Impacts of Design/Information Technology on Building and Industrial Projects

Published

October 1, 2001

Author(s)

Stephen R. Thomas, C L. Macken, Sanghun Lee

Abstract

This paper describes a collaborative effort by industry, government, and academia to evaluate the use of design/information technology (D/IT) on building and industrial projects and to relate the degree of use to project performance. A detailed statistical analysis of 566 projects in the Construction Industry Institute (CII) database is used to produce baseline measures of performance and D/IT use. The relationship between these measures is used to assess the economic value of using the technologies. The results of this study establish that projects benefit from D/IT use. Owners experienced project cost savings of 2.1 percent, and contractors experienced cost savings of 1.8 percent as D/IT use increased. There was strong evidence to indicate that use of these technologies also contributed to schedule compression. Construction schedule growth was reduced by 5.6 percent for owners and by 6.4 percent for contractors with increased D/IT use. Impacts on safety performance are less clear: owners obtain quantifiable safety benefits, whereas for contractors the impact was minimal. The statistical analyses also confirm that reductions in field rework are associated with increased D/IT use.

Citation

ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

building, design, industrial, information technology, performance, project management

Citation

Thomas, S. , Macken, C. and Lee, S. (2001), Impacts of Design/Information Technology on Building and Industrial Projects, ASCE Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=860090 (Accessed September 11, 2024)