Globalization of Technology International Perspectives (1988) / Chapter Skim
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Technological Advances in the Construction Sector
Technological Advances in the Construction Sector
Pages 68-79
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From page 68... ...
A1SO7 since construction, unlike manufacturing, rarely involves production of a standardized product, the demands on the material supply functions of buying, expediting, receiving, warehousing, and delivery are much more complex. For many of these reasons, the basic construction process of building stick by stick, piece by piece, has remained unchanged since the Middle Ages.
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From page 69... ...
By contrast, the industrial sector creates facilities incorporating industrial process systems and equipment designed to produce an end product, such as automobiles, textiles, chemicals, refined metals, or electric power. The heavy civil sector encompasses major public works, including dams, highways, airports, and water distribution and sewage facilities in short, most of what we now call infrastructure.
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From page 70... ...
CAD systems, which are used extensively in commercial and heavy industrial construction but have yet to prove cost-effective in residential work, are able to generate design information faster and more accurately and can implement midstream changes with more ease than conventional drafting can. Construction work is able to begin earlier because the design is more rapidly developed.
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From page 71... ...
The system automatically raises a flag when two components in the drawings occupy the same physical space, and allows corrections to be made before the problem reaches the field. Future improvements in design capabilities will allow closer linkage of design to operations and maintenance, better life-cycle costing linked to design alternatives, and improved methodologies for cost estimating and procurement linked to electronic design program software.
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From page 72... ...
For example, a heat exchanger once assembled on-site piece by piece is today fabricated in a vendor's shop on a structural steel skid complete with ladders, railings, wiring, piping, and instruments and is shipped essentially ready to plug into other modules on the site. Assembly performed in the controlled environment of the fabrication shop has distinct advantages: It avoids the climatic extremes of a field site and benefits from better management of material and parts inventories, maximizing productivity and quality.
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From page 73... ...
These technologies will gradually be integrated into a coherent system for the highly automated control of certain job site activities. Automation in the construction sector is usually seen in terms of robotics, and the development and application of robotic systems in all industry sectors is relatively new.
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From page 74... ...
First-generation construction robots now on job sites are really microprocessor controllers retrofitted to conventional construction equipment. The use of remote technology is accelerating in areas where laborers are performing repetitive tasks or working in a hazardous environment, or where quality can be improved by continuous inspection of the operation or product.
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From page 75... ...
In addition to these general trends, specific evidence of the impact of technology on the construction management process can be cited, particularly in the areas of bulk staging activities, inventory, construction start-up, training, quality control, and information handling. Earlier identification of bulk component requirements, allowing earlier bulk staging of commodities at predescribed locations, is a consequence of rapid design capability.
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From page 76... ...
As capital costs rise along with such production costs as labor, raw materials, and energy, increased emphasis is placed on plant availability, a measure of the project's reliability. From an administrative standpoint, the proper management of change orders for a job already under way has always been a difficult task for the contractor, with often frustrating results for the entire project team.
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From page 77... ...
Further, the global availability of basic design-build capability will permit tighter competition on a technical level for conventional construction projects. The so-called first-of-a-kind projects involving sophisticated custom design and construction will still require specialized capabilities, and firms will meet these requirements using advanced tools and techniques.
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From page 78... ...
Despite the traditional constraints that retard the changing of codes, it is likely that various automated construction technologies will reduce physical quantity requirements and costs considerably, simply by reducing the overprotective limits in some of today's codes. FINAL OBSERVATIONS In the next 10 years, the greatest technical impact in the construction sector is expected to come from improved management methods and automation.
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From page 79... ...
Historically, the management of construction activity has been too reactive- dominated by archaic methods, restrictive trade union practices, and ineffective planning. In some ways, we are still building the cathedrals of the Middle Ages when we need to build space stations and advanced factories on earth.
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