classes into target classifications defined by the user. The competitive
neurons of the vector i will have weights of 1 to one neuron in the linear layer, and
weights of 0 to all other linear neurons.
1038
1039
LVQ learning in the competitive layer is based on a set of input/target pairs. Each
target vector has a single 1 and the rest of its elements are 0. The 1 tells the proper
classification of the associated input. With LVQ we determine the fimction of density
distribution with amplitudes, received from the real accelerograms. The vector
quantization gives density distribution for each class and redistributes the target values in
such a manner to have the same number of target values in each class (Radeva et al,
2004). The density distribution of the values of time series was received via
approximation of the linear target layer SM of the vector quantization. For the proper
determining of the function of density distribution is necessary to optimize the
approximation of the target layer. The network was trained to classify the input space
according to parameters of scene-oriented model. It is a modification of simple Markov
chain model, where the time series {xt} was transformed into discrete states {yt}, where
the number of states , is the same as the number of target classes, and the size of the
model yi for each state is determined.
With the help of LVQ is determining the optimal number of target classes and
prognoses is realizing with this number.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Real-time and intermediate-time earthquake prognoses are discussed. The two basic
algorithms for prognoses of intermediate-term and short-term prognoses are discussed.
Real-time prognoses algorithm for prognoses of destructive phase of strong motion
seismic waves is suggested the algorithm is realized with the help of stochastic models
and neural network, build on the principle of learning vector quantization. In real time are
generating the statistical function of density distribution of recorded data from
accelerogram. The received prognoses values are comparing with real ones for
continuous updating of the model. Received results can be used in system for structural
control and in process and product modelling
This work is a part of the International NATO research project No: PST.CLG.979333.
REFERENCES
Keilis-Borok, V.I. & Kossobokov, V.G.1990. Premonitory activation of earthquake flow: algorithm
M8. Phys. Earth Planet. International 61: pp. 7383.
Kossobokov, V., Keilis-Borok, V., Turcotte, D. & Malamud, B. 2000. Implications of a statistical
physics approach for earthquake hazard assessment and forecasting. Pure Applied Geophysics
157: pp 23232349
Radeva, s., schere, R., Radev D. & Yakov, V. Real-time estimation of strong motion seismic
waves, Acta Geodaetica et Geophysica Hungarica, Vol. 39 (23), 2004, pp. 297308.
IT supported architectural
design
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Standardization is widely recognized as a key element in reducing design time, cutting
construction costs and ensuring efficient design solutions. The previous project Building
Services Standard Solutions implemented in CAD (Medjdoub et al. 2003) has shown
that it is possible to define and implement standard solutions to produce designs
comparable with the practice. The previous project dealt with middle size problems
within simple geometry using constraint-programming technique to implement the design
rules and the solution generation algorithms.
In this project, our approach uses standard solutions in conjunction with IT and
extends the work of the previous one for fan coils to make the solutions useable for more
complex geometry. This will bring the benefits in terms of increasing the range of
applications for which the solutions can be used (with consequent reductions in design
time etc.) and to improve its usability. The extension to deal with more complex
geometry will be based on Case Based Reasoning (CBR) (Dave et al. 1994) (Sqalli et al.
1999) (Aamodt & Plaza 2000) as well as Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP)
approach. Very often, design engineers retrieve similar solutions from the case based and
adapt them to new problems. CBR mirrors this practical approach and will help us to deal
with increasingly complex geometry effectively. In this paper we do not deal with pipe
routing.
The objectives of the project are:
1043
Implement the standard solutions in an industry standard CAD system using advanced
techniques in Artificial Intelligence combining CBR with CSP.
Develop an interactive and friendly user interface, simply to use with a high-level
modification of the 2D and 3D solutions.
Test and evaluate the standard solutions against conventional ones in a benchmarking
exercise with our industrial partners.
1044
Type
General
Fan coil
units
Selection Units selected from manufacturer standard range using chilled water for
cooling and LPHW for heating as required.
Diffusers
Rules
Sizing
Location
Location
Ductwork Selection Local ductwork from fan coils to diffusers circular. Distribution ductwork
circular up to 200 mm, flat oval above to limit depth requirement.
Use standard ISO/DW144 ranges (DW144 1998). Use fittings as defined by
BSRIA (1995) Standard Details project.
Sizing
Use CIBSE Guide (2001). Local ductwork from fan coils to diffusers sized
as plenum spigot connection subject to a maximum velocity of 3 m/s. 5 m/s
maximum velocity limit for ductwork distribution to fan coils.
Location
1045
Run duct and pipe work headers out from riser and tap off to fan coil units.
Route ductwork through cellular beams if possible, otherwise run below
beams. Route ductwork down centre of area to be served. Branch supply
ductwork local to risers to facilitate crossovers.
Pipe work Selection Use fittings as defined by BSRIA Standard Details project.
Sizing
For LPHW and CHW pipe work use CIBSE Guide C steel pipe bigger
and higher k factors). Base sizing on 200Pa/m and never exceed 250
Pa/m.Size condensate at 20mm from units, 40 mm for 2 or more units, and
50 mm in risers.
Location
Try to run in pairs (side by side) for F & R but not essential. Reverse return
arrangements preferred where possible. Share commissioning sets if
adjacent units similar (cost and commissioning benefits) running pipe work
with a self-balancing T. Route through cellular beams if possible,
otherwise run below beams.
The rules and solutions documented in the table (Table 1) are for a four pipe ceiling
mounted fan coil system as the HVCA (DW144 1998) standard solution.
1046
1047
3.3 Pipe
The pipe class is defined by a set of points (X[n], Y[n], Z[n]) and a radius R. Each pair of
successive points defines a segment of the pipe, each segment has an orientation variable
defined over the domain {0, 90, 180, 270}. A class constraint is defined to ensure that
two successive segments have different orientations. We consider the number of bends
equal to the number of pipe segments minus one (see Figure 3, Bottom-Right).
4 CEILING VOID SPACE ALLOCATION PROCESS
The generation of a solution will follow four main steps:
1. Definition of the fan coil number and type
2. Floorzoning
1048
3. Case retrieving
4. Constraint-based case adaptation
4.1 Definition of the fan coil number and type
Buildings have different functions like offices, shopping malls, hospitals, restaurants etc,
and each one need a particular cooling and heating loads to serve the indoor
environments. So only after defining the floor ftmction, we could deduce the fan coil
number and
1049
the unlinked sides are perimeter sides. The fan coils and the diffusers can be set within
the perimeter (window) sides and the internal areas of different zones; finally the pipes
will pass through the joint sides to connect them. Meanwhile, engineers are required to
define the locations of columns, beams and internal structures (i.e. store rooms, lifts, stair
rooms etc) where the pipes and the fan coils should not overlap (non-overlapping layout).
For the locations of columns and beams definition, engineers are required to select all
reference lines (the row and column base lines) which cross the columns.
4.3 Case retrieving
After having defined the zones and their attributes, the next step consists on retrieving the
most similar
Explanation
Shape type
Side number
How many top vertexes with same Y value the shape has if it is a
polygon.
Primary & second Radius Check whether the primary radius equal to the second radius when the
shape is an elliptical curve.
Joint side number &
position
In the case of an elliptical arc, the joint side should be at the line
perimeter.
1050
1051
1052
1053
these parameters (i.e. perimeter and internal area sizes, area load rate, air density, etc.),
which are already saved in the database.
The building structure grid (i.e. indicating the location and the size of columns and
beams).
The zone, by selecting the shape and the system will automatically generate the zone
information (i.e. zone area and zone position). The user needs to define the window
and joint sides of the zone by selecting the appropriate sides.
The internal structure and the riser, lifts, stair cases, and function rooms. The location
of the riser which gives the starting position of the pipe routing.
The results have shown that it is possible to define and implement standard solutions to
produce designs comparable with current practice. This benchmarking exercise has
underlined many advantages and made some suggestions for further development.
The main advantages are:
1. The system deals with complex floor shapes.
2. The retrieving of the similar case is done in reasonable time.
3. The constraint-based adaptation approach is done sequentially which decrease the
complexity of the problem.
4. The output from the solutions such as the 3D data model is beneficial to other parties
in the supply chain.
The main improvements needed:
1. To deal with curved shapes.
2. To enrich the case library.
3. To develop a retain solution mechanism.
4. To develop further more the interactivity of the system.
6 CONCLUSION
This approach has shown the potential to significantly reduce design costs by reducing
design time, improve the quality of the solution and produce additional benefits
elsewhere in the supply chain. On the computational part, the integration of CBR and
CSP approaches did achieve a synergy, which produces the results that could not be
obtained if each mode were operating individually. Further developments are being done
and concern mainly the case library enrichment and the complex problem of pipe routing.
The idea to have a compromise between full automation and interactivity gives to the
designer full control of the design while assisting him to solve complex problems
automatically. This compromise is the main difference with the a forementioned
approaches in facilities layout and pipe routing. In our application, several aspects were
discussed which include case based reasoning approach, constraint satisfaction approach,
algorithm and rules of layout solution enumeration.
1054
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is funded by the EPSRC2 in the UK. There are three industrial partners
including Faber and Maunsell, Bentley Systems and Biddle Air Systems. The authors
would like to thank Mr Nick Barnard from Faber and Maunsell and Mr Mike Price from
Biddle Air Systems for their valuable help and comments about various aspects of this
research project.
