Prepared by: Ozanul Ezree Othman (2009792183)
Introduction
Information Technology (IT) becomes more important nowadays. The Malaysia government has also define attractive policies to make our economy environment more attractive such as Multimedia Super Corridor which is emphasize the implementation of IT in various economy sector and also to make IT as an important agenda. This includes construction industry sector in Malaysia.
The use of IT in project-based industries such as construction is maturing fast. It is seen as a catalyst for change and enabler for better planning, monitoring and control of construction activities. Nevertheless, there is much that remains to be done as the building industry sector exhibits a set of key characteristics that differentiate it from the other sectors.
In line with the National IT Agenda, which was formulated in 1996, the Malaysian Government has been aggressively promoting IT and its application in every sector including building industry. The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), the national body set up to standardize and modernize the building industry, has also put an effort to promote IT in line with the government policy. They have launched an e- construction Portal Exchange, which is an IT infrastructure to allow maximum and effective means of interaction among the industry players (Abdul Rahman, 2000).
Vision of IT in the Construction Industry
Information Technology (IT) is widely regarded as a key enabler for further performance improvement in the construction industry. IT knowledge and computer skills have become essential requirements for the industry (Sun, M. and Howard R., 2004).
The vision of IT can be focused on people, processes, technology and places. While IT is considered as means or an enabler to deliver projects not the end goal in itself. Therefore people and processes constitute a very important part of the planning. Future construction industry will consist of best practice of new integrated business processes, which are consistent and compatible. The best use of emerging technologies will be enabled through adaptable processes. Technology, process, people and culture are very much linked to each other. (Erdogan B, Abbott C, Aouad G, Kazi A.S, 2009).
As for the places and technology, it is aimed to have less geographically dependant work practice in the future. The technology such as virtual reality and hologram will become more common in the future. The improvements on videoconferencing and hologram will enable design coordination meeting among the people who involve in the construction to interact with each other without having to meet at the gazette place like present days. They can have meeting or discussion with other parties at their own workstation. This will definitely improve the interaction among the client, design teams and the contractors.
Improved wireless technologies will create better work balance where home working, remote working, and mobile working will be more achievable. With the help of IT, intelligent buildings will become more common where computerized system will be used to create the intelligent network to control and monitor the mechanical, lighting systems in a building, control the temperature and climate, provides lighting based on an occupancy schedule, and monitors system performance and device failures and provides email and/or text notifications to building engineering staff (Wikipedia, 2007).
Training for people also can be conducted using simulation and 3D walkthrough site models. It will be able to create an event or scene of the construction of a building that have not being build yet. The building can be visualized through animation that helps them to determine the possible risk that they may encounter during the construction.
Finally, the dependable on manual resources or workers can be reduced through the introduction of robotic or factory manufacturing. With that, productivity will increase, construction wastages, construction time and number of workers at site will be decreased which eventually will increase health and safety on site.
Conclusion
In future, IT will become part of every day life of the end-user. The continuous improvement of IT will transform the traditional construction into the information age. Mobile computing will enable the whole construction team to have updates on the project information where it can improve the knowledge and information sharing from the start to the end of the project. The full utilization of IT will bring positive impact and changes to the construction industry not only the construction process but also the outcome of the process, which is the built environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment