Development of Automated Pipe Spool Monitoring ... - Springer Link

KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering (2013) 17(5):865-876 DOI 10.1007/s12205-013-0111-9

Construction Management

www.springer.com/12205

Development of Automated Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID and 3D Model for Plant Construction Project C. H. Kim*, S. W. Kwon**, and C. Y. Cho*** Received April 15, 2011/Revised 1st: May 12, 2012, 2nd: July 18, 2012/Accepted August 18, 2012

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Abstract For plant construction, installation of complex pipe spools is one of the integral parts of management and operation. Construction errors in such plants have been increasing as they become bigger and more complex. To reduce the number of construction errors, an efficient management mechanism for pipe spool installation with real-time monitoring is desired. A Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN), which utilizes low-power wireless data communication technologies such as Wireless Local-Area Networking (WLAN) and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is seen as an enabling technology for intelligent management of piping installation. This research aims to develop a real-time pipe tracking system for plant construction, utilizing state-of-the-art technologies such as RFID and 3D digital models on a handheld mobile device, which allows more efficient task management than a conventional computer. Keywords: pipe tracking, RFID, plant construction, real-time monitoring ··································································································································································································································

1. Introduction Plant construction is distinguished from other construction projects in that prefabricated materials and equipment installation comprise a substantial portion of the whole project (Kini, 1999). Pipe installation accounts for 45% of the cost of plant construction. Plants involve hundreds or thousands of spools with unique properties such as material, shape and finishing method. A pipe spool consists of a series of pipes connected with fittings, flanges, gaskets and fasteners. They are cut into the desired length and pre-assembled at the factory and then delivered to the job site. In a typical plant project with total installed cost ranging from US$200 to US$300 million, there may be as many as 10,000 pieces of pipe spools (Song et al., 2004). Pipe route composition for plant operations is necessary to design systematically. (Kim et al., 2009). Pipe installation is a precise task because pipe spools are similar in shape. For constructing larger plants, the practice described above may cause various bookkeeping errors, such as missing, duplicated, or incorrect information which would result in costly problems such as rework, project delays or quality issues. Numerous pipe spools have to be fabricated and delivered ontime to guarantee timely installation. It is essential to monitor the fabrication process of the spools so that they can be delivered to the site on time. Therefore, an efficient method for managing both spool fabrication and which installations have been

completed is necessary. Due to recent advances in information technology, various new management systems have been adopted in the construction industry. For instance, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and wireless network technology are widely used in construction work sites for monitoring labor, factory-fabricated steel frames, curtain walls and ready-mixed concrete. Our research proposes an RFID and wireless network based work process monitoring system designed for efficient information management related to pipe spools. The system is capable of crash detecting, real-time information sharing with stakeholders, effective control of design and construction work and checking construction errors. Several tests were conducted to assess the feasibility of our new system.

2. Literature Review 2.1 Applications of RFID Technology in Construction Industries In this section, RFID technology in the construction industry is summarized. Past research falls in one of two categories: proposals for RFID application in construction or feasibility studies. Jaselskis et al. (1995) provides information on RadioFrequency Identification (RFID) and showed conceptual design system-based RFID technology for concrete processing and handling. The Construction Industry Institute studied the new field

*Assistant Manager, Samoo Architecs & Engineers, Seoul 138-240, Korea (E-mail: [email protected]) **Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil, Architectural and Environmental System Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 400-746, Korea (Corresponding Author, E-mail: [email protected]) ***Junior Research Engineer, Tall Building Team, R&D Division, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Yongin 446-716, Korea (E-mail: [email protected]) − 865 −

