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Application of PIP in the Construction Projects for Beijing
Olympic Games
Guangbin WANG 11 CIFE, Stanford University
94305-2040 CA USA
Xiaoli YAN2; Wenjuan ZHANG22 SEC, Tongji University Shanghai
200092 China
AbstractInformation technology has played a more and more
important role in Chinese construction industry, especially after
the emergence of Project Information PortalPIP , which provides a
web-based project document management, communication and
collaboration working environment for the participants. Taking PIP
developed for the Construction Projects of Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games as a case, this paper introduces its background, objectives,
functions and developing process, in an attempt to provide
reference for the use of PIP in large projects. (Abstract)
Keywords- PIP, Project management, Project communication(key
words)
I. INTRODUCTIONThe construction engineering for Beijing 2008
Olympic
Games is a mega-project consisting of many sub-projects. 37
gymnasiums for competition will be built and 59 for training will
be rebuilt. In addition, the city's infrastructure construction
projects such as the transportation and electro-communication
facilities prepared for the Olympics are included. Problems will be
caused if traditional management modes are used in Olympic
construction engineering: Great risk and difficulties in objective
control exist
because of high capital cost and long duration, Difficulties lie
in governments macro control and
supervisory work, Project document problems with communication
and
information processing and shared by the parties. Information
Technology (IT) is now routinely used in the
construction industry as a tool to reduce the previous problems.
The use of IT improves coordination and collaboration between firms
participating in a construction project, leading to better
communication practices. Its benefits include an increase in the
quality of documents and the speed of the work, better financial
control and communications, and simpler and faster access to common
data as well as a decrease in documentation errors.
Project Information Portal (PIP) is the web-based information
technology that best facilitates a collaborative working
environment in a construction project. Its use as a communication
medium can help information transfer occur faster and more
effectively and enable new opportunities for the development of
distributed systems that can cross organization boundaries and
provide a unique opportunity for
teamwork and workflow automation. The Web can also overcome the
incompatibilities of data formats through smart browsers and
servers. Therefore, independent project participants using
different hardware platforms can share the same system over the
Web. PIP is also a platform that can be accessible by project teams
located in different organizations. It basically provides a
centralized, commonly accessible, reliable means of transmitting
and storing project information. Project information is stored on
the server and a standard Web browser is used as a gateway to
exchange this information, eliminating geographic and boundary
hardware platform differences.
In order to meet the requirements of the development, the
Chinese construction industry is strengthening its informatization
and vigorously promoting the application of information technology.
During the past few years, the government and A/E/C firms are
increasing their interests in IT applications to facilitate
construction projects. The development of PIP for construction
engineering of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is an example.
II. OBJECTIVES OF THE PIP DEVELOPED FOR BEIJING OLYMPICS
CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
The PIP developed for Beijing Olympics construction engineering
is a communication platform between the management departments and
the participants of the Olympic engineering. It is also an
integrated platform of some of the engineering management
application software.
The PIP development should conform to international norms and
demonstrate Chinese characteristics, in another word, it should
provide both the visualization integrated environment adapt to the
international management institution and the engineering management
modes suitable for Chineses situation. It should provide secure,
convenient, swift and efficient, intellectualized information
services to the construction participants of the Olympics. It
should provide dynamic and real time working environment for
management.
The PIP aims in improving the management technology and
efficiency. It enables to collect, grasp and deal with information
about the schedule, quality, cost and emergency quickly and
smoothly, while provide support for decision. By using PIP, the
sub-projects of the Olympics construction are coordinated and
controlled systematically, all the related governmental department
such as planning, engineering,
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environment, municipal, communication, weather, information,
etc. are connected jointly and they can cooperate in managing and
controlling the whole project, ensuring the harmonization,
integration, efficiency of the Olympics construction. All these
provide references for the decision maker.
The application of the PIP can largely reduce the construction
cost. More important, it is an important part of the Scientific
Games, the Digital Games and will make great contribution for the
building of Digital Beijing, also it plays great role in improving
and accelerating the informatization of Chinese construction
industry.
III. FUNCTIONS OF PIP OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES PROJECTS
A. The Users The first of development of the PIP is
investigation of
function requirement and system analysis. During the first step,
the developer should take in-depth research into the real
construction situation and study different users ideas and
requirements. After considering all the factors, a list of the
users that will use the PIP is presented in Fig.1.
Fig 1. The users of the PIP analysis
B. Information covered by the PIP Different kinds of information
involved in the Olympics
construction engineering include organizational information,
management information, technical information and economic
information. In detail, there are planning and designing management
information, cost, schedule and quality controlling information,
safety management information, environmental protection
information, conference information, contract management
information, risk management, bond and claim for compensation
management. The information should be covered generally by the PIP,
and may be in different forms of data, files, images and
videos.
In another point of view, the core information that constitutes
the PIP follows as:
Planning information: Investing information Design information
Construction information Procurement information enterprise
information human resources information
C. Functions of the Olympic Games projects PIP The functions of
the Olympic Games projects PIP can be divided into five function
blocks, followed by fig. 2.
Fig.2 Function of the PIP of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Fig 3 and Fig. 4 are some images from the PIP has been
developed.
