Evaluation of wireless technologies in construction

Effective project management requires controlling all aspects of a construction project: quality and quantity of work, costs, and schedules to guarantee the success of the project. Performance monitoring of the entire construction project is crucial. A proposed new model based on wireless communications technologies, to track the progress of percentage completed in a construction project is being presented in this paper. The model is based on the application of smart chips with wireless communication. It will increase productivity and efficiency, reduce labor hours and time required for tracking, and give more accurate result in estimation. This new technology includes an automated system of reading RFID tags placed on items that send out either a tracking number, or other information for that item, directly to the reader. Keeping track of the material used on site, based on the estimated quantity will permit making a better estimate of the amount of work done on a construction site. Wireless communication is not an inexpensive technology. There are initial equipment expenses, expenses associated with service fees and maintenance, and indirect expenses that need to be considered. Life cycle cost of the system will be presented to evaluate the model. The term Life-Cycle Costing is quite broad and encompasses all those techniques that take into account both initial costs and future costs and benefits (savings) of an investment over some period of time. It is applied to help set technical action priorities by identifying and measuring the costs and benefits of applying new techniques. It provides inputs for decisions on how much capital investment is justified relative to the expected benefits.