Materials management technology: an application in construction industry

Materials management is made problematic by materials shortages, delays in supply, price fluctuations, damage and wastage, and lack of storage space. An essential factor adversely affecting the performance of construction projects is the improper handling of materials during site activities. In addition, paper-based reports are mostly used to record and exchange information related to the materials component within a supply chain which is problematic, error-prone, and inefficient. Generally, modern technologies are not being adequately used to overcome human error and are not well integrated with project management systems to make the tracking and management of materials easier and faster. Thus, the aim of this book is focussing on the implementation of technologies in improving materials management practiceses especially tracking of materials in construction projects. This book will assist readers to understand materials management processes and technologies in construction projects. It explained what is meant by materials management and discussed the materials management on construction projects. Also discussed were the processes and problems of materials management. The implementation of current technologies and potential to implement RFID in materials management practices were also discussed. It clearly identified that these are important for effectively managing materials management in the construction project in order to provide better handling of construction materials to provide an overall performance of construction projects in term of time, budget (cost) and quality. The application of ICT to support current practices of materials management in the construction site is considered improving for effective managing construction materials on site. In addition, the emerging technologies such as RFID are discovered to be a potential for improving materials management especially for tracking of materials.