An automation approach for data and information manipulation to reduce knowledge and skill requirements in construction

Abstract

The lack of personnel, especially knowledgeable and skilled personnel, always arises in the construction industry. This issue highly concerns the stakeholders and related personnel in the industry because it leads to prolonged construction, cost overrun, and lower quality of structure construction. Therefore, the reduction of knowledge and skill requirements is important in order to increase productivity, increase the number of qualified personnel, and supply personnel to the construction industry. Thus, this research aims to explore the automation approach for data and information manipulation to reduce knowledge and skill requirements in construction. The installation process of prefabricated members in residential projects was selected as a case study. The knowledge and skill requirements depend on the construction processes and the roles and responsibilities of related personnel. In addition, the changes and mistakes increase the level of knowledge and skill requirements in the construction processes to perceive and select countermeasures. Thus, an automation approach for data and information manipulation, which is the integration of computer and information technology with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), is proposed in this research. The approach was developed from the roles and responsibilities of related personnel and the three main steps of the installation process, specifically, checking the available prefabricated members, making a decision for an installation process, and installing the prefabricated members. Moreover, the approach covers four supplementary steps, which are checking the availability of other resources, comparing the required resources and the available resources, deciding the work location of the mobile crane, and inspection of installed prefabricated members. The approach offers support to personnel in collecting data, accessing information, and manipulating the data and information. In addition, the approach processes the data and information based on the current conditions. With this scheme, personnel perceive the actual conditions and perform the operation based on the provided information, which is displayed in graphical format. Some of the actions in an installation process were replaced using the processes of an automation approach. Thus, the knowledge and skill requirements of personnel can be reduced. This reduction affects the duration and quality of construction processes directly.