CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 General

The building industry consists of a vast range of people with different views, skills, and
knowledge of the construction process that work together by custom and practice within a
culture evolved over several centuries. Over time, the process of design and its associated
support has become divorced from the manufacturing of the product (i.e. building) for which
it exists. This creates problems for the organization of both the design and construction
processes caused by the large number of interfaces. Communication becomes difficult and
this results in breakdown, misunderstanding, frequent litigation, time consumption and
additional costs to the project

The project life cycle includes planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance.
In each phase a lot of information is exchanged among various project participants. This
information can be categorized into graphical and non-graphical data. The graphical data
includes 2D and 3D drawings and non-graphical data includes other project documents.
Traditionally, these two information categories exist as independent entities and are not
linked to each other. This non-linkage decreases the project participants‟ productivity due to
implementation of time consuming information retrieval methods, and regeneration of data
(Meadati, 2009). The Researcher has noticed that these documents currently exchanged on
paper between practitioners in the construction industry. It is a commonplace that each of
these documents are subsequently rekeyed, photocopied and filed, as they pass between
different locations and computer applications.

Compared with many other industries, the construction industry faces high levels of,
complexity, uncertainty, discontinuity, as well as many restrictions. The construction process
involves a large number of participants, various forms of project organization, and the use of
numerous different types of computer applications. These characteristics bring forth the need
for intensive data exchange and information sharing based on the integration of various
applications. This can be achieved through a more efficient utilization of information
technology (IT) tools for the management of construction information processes

1.2 Current Estimating and Planning Practices

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Current estimating and planning processes are limited by the lack of integration between
electronic design and construction information. A significant part of the estimating process
involves the calculation of quantities, which is currently performed manually byscaling
off two-dimensional paper drawings. But why do estimators perform this task manually
when this information already exists and is available in the electronic design
drawings? Additionally, construction schedules are created to show the sequence for how
construction operations are to proceed. Yet how can construction schedules convey this
message when commonly used scheduling tools do not represent design information and the
associated spatial requirements explicitly

Currently, there is a tremendous amount of effort required to transfer and interpret

design information. Designers generate hundreds of pages of design drawings and several
books of specifications for the contractors to analyze, estimate and schedule. However, the
current method of transferring information requires estimators to calculate quantities
manually. Information that designers put into the drawings cannot be reused directly because
the information transmitted from designers to estimators is not in a usable, electronic form.
Calculating quantities is a critical part of the estimating and planning processes, as it
effects material and labour costs, and activity durations. Yet the contractors do not
have electronic access to this design information, giving rise to inefficiencies in the
estimating process that increase estimating time and decrease accuracy. Design-cost
integration software takes advantage of existing electronic design information, and
provides the opportunity for estimators to automate part of the estimating process, to
validate the completeness of their estimates, and to evaluate the cost impact of different
design options quickly

Integration of design, cost and schedule information is necessary to improve the

estimating and planning processes, and to reduce the inefficiencies that result from the
current fragmentation between design and construction information. New software
technologies have been developed that will help project teams to integrate design, cost and
schedule information. Such integration will allow construction professionals to automate
quantity takeoffs, thus shortening estimating time and eliminating the duplication of effort
that exists in current practices

1.3 Limitations of the Current Project Management Practice

In facing up to the project management challenges, current project management practices

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have many limitations to efficiently deal with its demands. These limitations can be
categorized into the following three groups

1.4 Lack of Adequate Communication

The most common problem that faces project managers is lack of adequate
communication among participants. Current project management practices are often isolated
and concerned with managing problems related to individual stages of the projects

1.5 Lack of Automation

Lack of automation complete solution for management practice is also proposed as a

complicated challenging (Tat-vinh Duong, 2009). In the 1990s, there have been significant
developments in technology, which have resulted in the production of very powerful
software packages for the construction industry. The "ad hoc" deployment of such packages
have resulted in improvements at their local level of implementation, such as design,
estimating, planning, etc, (this will be discussed in more details in chapter 2 section 2.4), but
have added limited benefits at the project level. These problems can be listed: electronic
communication versus traditional communication, lack of software integration, lack of a
standardized platform for information exchange, lack of proper decision-making tools for
project planning, etc (Mathew, 2005) (Tat-vinh Duong, 2009). The following examples are
caused by such a problem