C. H. Kim, S. W. Kwon, and C. Y. Cho

of RFID application including engineering/design, material management, maintenance and field work (Construction Industry Institute Research Team, 2000). There is some research on RFID applications for finishing material (Kwon et al., 2004), structural steel work (Chin et al., 2008), construction materials (Yagi et al., 2005) and safety supervision for reducing construction accidents (Lee et al., 2006) and construction management by adding IT (Information Technologies) including RFID and Global Positioning System (GPS) onto tower cranes (Han et al., 2004) and measuring the location of workers in the field. As an alternative to effective material tracking and checking the installation, Furlani and Pfeffer (2000), presented a prototype for identifying structural steel members and Comp-TRAK, which uses a 3D scanner, bar-code and RFID technology. Akinci et al., presented research about application supply chains and construction management for precast concrete (Akinci et al., 2002; Ergen et al., 2003). In a case study of RFID- applications, Cawley (2003) showed the feasibility of RFID applications to monitor concrete curing by checking the temperature of concrete. Goodrum et al. (2005) developed a tool tracking and inventory system using RFID tags and verified the system through tests. Jaselskisand El-Misalami (2003), showed time savings when RFID technology is used to track pipe supports and hangers based on a field test. However, their research doesn’t on a the full lifecycle of pipe spools from manufacturing to procurement and installation. A construction company applied RFID technology using 21,000 RFID tags for steel structure elements, curtain walls, and concrete trucks. They estimated that they saved 0.5% of total construction cost and 8% of the construction schedule. From our survey, RFID technology is appropriate for many job sites but there is little research on automated systems for ondemand information tracking and real-time monitoring of pipe spools through their life cycle. A construction company completed a construction project using RFID technology to monitor 16,000 pieces of steel elements and 5000 units of curtain walls. Use of RFID reduced equipment cost, indirect cost, construction cost, and construction labor but required expenditure for the RFID system. 2.2 Applications of Information Management in Construction Engineering Recently in the construction industry, efficient planning and management by using construction information has been necessary. In this chapter, previous research results are analyzed involving information management in the construction and engineering areas. Wang developed a 4D site based management model which can conduct graphical simulations of the construction process in order to integrate a 3D model into schedule information to support resource management and decision making on the construction site (Wang et al., 2004). Singh developed a framework for collaboration and intercommunication for BIM applications (Singh et al., 2011). Cao developed a theory for how a construction manager can collect and share project information

and developed a system using this theory (Cao et al., 2002). Chau (2004) developed 2 phases of a dynamic model using a genetic algorithm for efficient allocation of facilities and materials and verified the efficiency of the model by applying it to real cases. 2.3 Efforts to Improve Construction Efficiency in Plant Projects Plant projects are getting bigger and more complicated and increasingly being executed quickly. Timely and accurate project management is necessary. Various technologies have been developed, and research has been conducted. This section reviews present research on improving productivity during construction. Tommelein (1998) illustrated a process model of materials using the lean construction technique known as pull-driven scheduling and verified it by using the simulation method. Arbulu et al. (2002) proposed a model to shorter supply chain lead times using values stream maps. Song et al. (2006) proposed the use of RFID for automating logistics management of pipe spools as an alternative to the conventional tracking method, which has various shortcomings. Their prototype has been evaluated via field tests for assessing its feasibility, and benefits expected from it are discussed. Several advanced IT tools are known in the plant construction area. One tool, Intelligent Plant Information System, integrates a data server, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, and a suite of application software for managing operational plants. A second example is a Clash Managing tool (as a part of a plant design management system), which detects unwanted overlap between the pipes in the plant design, which is very difficult to detect manually. Real-time monitoring of the installation progress is a third purpose of such tools, which is enabled by individual bar-code tags attached to the spools when they are fabricated. A spool is scanned shortly before it is welded so that overall job progress can be tracked. These technologies, while providing useful information to their users, only provide less-than-expected accessibility to field personnel. For instance, it is hard to access the intelligent plant information system from the job site where electrical power and internet access are limited. The clash management tool is of little use for the job site as it mainly targets the design stage. Bar codes are susceptible to damage in harsh environments such as construction sites. From reviews of preceding research, we determined that monitoring technology should have the following aspects. For efficient management of plant construction, related information has to be available in real time where the piping is installed. Current information on the 3D plant design is needed to detect installation errors.

3. Analysis of As-is Plant Pipe Management Process 3.1 Plant Pipe Management Process The authors surveyed current practices in plant construction

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KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering

Development of Automated Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID and 3D Model for Plant Construction Project

Fig. 1. Plant Pipe Process Table 1. Problem of Current Practices in the Plant Construction Process Stages Designing pipe spools Fabrication of spools Inspection and shipping Stocking the delivered spools Installing spools on site

Problems Materials on the design drawings do not match with the ones in the fabricated spools. Missing spool components such as pipes, fittings, flanges, etc. Missing spools from non-destructive inspections and surface treatment works Difficulty in locating a specific spool in a stockyard. Difficulty in locating the installation point of a specific spool.

