Developing an activity-based knowledge management system for contractors

Knowledge Management (KM) has become an important term in the IT industry. Knowledge management involves creating, securing, capturing, coordinating, combining, retrieving and distributing knowledge. Most know-what, know-how and experience exist only in the minds of individual participants during the construction phase of construction projects. The knowledge can be reused and shared among the engineers and experts involved who participate in projects in order to improve the construction process and reduce the time and cost of solving problems. Sharing and reusing knowledge depends on acquiring and preserving both tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge as the property of a corporation. Effectively using information and web technologies during the construction phase of a project enables knowledge to be captured and managed to the benefit of future projects. This study addresses application of knowledge management to construction projects in the construction phase and proposes a Construction Activity-Based Knowledge Management (ConABKM) concept and system for General contractors. This paper proposes the concept of integrating IDEF (Integrated DEFinition function modeling) modeling methods and provides a prototype used for designing construction knowledge management systems. The ConABKM system is then applied in a case study of a highway construction project; the results demonstrate the effectiveness of sharing knowledge in the construction phase. The combined results demonstrate that by utilizing the latest web technology, knowledge exchange and storage concepts and modes of implementation, a ConABKM system is an effective tool for all experts and engineers participating in the construction phase of a project. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.