1.6 Lack of Software Integration

A high percentage of the project management systems that are available today, focus on
specific tasks such as project planning and scheduling, cost control, etc. These isolated
(fragmented) applications have resulted in a broad spread of stand-alone applications
packages with no or „fixed‟ communication links. The industry lacks an integrated
comprehensive system, which facilitates the smooth flow of information between the various
stages of the project

1.7 Lack of Standards for Information Exchange

The incompatibility between hardware and software has raised a serious „technical‟
problem which has prevented project managers to easily access and manage project
information. These problems are caused by the lack of a standardization of project
information, such as to facilitate the information flow between incompatible hardware and

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software. Consequently, IT systems that are available and currently used by the industry do
not consider the needs of widely dispersed participants in large construction projects

1.8 Lack of Proper Decision-Making Tools for Project Planning

Planning is a lengthy process and needs contributions from the entire project team. It is also
context dependent. This process can be significantly improved if appropriate decision making
tools are incorporated into their structure. Integrated comprehensive systems have not yet been
developed in this direction

1.9 Lack of Standard Processes for Project Management

Lack of standard processes for project management is a weakness of the traditional

management manner (Tat-vinh Duong, 2009). Although there are some initiatives to
standardize project management processes such as the PMI (Mathew, 2005). Projects are
normally managed according to the experience of the project managers who are specifically
appointed for this task. Each project manager, even within the same organization, prefers to
follow his own experience, which has been developed over a long period of time. These
practices lead to large variations in management practices and thus can create a significant
impact on the capability of coordinating and controlling project information

1.9 Construction Process

Construction process is a process during which construction products, such as buildings,
are built. Due to its complexity, it is broken into several sub-processes, which
recursively include other sub-processes. The two major types of processes are the
material processes and the information processes. In the early stages of the building life
cycle, such as requirements specification, inception, feasibility, design and planning, most
of the tasks focus in the processing the information.

1.9.1 Material processes

During materials production and the construction itself, however, the raw materials and
components are used to build civil engineering products. Material processes are controlled
by information processes (e.g. design information specifies how much reinforcement should
be placed into a concrete slab)

1.9.2 Information Processes

Information processes are those of which major input and output is information. The main
information processes are design and planning (Turk, 2000). This research deals with
information processes

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1.10 Objectives

The aim of this research is to present a simple approach for integrating CAD with
estimation and planning, and to apply it for the case of building projects, as an example. It
presents an approach for integrating the existing software. The integration of stand-alone
AutoCAD, MS Access, MS Excel and MS Project by using Visual Basic and ActiveX
automation technology was proposed as an alternative approach to developing integrated
system

Also, presentation of building information modeling (BIM) approach, standards of

CAD, standards of data formats, 4D CAD and Primavera for Planning

1.11 Review of Previous Researches

Several attempts and efforts have been made by a number of researchers to develop
integrated systems for construction management has been reported. A brief review of the
research efforts (integrated systems) closely relating to the topic of this research is presented
in the following

In Singapore, (Wang, 2001) presented an expert system ESSCAD (Expert System

integrating construction Schedule with CAD drawing) developed for integrating construction
scheduling with CAD drawing. The system, which was developed mainly with knowledge-
based system programming technique and software integrating technique, can automatically
interpret the CAD drawings of a reinforced concrete frame structure building and extract
data of its building components, breakdown the project into activities, determine the logic
dependencies among activities estimate the work quantities and durations of activities finally
generate a primary construction schedule for the project. As it was integrated with CAD
system AutoCAD and scheduling software MS Project, it retains the advanced functions of
CAD drafting and network analysis. The link established between AutoCAD and MS Project
is semi-dynamic, i.e. once there is any change in CAD drawing, user could run ESSCAD
again to generate a new construction schedule.