REFERENCES
Aamodt, A. & Plaza, E. 1999. Case-Based Reasoning: Foundational Issues, Methodological
Variations, and System Approaches, AI ComArtiflcial Intelligence Communications, Vol. 7,
No. 1.
BSRIA report 2001. Rules of thumb, Technical Note TN15/01, BSRIA.
CIBSE Guide C, Reference Data. 2001. Section C4 Flow of Fluids in Pipes and Ducts.
Dave, B. Schmitt, G. Faltings, B. & Smith, I. 1994. Case based design in architecture, Artificial
Intelligence in Design -AID94, Kluwer Academic, p. 145162.
DW 144. 1998. Specification for sheet metal duct work-Low, medium and high pressure/velocity
air systems, HVCA.
Medjdoub, B. & Yannou, B. 2000. Separating topology and geometry in space planning, Computer
Aided Design, 32(1), p. 3961.
Medjdoub, B. & Yannou, B. 2001, Dynamic space ordering at a topological level in space
planning, Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, 15(2001), Elsevier Science Ltd, p. 4760.
Medjdoub, B. Richens, P. & Barnard, N. 2003. Generation of Variational Standard Plant Room
Solutions, Automation in Construction, 12(2), Elsevier Science Ltd, p. 155166.
Sqalli, M.H. Purvis, L. & Freuder, E.C. 1999. Survey of Applications Integrating Constraint
Satisfaction and Case-Based Reasoning, PACLP99: International Conference and Exhibition on
the Practical Application of Constraint Technologies and Logical Programming.
2
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Digital design technologies have an important role in supporting the designer at the
conceptual architectural design phase. Computer supported design systems can generate
different images during the early design process and can provide useful inputs when
searching for alternative forms of architectural design products.
In the literature, there are different computational architectural design approaches.
Some researchers consider the design problem as a problem-solving process based on the
information-processing theory of Newel and Simon. HeGel-II (Akin and Sen, 1994),
SEED (Flemming, Aygen, Coyne and Snyder, 1997), WRIGHT (Baykan and Fox, 1997)
APSIS (Kisacikolu and ada, 2004) models are the examples that support the early
design phases by generating the alternative layouts.
Another computational design approach is the shape grammar formalism stated by
Stiny (1980). Queen Anne Houses (Flemming, 1987), Bungalows of Buffalo (Downing
and Flemming, 1981), the Prairie Houses of F.L.Wright (Koning and Eizenberg, 1981),
Row Houses ( ada, 1996a), Traditional Turkish Houses (ada, 1996b), Gedit
(Tapia, 1999), Coffee-maker (Agarval and Cagan, 1998), Alvaro Sizas Houses (Duarte,
1998) are some of the examples of the shape grammars. Most of these works generate
two-dimensional models of design products.
In this paper, a three-dimensional form generator based on fractal dimension will be
presented. Fractal geometry has begun to be used with the aim of supporting a new
approach in generative architectural design. Images based on fractal geometry can be
1056
generated by algorithms and are used in the formation of surfaces, structures and forms.
Shape grammars are applications in which shapes are represented as design descriptions
and transformed according to a rule-based formalism. Generation processes can be
modeled on the transformations of shapes. A shape grammar contains a vocabulary, a set
of shape rules and an initial shape. Form alternatives can be generated by applying the
shape rules recursively to the initial shape.
Fractals are a subset of shape grammars. In fractal approach, the number of rules are
small, the number of recursions high and self similarity is guaranteed in comparing shape
grammars (Schmitt and Chen, 1991).
In this study, fractal dimension is used as a means of capturing the pattern appropriate
at the compositional configuration of a historical architectural language and generating
new forms which will ensure the continuity of this language.
The aims of this study are:
To support the creativity of designers at the early design phases;
To generate and give a preliminary ranking to the form alternatives;
To explore the potential of digital design technologies in the computational architectural
design process.
1057
1058
developed algorithms, as in the algorithms for the generation of the settlement, have been
executed by applying the fractal value obtained from the Kayakoy or different values.
As an initial form a cube has been used. The generation process begins by locating the
cube and proceeds by applying the fractal dimension to it. By way of forming 125
(555) groups of these cubes, block formations having fractal values from 1.0 to 1.9
have been created. In Table 1, it can be seen that as fractal value increases, the cubes
create a more complex form, but as fractal value decreases, the cube group, by being less
broken up, creates forms which can be defined by Euclidean geometry.
With the aim of applying the fractal value belonging to the existing architectural
pattern, the form of a unit was examined, and by means of changing fractal dimension,
different alternatives were produced. The original spatial configuration of this unit was
examined in the context of the forms which would appear, by means of changes in fractal
value from 1.0 up to 1.9. At a fractal value of 1.0, the unit preserves its original block
effect. As fractal value is increased, so the block activity of the unit increases (Table 2),
(Table 3).
The generation process describes how to derive one compositional configuration from
other forms with different dimensions which can be generated by changing fractal
dimensions. In the generation of three-dimensional forms, the number of cubes on the x,
y and z axes can be defined parametrically. These parameters have been selected as 3, 5
and 7, and by applying these values to the x, y and z combinations, the forms shown in
Table 4 have been generated. In this approach, fractal dimension is constant. The forms
generated by changing the fractal dimension at each application from 1.1 to 1.9 are
shown in Table 5.
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1059
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
357
537
735
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.6
1.7
1.8
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Input unit,
Shape library unit,
Generation unit,
Settlement output unit,
Animation unit.
The parameters are:
Dimensions of the initial shape/number of the cubes
Fractal dimension that will be used in the generation process
Topographic data.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The fractal geometry and fractal concepts which have appeared through chaos theory
affect contemporary architectural understanding from different aspects. Fractal concepts,
have come to be used in many ways, both consciously and unconsciously, in the field of
architecture.
Spatial configurations, which have been represented by constraints or rules in the
abductive approach, have been represented by generative algorithms in the generative
approach.
In this study, by relying on the fractal dimension of an existing architectural pattern,
and at the early design phase, a generative design approach has been suggested which can
be used in the direction of supporting creativity in the creation of new forms. By using
the fractal dimensions of elements found in a shape library belonging to the relevant
architectural language, this approach may show the way to the creation of architectural
forms which will ensure the continuity of the pattern. Different form alternatives can be
generated by changing fractal dimension. But it is necessary to apply the functional
features to the generated forms by uniting them with the context and to develop them as
an architectural design product by evaluating them according to their performance
requirements.
The generative algorithm developed provides the possibility for the generation of a
new pattern and new architectural form, by being connected with a definite architectural
pattern, either dependent on or independentof it.
Using digital technologies when searching for alternative forms in the conceptual
design phase is a new approach based on the development of new technologies. Using
digital media as design media gives the designer the opportunity to extend his/her
imagination and innovations.
In further research, by placing the three-dimensional form alternatives at the
settlement model, harmony can be tested with the existing architectural language.
REFERENCES
Agarval, M., Cagan, J., 1998. A Blend of Different Tastes: The Language of Coffee Makers,
Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, vol: 25, no: 2, 205226.
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Akm, ., Sen, R., 1994. HeGeL-II: Heuristics and Optimization Based Search in Early Design, 7th
International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics, Advances in
Computer-Based Building Design Systems, Ed: J.Pohl, 127136, Baden-Baden.
Baykan, C.A. & Fox, M.S. 1997. Spatial Synthesis by Disjunctive Constraint Satisfaction, Artificial
Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, vol: 11, 245262, USA:
Cambridge University Press.
Bovill, C., 1996. Fractal Geometry In Architecture and Design, Boston: Birkhauser.
Chase, S., 1999. Grammar Based design Issues for User Interaction, ACADIA99, 198210.
Coyne, R.D., M.A.Rosenman, A.D.Radford, M.Balachandran, J.S.Gero, 1990. Knowledge-Based
Design Systems, U.S.A.: Addison-Wesley.
ada, G., (1996a). A Shape Grammar Model for Designing Row-houses, Design Studies, vol: 17,
no: 1, 3551.
ada, G., (1996b), A Shape Grammar: The Language of Traditional Turkish Houses,
Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, vol: 23, no: 5, 443464.
Downing, E., Flemming, U., 1981. The Bungalows of Buffalo, Environment and Planning B, vol:
8, 269293.
Duarte, J.P., 1998. Using Grammars to Customize Mass Housing: the Case of Sizas Houses at
Malagueira, IAHS World Congress on Housing, Lisbon, Portugal.
Flemming, U., 1987. More than the sum of parts: the grammar of Queen Anne houses, Environment
and Planning B, Planning and Design, cilt: 14, 323350.
Flemming U, Aygen Z, Coyne R and Snyder J: 1997. Case-Based Design in a Software that
Supports the Early Phases in Building Design in Mary Lou Maher and Pearl Pu (eds), Issues
and Applications of Case-Based Reasoning in Design, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, USA, 61
85.
Kisacikolu, B., ada, G., 2004. Architectural Plan Layout Generatorby Exhaustive Search:
APSIS, (it will be presented ECPPM 2004), stanbul.
Knight, T., 1998. Designing a shape Grammar, Artificial Intelligence in Design 98, J.Gero,
F.Sudweeks, (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publ., The Netherlands, pp: 499.
Koning, H., Eizenberg, J., 1981. The language of the prairie: Frank Lloyd Wrights prairie houses,
Environment and Planning B, vol: 8, sf: 295323.
Mitchell, W.J., 1977. Computer-Aided Architectural Design, NewYork: Petrocelli/Charter.
Stiny, G., 1980. Introduction to Shape and Shape Grammars, Environment and Planning B, vol: 7,
343351.
