INNOVATION & MANAGEMENT OF IT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

By : Afifuddin Husairi Bin Hussain (2009121853)

Management science is art and science and it dominated by major advances that respond to the perceived limitation of methods existing at that particular time. These advances usually represent a break with traditional norms and involve the introduction of new concept of innovation. These innovations are usually based on the new tools and technologies available in that period. Henry Ford’s mass production techniques (Brinkley, 2003), Toyota’s lean production system (Ohno, 1988) and WalMart’s pionerring use of information technology to revolutionize the management of retail stores (Skater, 2003) are good example of these innovation.

Construction industry is an industry which appears ripe for reaping the improved in information technology. The industry is sometimes described as the world largest but here this great industry locked into its craft of information technology.  The construction industry seems ripe but the missing ingredient still need to emerge to find our own innovation and management of IT application in the construction industry.

Design, by definition, is to creat and work out the structure of form of something, by making a sketch, outline, pattern or plans. It a fundamental, purposeful human activity involving functionally, meaning, expression and aesthetics (Coyne et al., 1990). Our understanding of design as a process and our ability to model it are, however still limited (Gero, 1991). The objectives of research into design are to obtain a better understanding of design, and to examine how useful tools such IT can be used to aid human designers in the design process. CAD (Computer Aided Design) does  not really aid design; in reality Computer Aided Drawing (Lawson, 1997). Therefore, new innovations need to improve this ‘Computer Aided Drawing’. It should be provides a powerful mechanism to visualized the design, construction and operation, and to integrated with many other aspect of process, such as structural analysis, cost planning and control, construction planning, performance prediction and facility management. It should be multi-dimensional computer model that will visualized the entire design and construction process, enabling users to see and stimulate the behavior of project throughout its life cycle.

With the advancement of information technology, communication and collaboration in project are much easier (Issa et al.,2003). Many innovative technologies are shaping the business process o construction companies in order to be faster, more specialized and focused. Among these technologies, mobile computing and interoperability have further enhanced the development of e business. Mobile computing is configured by highly distributed and interconnected mobile devices prefigured by mobile phone and personal digital assistants (PDAs). In essence, mobile computing has enabled a flexible connectivity among project participants. The connectivity is potentially restorative to the fragmentation to our construction industry, uniting us with each other. This eliminates the need for data re-entry and re-formation which has been the major cause of errors and inefficiency. On the other hand, with the innovation and management of the IT as playground of ideas, construction as an industry in the digital age bring issues of products, distribution and installation into the central stage across the whole development construction life cycle.

Although knowledge management is not a technology, the need of knowledge management for innovation and management of it in construction industry is driven technologies such as internet. It can be augment and facilitated through the application of IT. As put by Koulapoulos and Frappaolo (1999), technology will not replace the value of and need or face-to-face communications, but can assist in broking the owners of tacit knowledge and facilitating the creation of people based network. For example, workflow, decision support and visualization will facilitate cognition and intuition by our minds and brains; the information search and retrieval systems and intelligent agents etc. will facilitate internationalization and apprentices; document management system and portals etc will enhance externalization or mentoring in knowledge management, and group wise, emails etc will facilitate intermediation or the communities of practices.

As mentioned, management is an art and science. One of the main challenges faced in the construction industry today is how to improve innovation and management and integrate this into a comprehensive system using application of IT. Implementation problems of these new innovation of technologies have always barrier in adopting them, however while in the past the main problem was cost, it is now more organizational and human issues that stand in the way of taking full advantage of the benefit of innovation and management of it in construction.

Three key innovation and management of IT in construction industry have been highlighted. With the new modern era, this is widespread recognition that construction industry must embrace new way of innovation if it is to remain competitive and meet the need of industry demand.


References :

Coyne R.D., Rosenman M.A., Radford A.D., Balachandran M. Gero J.S (1990), Knowledge-Based Design Systems, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts.

Gero, J.S (1991), Artificial Intelligence in Design 91, Butterworth-heinemann Ltd, First international conference on artificial intelligence in design , Edinburgh.

Lawson Bryan, How Designers Think – The Design Process Dennystified. Architectural Press, Oxford, 1997

Issa R R A, Flood I and Caglasin, G (2003) A survey of E Business Implementation In The US Construction Industry, ITCon, 8(2003), pp. 15 – 28

Koulapoulos Thomas M. and Frappaolo Carl (1999) Smart Things To Know About Knowledge Management, Capstone, USA

Brinkley, Douglas : 2003, Wheels for the world : Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Process, 1903-2003, Viking Press

Ohno, Taiichi : 1998, Toyota Production System, Beyond Large Scale Production, Productivity Press

Skater, Robert : 2003, The Wal-Mart Decade:How A New Generation Of Leaders Turned Sam Walton’s Legacy Into The World’s #1 Company, Portfolio