Computers in the Workplace

Information Technology is used in just about every industry. One industry many people may not correlate IT with is the construction industry. I have eight to nine years of experience in the construction industry. When thinking about Information Technology, I couldn’t think of when or how we used it other than using our mobile devices to call each other. When I did construction, I mainly did the framing, which is the process of building walls, floors, and roofs. IT was building the wood frame of the house hence the name framing. As a grunt worker, I mainly used nail guns, measuring tape, or hammers to get work done. But there were times when we would need to do some math to make sure things were square, so we would use a calculator or a phone to do the Pythagorean theorem. Besides using our phones and calculators, our boss or superintendent would look at the plans and use a computer to order supplies.

Regarding the plans or blueprints, Architects use CAD (Computer-aided Design) to draw out where the walls, doors, and windows will go, with the exact measurements for the framers to follow. Through research, I found another type of technology used in construction called BIM (Building Information Modeling). Using BIM builders in every stage of the process can see the design, make any adjustments that need to be made, predict risks and timelines, order the right amount of material without having too much waste, and many other benefits (Kyivska et al., 2022).

Architects and developers need to be computer literate, so they don’t make any mistakes when creating plans. If a bearing wall or load-bearing spot isn’t identified correctly, the house will have many structural issues after or before it is finished. Even having the ability to order supplies online or draft up a contract is essential for most construction workers. There may be portions of a build, such as framing, that only require reading plans and working without any technology. But most processes throughout the construction of a home or office building require computer knowledge at every level. Getting things wrong can cost the buyer and builder a lot of money and give them a bad reputation.

In the past, it seems as though construction did not use much technology besides creating plans/blueprints. Now there is 3D modeling/printing where they can print blocks to concrete pads (Kyivska et al., 2022). Also, virtual and augmented reality is used in construction to let buyers virtually walk through the home or building to get a feel of how things will look. Even 360-degree pictures help the building and buying process for customers in a different state or country than the building. Now, robots can build a three-bedroom house in 2 days (Kolnaar, 2019). A robot is mounted to the truck. This truck can cut, and lay bricks faster than a human can. Even though this robot can build a house relatively quickly, I still think it will require a human being to move the truck to the right position, notice any discrepancies, and do random quality checks. From everything that can be done now with technology in construction, with 3D printing a home, to robots building a home, I do not know what types of improvements can be made other than building drones and droids to build in place of humans.

-Matthew

References

Kolnaar, T. (2019, September 4). This robot can lay a 3-bedroom house in 2 days.

Archello. https://archello.com/news/this-robot-can-lay-a-3-bedroom-house-in-2-daysLinks to an external site.

 

Kyivska, K., Tsiutsiura, S., Chernyshev, D., Olexander, T., Rusan, I., & Oleksandr, R.

(2022). Information Technologies for Modeling the Life Cycle of Construction Objects. 2022 International Conference on Smart Information Systems and Technologies (SIST), Smart Information Systems and Technologies (SIST), 2022 International Conference On, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1109/SIST54437.2022.9945782