Information and Communication Technology in Construction Industry Author

Information and Communication Technology in Construction Industry Author: Ing. arch. Sergey Kalinichuk; Department: Economics and Management in Civil Engineering CTU in Prague

Introduction The given paper studies information and communication technologies concerning their usage within the construction industry with purposes to increase construction efficiency and solve the special challenges such as sustainable design and construction. Indexes of labor productivity for construction and nonfarm industries Source: Eastman C. , BIM handbook, 2011

Construction Initiatives • The commitment of leadership from all parties • Greater customer focus • Application of products and services from other industries • Promote best practice in health and safety • Provide decent working conditions • Measure, assess own performance, performance targets, share information • Development of an integrated process • Improved quality and fewer defects • Use of demonstration projects to develop and illustrate innovations • Rethinking (i. e. , reengineering) the construction process • Adopt lean thinking as a method of performance improvement • More and better training • Development of technology • Development of long-term relationships • Greater use of performance improvement tools and techniques Source: Adapted from Proverbs, Holt, and Cheok, Summary of J. Egan, Report, Rethinking Construction, 2002.

Information and Communication Technology in Construction Industry The main destination of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is providing construction stakeholders with • information and • analytical tools for the best control of the construction delivery processes. ICT include: • computer hardware, • software, and • communications devices which give access and allow communicating easily at local and international level.

ICT supported technologies in construction Needs Item ICT Supported Technology Project Document management, product and process models Information processing Company Data warehouses and management Country National construction information systems World Global ICT networks Man with man E-mail, video conferences Man with application Interaction facilities Man with machine Application with machine Just-in-time Time saving Just-in-case n. D Visualization, virtual reality, graphical user-interfaces Indirect contact using computers Robotics, Remote sensors Database look-up, internet search Subscriptions to customized content, distance learning

Current level of using ICT in Czech Republic Production/services management Electronic data sharing with suppliers Electronic data sharing with customers Electronic data Automated data sharing to sharing inside a manage company supplier/custome r relationships Stock holding management Computer knowledge training Personnel and information technologies Portable computer Mobile internet Internet connection High speed internet connection Distant access to company's data Company's computer network Computer Total number of companies Construction companies uses/have main parts of ICT 20, 3 10, 7 9, 6 Share of whole number companies (%) 5157 96, 6 64, 8 30, 3 90, 9 24, 6 62, 4 12, 5 18, 4 Source: Adapted from Czech Statistical Office ICT v podnicích ČR - výsledky za leden 2012.

Conclusion Information and Communication Technologies becomes the base for all innovative methods of design and construction and needed as much attention possible. It gains currency for Czech construction companies which generally are being short of investments to ICT. Ing. arch. Sergey Kalinichuk Phone: (+420) 776 767 392 E-mail: sergey. kalinichuk@fsv. cvut. cz Department of Economics and Management in Civil Engineering Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague Thákurova 7, 166 29 Praha 6, Czech Republic