Schmitt, G., Chen C.C., 1991. Classes of DesignClasses of MethodsClasses of Tools, Design
Studies, 12, No: 4, 246251.
Tapia, M., 1999. A visual implementation of a shape grammar system, Environment and Planning
B, Planning and Design, vol: 26, no: 1, 5973.
Yoon, R.Coyne, 1992. Reasoning about spatial constraints, Environment and Planning: Planning
and Design, 19, 243266.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
It is well known that most design problems are characterized as ill specified and building
computer programs that deal with such domains is a tough challenge. The most common
approach to make effective computer systems in design is building programs to support
the designers in various sub problems that algorithmic search or case matching is
possible. In this study, space planning in architectural design is determined as a sub
problem that can be facilitated with an automated system that performs an exhaustive
algorithmic search.
The layout design model that we will propose here involves an interactive and gradual
process considering the need of user guidance in problem specification. In each phase of
this process, the user tries to specify the problem in terms of constraints and APSIS
(Architectural Plan layout generator by exhaustive Search of constraint conformity In the
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design Space) that we have developed automates the layout generation and supplies
feedback to the user.
The exhaustive search of APSIS generates all grid plan layouts that satisiy all
constraints specifying layout problems at one floor level. The search organization is
different than known methods in literature. Since the search is performed on a grid
system, we found out that it is also possible to start with dimensioning and considering
the topology later. Designing this algorithm with such a search organization, which is
logically less efficient, was one of the goals of our research to reach a design space of
layout design by approaching the problem from a different point of view. Another goal
was to experiment the use of this search in layout design to explore the advantages or
disadvantages. We will describe briefly how this is achieved and validity of this method
will be discussed as a result. This paper will also report an ongoing research of forming a
feedback report by a heuristic based reasoning.
2 SPACE PLANNING IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
2.1 Space planning as a design problem
In this paper, space planning in architectural design is understood as the arrangements of
rooms in a building. These arrangements may involve determination of rooms
topological relations and dimensions in 2D or 3D.
Space planning cannot be defined as an independent problem in the whole
architectural design process. All design criterions about building functions, relations of
these functions, circulation, environment, form of the building, cost, structural system,
site constraints, isolation, acoustic etc. are considered with an optimizing approach in the
design process and the requirements of space planning may arise from any of these
criteria. These requirements that the designer puts forward may be lacking, uncertain and
contradictory at the start of the design process. Space planning is also a highly
combinatorial problem. The solution space may differ greatly with a simple change in the
problem specification. While designers optimize the satisfaction of design requirements
to find layout solutions, they obliquely eliminate unsatisfied requirements and may also
explore new requirements. The designers priorities are often subjective so they may be
satisfied with different solutions.
As described above, space planning process involves a progression in problem
specification as satisfying solutions are reached so the problem specification needs to be
interactive and under the guidance of the designer in a computer model. An automated
system to be used in this process should be formulated to give adequate feedback to let
the designer understand what is happening and why (Baykan 2003).
2.2 Space planning in literature
Several computer models have been developed to solve space planning problem in
architectural design. When these models are examined, a common approach will be
noticed that the systems start with searching layout topology. Some of these models are
presented below.
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Mitchell, Steadman & Ligget (1976) introduced using generate and test strategy to
produce topological layouts. Dimensioning was a secondary operation in this model and
it is interpreted as an optimization problem. In this model, the generative algorithm
developed by Steadman (1973) that can reach exhaustively all possible and distinct
dissections of rectangles was coupled with a testing procedure of constraints.
LOOS also could exhaustively generate topological layouts that are represented
similarly to rectangular dissections by using a hierarchical generate and test method in
which the hierarchy was defined by heuristics and constraints. (Flemming et al. 1992)
Yoon & Coyne (1992) introduced reasoning with constraint propagation method that a
topological layout is derived through the direct manipulation of constraints. This method
involves a constraint directed heuristic search.
HeGeL also automated the generate and test cycle of topological search and the
problem structuring cycle was simulated with user input (Akin et al. 1992). With HeGeLII, an optimization module is coupled with HeGeLs generate and test cycle to select best
solutions according to cost as an optimization criteria (Akin & Sen 1994).
In WRIGHT, the problem was formulated as a constrained optimization problem and
it used disjunctive constraint satisfaction method that is a form of constraint directed
heuristic search (Baykan & Fox 1997).
ARCHiPLAN also could reach the solutions at a topological level by using topological
enumeration heuristics. The perspective was to select best layout solutions with the help
of an optimization module that the user can specify an optimization criterion (Medjdoub
& Yannou 1998).
SEED project that is developed in CMU to provide computational support for the early
phases in building design has a layout module that generates schematic layouts for an
architectural design brief that the user forms with the help of an elaborate user interface
(Flemming et al. 1997).
3 THE AUTOMATED SYSTEM APSIS
3.1 The system
The components that form the system of APSIS are shown in Figure 1. These
components and the usage process of the system will be described briefly in this section.
3.2 The design process
Considering the complex aspects of space planning in architectural design that are
described in section 2.1, we decided that this problem could be achieved with computer
support in an interactive process that the problem specification is gradually under control
of the designer. In each phase of this process, the computers task is to automate layout
generation and obtain adequate feedback to help the designer to make decisions. APSIS is
developed to support such a design process as shown in Figure 2.
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12 m2
Maximum area
16 m2
3m
Possibility no.
x length (m)
y length (m)
Area (m2)
3.0
4.2
12.60
4.2
3.0
12.60
3.6
3.6
12.96
3.0
4.8
14.40
4.8
3.0
14.40
3.6
4.2
15.12
4.2
3.6
15.12
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generates the layouts by placing the rooms sequentially in an order that is determined by
heuristic rules. While determining this placement order, a base room is selected for all the
rooms except the room that will be placed first. A room must be connected with its base
room and the base room must be one of the rooms that will be placed beforehand. Base
rooms function is to determine the location of the rooms that will be placed. Candidate
locations of a room are possible locations that a connection can be made with its base
room and these locations follow a clock wise direction around the base room as shown in
Figure 8.
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advices to enlarge the solution set. This potential came within the different search
organization that APSIS uses, because a deeper exhaustive search is made in a larger
design space. Collecting feedbacks and forming a feedback report is not yet implemented
in APSIS v.1 so this method is not experimentally proven.
Theoretically, the system can derive the advices through the type and specifications of
the unsatisfied constraints by using heuristic rules that can be formed logically or
experimentally. In Table 2, a possible logical heuristic rule table is shown.
Collecting the feedbacks operation is simply logging the number of unsuccessful
generation steps caused by each constraint separately during the whole exhaustive search.
With a shallow reasoning a heuristic rule can state that constraints that cause more
unsuccessful generation steps bound the design space more but this cannot be a fair
comparison. Some type of tests may naturally fail more than others considering the
search organization so the constraints must be compared separately according to the type
of test. Also, some constraints concerning some of the rooms will be tested more than
others considering the room placement order and backtracking (Fig. 9), so the feedbacks
must be manipulated by heuristic functions in order to make a fair comparison. The
formulation of these heuristic functions involves an experimental process.
3.6 The user interface
There are many necessary user interactions in the layout design model that we propose.
The user interface of APSIS v.1 is developed in a minimized format and these necessary
interactions are handled through three interface modules. These are constraints interface,
generation interface and a graphical interface.
Constraints interface is composed of menus that a layout problem can be specified.
The room constraints menu is shown in Figure 10. The user can add, change or erase the
constraints and rooms through this interface while making an initial problem
specification or revision. This interface also warns the user in situations that immediate
assistance is necessary, e.g. if the minimum side length is long for the area range or if the
aspect ratio is smaller than 1/30 while dimensional constraints of a room are being
entered.
Constraint specification
Advice
Overlapping
Room1: The room that overlaps Increase the area of room1s base room
Parallel to y axis
Rooms
relations
Rooms
orientations
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orientation is specified
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max A
2
7m
28 m
9m
2m
min L
Topological Constr.
con
adj
or
2m 2347
5m 13
3m 12
1m 1
8m
30 m
12 m
3m
5Parent R.
6Child R.
7Room Hall
8Bathroom
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14 m2
16 m2
3m 7
3m 7
1m 1568
2m 7
10 m
2m
7m
12 m
3m
8m
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The generation after the revisions in Table 4 lasted in 60 seconds and 301 layouts were
generated while searching 4608 dimensional layout possibilities. Some of these layouts
are shown in Figure 14.
max A
2
min L
2
Topological Constr.
con
adj
7m
8m
28 m2
30 m2
5 m 7-fs 10
3m 17
1m 1
9m
2m
12 m
3m
2 m 3 4 5 6 10
or
5Parent R.
14 m
16 m
3m 18
6Child R.
10 m2
12 m2
3m 19
1 m 2-fs. 3
2m 5
49
2m 6
2m 12
7Dining R.
8P.Bathr.
9C.Bathr.
10Entrance
9m
6m
4m
4m
10 m
7m
5m
5m
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Another good part of the developed algorithm is that the automated system generates
dimensioned plan layouts, in other words it generates almost finished architectural plans.
The purpose of this is to leave least correction to the designer. But with the exhaustive
search mechanism that reaches all possibilities, many of the generated layouts in a
solution set can be dimensional variations of each other and some of the layouts can be
very similar with very small changes in dimensions. Also, some layouts can contain
unspecified spaces that are called as holes. These can be obstructing matters for the user
while examining the solution set of a generation. This problem can be solved by filters
that will help the user to sort or group the solutions according to some criterions such as
shapes, areas, topology etc.
