Advanced process control for infrastructure building processes

Purpose In this research, novel information integration technology and advances in wireless communication, positioning and machine control systems were combined into a general control method for an improved multi-contractor infrastructure building process. More intense competition and new environmental regulations in the field of infrastructure building are forcing companies to revise and intensify their processes. There is a clear need for tools enabling more efficient process management. In this research, the objective was to find out how to improve process management through more efficient information exploitation. Method We conducted a literature review and interviews with professionals in the field to find out requirements for improvements in process management. Results & Discussion Based on the requirements revealed by the literature and interviews, the developed control method exploits common ontology models to integrate design and construction time process data with the help of advanced communication, positioning, and machine control applications. In addition to construction time process control, the utilization of the developed control method also potentially intensifies operations before and after the project. The developed method for example makes offer requesting, project control and maintenance potentially more efficient and therefore makes processes safer, more cost-efficient, ecoefficient, and greatly helps the product data management. The development of the method is the first step and the results will be verified in a next research phase by practical implementation.

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