Organizedby DepartmentofCivilEngineeringMar AthanasiusCollegeofEngineering, Kothamangalam, Ernakulam,Kerala

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1 InternationalConferenceon StructuralEngineering& Construction Management SECM-2016 Organizedby DepartmentofCivilEngineeringMar AthanasiusCollegeofEngineering, Kothamangalam, Ernakulam,Kerala

2 Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech Ashna Sadique and Gangadhar Mahesh, 2016 Research Paper ISSN Special Issue, Vol. 3, No. 1, April 2016 International Conference on Structural Engineering & Construction Management SECM-2016 Organized by: Department of Civil Engineering Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, Kothamangalam, Ernakulam, Kerala 2016 IJERST. All Rights Reserved BARRIERS TO MECHANIZATION AND AUTOMATION IN INDIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Ashna Sadique 1 * and Gangadhar Mahesh 2 *Corresponding Author: Ashna Sadique ashna91@gmail.com The construction industry is a labour intensive industry. The industry also demands high productivity quality and safety. However, recent studies have shown that productivity of labour is decreasing due to various reasons. Also the quality of work and safety is given more importance. Therefore mechanization and automation has become an important factor in construction industry to improve productivity, safety and quality. A developing country like India is still facing some barriers for implementation of these technologies. Therefore finding out the factors that acts as barriers is important. This paper identifies barriers to mechanization and automation in Indian construction industry through a qualitative study. Keywords: Mechanization and automation, Barriers INTRODUCTION Over the past few decades, construction industry demands high productivity. Along with productivity it also gives importance to safety and quality. Improvement of these factors in other industries, especially manufacturing, have attained a new pace regarding effective implementation of new technologies. The introduction of new technologies in construction industry to fully mechanize or automate the building processes is limited, especially for on-site activities. The construction industry remains as labour oriented and labour intensive industry with minimal mechanization and automation of tasks. The scope for mechanization and automation implementation in construction industry can be fairly broad. This would encompass the use of mechanization in all sorts of onsite activities. It also includes the use of automation technologies in all stages of construction from design process through the use of Computer Aided Design, scheduling, estimating and project management through various softwares to use of fully automated machines for on-site activities. The major benefit of mechanization and automation is that it helps to increase the productivity, at the same time can provide solid quality with higher accuracy than that provided by a skilled labour, 1 Post Graduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering, N.I.T Surathkal, Manglore, India. 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, N.I.T Surathkal, Mangalore, India. 10

3 Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech Ashna Sadique1* and Gangadhar Mahesh, 2016 occupational safety enhancement, better safety for dangerous works, the discharge of workers from uncomfortable zones, etc. (Elattar, 2008). MECHANIZATION AND AUTOMATION IN ON-SITE CONSTRUCTION WORKS The construction process of a building includes different processes like earthwork, concreting, placement of steel works, etc. Traditionally, these works were considered as labour intensive and some of them used to take place at dangerous situations. Along with this, problems like instability in labour force supply and increase in labour charges started to pop up in construction industries. These factors leads to the thought of undergoing the construction process in much stable and effective way by introducing mechanical and fully automated equipments. Until the 20 th century, mechanization in construction industry was meant to be moving earth with the hand shovel. The introduction of earth moving machines by Benjamin Holt marked the real labour saving method in construction industry. Now mechanization equipments are classified into four depending on its application. It includes earthmoving equipments that can be used for compaction, clearance of site, etc.; construction vehicles like dumpers, trailers that can be used loading and unloading; material handling equipments for moving materials which earlier was labour intensive work and finally construction equipments that can be used to do risky and dangerous construction works like tunnel boring. As the technologies improved the machine started rendering the whole process and this lead to automation. According to the range of application of automation in construction sites the International Association of Automation and Robotics in Construction (IA ARC) categorize robots and automation into three categories: enhancement to existing plant and equipment; task-specific, dedicated robots and relatively few intelligent machines. Enhancement to existing plants and equipments is done through attachment of sensors and navigational aids which would help to improve the performance of traditional equipments and plants. Task-specific or dedicated robots can be categorized as robots for structural works, finishing works, inspection and maintenance. These robots are made to perform a specific task and adaptation to other task is generally not possible. The least developed technology in this category is the cognitive machines. Theoretically, these machines would be hybrid forms of robot that are able to solve lot of task specific problems in construction site. For the better adaptation of these technologies the construction industry must become more structured and controlled. Implementation of these technologies can result in producing buildings more efficiently with regard to cost, time and quality. BACKGROUND TO RESEARCH When there are no natural resources to exploit we are forced to use sophisticated technologies. Studies strongly suggest that the productivity in construction industry is declining in recent decade worldwide (see Figure 1). Moreover, inappropriate working conditions, cost overruns, poor management strategies, etc., shows that the conventional construction technologies have reached the possible limit. Thus implementation of mechanization and automation has now become a need to the construction industry. The importance of construction mechanization and automation has rapidly grown in developed countries. Since the introduction of term 11