One disadvantage of the algorithm is the length of search time when there is a huge
number of dimensional layout possibilities. This number may be more than 1010 in a
layout problem that is specified with 10 rooms that entered area ranges bring out more
than 10 dimensional possibilities for each. Essentially, the algorithm of APSIS is
designed to handle infinite numbers of dimensional layout possibilities without any
memory overflows but it takes too much time to finish the exhaustive generation
although it is very efficiently programmed to make the fastest topological search. As a
result, the search organization that dimensioning comes before considering topology is
less efficient because a deeper exhaustive search is made in a larger design space to find
solutions that quality is not much superior to other systems. Despite this fact, the ongoing
research of collecting feedback data during the whole search and forming a feedback
report as a result can be seen as a potential that came within this search organization.
REFERENCES
Akin, ., Dave, B. & Pithavadian, S. 1992. Heuristic Generation of Layouts (HeGeL) Based on a
Paradigm for Problem Structuring, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design: 3359.
Vol. 19.
Akin, . & Sen, R. 1994. HeGeL-II: Heuristic and Optimization Based Search in Early Design,
Preconference Proceedings of Advances in Computer Based Building Design Systems: 127
136. Symposium of the 7th International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and
Cybernetics, August 1521, Baden-Baden, Germany.
Baykan, C.A. & Fox, M.S. 1997. Spatial Synthesis by Disjunctive Constraint Satisfaction, Artificial
Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing: 245262. Vol. 11, USA:
Cambridge University Press.
Baykan, C.A. 2003. Spatial Relations and Architectural Plans, In Bige Tuncer, Saban Suat
Ozsariyildiz & Sevil Sariyildiz (eds), E-Activities in Design and Design Education: 137146.
Paris, France: Europia.
Flemming, U., Baykan, C.A., Coyne, R. & Fox, M.S. 1992. Hierarchical Generate-And-Test vs.
Constraint-Directed Search, Artificial Intelligence in Design`92:817838. Boston, USA: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
Flemming, U., Aygen, Z. Coyne, R. & Snyder, J. 1997. Case-Based Design in a Software that
Supports the Early Phases in Building Design, In Mary Lou Maher & Pearl Pu (eds), Issues and
Applications of Case-Based Reasoning in Design: 6185. USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Medjdoub, B. & Yannou, B. 1998. Topological Enumeration Heuristics in Constraint-Based Space
Layout Planning, Artificial Intelligence in Design`98: 271290. The Netherlands: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
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Mitchell, W.J., Steadman, J.P & Liggett, R.S. 1976. Synthesis and Optimization of Small
Rectangular Plans, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design: 3770. Vol. 3.
Steadman, J.P. 1973. Graph theoretic representation of architectural arrangement, Architectural
Research and Training: 161172. Vol. 2.
Yoon, K.B. & Coyne, R.D. 1992. Reasoning about Spatial Constraints, Environment and Planning
B: Planning and Design: 3359. Vol. 19.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 DESIGN CONCEPTION
For the dutch province of North Holland we designed a pavilion for the world
horticultural exhibition floriade 2002. The pavilion is a spaceship, a closed autonomous
object tha t landed on the floriade. Architecturally there is no distinguishable difference
between wall, floor nor ceiling. The design was based on a topological surface that
governs the logical esthetic continuity of the shape.
The specific shape of the surface came about in a design process which combined
milled physical models of the computer model with again computer modelling of
adaptations to the milled models to attain a good space for its programme as well as
introducing our own rigorous styling requirements. During this process a clear vision
arose of the concave/ convex dynamics and the the shaping lines, the folding lines that
fade in and fade out of the shape. We described the styling requirements in a number of
shaping rules of the design. It was important to describe the design not in mass, but in a
number of design rules and guidelines since its internal programme was still to change.
For this flexibility in a single autonomous shape the construction needs to follow the
shape in a non-hierarchical way, adapting its local performance to local stresses.
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Illustration 2. Mapping of a
constructive grid based on an
icosahedron
In hindsight one can argue that the choice for a 3d construction grid based on an
icosahedron is purely arbitrary, since there exist a number of tesselating algorithms that
can take into account the curvature of the surface and look very intelligent in doing so,
but these algorithms are focused solely on approximating double curved surfaces into
triangular meshes for rendering purposes only. As of yet there exist no NURBS
tesselating algorithms that base their distribution of the triangles not only on curvature
but also incorporate meta data like strength of a given profile and incorporates
environmental conditions like gravity, wind-direction and other load bearing conditions.
Therefore we invented a tesselating system of our own and found that the icosahedron
provided us crude but efficient means for fine-tuning cost-efficiency and regularity in the
details. Cost-efficiency can be controlled by the degree of subdivision of the main twenty
faces and because of the internal integrity of the icosahedron, each point connects either
five or six other points.
3 INVENTING A DOUBLE CURVED CONSTRUCTION
In architecture irregular surfaces proved to be bother-some to build and strategies to build
them were often based on layers. For example a crude approximation of the shape is
constructed for instance in steel and with a number of cladding layers this crude
approximation would be smoothened. Obviously this approach lacks control over the
shape and it is costly for it needs multiple layers of construction, secondary construction
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and cladding. A more precise method is the creation of customized molds for every
segment of the building, however, this concentrates its efforts primarily on the cladding, a
construction is still needed.
Another strategy is projecting one or more regular grids over the shape, like one would
slice a loaf of bread, although this approach results in perfectly manageable constructive
ribs that can be manufactured relatively easily, it is only viable for tube-like
constructions. Projection is inherently flawed for closed irregular surfaces because in its
projection vector it introduces a form of anisotropy in its construction, this means the
building construction favors a certain direction over others.
We decided that we wanted to build the building only once, meaning that creating
molds was out of the question, the shape we wanted to end up with needed to be present
in the main construction. With the introduction of the construction grid based on an
icosahedron we already dedicated ourselves to an approach that is linked directly to a
NURBS surface, we decided to create a construction that is capable of describing this
irregular surface directly and be isotropic.
To do this we added vectors to the construction grid that are oriented perpendicular to
the surface called normal-lines. These lines are used to orient the construction detail.
However, a challenge was presented when creating a constructive connection between
two non-parallel lines. Using a tubular construction was considered, but soon proved too
costly. However, during a meeting with Henk Meijers of Meijers staalbouw b.v., a novel
idea struck home when we realised that one could use folded plates. The idea is simple,
when one needs to connect two points with a construction, one could use a simple flat
plate, but when one also needs to make a transition from one initial orientation to the
next, one can fold the plate over a diagonal. The innovation of this idea might not be
immediately apparent, but this simple idea allows us to create a construction that
describes a truly double curved surface.
First, when connecting two points and their respective orientations, one folds the plate.
In doing so one effectively creates two triangles each in their respective planes, joined at
the diagonal. The top triangle is described by the diagonal, one of the two orientations
and a line connecting the two points of the point-grid on the surface. This line can be
straight, creating a construction that is polygonal, but, since it connects two points that
are positioned on a surface, this connecting line can also follow the surface one to one.
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The same is true for the bottom triangle, but this triangle doesnt connect two points
on the surface, but an offset (in our case an offset inward) of the two surface points over
their respective orientations. This line could also follow a second surface that was
ofsetted from the main surface, but in case of the web of North Holland pavilion we
chose to keep things as simple as possible and draw this line as a straight connection.
Thus the resulting construction is exactly following a double curved surface on the
outside, while being polygonal on the inside.
To illustrate the above I reconstructed the system on an arbitrary irregular double
curved surface:
Subsequently this system was modelled using the NURBS surface of the design whilst
following the construction grid that was mapped on it. The result is a construction that
with its outer fiber precisely describes an irregular double curved surface, effectively
being a double curved construction.
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4 CONSTRUCTION PARAMETERS
As a construction this system allows for a number of variables to change as it needs to
adapt for local stresses.
The concept of the construction is that it is nonhierarchical, which means that in
essence there is no intrinsical difference between any of the construction elements like
the ones found in a standard construction of girders, beams and floor-joists. Every
element is only differentiated in terms of strength, this is accomplished in differentiating
the parameters that account for its strength.
A number of parameters account for the strength of the construction:
1. Point distribution: the distribution of the point-grid can be adapted to concentrate more
points in an area that receives more stress, resulting in less span for a single plate and
more mass per square meter.
2. Thickness: each plate can vary its thickness, even though its has been argued that
applying flanges reinforces the plate more in relation to the resulting weight,
application of the flanges involves manual labour and in the end these relatively
dumb kilos of steel proved to be more cost-efficient.
3. Offset: every point of the surface point-grid is offsetted a certain distance, this can be
varied resulting in larger plates.
Unfortunately we were unable to find a constructor willing to vary all three respective
parameters on a short notice, mostly this was because an approach like this -varying
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dimensions and distributions- calls for an interating calculation that converges towards a
solution as opposed to a construction hierarchy that calculates from the top down. After
much deliberation we found the constructor willing to vary one parameter; the thickness.
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5 MASS CUSTOMIZATION
The main concept behind a construction based on folded plates is that plates can be cut
exactly and can be folded exactly in one simple workflow. Any measure taken to disrupt
the simplicity of the workflow like the flanges mentioned earlier has serious implications
for the cost-effectiveness. The bulk of the intelligence needs to be concentrated in the
pre-manufacturing phase to eliminate details. We avoided solving problems by adding
solutions and invested in creating one detail that solves all problems.
