Feasibility of Automated Monitoring of Lifting Equipment in Support of Project Control
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 131, Issue 5
Abstract
One of the differences between industrial manufacturing or processing plants and construction sites is the temporary nature of the construction site, which has traditionally precluded installation of sophisticated production monitoring systems. Monitoring of production progress, cost, and quality is performed almost exclusively manually, with the result that it is expensive and approximate, and is commonly delivered with a time lag that does not allow for an effectively closed control loop. Automated monitoring of construction lifting equipment to provide useful feedback information for project management is a strong potential candidate; almost all components and materials must be transported by machines, and monitoring of machines is relatively straightforward. A system concept, employing a “black box” monitor and an electronic building information model, was developed. A field study was conducted to test the feasibility of the concept. The results indicate that the system is technically feasible, and offers the potential to deliver real-time, accurate project control information at very low cost.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers are grateful for the assistance provided by U. Dori Construction Ltd., and in particular to the site management team at the Discount Bank Tower project.
References
Cheng, M. Y., and Chen, J. C. (2002). “Integrating barcode and GIS for monitoring construction progress.” Autom. Constr., 11, 23–33.
Chysostomou, V. (2003). “COMPASS-IP.” ⟨http://www.compass-ip.com/Default.aspx⟩ (November 11, 2003).
Ciesielski, C. A. (2000). “ADCIC-Automatic Data Collection in Construction.” Proc., A.I.M.’s Global Academic & Scientific Conf., Cairo, Egypt.
Crane Equipment. (2001). “Crane equipment.” Cranes Today, 314, 44–44.
Eastman, C. M. (1999). Building product models: Computer environments supporting design and construction, CRC, Boca Raton, Fla.
Eastman, C. M., Sacks, R., and Lee, G. (2003). “Development and Implementation of an advanced IT strategy for the North American precast concrete industry.” Int. J. Constr. Inf. Technol., 8, 247–262.
Echeverry, D., and Beltran, A. (1997). “Bar-code control of construction field personnel and construction materials.” Proc., 4th Congress of Computing in Civil Engineering Held in Conjunction with A/E/C Systems ’97, Philadelphia, 341–347.
Futcher, K. (2001). “User survey on a WAN portfolio MIS used for portfolio/project management in Hong Kong.” Proc., IT in Construction in Africa, CIB W78 Workshop, White River, South Africa, 44-1–44-14.
Greeman, A. (2002). “Black boxes.” Cranes Today, (334), 45–49.
Guardian. (2003). “Wireless crane load indicators & crane load limiters.” ⟨http://www.guardianinstruments.com/rl420.html⟩ (December 15, 2003).
Hopp, W. J., and Spearman, M. L. (1996). Factory Physics, Irwin, Chicago.
Howell, G. A. (1999). “What is lean construction.” Proc., 7th Annual Conf. of the Int. Group for Lean Construction, IGLC-7, Berkeley, Calif., 1–10.
Howell, G., and Koskela, L. (2000). “Reforming project management: The role of lean construction.” Proc., 8th Annual Conf. of the Int. Group for Lean Construction, IGLC-8, Brighton, U.K.
Jaselskis, E. J., Anderson, M. R., Jahren, C. T., Rodriguez, Y., and Njos, S. (1995). “Radio-frequency identification applications in construction industry.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 121(2), 189–196.
Jaselskis, E. J., and El-Misalami, T. (2003). “Implementing radio frequency identification in the construction process.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 129(6), 680–688.
Laiserin, J. (2002). “Comparing pommes and naranjas.” The LaiserinLetter, Issue 15, ⟨http://www.laiserin.com/features/issue15/feature01.php⟩, (December 16, 2003).
Navon, R., and Goldschmidt, E. (2003a). “Can labor inputs be measured and controlled automatically?” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 129(4), 437–445.
Navon, R., and Goldschmidt, E. (2003b). “Monitoring labor inputs: Automated-data-collection model and enabling technologies.” Autom. Constr., 12(2), 185–199.
Navon, R., Goldschmidt, E., and Shpatnitsky, Y. (2004). “A concept proving prototype of automated earthmoving control.” Autom. Constr., in press.
Navon, R., and Shpatnitsky, Y. (2005). “Field experiments in automated monitoring of road construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(4).
Peyret, F., Betaille, D., and Hintzy, G. (2000). “High-precision application of GPS in the field of real-time equipment positioning.” Autom. Constr., 9, 299–314.
Potain. (2003). “Top tracing.” ⟨http://www.potain.com/products/prdRange̱home.cfm?objectID=0001A406-758C-1ABF-B59480F03BE70000&selectedHeadingID=EQUIPEMENT⟩ (November 11, 2003).
Sacks, R. (1998). “Issues in the development and implementation of a building project model for an automated building system.” Int. J. Constr. Inf. Technol., 5(2), 75–101.
Sacks, R., Eastman, C. M., and Lee, G. (2003a). “Parametric 3D modeling in building construction with examples from precast concrete.” Autom. Constr., 13(3), 291–312.
Sacks, R., Navon, R., and Goldschmidt, E. (2003b). “Building project model support for automated labor monitoring.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 17(1), 19–27.
Saidi, K. S., Lytle, A. M., and Stone, W. C. (2003). “Report of the NIST Workshop on data exchange standards at the construction job site.” Proc., ISARC-20th Int. Symp. on Automation and Robotics in Construction, F. van Gassel, ed., Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 617–622.
Shapira, A., and Glascock, J. D. (1996). “Culture of using mobile cranes for building construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 122(4), 298–307.
Shapiro, H. I., Shapiro, J. P., and Shapiro, L. K. (2000). Cranes & Derricks, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 2, 2004
Accepted: Jun 7, 2004
Published online: May 1, 2005
Published in print: May 2005
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.