Leveraging Technology to Improve Construction Productivity

The purpose of the proposed research is to identify the positive and negative effects of technology on project development and implementation. A better understanding of these effects will result in more effective implementation of future technologies. Efforts will be made to identify the impact of technology in four areas: work force, project processes, project quality, and cost. In terms of the impact on work force, the research will examine the impact of technology change on real wages and how this may impact the recruitment of future workers in the E&C industry. The research will also examine the impact of technological change on the project processes in terms of the skill requirements and how it will impact future education and training requirements. By examining the impact of technology on project quality, the research will examine how quality can be preserved or improved while retaining the productivity improvements by the use of technology. Examining the impact on project cost will examine when technology in the E&C process reduces project cost and when it increases project costs (such as due to errors in design). The research will focus on the use of technology involving the engineering and construction with mechanical (piping) and electrical (including instrumentation) aspects of project development and construction, since these areas of engineering and construction compose the majority of the scope of CII membership.