Productivity Assessment Of Implementing Wireless Technologies In Steel Construction Using Simulation Technology

Steel construction is considered as a process that involves many related activities. Pre-engineered buildings (PEB) steel parts are required to be installed in a specific order due to structural safety requirements and to the logical sequence of erection. However, shipping, transportation, unloading and on-site storage do not take into account the erection order of the assembly. As a result, considerable time is consumed locating, sorting, and identifying steel components. Integrating promising information technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), mobile computing devices and wireless technology can be useful in improving the effectiveness and convenience of information flow in construction projects. Current information and communication technology may be incorporated in the operational process for efficient assembly at the job site. For models implementation, two steel construction projects were used as examples to represent an overview of the current practices of existing steel operations, find out potential productivity problems and sources of waste, and explore the potential possibilities for improving current processes. An information flow diagram followed by a simulation model for Pre-Engineered processes from shipping the steel materials until erection on the construction site was developed. Then, the improved steel process is modeled and the productivity of both models is compared by using simulation software (Micro Cyclone). Feasibility study of implementing the proposed project tracking model and its impact on the construction project is conducted. Implementing the proposed model will result in at least 7% of additional profit for the first project, and 5.5% in case of the second project. Those results were only based on direct savings.