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You should be looking at these ONLY after you have completed the self-study exercise.
PF1. Piece-meal approaches are unlikely to produce measurable savings, since development in isolation is likely to be impaired by site activities that continue to rely heavily on traditional, labour-intensive means. In other words, gains made through some degree of automation may be negated by inefficient processes that surround it. For example, placing concrete at a faster rate using a robot would be to no avail if the supply of the concrete did not match the robot's capacity nor if the quality of the concrete was less than that required.
PF2. Control over the construction process is crucial if development in construction robots and automation is to stand a real chance of delivering benefits. Separating the process of design from production means that designs do not take account of constructability issues, let alone cater for the needs of automation. Unless design and production are properly integrated, the chance to adopt modern manufacturing technology will be limited. Rationalisation of the process is required if the benefits of this technology are to be realised.
PF3. Construction companies should form alliances or some other association with other key players in the construction process. Moving closer to designers and to engineering firms outside the sector, who the capacity to innovate, could prove advantageous. Clients and customers have a role to play here too by encouraging innovative uses of technology.
PF4. The Japanese construction companies have learned a considerable amount from their earlier efforts in developing construction robots. 16 or more years of experience in mechanisation has enabled them to isolate the key problems and to begin to resolve them. Examples are to be found in more highly developed forms within developments such as SMART (Shimizu), T-UP (Taisei) and ABC (Obayashi).
PF5. SMART (Shimizu) represents a major effort to 'turn the problem of automation on its head'. Instead of trying to solve problems through the development of a wide range of construction robots, Shimizu (and indeed others) have redefined (or re-engineered) the construction process. Important in this respect is to understand that the aim is to recreate the working environment of a factory as a construction site. This is different to establishing a construction site as a temporary factory.
PF6. Construction of the kind and scale contemplated in the IF7 project is reflective of a construction industry that operates globally, but which is capable of acting locally. In this respect, successful building projects are likely to result from ventures that bring together the best skills in the world from wherever they are. IT will help enormously in this respect and is one area, at least, where real integration of the design and construction process is likely.
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