Integration of planning and control activities for building and construction:: Experiencing standards

The effective exchange of information regarding the planning and control activities (schedules, resources, materials, cost, cash flow) between the different parties involved in building and construction projects is a critical success factor to avoid projects' time and costs overrun and to insure better quality. However, current applications and research and development efforts on electronic exchange of information are usually restricted to the exchange of technical design information, particularly CAD exchange amongst designers and between these and contractors; and of business data (purchase orders, invoices, remittance advice, etc.), between contractors and builders, merchants and suppliers, This paper will review current practitioners' approach to the exchange of planning and control information, and discuss the business need to the seamless flow of scheduling, resource, materials, and cost information between firms. Different technical solutions available to address the subject will be described. Through the description of the experience in this area of two European projects, RoadRobot - and SUMMIT, the paper will also describe the state-of-the-art regarding the development of international standards for the exchange of planning and control information, particularly at the EDIFACT, STEP and IAI levels. RoadRobot Operator Assisted Mobile Road Robot for Heavy Duty Civil Engineering Applications, was a project devoted to implement a general standard-based architecture to support the information management for road construction environments, covering from the road design to road construction, embracing the site, cell, machine and tool levels. SUMMIT - Supply Chain Management In Construction Industry, is an end-user driven project which envisages the creation, implementation, test and evaluation of an EDI, STEP and IAI/IFC based communication infrastructure on a specific project of building prefabricated houses, connecting project manager, contractor and suppliers. This paper shows that international standards for planning and control information in B&C are not yet enough developed and that further developments are required.