4 Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech Ashna Sadique and Gangadhar Mahesh, 2016 Figure 1: Labor Productivity in Industry Generally, and Especially in the Manufacturing Industry is Continuously Rising; Labor Productivity in Construction has been Decreasing for Decades (Image based on Construction Industry Handbook (2012)) compared to technologies used for on-site activities. From the literature reviews made, many barriers were identified and some of the major ones are as follows: High Cost in Purchasing and Implementing: The purchase and implementation of the techniques is costly that the firms with a pretty good turnover and market competition can only afford these technologies. construction automation more than 550 systems of automation has been developed in Japan (Thomas Bock, 2015). Even though it s less when compared to developments in Japan a lot of researches were done in North America too. But while considering the developing countries the impact was very less. Thus this paper is concentrated in finding the causes that dulls the growth of construction industries in India through mechanization and automation. The implementation of mechanization and automation not only increases the productivity and quality it also has a lot more advantages. Some of the advantages include improved safety for workers and public, uniform quality for the products, less dependency on direct labour, etc. Thus technologies play an efficient role in construction industry and finding out the barriers and removing them is a major concern. BARRIERS The barriers to construction mechanization and automation for on-site construction are major when comparing to other phases. The use of softwares for designing planning etc has become very common andreadily available when Expensive for Updating: As it is expensive to implement,it is also expensive to update and maintain these technologies especially for on-site works as the ground is unpredictable. Multiphase Characteristic of Construction Process: Every construction process is unique in character. Thus same technologies cannot be used all the time. Limited Resources Available to Medium and Small Sized Firms: Larger companies have enough investments to inculcate new technologies when compared to small and medium firms. They also lack skilled labours to handle the new technologies Locally Unavailable: These technologies would suit the repetitive works like prefabricated works, precast components but these application has certain limits as it I not available everywhere. Technology not Easily Accepted by Worker Union: As usual as the employment rate decrease there are chances of protests from the labour unions and these also acts as one of the facts. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS In order to find the significance of the barriers that 12

Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech. 2016 Ashna Sadique1* and Gangadhar Mahesh, 2016 was identified through the literature review an analysis was done through survey.

5 Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech Ashna Sadique1* and Gangadhar Mahesh, 2016 was identified through the literature review an analysis was done through survey. It was accomplished through questionnaire survey so that the information is obtained from a sample group. Then the responses were analyzed and brought into a conclusion. The first four questions in the survey included whether the company is using mechanization for on-site activities, automation for on-site activities, in which area of construction in order to understand whether the responders are using mechanization and automation. The responses on the question (Figure 2) Figure 2: Usage of Mechanization and Automation related to the use of mechanization at first sight we can conclude that most of the firms use mechanization regularly (33.33%) in their construction works. In case of automation it is seen that most of the firms uses automation techniques sometimes (66.67%) only in the whole onsite processes. The second bar chart (Figure 3) represents the types of work for which firm uses mechanization and automation. The graph clearly shows that mechanization in used for almost all kind of works by every firm while automation is mainly used for concreting works by various firms. The following barriers for the mechanization and automation (Table 1) were made to rate by responders on a five scale basis which included insignificant, minor, moderate, major and significant. The responders were also given chance to offer their own view point rather than from the given options. The results show that the most significant (66.67%) problem that acts as the barrier is the unacceptability of technologies by labour unions. The multiphase characteristic of the construction project and local unavailability of techniques acts as major (25%) barriers. Table 1: Rating of Barriers Figure 3: Types of Construction Works Executed Using Mechanisation and Automation Barriers Rate High Cost in Purchasing and Implementing: Expensive for Updating Multiphase Characteristic of Construction Process Limited Resources Available to Medium and Small Sized Firms Locally Unavailable: Technology not Easily Accepted by Worker Union Moderate Moderate Major Major Major Significant 13

6 Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech Ashna Sadique and Gangadhar Mahesh, 2016 The high acquiring and maintenance costs also acts as the one of the main barriers. Also the contractors are pretty much confident with their repetitive works and they are not ready to take risks. It was suggested that the requirements of client is also a major deciding factor. If cheap labour force is availablethen they are preferred over mechanization. CONCLUSION This paper mainly analyzed the barriers to mechanization and automation in Indian construction industry. The questionnaire developed has helped to highlight some major barriers regarding the implementation of these technologies. As regard to the Indian construction industry we can conclude that the mechanization is taking place in a much better way when compared to automation. Also in works like excavation and concreting, etc., mechanization is used by almost all firms. While automation technique is used mainly for concreting and automated robots for finishing and painting works are not even introduced in the industry. The significant barriers to implementation are presented by nonacceptance by the labour union. Also the multiphase characteristic of the construction project is also a major issue. Finding remedies for these barriers must be also brought into the picture of researches such that these barriers can be removed. The further researches can be done on finding these remedies. REFERENCES 1. Construction Industry Handbook (2012), Construction Industry Handbook 2012 Research Report, Japan Federation of Construction Contractors, Tokyo. 2. Elattar S M S (2008), Automation and Robotics in Construction: Opportunities and Challenges, Emirates Journal for Engineering Research, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp Linner T (2013), Automated and Robotic Construction: Integrated Automated Construction Sites Dr.-Ing, Dissertation Technische Universität München, Munich. 4. Mahbub R ( 2012), Readiness of a Developing Nation in Implementing Automation and Robotics Technologies in Construction: A Case Study of Malaysia, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 6, No Siti Syariazulfa Kamaruddin, Mohammad Fadhil Mohammad, Rohana Mahbub and Khairani Ahmad (2015), Mechanisation and Automation of the IBS Construction Approach: A Malaysian Experience, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 105, pp Thomas Bock (2015), The Future of Construction Automation: Technological Disruption and the Upcoming Ubiquity of Robotics, Automation in Construction, Vol. 59, pp

Effects of Automation on Construction Industry Performance Ayodeji Oke1, a, Clinton Aigbavboa1, b, Siphiwe Mabena1, c

Advances in Engineering esearch (AE), volume 0 Second International Conference on Mechanics, Materials and Structural Engineering (ICMMSE 0) Effects of Automation on Construction Industry Performance Ayodeji