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We visited the workshop of the steel manufacturer and we found that the machines
that cuts the steel is fed a closed line that can be created with any drawing program. Also,
the fold of the plate is but a single parameter; a degree.
As mentioned earlier we already invested a lot of thought in simplifying the workflow
by sublimating the performance of the construction into parameters without changing the
integrity of the solution. With this, what needed to be done is index these parameters and
feed them to the workflow.
Specifically this meant taking the 3d model of the construction, decide on how the
plates are connected, measure the fold of each plate and create an outline of each plate in
its unfolded state.
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Although outside the scope of this paper, what happens is that the triangle will ply itself
into a subdivision of triangles.
Again, for quick assembly on the site we modelled every hylite triangle and unrolled it
so a waterjet cutter could cut the individual plates. It is interesting to note that no one was
capable of unrolling essentially real double curved triangles into a cutting line and to
some extend account for the difference of the real double curvedness of the 3d model and
the pseudo double curvedness of the hylite panel. Except for a company that specialises
in tensile structures of cloth. They have software that is able to stretch, unstretch and
unroll flexible materials.
7 CONCLUSION
With the pavilion for the web of North Holland we reaffirmed our strong beliefs acquired
by previous projects that one can gain a maximum design freedom and keep the budget in
check by gaining control over a system of similar, but different elements.
A number of techniques can be determined that make this possible:
1. File to Factory: A construction process is greatly simplified by concentrating
intelligence in the design of the construction so it solves all problems instead of just
one (and agregating complexity).
2. Mass customization: An irregular shape can only exist by the grace of irregular
elements, therefore control over mass-customization greatly increases design freedom.
3. Parametrization: Ideally, in a mass-customized solution more parameters can be found
than those that account for shape alone. These can be utilized to optimise the design.
We mentioned earlier that an iterating construction calculation program can converge
towards a construction that doesnt only have variable thicknesses, but also variable
heights and an optimal point distribution. Similarly, in a design process parameters
can change in accordance to design requirements and iterative scripts can be written to
accommodate very specific demands. For instance a script can be written to create a
web of North Holland pavilion with the exact volume of 1000 m3.
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1 INTRODUCTION
Computational support for the generation and modification of floor plans has been an
important research focus in the architectural and VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated
circuits) design domains. Design environments have been developed that support a
variety of design styles for layout generation, ranging from automated appraisal of
manually generated layouts, incremental generation and selection of partial solutions, to
the exhaustive, automatic generation of layout alternatives for a given set of constraints
(see, for example, Pfefferkorn 1971, Eastman 1973). The theoretical aspects of layout
generators in the latter system category are well-understood (Flemming 1978). Typical
layout systems have a modular structure and use a generate-and-test search paradigm.
Generators usually implement a floor plan representation based on the concept of
dissection. Such a representation for spaces or chip cells tends to be restricted to
rectangular shapes and ensures that these do not overlap. Furthermore, dissection-based
representations for floor planning facilitate adjacency checks. Topological as well as
geometric constraints on dimensions, areas, or aspect ratios of rectangles play an
important role in filtering the number of possible solutions down to a number that is
manageable for human designers. In recent years, however, attention in floor planning
research has shifted from generators to the development of testers that effectively and
transparently support the filtering and design navigation steps.
Despite considerable efforts, computer-assisted generation of floor plans have had
mixed success. While indispensable in chip design, floor planners in architectural design
have not advanced beyond prototype implementations. Whereas the restriction of shapes
to rectangles is probably the most important limitation, as few buildings have an
exclusively rectangular or orthogonal geometry, another one concerns the potentially
large number of constraints that need be entered by designers and maintained during
various design stages. As the architectural design process if often highly dynamic, both
design solutions as well as the constraints guiding the design process might change often
and at times radically. Particularly changes that occur in successive design phases, e.g.
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conceptual design and design documentation, are often difficult to maintain because
different representations are used.
In this paper, we address two limitations of floor planning systems in architectural
design. We introduce the concept of shape functions. These are well-established in VSLI
design and are particularly useful in top-down design when there is uncertainty as to the
required wiring space and cell dimensions. We believe that in architectural design a
similar problem exists regarding the sizing of circulation spaces, space enclosure
thicknesses, and space dimensions, respectively. Secondly, we extend the applicability of
shape functions to certain types of non-rectangular configurations using top-down
decomposition techniques that are based on the subregion representation.
2 PREVIOUS WORK
Several floor planning programs use optimization techniques to evaluate and determine
geometric parameters for candidate solutions that have successfully passed tests for
topological relations among spaces. Harada et al. (1995), for example, use numerical
continuous constraint solution to determine exact locations, aspect ratios and areas of
space rectangles. This approach may be computationally expensive, particularly in large,
hierarchical layouts, where analytical area calculations need to be aggregated from leaf
nodes upwards toward a root node. The computational effort for the derivation of such
analytical equation systems thus appears realistic only in small problems or in situations
where search is limited locally In contrast, shape functions could be particularly useful
for more complex layout problems because their derivation and solution is more scalable.
In the context of VSLI design, a shape function has been defined as the lower area
bound of all possible rectangles of the cell (Otten 1983, Zimmermann 1988). A more
detailed definition of shape functions and a discussion of different types of shape
functions is given in the next section. Shape functions have been implemented and used
successfully in VSLI design environments (Zimmermann 1988, Schurmann et al., 1992).
In systems such as PLAYOUT, chip planning proceeds top-down. This is facilitated by a
binary tree representation of cell configurations. Shape functions are used from the outset
for area estimation, which is propagated bottom-up from terminal cell nodes to a root
node. As chip planning is a highly iterative process and involves various stages to arrive
at a final layout, reliable estimates for cell aspect ratios and dimensions are important to
achieve an efficient design process. Wiring spaces required to connect cells, for example,
are a major source of uncertainty, as a such requirements are not known explicitly until
the later design stages.
Similar uncertainties exist in the architectural design process regarding the allocation
of circulation spaces and thicknesses of space enclosures. Both factors affect the aspect
ratios and areas of the principal spaces but are usually not known at the outset of the
design process. Flemming has introduced the notion of loosely-packed rectangles, which
provide designers with the flexibility to introduce circulation spaces into a configuration
while preserving topological relations among the principal spaces. This ensures that
automated space allocation can occur independent of circulation spaces (Flermning 1986,
1989). Circulation spaces thus do not need to be specified explicitly in an architectural
program but may be introduced by a designer anytime as the design matures. The
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4 THE TRANSFORMATION
4.1 Definitions and basic formulas
Before we go any further we have to introduce further definitions. Since we have
restricted ourselves to planar floors with constant ceiling heights, we will only consider
floor areas a and not volumes. We distinguish two types of floor areas:
an net floor area
at total floor area
Figure 6 defines the floor dimensions in a similar way. We can now derive the basic
formulas:
(1)
yt=an/(xtxw)yw
or
xt=an/(ytyw)xw
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(4)
Equation 4 shows an interesting behavior. With the typical constraint for rooms that the
net floor area an remains constant, the y-dimension is no longer the reciprocal of the xdimension, as Equation 3 would suggest. This behavior results in variations of at as a
function of the shape of the total floor rectangle. Therefore, the name shape function is
used.
In the case of hallways as a realization of circulation areas, the width is a constant. In
the case of a hallway in vertical direction, xn=const and because of Equation 1 also xt.yt
takes the length of the adjacent space. Thus at can take any value.
These two examples show the shape functions we will use in the following procedure.
But other shape functions can be defined and used, as long as yt is a monotonous function
of xt. Shape functions do not have to be analytically expressed, but can also exist in table
form.
4.3 Shape function calculation
Shape functions can be easily created for all leaf cells of the dissection tree. Here we will
show how shape functions of internal nodes can be derived.
Figure 6 shows the two cases of spaces on top of each other (vertical add, horizontal
dissection plane) and besides each other (horizontal add, vertical dissection plane). It
clearly shows that in the first case, the x-dimensions of both nodes have to match, if
unused space has to be avoided. The y-dimensions have to added.
xt,k=max (xt, i, xt,j)
v-add
(5)
yt,k=yt,i+yt,j
xt,k=xt,i+xt,j
h-add
(6)
yt,k=max(yt, i, yt,j)
We use the max-function for the case that the matching dimensions are not exactly equal.
In practice this means that the smaller dimension is extended to match the longer one. We
also have to observe that the result dimensions only exist in ranges for which valid
component dimension values exist. Such ranges are limited by setting reasonable aspect
ratio for spaces and especially in the case of the fixed dimension of hallways.
In principal, we can express the results in analytical form, using analytical shape
functions of the components if they exist. These function are of increasing order as we
apply the add-functions recursivly. We also need the inverse functions as we can see in
Equation 5 and Equation 6. Therefore, we represent the x and y-dimensions of all nodes
as tables of x-y pairs for the range of valid values.
As a result of applying the add-functions recursively, according to the orientations of
the tree nodes, we finally compute the shape ftmction for the root node.
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4.4 Sizing
After this bottom-up process of calculating all shape functions, we can now derive the
final geometry of a floorplan alternative for a given x- or y-dimension for the root
volume. This is a simple table-lookup process with some interpolation if the values are
not listed.
Let us use the example. The dissection tree in Figure 5 shows a v for the root node
(index k). This means that the shape ftinction was calculated using the h-add function.