Because the size of this kind of knowledge bases in ESSCAD is large (there are, at the
moment, about 60 typical activities in the basic knowledge base and more could be added,
Nevertheless, this is as another limitation of ESSCAD at present), they are stored and
managed by applying a database management system, i.e. FoxPro for Windows, to take its

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advantages of effective data management. At the moment, only knowledge bases for
reinforced concrete frame structure building were established for ESSCAD and need to
expand further. The main frame of ESSCAD is programmed with Borland C. The knowledge
bases and database are programmed with FoxPro for Windows while their links with the
main frame are also programmed with Borland C. The user interface of ESSCAD is
programmed with Borland Object Windows. ESSCAD can run on PC installed with
Microsoft Windows, AutoCAD 12.0 and MS Project 4.0.

In USA, (Elzarka, 2001) had discussed a cost-effective approach for developing

computer-integrated construction (CIC) systems by integrating stand-alone CAD
(AutoCAD), spreadsheet (Excel), database (MS Access) and scheduling software (MS
Project) packages using Visual Basic and ActiveX technology. 3D CIC prototype system 3D
CCAD (Construction Computer Aided Design system) was presented, that integrates off-the-
shelf packages. The prototype was developed for a concrete subcontractor to demonstrate
the potential of CIC to improve the constructability analysis and the construction
management process of concrete projects.

Generating 3D intelligent construction objects,

 Objects that can be generated in the current version of CCAD include column lines,
spread footings, columns, beams and slabs. Footings, columns, beams and slabs are
generated as solid models with true dimensions (scale 1:1).
 Generating quantity takeoff: Both the volume of concrete and the form area can
be calculated.
 Integrating with schedule.

In India, (Arun and Appa Rao, 2005) presented a simple methodology for integrating
computer aided design with construction scheduling using Visual Basic and ActiveX. It
makes use of the widely used standard software application packages namely AutoCAD and
MS Project along with MS Access database. The integration was achieved by developing
suitable interfacing modules and also by creating the knowledge based expert system for
incorporating the construction expertise to be used for achieving integration. The working of
integration methodology proposed has been demonstrated by taking an example of a
reinforced concrete Beam - Slab Bridge. The interface program has been developed to deal
with different number of piers in a pier group and different types (rectangular and I-section)

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and numbers of girders. Noted be here that main limitation is takeoff only the volume

1.12 Methodology

In order to achieve the research objectives, the following methodology was adopted:

 Literature Review: to give a review to integrated system in construction management;

CAD, estimating and planning; and Building Information Modeling (BIM) approach.
 Developing of integrated system: to develop (In CADEP) by using Visual Basic
and ActiveX to share information between software (AutoCAD, Access, Excel
and MS Project).
 Implementation of the integrated system: by applying the integrated system on a
real life project.
1.12.1 Information Technology in Construction

Innovation is one of the essential attributes that drives competitiveness in the construction
industry. Many research studies have been made on innovation in the construction
industry. Construction innovations could be grouped into:

A. Materials, equipment and methods

 Construction materials and equipment: tower crane, concrete pump, robotics, high
strength concrete, fibre reinforced plastic, etc.
 Construction methods: prefabrication, top-down construction, etc.
B. Management:

 Construction management techniques: bar chart, Critical Path Method (CPM),

Programme Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), line of balance,
alliance, project partnering; Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT), etc.
 Most of these types of innovation have been borrowed from operations research
theory and practice such as PERT, CPM, Total Quality Management (TQM)
etc.
C. Information Technology (IT):

 Computer applications and electronic equipment: computer, notebook, tablet PC,

palm, barcode, construction simulation, estimating software, project planning and
control applications, etc.
 Network and communication technologies: Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area

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 Network (WAN), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Internet, Intranet, VRML,
wireless, groupware, etc.

