ICT in the construction industry

Some of the more eye-catching benefits for an ICT-enabled construction industry as depicted by the National Platform's working group include:

ICT collaboration systems provide a central bank of project information ensuring all data is shared

You use email everyday. You have a mobile phone, possibly a Blackberry, or even an I-Phone. Communication has never been any easier, right? And the implications for the construction industry are all positive, aren't they?

Yes and no. While the benefits of being able to keep in touch with colleagues and projects when you're on the go are clear, most people will also have experienced the debilitating confusion generated by the spider's web of emails and fleeting mobile conversations generated as plans inevitably change.

The answer, as some of us might have it, is not a return to the stone age and communicating only by letters. Instead, according to the results of research commissioned by Constructing Excellence's National Platform for the Built Environment, the effective use of new technology can improve communication and bring the construction industry closer to its holy grail - collaboration.

"Information is the lifeblood of construction, and just about every piece of information these days is generated electronically," says Paul Wilkinson, head of corporate communications at BIW Technologies and member of the National Platform's working group. "The aim is to make using this information more joined-up and to help people to be able to share it at an earlier stage."

While Wilkinson and his colleagues have created a vision of how the construction industry could be using ICT to improve collaboration and also the end-product by as soon as 2020 (see box), it's not just people whose job it is to develop this technology that are persuaded of its benefits. In fact, most of these technologies are already being used in the construction industry to some extent, perhaps more widely than a lot of people would imagine.

"It's inconceivable that we could run large projects at the necessary speed and with the volume of information now used without using an ICT collaboration system," says Crawford Patterson, operations director at Mace. "Even 15 years ago I was designing buildings in London that were being built in the Far East and plans would have to be sent in the post and this could take 15 days. I don't think the industry could go back to working this way."

In case you're wondering what an ICT collaboration system is (the 'C' bit stands for communication, by the way), there are two basic types, according to Glyn Jones, project manager for ICT at Lend Lease. "The simplest just allows people in different locations to meet virtually and see project demonstrations and that sort of thing, saving on all the travel and logistics of getting people together. We use this a lot and find it a very effective tool.

"The second type is where we manage information collaboratively," he continues. "We use the BIW suite of packages, which we've been working on with them for the past three years and are now using it on 70 projects in the UK and a similar number across Europe and the Middle East."

Collaboration system

Fundamentally, this type of collaboration system is a project database onto which can be recorded all transactions during a project and all the information required. The aim, in the jargon, is to reduce 'information management disputes', known more colloquially as "you never told me" and "I didn't get that" disputes. "That's one of a long list of reasons why you could say email has been bad for the construction industry," points out Patterson.

Jones agrees. "As a central repository for information it helps overcome the problems of email, such as the project manager who suddenly finds a wall has been built in the wrong place, in good faith, but who can't find a record of the email conversation between the designer and the person who built it."

The way such problems are resolved is straightforward, even if it is a new skill to some. "They allow people to use a standard procedure for moving information around, such as how design information is conveyed to the contractor," explains Patterson. "The plus side is that it's the same process every time so once you've learnt it, there's no reason why anything should go missing. The down side is you have to learn to use the process in the first place."

"It makes everything transparent and visible and acts as a single source of truth for the project," adds Jones. "This does sometimes elicit a response from people where they expect it to do everything for them, even to make them a cup of tea in the morning, but of course it doesn't. It only works if you have skilful people using it who don't abrogate their responsibilities to use their skills."

Aside from a temptation to rely on the system to do the work, there is also another downside, at least from the perspective of non-believers: the ability to track accurately what information was sent, when, and to whom.

"This is one of the reasons for there still being quite a lot of reluctance from various parties, often from designers," says Patterson. Yet this transparency cuts both ways. "People can be caught out, but once they realise that it's the same for everybody, a lot are also turned around very easily to the virtues of collaboration - people are often uneasy to start with and then turn out to be very keen."

The future, it seems, is here to stay.

We have the technology

Some of the more eye-catching benefits for an ICT-enabled construction industry as depicted by the National Platform's working group include:

• Use of a virtual environment to create prototype or model solutions that meet all the various dimensions of the brief - functionality, aesthetics, logistics, ease and safety of construction, operation and maintenance, whole-life cost, sustainability, etc.
• Manufacturers and suppliers (already involved in the design process) reusing model information for offsite fabrication of the required components in the optimum sequence for just-in-time delivery to the facility.
• All project personnel wearing small devices that monitor their exact position, giving warnings, where necessary, regarding the individual's safety and security.
• Those with managerial responsibilities being able to interrogate the online environment to get real-time updates on schedules, project costs and other performance parameters.
• Upon completion, using the building model as a powerful asset management tool, linking the facility owner/operator with relevant suppliers or maintenance contractors, with all repairs or replacements automatically recorded.