For the floorplan in Figure 4 we chose xt,k=15 m. Therefore, we select the corresponding
yt,k value from the root shape function, if it exists. Otherwise, we have to choose a
different xt,k value. We now have the outer dimensions of the floorplan volume.
In the next step we find the position of the corresponding dissection plane. This can be
found by looking up the shape function of one of the children (index i) of the node yt,k,
because of
yt,i=yt,j=yt,k oientation=v
xt,i=xt,j=xt,k orientation=h
(7)
we find the corresponding xt,i value in the shape function table of node i and have the
position of the dissection plane. In the case of a horizontal orientation we exchange x and
y. By looking up the wall dimensions we get floorplans as shown in Figure 6.
1111
shape function of a hallway. Only during the dissection phase we have to guarantee that
hallways match in the constant dimension with appropriate volumes so that a solution for
a geometry can be found.
4.5 Shape functions for non-rectangular configurations
One problem of dissection based floorplans concerns the limitation to rectangular shapes.
We briefly outline how shape ftmctions can be applied to certain nonorthogonal shapes.
Consider the floorplan in Figure 7, which includes two L-shaped spaces. Each is a superspace, that is, it is decomposed into two rectangular sub-spaces. No wall is assigned on
either side of the partition that separates these sub-spaces, that is, the partition can be
viewed as a virtual wall with zero thickness. Also note that the internal wall which
separates sub-space A.1 and sub-space A.2.1 is completely assigned to the latter.
We can define shape functions for the sub-spaces that make up a super-space and
compute its total or net regular nodes in our dissection tree, additional nodes area by
adding respective sub-space areas. Besides the representing super-spaces are introduced.
A super-space node includes references to two or more constituent sub-spaces and holds
the super-space area or volume, and possibly, a polygon or polyhedron that is obtained by
merging the rectangular sub-space geometries. A shape function for the super-space itself
is not required. A floorplan with super-spaces would be redrawn as follows. In a first
pass, all nodes of the dissection tree would be visited and evaluated top-down, as
described earlier. The shapes of the sub-spaces would be determined according to their
shape functions. In a second pass, super-space nodes would be evaluated, that is, area and
geometry information would need to be gathered from sub-spaces and processed
accordingly. Furthermore, the modification of sub-space area requirements would also
trigger the re-computation of the super-space area.
5 TOOL SUPPORT
For experimental purposes we have implemented a simple panel and wireframe drawing
tool with the necessary data structures for the dissection tree and the calculations for
shape function calculations and sizing in the MATLAB toolbox (MATLAB). Most
figures in this paper have been produced with this tool.
As a further user support we have also created a library of standard floorplan
topologies and of standard wall types. Especially for office buildings, typical floorplan
types exist can be provided as basic topologies in a library and be refined by further
dissection. A typical type is a long rectangular floorplan with one center hallway and two
staircase at the ends.
Such floorplans can be imported into the tool, further dissected as necessary, and
refined by entering net floor areas according to the space program and wall types as far as
known. Otherwise, standard wall types as provided by the library can be used in early
design stages.
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6 DISCUSSION
We have shown how floorplan topologies that are the result of dissections, can be
automatically translated into valid geometries, including wall dimensions and circulation
areas. The approach is based in shape functions that can reflect different geometric
constaints. By simple calculations shape functions for all nodes of the dissection tree can
be derived. A unique and valid floorplan geometry can be drawn with one additional
dimension. The data structures and algorithms have been implemented in the MATLAB
environment as a prototype. Experiments have shown that the support provided by the
tool for layout planning tasks is straightforward, rapid and that many variations in
topologies and parameter settings can be explored in a short time. Interactive floorplan
optimizations are the result.
We have also shown that simple extensions to non-rectangular shapes can be
introduced. Although this is possible with the existing algorithm, further research is
necessary to better integrate and support such modification in the design process. Also,
nonorthogonal shapes have to be included. One limitation of our approach for orthogonal
shapes is that area requirements are presently defined only at the sub-space level. This is
because the continuous modification of non-orthogonal shapes is ambiguous. Userdefined geometry constraints could conceivably guide such modifications.
Another extension that requires different constraints is the transformation in the zdimension. During the dissection phase, the splitting of a volume into several floors is no
problem while creating the topology, even with split levels. The problem arises when
wall dimensions and circulation areas are added. The additional constraint that the outer
walls of different floors have to match can only be fulfilled by changing the net areas of
rooms or by introducing unused area. This problem is also known as stacking and
blocking. Other constraints describe the need to place load bearing walls, chimneys or
other vertical shafts exactly on top of each other. In principle this can be achieved by
iteratively modifying the individual floorplans, but an algorithmic approach should be
derived.
As a conclusion we have demonstrated the usefulness of a floorplanning approach
based on dissection and shape functions and have shown directions of further research.
REFERENCES
Eastman, C. Automated space planning. Artificial Intelligence 4: 4164.
Flemming, U. 1978. Wall representations of rectangular dissections and their use in automated
space allocation. Environment and Planning B: 215232.
Flemming, U. 1986. On the representation and generation of loosely-packed arrangements of
rectangles. Environment and Planning B(13): 189205.
Flemming, U. 1989. More on the representation and generation of loosely packed arrangements of
rectangles. Environment and Planning B(16): 327359.
Harada, M., Witkin, A., and Baraff, D. 1995. Interactive physically-based manipulation of
discrete/continuous models. In Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series
199208.
1113
MATLAB, http://www.mathworks.com/
Otten, R. 1983. Efficient floorplan optimization. In Proc. Int. Conference on Computer Aided
Design (ICCAD): 499502.
Pfefferkorn, C. 1971. Computer design of equipment layout using the design problem solver. PhD
Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
Schrmann, B. and Altmeyer, J. and Zimmermann, G. 1992. Three-Phase Chip PlanningAn
Improved Top-Down Chip Planning Strategy. In Proc. Int. Conference on Computer Aided
Design (ICCAD), Santa Clara, USA.
Zimmermann, G. 1988. A New Area Shape Function Estimation Technique for VLSI Layouts. In
Proc. 25th Design Automation Conference (DAC), Anaheim, USA: 6065.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Constructive design is an intrinsic part of architectural education augmenting spatial
design for obtaining satisfactory overall performance of a building project. Conventional
formal education methods for construction the introduction of customary functional
building elements, e.g. floors. Various familiar types of these elements are discussed and
compared during lectures and tutorials. The implementation of this theoretical knowledge
to project work even after supplemented by practical training remains a vague and
random process to a considerable extent. Almost invariably students are presented with
the option of either designing or selecting the elements enclosing their spatial
arrangement. The selection process involves reviewing and maybe modifying the element
alternatives which the students have become familiar with during education and practical
training. These alternatives are mostly tried-and-tested, thus their performance can be
predicted with some accuracy. However in the case of element design a substantial
amount of technical knowledge and experience are predicated which are largely notions
pertaining to the post-graduate stage. Any stipulation for innovative design sets
premature analytical and heuristic demands on graduate students. Hence most of the latter
advisedly prefer to adopt or adapt a solution amongst the predetermined set of
alternatives. Regardless of which path students are inclined to take, the availability of an
educational tool for element development would improve students performance as well
as their self-confidence in this field which is a cause for much anxiety prior to their
professional career. At this juncture a relational database application is proposed for the
purpose of providing support to students in their endeavor to develop satisfactory
1116
building elements. The proposed method guides students through the hierarchical levels
of element subsystems to achieve coherent functional assemblies.
An overview of pertinent publications follows. ISO 120062 sets a framework for
building classification and hierarchies. Uniclass provides unified classification
(Hutchison 2000). Ekholm (1996) applies fundamental semantic and ontological theories
to define some basic concepts within classification and to build a conceptual framework
for construction works. Mahdavi (1996) describes an object-oriented building
representation environment where a class inheritance hierarchy is adopted with which
relationships between elements are established. Aygn (2003) also proposes an analytical
approach for expressing performance requirements of elements in parametric form in
order to provide a basis for comparative evaluation. Aygn & etiner (2003) demonstrate
the generation of element alternatives by means of a conceptual model.
2 ELEMENT MODEL
The proposed ontology for building elements observes the rules of inheritance and
encapsulation as the precepts of object-oriented modeling. The orders of hierarchy and
inheritance along the entities concerned are accomplished in opposite directions, i.e.
hierarchical inheritance. While hierarchy is deductive (top-down), inheritance is
inductive (bottom-up).
By definition an element must have at least one component which can be connected to
another of the same element and also shared by an adjacent element. The branching
extends laterally to include all elements in the building system. Hence a physical entity as
part of a building is defined as indexed to and also is a function of all its descendant
instances, i.e. higher-level entities as embedded objects, in a hierarchical order.
The object hierarchy allows any sub-types (descendants) derived from the main types
(ancestors) to inherit the accrued attributes while retaining their embedded as well as
congenial attributes. Instances of these objects are obtained when actual values are
assigned to these attributes as independent design variables of the functional element
concept. The synopsis of the element model is presented below:
Element
Location (External (Below-, Above ground), Internal, Semi-enclosed)
Inclination (Horizontal, Vertical, Inclined)
Component
Type (External finish, Cavity, Protective Layers, Core, Carrier, Supplementary Layer)
Geometry (Form, Dimension, Position)
Texture and Colour
Material Joints (Intra-/Inter-component; Unifying/ separating)
3 APPLICATION
Students commence with the element configuration task at the highest, i.e. the most
abstract, level of element subsystem in the building system hierarchy. They select at each
level the most appropriate value among the alternative values for that element attribute
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Ekholm, A. 1996. A Conceptual Framework for Classification of Construction Works, ITcon Vol.1,
2550, http://www.itcon.org/996/2.
