Bibliography: leaves 58-61. / This dissertation describes the findings of a study that was carried out on the use and application of information technologies (IT) in construction management processes. This study, which was in the form of a survey, was conducted in October and November 2001 covering forty-five (45) architectural, engineering and construction companies operating in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The objectives of the study were: to investigate the extent of use and application of information technologies in construction companies operating in the Western Cape, and to determine the factors influencing IT investments in the construction industry. The survey results reveal that 96% of respondents have invested in IT during the last two years, and some of the companies are planning to make further IT investments. Although an overwhelming number of companies have invested in IT during the last two years, only 71% of the respondents have IT strategies. From this 71% of the respondents, 34% have their IT strategies in written form and 37% have it in oral form. These construction companies are planning to make further IT investments in computer-aided design, document handling and accounting systems. Only a few companies showed interest in investing in electronic trading, computer product modelling, virtual reality and property information. The survey has also established that many business processes like bookkeeping, invoicing, scheduling, resource-planning, costing, budgeting and tendering are highly computerised. Despite these large IT investments and high computerisation of the business processes, the outcomes have been mixed. The introduction of IT in the construction industry has resulted in some desirable changes since it has improved the efficiency of doing work, thereby reducing the cost of doing work. Furthermore, IT has increased productivity in general administration, project management, design, and site management. However, the introduction of IT has brought little or no improvement in reducing the mistakes in documents, the number of construction errors, the complexity of work, the administration needs and the proportion of new work. Continual demand for upgrading hardware and software, and high investment costs are seen as prohibitive to the greater adoption of IT in the construction industry.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/9777 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Serumola, Sedireng |
| Contributors | Lister, Gordon |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MSc |
| Format | application/pdf |
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