via literature and expert interviews. Based on current practices, the work process for plant pipes was analyzed. The work process can be broken down into the following stages: design, procurement and inspection of the spool parts, fabrication of the spools, delivery to the jobsite (or to a workshop near the site for assembly), installation and on-site inspection, and maintenance. Various departments in an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) company (e.g., purchasing, design and construction), material sellers, and specialized spool fabricators are among the participants in the process. (Fig. 1) illustrates this process. The design stage includes P&ID (Piping and Instrumentation Diagram), 3D modeling and isometric-drawing. The P&ID lists pipe size, location, material, surface treatment, fluid types and pressure. Constructability check and inference check are made using 3D models and construction drawings are made based on the models. The bill of materials is produced from the design, which is passed to the material sellers. Spool components such as pipes, fittings, flanges, gaskets, and fasteners are then delivered to the fabricator and to the job site. Third, at the fabrication stage, the fabricator produces the spools based on drawings which contain individual spool ID’s. The spools are branded with the ID codes, receive surface treatments and inspections and are sent to the stockyard for Vol. 17, No. 5 / July 2013

Remarks Redesign of the drawing Redundant information gathering tasks are required to counter this problem Defects may occur due to incorrect inspection; redundant inspections may be needed. Some spools could be lost due to this problem. reinstallation of the spool

shipment to the construction site for installation. The installed spools are inspected to ensure proper installation. 3.2 Problems in Current Management Practices During the current practices described above, various issues regarding correctness of the information during the process. This may involve documents and conventional communication. Some examples of such issues are redundancy, errors and omissions of the original information. Such problems would lead to further complications such as rework, loss of materials, etc. Also, for checking installed pipe spools against design drawings, a significant number of well-experienced engineers who are capable of comprehending complex drawings are needed. Table 1 lists in detail the potential problems that could be encountered with the current (conventional) work process. To overcome these problems, communication mechanisms and tools regarding information management need to be improved by adopting recent technology advances such as real-time information acquisition, automated information collection, and an efficient information delivery mechanism. Specifically, a pipe spool monitoring system is proposed for solving problems that occur on site after fabrication of pipe spools. This system can help supervisors to monitor the installation process of pipe spools using a mobile RFID reader that includes

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pipe spool information such as inspection date and fabrication date.

4. Work Process Monitoring System for Pipe Spools using RFID and Wireless Networks 4.1 Concept of Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID and Wireless Networks This paper explains our proposal for using RFID and wireless network technology to support the pipe spool production and installation during plant construction, based on expert interviews and visits to factories. The pipe spool monitoring system allows its users to obtain information about the location, movement and installation of the pipe spools in real time. The system provides communication between the job site and the EPC company headquarters for passing status information on the work process. The spool information is gathered using RFID technology, while status information is stored in the backplane database, which records the information generated from each task in the process, as well as the tracking information from the RFID operations in the process chain. On the work process management system, the

collected information is interrelated to aid relevant management decisions. Fig. 2 illustrates the concept of the system, which is the main objective of this research. In our system, when a pipe spool is fabricated, an RFID tag representing the spool is produced, which also contains descriptive information such as size, installation location and material in addition to the ID code of the spool. The ID of the RFID tag is mapped to the object identifier of the spool on the drawing. This allows the field users, who are equipped with a hand-held RFID reader, to understand the context of the spool, and to send the updated status to the backplane database in realtime. As mentioned above, a plant spool passes several work stages (for instance, ordering, fabrication, shipping, storage, delivery, lifting, installation, and inspection). The tag must be attached and read at the right time in each stage. The best time for tag attachment is when the spool has just completed its own fabrication work. Also, for tag reading points, we identified the shipping time (at the fabricator’s warehouse), entry to the construction site, and inspection time for installed spools. At the shipping time, the system retrieves the history of inspection and treatment of a given spool when it reads the spool’s RFID tag. Simultaneously, the fabricator-side invoice and inventory information is updated at the backplane database. At the delivery time (to the work site), the delivered spool can be checked against the shipping list by reading its RFID tag. For inspection of the installed spool, the inspector can retrieve the design drawing from the backplane database as well as the spool information so that she can confirm the given spool is installed as instructed by the drawing. The measures to attach the RFID tag considering the type and material of the spool are described as follows; First, remove foreign substances and maintain the flatness of the pipe surface when attaching the tag. Second, determine parts for attachment away from curved or ●

Fig. 2. Concept of Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID

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Fig. 3. To-be Processed Model for Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID − 868 −



● ●

dented surface. Third, select appropriate parts for readability of the RFID tag. Fourth, use adhesive tape or instant glue to attach the RFID tag.