Hutchison, A. 2000. BRE Classification Tool: Uniclass, http://cig.bre.co.uk/connet/classifications.
Mahdavi, A. 1996. Semper: A New Computational Environment for Simulation-based Building
Design Assistance, International Symposium of CIB W67 on Energy and Mass Flow in the Life
Cycle of Buildings, 46772, Vienna.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supported learning has come more
and more in focus during the last 23 decades. The wide spread introduction during 1993
of the World Wide Web (WWW) was a catalyst for deepened interest and extended
implementation of learning and knowledge transfer systems. We phase a multitude of
challenges in introducing efficient ICT support in the building process from change of
working methods, project organisation and improved building product descriptions to
increased demand on life-long learning within the fast developing building informatics.
The paper focuses on knowledge transfer and learning based on experiences from
developing and carrying through master courses in Industrial IT (MII) and civil
engineering at Aalborg University and 25 years of teaching experiences within the field.
In the MII the students are recruited from industry to follow a 31/2 years time national
open education with most learning and project work done in an Internet supported
distributed environment. The pedagogic method follows a project-based problem oriented
learning paradigm (PPBL). The courses cover areas such as; object oriented
1120
programming and relational database design, human computer interface and user
environment design, computer supported collaborative working, knowledge management,
virtual buildings, intelligent buildings, and building systems simulation.
Courses given within Building Informatics at Aalborg University incorporate results
from the teachers involvement in ongoing research such as knowledge management and
collaboration support using semantic web, IT Support at the Building Site and
involvement in the newly started Danish National Digital construction Program (clients
demands on building modelling and visualisation, project web support and facility
management), see also http://it.civil.auc.dk/it/projects/index.html.
2 THE CHANGE PROCESS
The learning process has not changed to any considerable degree during the latest
centuries. A big shift came when the art of printing was introduced during the middle
1400 (Guthenberg) and it become practical and less expensive to pack and distribute
information to a large audience. Today we phase a reality where we (teachers, students)
have the freedom to immediately publish, give feed-basck and pack information adapted
for different needs and users on the World Wide Web (WWW). We have passed
development stages from art of writing (2500 b.b.) via art of printing (1450 a.c.) to
art of communication (2000 a.c.) with changed demands on information quality
assurance methods, and highly adaptable access media to distributed digital information
containers.
The most important changes due to introduction of ICT in the learning process are
Higher emphasis on learning (and learning to learn) than teaching.
The teacher becomes more of a tutor (coach, facilitator) than information
disseminator.
Greater opportunities for distant learning in virtual environments.
Life long learning becomes an important issue (time and place independent
learning).
Globalization with cultural diversity and global market place development with
greater possibilities to combine courses from different universities (virtual
universities).
Increased modularization of information containers with dynamic formation of
higher level containers and inclusion of time marked data. The semantic web
provides a first generation tools to relate disperse web based information
containers, (Christiansson 2003).
Possibilities to adapt and/or develop new pedagogical methods/learning styles
with respect to learning material, learning modes (exploration, discovery, problem
based learning etc.), student competence and intelligence profile, improved
collaboration, new teacher roles, and social contexts bearing in mind that IT in
itself does not improve pedagogy and learning method.
Life long learning for improved product and process modeling support
1121
1122
Parts of the learning domains are well supported by learning material e.g. relational
database and relation algebra based representations. On the other hand many areas are
still under formalization and learning material and courses must be dynamically
composed leading to continuous update and development of courses. Figure 1 outlines
building informatics related knowledge domains.
4 LEARNING PARADIGM
Our possibilities to provide tools that suite different learning styles should be taken into
account as we develop ICT supported learning material. The user models are explicitly or
more often implicitly hidden in the computer system providing different pedagogical
approach and human computer interaction. Learning theories are multitude and research
related to many science domains such as psychology, cognition, social sciences,
philosophy, and medicine. Here we will focus on some explanations with certain
relevance to ICT supported learning, see also (Montgomery 1995), (Gardner 2003), and
(Kolb et al. 2004).
The learning environment should as far as possible support different learning styles
involving concrete experiences, reflective observations, abstract conceptualization, and
active experimentation (Kolb et al. 2003) also taking into account that students have
different preferences on the way information is accessed. Today you often see reference
to
four
(three)
learning
styles
namely,
see
also
http://www.metamath.com/Isweb/fourls.htm,
Visual/Verbal,
Visual/Nonverbal,
Tactile/Kinesthetic, and Auditory/Verbal.
Life long learning for improved product and process modeling support
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The learning paradigm follows the Aalborg PPBL, Project Organized Problem Based
Learning, model. The project is problem oriented and not tied to a specific discipline but
requires a cross-disciplinary approach. The projects most often involve industry
collaboration and offer opportunity to apply theories in new contexts or to develop new
theories. There are not only one-way to solve formulated problems.
We normally plan a 4 hours session in the SU courses as,
2*45 minutes lecture including 10 minutes exercises presentation
Student group work with exercise work
Student group exercise presentation in front of all groups followed by discussion,
questions and critique.
The students are during the group work forced to articulate and express their ideas and
solution propo sals to their colleagues and free to choose presentation format at their
wish.
5 LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
5.1 Physical and virtual workspaces
In the Master of Industrial IT, MII, education students are situated at different places in
Denmark and meet in person at Aalborg University every six week at a weekend seminar
for deeper social contacts, personal contact with course tutors, collective questions
answering, guest lectures, group works (especially brainstorming and planning), and final
examines. New learning IT tools to support self-study, project work, self-assessments,
project delivery, communication and course administration are also introduced at those
occasions.
From (Christiansson 1999) Distributed learning takes place in a virtual learning space
that expands the conventional study chamber and classroom in time and room with regard
to learning style and interaction modes as well as learning material and learning
methods.
5.2 Tools and infrastructure
The ICT tools broadly falls within the following categories
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) with multimodal access to dynamically composed
information containers and applications
Communication and collaboration support (human-human, human-artifact, artifactartifact)
Digital information containers with modularised content and separation between
storage and access media.
The students have at their convenience, access to course administrated servers for their
project programming work, see figure 3. The student project results as well as learning
material are stored on (or referenced from) a education web.
Life long learning for improved product and process modeling support
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Asynchronous collaboration tools are provided on the education web. Student groups
also use tools like Groove, http://www.groove.net/, Yahoo Messenger
http://messenger.yahoo.com/,
and
MSN
Messenger
(former
Netmeeting)
http://www.microsoft.com/ messanger, for synchronous collaboration and application
sharing. Teacher/tutors are often on student group wishes on stand-by at student email
conversation and available for advice.
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It is important to ensure that learning material is stored under a format that is valid on
many computer platforms. For example should PDF or RTF formats be used for
documents, web pages be cleared from platform specific non-standard script contents,
and standard video sound formats be used. This may not always be possible if specific
applications still only are available on some platforms. Students should also be
encouraged to avoid fancy non-necessary solutions when reporting or delivering
computer based project/exercises solutions.
5.3 Learning material
The lecture material is contained in a course web site with all learning material directly
available except for books and documents not available in digital formats. Slides and
other lecture support material are organized according to figure 4, with a left slide
navigation column.
The course material is accessed from the education web, EN in figure 3, that also gives
access to student project work and administrative courses information.
Life long learning for improved product and process modeling support
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6 COURSE CONTENT
6.1 Master of industrial IT courses
Courses given to the Civil engineering students within Building Informatics as well as the
Master and Industrial IT (MII) courses, http://www.mii.aau.dk/, covers the domains
depicted in figure 1. The Civil engineering courses will not be described here but can be
found at http://it.bt.aau.dk/it/education/index. html#civil as well as student projects and
student own developed project webs. Three courses are given at the Civil Engineering
track (1) IT in the Building Process, (2) Virtual Buildings, and (3) Computer Supported
Collaboration and User Environment Design.
The MII education spans 31/2 years time (from autumn 2004 compressed to 2 years)
and is open for students with a Bachelor Engineering degree and at least 3 years of
industry employment. The first year theme is Distributed Information systems and is
followed by all students in the three specializations,
IT in Construction
IT in Distributed Real-time Systems
IT in Industrial Production
IT in Process control
IT in System Administration.
First year courses are
Object Oriented System development, (2 ECTS, PU course)
Human Computer Interaction (1 ECTS, PU)
Databases (2 ECTS, PU)
Fundamental Datanets, Models and Architecture (1 ECTS, SU)
Client/server technology and introduction to Distributed Systems (2 ECTS, PU)
WWW tools (1 ECTS, PU)
Programming (2.5 ECTS, PU) (optional for IT in Construction)
The Virtual workplace (1 ECTS, PU).
The second year IT in Construction theme is Models and Communication and the
special building related courses
Multimedia interface design, usability engineering and Computer Supported
Collaborative Work (2 ECTS, PU)
Knowledge Management within Companies and Projects (2 ECTS, SU)
Virtual Buildings 1 (1 ECTS, PU).
The third year IT in Construction theme is Integrated ICT in the Building Process and
the special building related courses
Intelligent Buildings and Digital Cities (2 ECTS, SU)
Virtual Buildings 2 (2 ECTS, PU)
Building Simulations (2 ECTS, PU).
