Description

The construction industry has often been characterised as being slow to adopt modern technology and particularly modern Information Technology. In some respects this reputation is undeserved by an industry that in reality is often flexible and remarkably innovative. Construction companies were among the first to make wide scale use of the computer bureaux services of the 1960's and were early adopters of modern communications technology such as the mobile phone. However, in the area of electronic data collection for process control and quality assurance the constructinon industry has certainly not reaped the same benefits that manufacturing industry has. There a number of reasons for this, not least the manor in which the construction industry is organised and operates and the nature of the construction site itself. This work considers these issues and looks at ways in which particularly small to medium sized contractors may overcome them and successfully leverage manufacturing-style information technology.