4.2 Development of Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID and Wireless Networks The pipe spools monitoring system consists of the RFID tag for pipe spools and wireless network devices. The hand-held reader contains descriptive information such as 3D modeling and spool ID. In a harsh external environment with intense heat, humidity and vibration present, we decided to use passive-type RFID tags encased in metal housing for our prototype to withstand shocks that occur during the construction process. Also, this paper uses a gun type hand-held reader which allows the field user to easily display the information on the RFID tag and the current construction situation using the large screen. Table 2 lists the hardware specification of our system. In order to operate properly, the hand-held reader must be able to communicate with other systems such as the database server Table 2. Specification of the Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID Hardware CDMA/WIBRO RFID Reader RFID tag

Specification 900 Mhz/1.8 GHz 900 Mhz 128 MB RAM/258 MB ROM 3.5 inch TFT LCD / QVGA Resolution Metal Passive Tag

and the web service. Fig. 4 shows the system architecture this paper developed. The server and client compose the entire system. The client can be either a web-based one containing the Dwg Viewer (built around ActiveX technology), or a hand-held reader which is able to communicate over Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)/ Wireless Markup Language (WML) protocol. The server part consists of the Java Server Page (JSP) responsible for the server web and web service. Figure 5 shows the flow of information for spool construction. This information model diagram illustrates the relationships between the database server and the webservice. To increase the efficiency of construction management with crash detection for real time information sharing with stakeholders and for checking construction errors, the function of the handheld reader and webservice for the pipe spool monitoring system with RFID is described in Table 3. Based on the above program functions, this paper describes the user interface of this program. First, the webservice is described as follows: • Drawing Management The webservice has four functions; drawing management, spool management, material composing the spool management and installation progress checking. In the drawing management function, the user can find lists of the spool drawing, the filename of each drawing and the corresponding location. After clicking the filename of the drawing, the drawing appears on the screen. After clicking the register button, the user can register new drawings. • Spool Management

Fig. 4. System Architecture Vol. 17, No. 5 / July 2013

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Fig. 5. Information Model of the Pipe Spool Monitoring System using RFID Table 3. List of Functions for Web Service and Hand-held Reader Object Drawing management Spool management Web Service Material management Checking of installation progress

Hand- held reader program

Spool management

Material management

Function List of drawing Registration of drawings List of the spool Registration of the spool List of materials Registration of materials

Content Display the list of drawings saved in database Register new drawings Display the list of spools saved in database Register the file of the spool involved in the drawing Display the list of materials saved in database Register the file of the material involved in the spool

Checking of installation progress

Display the current status of spool installation on the screen

Log in List of drawing Identification of the tag Transmission Zoom in Zoom out Zoom extend Log in List of materials

Acquire the authority to operate the program Display the list of drawings saved in database Update drawings to identification the tags Transmit updated information to server Larger a drawing Minify a drawing Customize a drawing Acquire the authority to operate the program View the list of materials

In the spool management function, the user can discover detailed information about the pipe spool. After clicking the drawing containing the spool to be checked, the user can find

information on the spool such as arrival date, scheduled installation date and installation date. After clicking the register button, the user can register the file of the new spool. The register

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Fig. 6. Screen Shots of Web Service Application

Fig. 7. Screen Shots of the Application for Hand-held Reader

file must be written in Comma Separated Values (CSV) file format. • Material Management In the material management function, the user can find information on the material composing the spool. • Installation Process Checking Vol. 17, No. 5 / July 2013

If the information about the installation of the spool is transmitted via hand-held reader, the user can check the current construction situation. The real time monitoring process for pipe spools via handheld reader is explained in Fig. 11. After user login and clicking the list button, the current list of drawings that are

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5. Verification Through Tests First, we conducted a laboratory test based on the RFID tag type for measuring identification, spool material, spool shape and the distance between the RFID tag and reader. Second, a field test was implemented to verify the performance of our system.

Fig. 8. Sequence Diagram

stored on the server appears on the screen. When the reader recognizes a tag, or a user clicks the “view more” button, the screen will change. The spool checked will be displayed in red. After the user clicks the “submit” button after tag recognition, the confirmation information will be stored on the server. The flow of information described above is shown in Fig. 8.

