Research Seminar: IT and Production Strategies for the Building Industry
Prof. Charles Eastman COA 8833 E CRN 25315 Room 223 ARCH Tu-TH 4:30 – 6PM Georgia Tech, College of Architecture, PhD Program, Spring 2006
Overview Overall, the building industry is one of the largest areas of the US economy. At the same time it is made up of a multitude of small and medium size organizations, none with the reach of a Boeing or General Motors. Historically, construction has been “low-tech”, a laggard in using technology to improve quality and reduce costs. The goal of this seminar will be to develop in-depth understanding of the structure of this industry, focusing on the role and opportunities of improving its productivity, with special emphasis on information technology and automation. Here we are interested in the full building construction industry, including architecture and design, engineering consultants, general contractors, specialty contractors, facility managements firms, and others that provide technical services to the realization of the built environment. The seminar will endeavor to develop in-depth understanding of the business and technological aspects of the adoption of advanced technologies in the building industry, with special focus on IT. We will consider the building industry to include contractors, architects, structural and M/E engineers, and all the various subcontracting businesses. The seminar will focus on the conversion of the industry from the use of isolated and largely 2-D applications with minimal data transfer between them (with little potential for design or fabrication automation), to knowledge-rich 3-D applications, with fully integrated data exchange based on product models. Initially, we will review the make-up of the building industry and the information technologies currently available. Then we will develop a methodology for evaluating the readiness of individual sectors within the industry to adopt advanced IT. Based on this methodology, we will investigate each building industry sector in detail, evaluate a variety of such sectors, and identify the next incremental step for each sector toward fully integrating and automating their information-dependent activities. The specific course tasks will include, amongst others: Review the current structure of the construction industry, identifying issues of coordination Review the current state of IT for potential use in the building industry, Identify AEC industry sectors and perform background studies for sample sectors, Classify them as to their current status, with regard to the above criteria, Identify relevant research and technologies, Refine and expand the basic technological and business criteria for integration, Determine potential of conversion, Identify key issues for motivating the sectors to take incremental steps, Identify key technology actors within each sector, Prepare a road map for each sector to achieve IT integration.	Reading: 1. Eastman C, (1999) Building Product Models, CRC Press, Chapter One (pdf) 2. BIM Handbook, Chapter 5 (pdf) draft NEW: 3.Relative Productivity of On-site and Off-site production processes in Construction (pdf) 4. FACTORY AND SITE-BUILT HOUSING A COMPARISON FOR THE 21ST CENTURY, U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Develop-ment, 1998 (pdf)