Information logistics in the building industry

Summary form only given. Information and knowledge management is essential in all the phases of construction projects, from the inception and design/engineering phases, through the realisation and exploitation phases, where contractors and facility owners subcontract most of the material related activities and tend to become information managers. The possibilities offered by information technology and the emergence of AI based technologies has begun to transform the building industry. If the building and construction industry wants to meet the increased demands of the future, information logistics should get the attention that it requires. In particular considering that one of the implications of these technologies is the need for border-crossing building activities. The complexity of construction projects in the light of concurrent engineering or design and construct methods is that the process has to be broken down into discrete tasks. Each of these tasks will be carried out by different parties which in turn may also break it down into further sub-tasks, and so on. What the right information and knowledge is, depends on who you are, and what you have to do. For the time being, and because change should always be applied incrementally (evolution instead of revolution) it seems that the right information and knowledge is something else for nearly everybody. Some partners, like the project managers, need strongly filtered information. This paper investigates the state-of-the-art information logistics requirements of the building industry