5.1 Laboratory Test The laboratory test was conducted to determine the recognition capability in order to decide how to specify the pipe spool monitoring system’s hardware. • Identification Ratio with Various Types of RFID Tags To determine the best RFID tag type for our system, the test was conducted by using a metal tag and sticker tag attached to the metal plate. Considering the complexity of piping on plant construction sites, the distance between the RFID tag and the reader was limited to less than 50 cm. Recognition errors related to the sticker tag occurred 8 times among 20 total tests. This result led us to conclude that the use of the sticker tag is not appropriate. The metal tag was recognized all 20 times at 30 cm. • Identification Ratio with Varying Spool Materials This test was conducted by attaching metal tags on metal materials such as tin, aluminum and iron with a recognition range of 50 cm. Identification was successful in all cases. • Identification Ratio with Varying Shapes of Spools The objective of this test is to know the identification ratio with various shapes of spools. The test is conducted with sample spools of Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) material, which are made to match the shape of the spools for the field test. The sticker tags were attached to each component in the spool, which were 3D modeled and then registered to a hand-held reader. We tested whether the identified tags were able to retrieve the associated 3D model with the tag on screen. The spool installation can be identified by changing the color of the spool on the 3D model from green to red after checking installation of the spool by comparing the tag to an identifier in the 3D model.

Fig. 9. Test of Identification Ratio with Varying Spool Shapes, (a) 3D Modcling, (b) Pulting the Information in the Server, (c) Making the Spool, (d) Attaching the Tags, (e) A type Spool, (f) B Type Spool, (g) Reading the Tags, (h) Checking the Situation of Installation − 872 −



from the previous test), and reduced the distance for successive measurement. Identification success was declared when the reader displayed the information on the targeted tag, without inferences with non-targeted tags. The result is shown in Fig. 11. It is shown that the symmetric layout generally had better performance (i.e., more identification success). Up to 50 centimeters, both layouts performed very well, attaining at least a 90% success ratio.

Fig. 10. Test of Identification Ratio with Different Layouts

Fig. 11. Results of Test Identification Ratio with Different Locations

• Identification of Success Ratio with Varying Distances The purpose of this test is to understand the identification ratio with varying distances. This test was conducted by checking the identification distance by activating the reader with a symmetric approach to the spool. We first started to operate the reader at 5 m (at which the reader was specified at a maximum detectable distance from a tag) from the tag-attached spool, and then relocated the reader closer to the spool to check whether the tag signal could be detected. We used a measuring tape to place the reader precisely. The test result, after ten iterations, showed that the tags always had been recognized within 2 m, with an error tolerance of 5 cm. • Identification Ratio with Different Locations We tested different locations of the reader and the tag and symmetric locations versus asymmetric locations. Fig. 10 is a diagram which illustrates the entire plant field to describe the condition of the test. For each layout, we ran the reader ten times and measured the number of successful recognitions. We initially separated the reader from the spool for 2 m (the optimal distance we obtained

5.2 Field Test The objective of this test is to verify feasibility of the pipe spool monitoring system. The test scene was arranged to determine the correctness of the spool fabrication according to the spool design, when the fabricated spool was delivered to the plant project site. A hand-held reader was used for getting a spool ID out of an RFID tag, which was fed to our pipe spool monitoring system to retrieve the 3D model. The test was concerned with two key functionalities of our system: first, real time monitoring of spool materials by identifying the tags. Second, catching errors and anomalies in the installed spool. The field test condition is illustrated in Table 4. A facility room (500 m2) was selected as the test bed since it is very similar actual plant construction. For the test, we tried to reflect the working conditions of real plant work sites including the typical paths of inspectors’ movements, possible locations of tag attachments. To avoid redundant tag identification, we limited the distance of the reader to 50 centimeters, and assumed that the reader would move slowly as its operator walked around reading tags. The scenario for this test is described as follows: A worker, who is equipped with a hand-held RFID reader, identifies the metal tag containing an individual spool ID. If the spool were installed in the right place, the worker could change the color of the spool from green to red on the viewer. When the updated status is sent to the backplane database in real-time, the worker can confirm the given spool is installed as instructed by the drawing. Fig. 12 shows snapshots taken during the field test with annotation. A real plant construction site is more complicated but has a shorter distance between the RFID reader and pipe spool. Various tests conducted by different RFID readers range from 02.0 m. The result of the RFID readability test (reading range 0-1 m) was similar to the result of the plant construction site test at 12 m. Although the speed of operation is different depending on the skill of the worker, tag identification for spool installation has a 100% success rate. Image output to change the color took two seconds because the 3D modeling file registered in the hand-held

Table 4. Field Test Condition Target Process

Test location

Type of tags

Pipe installation

Mechanical equipment room

Passive

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Speed of measuring Low − 873 −

