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E Construction:
The Web and E-Commerce in Architecture, Engineering and Construction
Daniel R. Rehak
rehak@cmu.edu
Outline
A/E/C Industry
- Architecture, Engineering, Construction (A/E/C)
- Engineering, Construction, Operations (E/O/C)
- Creating the "built environment" and "infrastructure"
- Plan, design, construct, operate, maintain, decommission life cycle
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Construction Process
- Construction is a team process
- Each project is one-of-a-kind
- The manufacturing unit is 1
- Costs and timeframes can be large ($US 10B+, 10 year+)
- Each project is a unique combination of team players
- Same team never comes together again
- Communications and collaboration play a major role in projects
- Team relationships are adversarial
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Construction Team
- Owners: client
- Architects: designers
- Project Managers: construction supervisors
- Contractors: builders responsible to management
- Subcontractors: builders responsible to other builders
- Suppliers: construction materials and facilities equipment
- Resource Suppliers: labor and construction equipment and tools
- Municipalities: legal authorities (approval, codes)
- Financiers: money
- Insurers: risk management
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Construction Business Models
- Design, Bid, Build
- Design, Build
- Build, Operate, Transfer
- Public versus Private
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Construction Business
- Large business sector
- $US 3.2+ Trillion Worldwide
- $US 700+ Billion US
- Fragmented
- 1 Million US Participants (suppliers, purchasers)
- Range from very large to very small (individuals) companies
- Top 8 companies control less than 20% of market
- Top US company controls less than 5% of market
- Field process
- Inefficient
- A $100 Million project generates 150,000 documents
- $500 Million of FedEx annual revenue is shipping drawings for construction
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Business Case for E-Construction
- 5-10% of project management costs
- $US 400 Billion by 2004 (est.)
- 20-30% of business online
- Construction businesses are not "e-smart"
- No recognized e-construction market leader
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Potential Role of E-Construction
- Address inefficiencies in process (e.g., document management)
- Team coordination, collaboration
- Process management
- Information management
- Remote site access and control (role of wireless)
- Procurement, supply chain management, market exchanges, auctions
- Approvals
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Drawbacks for E-Construction
- Fragmentation of players and process
- Traditional industry conservatism
- Lack of computing infrastructure
- Field connectivity and access
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Current E-Construction Business
- Fragmentation
- 100+ major e-commerce companies (500+?)
- Prediction: majority will be gone in 6-9 months
- Little market or service differentiation
- Is the industry ready (only 20% online)?
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E-Construction Sample
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E-Construction Services
- Project web sites
- Project extranets
- Document management
- Document sharing
- Document distribution
- Version control
- Drawing redlining
- Drawing printing, reprographics
- Process management
- Project calendars
- Event tracking
- Online collaboration
- Meetings
- Messaging
- Chat
- E-mail
- Message integration
- Financing
- Credit reporting
- Insurance, locator services
- Financing, construction loan locators
- Electronic payment services
- Field site connectivity
- Web-cams
- Remote sensing
- Directories
- Material, supplier directories
- Job listings
- Employment listings
- Construction news
- Construction training
- Bidding
- Invitation to bid
- RFQ
- Bid submit
- e-bid day management
- Payment
- Procurement
- Supplier-to-contractor
- Supplier market aggregation
- Infrastructure
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E-Construction Focus
- Project Management Portals
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E-Construction Project Management
- Document exchange and management
- Collaborative computing
- Information repositories
- Workflow management
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General Construction Portal Characteristics
- Starting point for web access
- Information focus on domain
- Personalized (e.g., my yahoo)
- No automated controls or workflow management
- Few real applications
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E-Construction Project Portal Features
- Project e-commerce functions
- Document and collaboration center
- Access customized by role
- Integration of workflow
- Links to collaborators and resources
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E-Construction Project Management Portal Tools
- Document exchange
- Document change management, audit trails and version control
- Team collaboration
- Chat
- IM
- Shared whiteboards
- Shared applications
- Conferencing (audio, video)
- Redline drawings
- Directory services
- Events and calendars
- Project News
- Notification services
- Project search
- Weather reports (traffic?)
- Data catalogs
- Project archives
- Online permitting
- Equipment tracking
- RFI/RFP
- Bidding
- Procurement
- Billing
- Punchlists
- Scheduling
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Desirable E-Construction Project Management Portal Capabilities
- Team and individual access rights/roles (RBAC)
- Role-based customization
- Personalization
- Security
- Scalability
- ASP (Application Service Provider)
- Client independence (PDA)
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Building An E-Construction Project Portal
- How To
- Do it yourself from basic tools on a project basis
- Create a portals framework for your project teams
- Outsource to a portal builder who will "brand"
- Use to a generic portal
- Choices
- Cost versus customization
- Market size versus business control
- E.g., GM versus Freemarkets versus Construction Portals
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Characteristics of Current E-Construction Project Management Portals
- Custom built versus collection of outsourced services
- Market a general service to anyone versus providing outsource for private extranet
- Current focus is service integrator for any customer
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E-Construction Portal Marketing Benefits
- Reduce cost via market pressures, bulk purchases
- Reduce time --> Reduce overall project cost
- Improve cash flow
- Increase accuracy, audit trail
- Disintermediation
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E-Construction Portal Drawbacks
- Not everyone is online
- Computing on site, lack of access
- Conservatism
- Security concerns
- Who establishes or owns the portal
- Project size scalability ($1M to $10B projects)
- Information rollups
- Fragmentation in portals
- Too many vendors
- Any team member might be fragmented across multiple project portals
- Links to back-office systems
- New intermediaries
- Legal issues of "signed" drawings
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Issues in Selecting an E-Construction Portal
- License terms
- Privacy
- Cost
- Functions
- Security
- Infrastructure (servers, ISPs)
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Directions in E-Construction and Project Management Portals
- Better calendar integration (with project schedule, event notification)
- Construction specific tools and workflow
- Wireless access
- Meta portals
- Market changes
- Market shakeout
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