Luiten, G T (1994) Computer-aided design for construction in the building industry. Dr thesis, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
Abstract
In the last decades, the building industry has faced an increase of demands from society. There is a demand for higher quality, shorter lead times, custom-made buildings, more environmental consideration, and better working conditions. This increase of demands is likely to continue. One of the answers of the building industry on these demands might be to improve the integration of the design and construction processes. Integration of sub-processes in a building project can be defined as "the continuous and interdisciplinary sharing of goals, knowledge, and information among all project participants". Design for Construction (DfC) deals with integration of design and construction. DfC is the building industry's counterpart of well-known technologies such as Design for Assembly and Design for Manufacturing in the mechanical industry. Since design and construction are increasingly, and successfully, supported by computers, it seems logical to support their integration with computers as well. For Design for Construction this leads to Computer Aided Design for Construction (CA DfC). CA DfC is still a technology in its infancy. This PhD research aims a strategy to help CA DfC grow to a more mature state. This research looks at the strategy for CA DfC from three related points of view: (1) integration concept, (2) computer implementation, and (3) organisational implementation. The integration concept starts from the presumption that for integration of building processes, their computer applications have to be integrated. To integrate computer applications, the information and knowledge used have to be sharable. To realise this, formalisation and exchange of information and knowledge have to be standardised. Technical implementation of the integration concept requires computer support. Among others, support is needed for developing the standards and for using those standards in practice for exchange between computer applications. Before the participants in the building industry will start applying CA DfC, they want to know what it has to offer and how they can implement it organisationally. The strategy developed is tested in a case study for precast concrete structures.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | case study; computer-aided design; concrete structures; integration; manufacturing; precast concrete; standards; working conditions |
| Index terms: | computer aided design, integration, building process, society, strategy, precast concrete, design and construction, lead time, building industry, concrete structure, working conditions, implementation, case study, computer application |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, project controls, organizational analysis, employment law, software systems, management, building materials, data collection methods, communities and social development, building construction, structural engineering, contractual arrangements, computational design |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Research Practice, Construction Materials, Stakeholder Management, Digital Applications, Site Management, Organizational Design, Time Control, Engineering Principles, Procurement, Legal Issues |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here