Obstacle Existence

Need for multiple measurements Necessity

Attachment part Water pipe


Fig. 12. Field Test: (a) Attaching the Tag, (b) Completing the Attachement, (c) Reading the Tag, (d) Checking the Completion of the Installation using the Reader, (e) Transmitting Updated Information of th Installation, (f) Monitoring Construction Status

Table 5. Expected Effectiveness from Pipe Spool Monitoring System Cost reduction in rework Loss reduction in pipe material Overhead costs reduction Efficiency of workforce management

CONTENT · Reducing rework and enhancing the quality of construction via checking the pipe installation errors · Reducing loss of materials of the spool due to omission of the information · Improving the construction management and shortening the construction period to identify the real-time information of pipes · Reducing cost in workforce for spool stock, quality inspection, verification of the spool installation Table 6. Reducing Cost and Reducing Construction Delay

Company Refinery plant GTL plant

Gas plant

D G P D D H D H

Contract amount (unit : 1, 000 US dollars) 331,898 111,013 269,348 145,336 169,300 621,855 312,967 96,381

Construction period (month) 59 31 39 49 24 41 38 31

reader is heavy. The function of checking construction errors and the current situation of the spool installation on the web service exceeded our performance requirements.

6. Potential Benefit from Pipe Spools Monitoring System using RFID The pipe spool monitoring system using RFID proposed in this paper is expected to improve the accuracy of construction. Table 5 shows expected results for cost reduction. Pipe installation accounting for 45% of construction is significant. As mentioned above, project delay may arise due to various bookkeeping errors. In his paper, Jaselskis asserts that the pipe construction period could be reduced up to 30% by preventing

Process of calculating

Contract amount × 43% × 30%

Reducible cost (unit : 1, 000 US dollars) 42,814 14,320 34,745 18,748 21,839 80,219 40,372 12,433

construction delays in plant projects. This research describes cost reduction due to eliminating construction delay. The process of calculating the cost is as follows. The cost of piping work can be calculated from the total construction cost by multiplying the ratio the pipe work occupies to the total cost (43%). By applying the time saved by the system (30%), total savings from the reduced schedule can be derived. Thirty percent was proposed for calculating the optimal cost. Details are shown in Table 6.

7. Conclusions

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To improve plant construction techniques, this research developed KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering


a pipe spool monitoring system using RFID to share spool information in real time for automated information collection and effective control of construction work. We evaluated the performance of the system developed in this paper through a laboratory test. The function of checking construction errors and the current situation of the spool installation on the web service is verified through a field test. The system can be deployed to realworld plant construction sites. Usable information items produced from plant projects were recorded in documents and then communicated over wire lines. Both were susceptible to damage and deterioration. Our system, on the other hand, utilizes information technology for managing the information in a more efficient and reliable manner- the operator can access the 3D digital model of a spool from a webbased viewer, with various status information such as materials, shipping and inventory info and installation conditions. Our system also allows real time sharing of digital information, avoiding duplicate, missing, or erroneous data, which enables overall work efficiency and enhanced quality of plant construction. In this research, an object based DB system has the attributes which integrated object based 3D model and data structure of RFID tag. Besides increasing constructability of pipe spool installation during construction phase, the system can facilitate productivity of project lifecycle management by association of specification information including material, shape, material strength, pressure etc. during Operation and Maintenance stage (O&M). Thus, the contribution of this research is that a supervisor at a plant construction site can check constructability and maintenance process of a pipe spool by using color changed an object based 3D model on monitor of mobile RFID reader integrating with the information on an mobile RFID reader. Accordingly, this system can help for supervisors to check installation and maintenance process of pipe spools through 3D model which is showed using a mobile RFID reader that includes up-to-date pipe spool information such as inspection date and fabrication date. Development of site oriented system, advanced and durable hardware system, establishment of detailed work process, and software training require further work. The limitations of this research include limited data on cost savings. Further research is needed for decision makers considering a real-time pipe spool monitoring system using RFID and a 3D model.

Acknowledgements This paper was supported by SEOK CHUN Research Fund, Sungkyunkwan University, 2006.

References Akinci, B., Patton, M., and Ergen, E. (2002). “Utilizing radio frequency identification on precast concrete components-supplier’s perspective.” Proceeding of ISARC, pp. 381-386. Arbulu, R. J., Tommelein, I. D., Walsh, K., and Herchause J. (2002).

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