Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent sustainable Construction - I3con

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION HANDBOOK 2
Thereby, it is not just ensured, that only authorized personnel enters and operates on the construction
site, but also that health and safety on-site can be more easily enacted and monitored. For instance,
emergency evacuation of a construction site with a registration of persons who have already left the
emergency area. After being registered when entering the construction site, it would be immediately
traceable which worker has already been evacuated. Similar to access control, the construction worker
would have a smart card with personal data stored. The smart card could store also information about
skills, qualifications and authorizations of the worker. For example, data about skills and permissions
for the use of equipment and machines. A RFID reader installed in a machine and vehicle like an
excavator, or a crane reconciles the skills of the worker and the skills which are prerequisite for using
the machine (Littlefield, 2003). The engine only starts when the reconciliation has been successful.
This ensures that only workers being aware of the handling of the equipment and with the right
qualifications operate it and know how to comply with safety regulations during operation to reduce
endangering himself and other workers. Besides ensuring access permissions, on-site safety of
construction workers with respect to fatal accidents, such as fall accidents, on the site can also be
reduced by installing a safety monitoring system consisting of a mobile sensing device for detecting
the worker's position, transmitter sets and repeaters for sending the detected information to a receiver,
and software for interpreting this information and given related feedback (Lee et al., 2009). Referring
to the social dimension of sustainability, health and safety on-site could be significantly improved by
applying RFID for access and permission control.
Anti-Theft Systems and Tool Tracking. As RFID has already been applied in anti-theft systems for
several decades it is also predestined to prevent loss and theft within the construction industry and on
construction sites. Tools often go missing or are not returned on time, and, hence, are unavailable for
other workers causing production delays and additional expenses (Littlefield, 2003; Swedberg, 2009).
Both the loss and theft of materials and high end equipment is a major problem in the construction
industry, as shown in a case study by the ECC (2009). US construction industry’s total costs caused
by job-site theft accounted from $300 million to $1 billion in 2004 (Informationweek, 2004). For
simple anti-theft applications a 1-bit transponder is sufficient. When a tagged tool is moved into the
reception area of a reading device at the entrance or exit of a construction site, similar to the
application in department stores, an alarm is activated. Apart from the application of 1-bit
transponders for tool tracking they could also be used to store additional data like the date and the
place (i.e. construction site A or B) of the last utilization. Using transponders with higher memory
capacity the anti-theft system could also be expanded to an advanced tool tracking system to serve the
following functions (e.g. Jaselskis et al., 1995; Goodrum et al., 2006; Goedert et al. 2009):
- Survey of the procurement/leasing and maintenance or modification history of the equipment,
- Billing to specific construction projects,
- Information about the utilization of the tool, e.g. of the construction worker who used the tool,
and, as already mentioned,
- Theft-secure.
Information on the maintenance history of the equipment while it is in maintenance and repair would
significantly reduce paperwork occurring for warranties and maintenance logs (Jaselskis et al., 1995;
Jaselskis and El-Misalami, 2003).
Regarding tool tracking, companies like the Robert Bosch Tool Corp. have begun to sell tools with
embedded RFID tags. Bosch is tagging a total of 66 different tools like circular and reciprocator saws
and hammer drills (Informationweek, 2005). Data in these transponders are the tool’s model number,
order information and a unique serial number. The system for the tool identification works on a
frequency of 915 MHz. The database of a backend-system contains “purchase and service history,
billing rates to specific construction projects, and information on who has used the tool”. The
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