Fig 3. the PIP applied in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
PIP USERS
Dept. of Olympic Organization Comm.,Government depts.,
In. organizations etc.
Owners, Designers,
Contractors, Suppliers
etc.
Investors,
Consultant,
Researcher. etc.
Media, Commun
ity people
etc.
B iji
Function of PIP of
the Beijing 2008
Olympics
Information communication
Document management
Information publication
Collaborative work
Work flow management
Document query
Document editing on line
Public information
Electric bidding
Email
Discussing/videoing on-li
Help on line and training
9LGHRPHHWLQJ
Work flow support
Control versions of doc.
Apply and confirm on line
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Fig 4. the PIP applied in Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
IV. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIP OF OLYMPIC GAMESThe development of
the PIP of Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games needs proper organization, training, software and hardware
support, which are the four pillars that uphold the PIP
platform.
A. Organization support The organization support includes the
organizational
structure and corresponding background, the task dividing
principles, management rules, information coding and information
system. The development of the PIP needs the following
organizational support:
The inner organization framework and management flow are clear
and decided,
The mode of project management is confirmed and the program
files of project management are established,
The engineering department of the Olympic Organization Committee
has designated some people to take part in the whole PIP
development process,
The data of the system requirement analysis is acquired, The
system design scheme has been censored and
sanctioned, The equipment of the computers, network and
related
hardware are provided, The system and software that have been
prescribed by
the engineering department of the Olympic Organization Committee
in related contracts,
The coordination of the development team and the participants of
the whole projects are expedite,
The data collecting has proper guarantee measures including the
system guarantee, the agreement guarantee and the censorship
mechanism guarantee.
B. Training support Training support includes the training of
leaders team,
who decide the direction of the whole organization, the IT
training of the project management team, who are familiar in
the field of project management but lack in IT technology
knowledge, the project management training of the IT technical
team, who are familiar with IT development but need some knowledge
about project management.
C. Software support The software support includes: The solution
scheme of the platform structure and the
way of the information transmission. The solution scheme that
the platform structure adopts is multilevel distributed structure.
The first level is the platform of the Olympics Organization
Committee, and the second level is the individual project team. The
multilevel structure is characterized in capable of distinguishing
different management levels management responsibility and scope
easily, simplifying the difficulty of the structure system,
assigning work with clear interface and operating smoothly.
The integrated data resource scheme. the integration of the
database of qualification of the
enterprises and the individuals of the construction ministry,
the integration of the database of program files of the
construction ministry, the integration of definition of the
dynamic
information of the process controlling and the cost controlling,
the integration of the existing information resource
according to the data standard and specification published by
the supervising information system of the national construction
industry.
The integrated software scheme the software such as P3 can be
integrated in the
schedule management field. the software such as CGB(developed by
Chinese
enterprises )can be integrated in the cost management field. the
software such as Expendition can be integrated in
the contract management field. the data format of the committee
working platform is
required to be compatible and to connect with the management
system of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee after
communication with the technology department. the PIP is sure to
integrate with the application
system that specified by the committee and be compatible with
them in data format. the PIP can be connected with the contractors
and
sponsors system. The data security solution that combines the
software
and hardware. The solution considers three sides including the
ways to ensure the security in the information lay, the physics lay
and the specified web environment.
The solution of the system development technology route. The
solution adopts the Microsofts platform and the SUN platform. The
structure of the server is Windows + SQL Serveror Oracle,the
application
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system is java which includes J2EEJDBCEJBXML, the development
tool is IBM WEBSPHEREJBUILDERJSP, etc.
D. Hardware support Hardware support includes the confirmation
of the
hardware system scheme and the establishment of the hardware
system. The demand draft for hardware facilities includes:
The facility requirement for engineering departments official
environment the chief server and related facilities comprise of
3~4
enterprise server providing the serve of document, application,
database, backup system and big screen display facility, disk,
firewall, etc. the local area network facility for the first
level
comprise of two department server,20~30 PC of high performance,
and some portable computers.
The second level management level(department). two workgroup
server, 3~5 PCs of high performance
Solution of vast area network: FDDI, DDN special line, dial-up,
etc.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The PIP is already running in the Beijing Olympics construction
now, it has been approved that the PIP has provided the working
environment for communication and collaboration among all the
participants, including different companies, different departments
in the same company, and subsidiary company, which ameliorates the
project
management level and improves the efficiency. On the one side,
the leader can know about how the projects located in different
areas are implementing, makes decision on time and then delivers it
right then, on the other hand, the underlings can get the directive
from the upper leader in time and then execute it with no
delay.
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is a mega-project. The application of
PIP has greatly improved the working efficiency. The objectives,
functions, structure and developing process of the development of
the PIP of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games are presented in this paper
and will provide useful reference for use of PIP in large projects.
Basing on the existing use status of PIP, this paper presumes the
development trends of PIP in future.
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Part Twoe-newsletter of the Construction Industry Coalition
CouncilApril 2004 www.constructionchannel.net/
newsletters/april_2004/ newsletter0404.html
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F.Garas, I. Hunter, Large scale engineering in construction, user
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