Tracking the Location of Materials on Construction Job Sites

Automated tracking of materials on construction projects has the potential to both improve project performance and enable effortless derivation of project performance indicators. This paper presents an approach by which materials tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be automatically identified and tracked on construction sites, without adding to regular site operations. Essentially, this approach leverages automatic reading of tagged materials by field supervisors or materials handling equipment that are equipped with a RFID reader and a global positioning system receiver. To assess the technical feasibility of this approach, a mathematical model has been formulated such that the job site is represented as a grid and the location of materials within the grid is determined by combining proximity reads from a discrete range. Field experiments were conducted using an off-the-shelf RFID technology, and several metrics were developed to quantify the field performance and compare it with the theoretical positional accuracy derived from the discrete formulation.

[1]  Iris D. Tommelein,et al.  WORKPLAN: CONSTRAINT-BASED DATABASE FOR WORK PACKAGE SCHEDULING , 1999 .

[2]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Location Systems for Ubiquitous Computing , 2001, Computer.

[3]  Aviad Shapira,et al.  Feasibility of automated monitoring of lifting equipment in support of project control , 2005 .

[4]  Edward J. Jaselskis,et al.  Implementing Radio Frequency Identification in the Construction Process , 2003 .

[5]  G FutcherK.  User survey on a wan portfolio M.I.S. used for porfolio/project management in Hong Kong. , 2001 .

[6]  Burcu Akinci,et al.  Automating the task of tracking the delivery and receipt of fabricated pipe spools in industrial projects , 2006 .

[7]  Charles T. Jahren,et al.  RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION APPLICATIONS IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY , 1995 .

[8]  H. Randolph Thomas,et al.  Impact of Material Management on Productivity—A Case Study , 1989 .

[9]  Stephen P. Boyd,et al.  Convex Optimization , 2004, Algorithms and Theory of Computation Handbook.

[10]  Bob McCulloch.  Automating Field Data Collection in Construction Organizations , 1997 .

[11]  Jongchul Song.  Tracking the location of materials on construction projects , 2005 .

[12]  Ronie Navon,et al.  Can Labor Inputs be Measured and Controlled Automatically , 2003 .

[13]  Damodara U. Kini.  Materials Management: The Key to Successful Project Management , 1999 .

[14]  L. El Ghaoui,et al.  Convex position estimation in wireless sensor networks , 2001, Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM 2001. Conference on Computer Communications. Twentieth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Society (Cat. No.01CH37213).

[15]  Lansford C. Bell,et al.  Costs and benefits of materials management systems , 1987 .

[16]  Rafael Sacks,et al.  Building Project Model Support for Automated Labor Monitoring , 2003 .

[17]  Burcu Akinci,et al.  The Need for Prompt Schedule Update by Utilizing Reality Capture Technologies: A Case Study , 2005 .

[18]  Jack Roberts.  The Business Roundtable Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness Task Force , 1987 .