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The students will also, according to their personal course portfolio, follow other
specializations courses during the second and third year for example
Global Information Networks
Company Management
Process engineering
Organisation theory
Distributed systems
Automatic control
Real-time communication systems
Fault tolerant systems
Coding and Security.
The IT in Construction specialization gives insight into the role of ICT in the total
building process. The participants will gain understanding of and competence in using
ICT tools within all phases of the existing and future building process.
The participants will be able to formulate requirements and actively participate in
analyses, design and development of ICT systems and tools in the construction process as
well as practical experiences in use of advanced IT tools.
The theme for the 2nd year is Models and Communication. The aim is to convey
theoretical knowledge and deep understanding of some important fundamental domains
and ICT-tools that will influence the future development e.g. computer supported
collaboration, different types of knowledge representations, analyses and modeling of the
building process and building products, and knowledge management.
High emphasis is on user needs, requirements formulation and usability engineering
i.e. user environment design in relation to the parallel technical system implementation.
Life long learning for improved product and process modeling support
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The theme for the 3rd year is Integrated IT in the Building Process. The aim is to
convey analyses, experiences and examples on advanced present and future use of IT in
the different parts of the building process. In this connection the students e.g. work with
and analyses building product model exchange using IFC and model checker tools. Also
the properties and practical design issues in connection with intelligent buildings and
services in the digital cities are investigated.
6.2 Student project examples
The student project work always to some degree involves industry collaboration. In many
cases the students own company is highly involved in problem and requirements
formulations.
Examples
on
students
group
projects
are,
see
also
http://it.bt.aau.dk/it/education/index.html#mii.
Local history Web, 2001, involving Java based web-database connection for inquires
of historic subjects. (Figure 5)
Data Warehousing and Knowledge Management, 2001, involving theory, technology
and implementation in business.
Models and communication to support type house catalogues, 2002, involving
Contextual Design of User environment, information analyses, relational database and
user interface design, web 3D models, and database web integration solutions. (Figure
6)
Use of digital building models, 2004, involving process analyses and representation,
classifications, model access tools, building product model representations, model
integration, potential/barriers, and scenarios.
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Life long learning for improved product and process modeling support
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7 CONCLUSIONS
We are only in the beginning of development of cross-disciplinary university courses in
open environments with highly communicative IT tools in contrast to traditional
classroom teaching. IT supported distributed learning provides us with excellent
possibilities to advance the learning methodologies suitable for life long learning and to
render existing courses more effective.
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There is a great need to raise the IT competence of the teachers to meet the needs for
and carrying through of the changes in education in connection with specification of
distributed learning system and tools.
ICT tools and learning material knowledge representations and properties must be (at
least implicitly) explained to the learners (and teachers/tutors).
ICT tools to support collaboration in virtual environments and use of virtual worlds
and augmented reality must be further developed in close collaboration with the end
users.
We will in the future see a closer natural collaboration between universities in course
development, and experience exchange.
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eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
1 INTRODUCTION
Design learning is similar to playing the games. No matter invoked by playful
characteristics (Chang 2002) or the design/game itself (Chien 2002), more and more
researches, such as (Klugman and Smilansky 1999, Radford 1997, Woodbury, et al.
2001) are mapping the behavior of playing games as a vehicle to learn design. While
most of those researches provide affective inspiration for our research, we adapt the
mechanism as well as the metaphor role-play game for design learning design (Chang
2002) as the base of this research. Briefly, by developing an on-line game environment,
students can explore potential design proposal and stimulate each other using the
mechanism of playing games.
1.1 Design learning as a game play
With the availability of broad bandwidth network, Internet not only encourage
information exchange but also improve productivity in learning and somehow
entertainment. For example, playing games, especially online games on the Internet,
becomes more important both in educational and social factors in the modern society.
Within networked visual space, online-game players complete assigned missions
either alone or by cooperation, sharing with other players in order to win the game. The
main characteristic of playing online games is full of interaction, exploration and goaloriented activities.
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Woodbury, RF: 1991, Searching for Designs: Paradigm and Practice, Building and Environment,
26(Pergamon Press): 6173.
Woodbury, RF, et al.: 2001, Games in Early Design Education. Playing with Metaphor, in,
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Construction, Jeju island, Korea, pp: to be published.
eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and ConstructionDikba & Scherer (eds.)
2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1535 938 4
Author Index
Adam O. 475
Ahmed V 29
Akin . 205, 529
Akinci B. 205
Amor R.W. 35
Antoniadis G. 409
Anumba C.J. 273,377, 491, 547
Aouad G. 29, 415
Arayici Y. 29, 415
Augenbroe G. 273, 377
Aygn M. 665
Babi N. . 515
Badinelli R. 281
Balaton E. 179
Balder R. 179
Barakat T.A.H. 215
Barrre G. 371
Barresi S. 319
Bazjanac V. 41
Beer D.G. 49
Bektas F. 603
Benjaoran V. 223
Berkhahn V. 257
Beucke K. 49, 149
Bi G. 629
Bignon J.C. 563
Blokpoel S. 423
Bocquet J.C. 155
Boer S. 649
Bouchlaghem N. 547
Bowden S.L. 491
Brandon P.S. 11
Bravo-Aranda G. 171
Bungartz H.J. 141
agda G. 635, 641
Author index
Cai Q.Y. 305
Carlsen M. 311
Carrillo P.M. 547
Carter C.D. 385
Casals M. 437
Cassel-Engqvist E. 231
Castro S. 237
etiner 665
Chang T-W. 675
Chen S-C. 675
Christiansson P. 667
Crawford J. 431
Dainty A.R.J. 215
Dawood N. 223, 237, 263
de Wit E. 355
Deshayes P. 155
Daz J. 483
Dikba A. 245, 297, 595
Dolenc M. 161, 179
Dorr A. 491
Drogemuller R. 431
Duhovnik J. 161
Durusoy S. 245
Ediz . 635
Edwards D.J. 215
Egan S. 431
Eir A. 59
Eisenbltter K. 505
Ekholm A. 67
El-Diraby T.E. 337
Emborg M. 109
Farinha F. 91, 171
Feltz F. 371
Ferreira da Silva C. 319
Fis B. 319
Firmenich B. 49, 77
Fischer M. 117
Flanagan R. 3
Forcada N. 437
Froese T.M. 19, 85
Garca I. 569
Garrett Jr J.H. 205
Gehre A. 445
Goksel C. 603
Goldfarb I. 453
Greb S. 291
1145
Author index
Grilo A. 349
Gursel I. 205
Halin G. 563
Hamilton A. 29
Hammer C. 475
Hannus M. 179
Hassan T.M. 273, 377, 385
Husler S. 363
Hernndez-Rodrguez F. 171
Hofer A. 475
Holtzhauer E. 97
Hopkinson L.L. 609
Huhn M. 461
Icoglu O. 103
Jardim-Gonalves R. 91, 349
Jerrentrup M. 475
Jessurun A.J. 355
Jongeling R.P.M. 109, 423
Jung Y. 577
Kamara J.M. 547
Katranuschkov P. 179, 187, 249, 445
Kaya S. 603
Keller M. 249, 505
Kernstock S. 363
Kisacikoglu B. 641
Kiviniemi A. 117
Klinger A. 257
Kondratova I.L. 453, 499
Knig M. 257
Kubicki S. 563
Lai Y-C. 311
Leinenbach S. 475
Lima C. 319
Lin C-H. 675
Magdi A. 515
Mahdavi A. 103, 127, 363
Mallasi Z. 263
Mal P 349
Mangini M. 273
Marasini R. 223
Martinez M. 135, 569
Medjdoub B. 629
Meissner U.F. 291
Menzel K. 249, 409, 505
1146
Author index
Metzger A. 195
Mills T. 577
Molina J.M. 135, 569
Mundani R.-P. 141
Naaranoja M. 371
Nabrzyski J. 179
Ng F.F. 305
Niggl A. 141
Nour M. 149
Olofsson T. 109, 231, 423, 587
Oosterhuis K. 649
Otjacques B. 371
Oumeziane H. 155
zkaya I. 529
Pazlar T. 161
Pellegrini R. 615
Perdomo J. 281
Praper P. 583
Radev D. 621
Radeva S. 621
Rank E. 141
Rebolj D. 515
Rees R.V 329
Ren Z. 273, 377
Richter T. 49
Roca X. 437
Romberg R. 141
Rueppel U 291
Ryoo B-Y. 393
Saal H. 97
Salmelin B. 25
Salvaneschi P. 615
Sanal A. 467
Santos I.A. 171
Saroglu E. 603
Schapke S.-E. 539
Scherer R.J. 187, 445, 539, 621
Sey Y. 595
Shelbourn M.A. 385
Skibniewski M.J. 393
Snow C. 609
Stehn L. 231
Steiger-Garcao A. 91
Steinmann R. 521
Suter G. 363, 657
1147
Author index
Tan H. 547
Tanaan L. 245, 297
Ta E. 245, 297
Tatari M.O. 393
Thabet W. 281, 577
Thorpe A. 491
Tolman F. 329
Toprakli A.Y. 595
Tseng M.M. 553
Tullberg O. 587
Turk . 179, 399
Turkaslan-Bulbul M.T. 205
Udeaja C.E. 547
van Leeuwen J.P. 355
Vegchel W.V 329
Wallmark T. 553
Wang H. 205
Weise M. 187
Woksepp S. 587
Yaman H. 245, 297
Yang L-C. 675
Zang S. 475
Zimmermann G. 195
1148