Each innovation category has a different influence on the construction industry. First,
adoption of construction materials, equipment and methods aims to improve productivity at
the operational level. Second, adoption of management techniques mainly focuses on
construction process control. Third, IT adoption is targeted at improving construction
management processes. The main function of IT is to improve the management and
processing of information during the construction process. The volume of information flows
during a construction project is enormous (speeding up information processing should help
reduce time and cost, and improve work quality With IT rapidly growing, researchers in
construction engineering keep working hard on innovating computer applications to enhance
work.

D. Communication Technology

Communications technology is today an important part of IT. Many of the functions of

communication devices are in fact increasingly integrated. With the latest generation
of laptop computers it is already possible to send and receive emails. Recently, mobile
phones which incorporate small microcomputers have started to appear on the market
(Bjork, 1999). Internet based communication is the area that grows fastest. The ability to
exchange data and information between all those involved in a building project depends on
the communication networks. When the flow of information improves, teamwork and
coordination may be enhanced.

E. Software Applications in Construction

Information technologies or software applications are available to support most aspects of a

construction project. They have been designed largely as solutions to specific problems
List of construction IT applications complied by the Construction Industry Computing
Association (CICA) in the UK, Most of them are usually aimed at automating various
design or construction tasks with no integration between them. “Island of Automation”
is often used to describe the situation. These applications can be grouped into the
following categories: (This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but only a general grouping
of the construction related IT applications).

1. General purpose applications for business and information management, i.e., word-
processing, e-mail, databases, etc.

Implementation of IT in the office work mainly involves the automation of routine

tasks, including, exchange building document in digital form. Office application is
the most prevalent use of IT, that is, computers for word processing for office and
contract administration. The application of office automation may improve internal
management efficiency.

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2. Computer Aided Design
Before the 1980s, most drawings were created using paper. In 1982, Autodesk introduced
AutoCAD software, bringing CAD to the PC and changing the design world forever.

Its use however has been limited to drafting for so many years that it is sometimes
referred to as “Computer-Aided Drafting”. In the CAD software category Autodesk
AutoCAD has the largest share of the CAD market. Other popular CAD software includes
Bently Microstation, Graphisoft Archi CAD etc.

The development of IT and its application in construction industry have brought about
some changes to the industry. Such as, the application of CAD grants a CAD drawing with
two meaning:

 To engineers, it consists of a series of graphic symbols representing a building;

 To computer, it is a process-able data file which contains data related to the

building, and this makes it possible to interpret the CAD drawing and to extract
from it the data needed for construction management.

Furthermore, visualization and animation systems, like 3D studio, can produce photo-
realistic, static, and moving images, so that the clients can view the final appearance of
the building at the design stage. The emerging Virtual Reality (VR) technology allows
the user

3. Building Engineering Applications

For energy analysis, HVAC design, structural analysis, lighting simulation, etc. The
benefit of these applications is that they allow designers to evaluate alternative design
solutions in order to reach optimum design.

4. Cost Estimating Software

The computation of construction quantities is one of those tasks which can be dealt with
computer technologies. Generally, computing by hands or by evaluation computer software
are two major methods for quantity calculation. There are few disadvantages with
performing these two methods:

 Time consuming.

 Accumulative errors and typos produced from manually computing.

 Leaving some area out of consideration.

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  Personnel’s lack of graphic working experience to perform the calculation jobs.

 Original system limitations, such as format of input data, etc.

The accuracy of construction quantity is one of the most important factors for controlling
building cost in construction industry

5. Planning, scheduling and site management

Construction works require careful planning and skilful management of human and
physical resources. Computer systems can assist managers to plan ahead, evaluate different
options and adopt and execute the most efficient construction operation. The
widespread uses of planning packages are Microsoft Project and Primavera, to plan and
schedule detailed construction activities, noted here Primavera was purchased by Oracle
in 2008.

6. Facilities Management (FM)

It is based on the operation, maintenance, and impact of the building operations on the life
cycle costs. From the first software applications, many different tools were developed. They
use their own data formats, which are not compatible with each other. As a result, data
cannot be electronically exchanged between them. In recent years, there is an increasing
awareness of the need for integrated construction processes and many research projects
are investigating related issues integration will be discuss.

References

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