- Author
- Construction Industry Institute
- Title
- Advanced Construction Technology System (ACTS) Administrator's Guide and User's Guide.
- Coporate
- Construction Industry Institute, Austin, TX
- Report
- Special Publication 15-2, February 1995, 171 p.
- Keywords
- construction
- Abstract
- The Advanced Construction Technology System (ACTS) is a computer-based database for the classification, documentation, and retrieval of information about emerging construction technologies. ACTS serves as an intelligent indexing system for retrieving detailed information about promising technologies, and it is similar in function to a relational database. The long-term objective of this project is to establish ACTS as an ongoing information service to the U.S. construction industry that will help contractors, designers, and owners identify and use emerging technologies that can improve construction efficiency and effectiveness. The documentation of technologies that can improve construction efficiency and effectiveness. The documentation of technologies is based on a standard format developed in cooperation with the industry members of the CII Technology Survey Task Force. The format and degree of detail in the database were determined on the basis of experience and the industry's needs. The format provides information in a form that is sufficient, non-product specific, and readily usable in everyday practice. It provides the user with enough information to make the initial and crucial decision at to whether a certain technology is of interest and should be pursued further. The system includes technologies that relate to civil, architectural, electrical, instrumentation, mechanical, and process piping systems. The identification and documentation of advanced construction technologies was accomplished through a joint effort by researchers are the University of Michigan, North Carolina State University, Purude University, and Argonaut AEC, General Motors Corporation. This effort involved thorough searches of research journals, conference proceedings, professional and trade magazines, product catalogs and manufacturers' literature, questionnaires, request letters and phne calls to product manufacturers and suppliers, and communications with owners, designers, and contractors.