Uses of databases in construction firms-Yang

The database is the foundation of design and innovation. When a design team wants to develop a project, they need lots of the documents, files, and sources. One of the main function for database in the construction firm is to do the resource management, which is a critical issue among construction firms. Since organising, sharing, and using those resources in construction are crucial, resources management is considered to be one of the key sources of success for the construction projects.


Storing and organising materials are very critical in the construction firm. Every construction firm will have many finished project documents, researched materials, or their own designed documents. Those files are valuable for a firm. Ten years before, some firms had all the documents in paper, and they might have room or library to store those paper documents. And label the shelves to sorting the documents for people to find the documents they need. But this method wasted the office space and wasted the time to find the documents. If the office need move, it will cost lots of time to transfer the paper files. Now, the firms develop their electrical database. They scan the old file and store the new files in their own database and develop the data dictionary to search the files. Database helped them to save time, office space and improve the efficiency.


One construction project will not only include one person, it will involve several different team and party. It will include at least owner, designer, contractor, and the manufacturer. How to share the information to other team will be a critical problem to the construction firms? If they use the traditional delivery method like mailing, will cost time and money. And mailing will be hard for construction team to make changes on the file. If they use email to transfer the files, some of the design files will be too large to transfer by email. Database will help the construction firm to sharing the files to the other team efficiency and they can work together in the database.


Depends of the numbers of files increase, the database becomes to an efficiency method to help construction firm to store, search and sharing the files. Database will make the construction firm work easier.


Comments:

Mridual (Link): I agree with you that the easy access and utilisation of the data. Also, I like your example about the Revit Material Library and Dropbox. Currently, the database helps the design firm save lot of time. When they sharing the files in Dropbox, they save the time to upload files, download files and transfer the files. Some design firms will have their drawing standard library which includes the layer, line type, text font, it can help them to save the time to do the uniform drawings. 


Abdullatif (Link): I like your post about the ODBMS. Before read your post, I don't know what the ODBMS is. Your example of Relational Database Management Systems helped me to understand the ODBMS. You wrote that ODBMS are used to support and maintain simple forms of data such as employee name, date of birth and other pieces of information that combine to create a profile. Also,  audio, video, CAD modules and Geographical Information Systems all should be ODMBS systems. 


Arthur (Link): A relational database is a hard topic for me. Your post helps me to understand it which is a collection of data items that are organised in a manner that relates the parameters between the data items. Also, your scheme show the relational database visually. The diagrams simplified progression shows how the various schemes can be put together to relate the appropriate attributes.

B5 Uses of Database in Design Offices - Mridul Pareek

A database is a collection of information or data which allows for easy access and utilization of the data. To access this collection of data or database, database management systems or DBMS are used, which interact with user and other software to analyze or utilize the databases. Some of the popular database management systems over the years are MySQL, Microsoft Access, Oracle, sybase etc.

Almost every successful design office on the planet uses some form of database which allows the employees to access and share data without having to rely on word to word communication or physical presence of the team every time a member needs some form of data or information about the project. An example of this can be the Revit material library. It is a database which has information of various materials usually used for construction. It allows the users to quickly access that information without having to input every material's information every time they need it.

Other than using databases for the technical aspect of design, offices also use other databases like a shared Dropbox where employees can have plans, schedule, contact information, and a variety of other data for everyone in the office to see so that it becomes easier to co-ordinate and communicate relevant information.

Sources:
1) https://www.ntchosting.com/encyclopedia/databases/database/
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database
3) http://www.herzing.ca/blog/winnipeg/the-importance-of-database-applications-in-the-office/


Comments:
1) Yuxiao Zhuo (https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/02/b5-group-e-yuxiao-zhou.html) discussed how databases are used in construction firms. I agree that databases have indeed made our lives easier with automatic sorting and quick search of plans, product cost, size, schedule etc, which used to be done manually taking a lot of time and money. Like he said, Databases are here to stay in construction industry since without them, cost estimation and scheduling would be a nightmare and those two are the cornerstone of our industry.

2) Abdullatif Alkandari (https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/02/b5-abdullatif-alkandari-groupc.html) talked about object oriented database management systems or ODBMS. These are used to store more complex form of data like audio, video and CAD files. Such Databases are paramount in a design office since these are the databases which allow the designer to use his engineering education using visual and audio cues and explaining them to someone who is not trained as an engineer to visually see what the designer is planning.

3) Ronald Park (https://ae-410-510-ay16-17.blogspot.com/2017/02/ronald-park-group-d-b5-uses-of.html) made a very interesting comment about the storage of data if there were no databases. I must admit i completely overlooked this factor when it is one of the most important advantages of using a database. Immense amount of information can be stored on the size of a penny which would have taken stacks and stacks of paper to write down.

Uses of databases in design offices

Uses of databases in design offices

The basic uses of databases are to structurally organize and capture large quantities of data by inputting, storing, retrieving and managing information. A database is defined as a collection of data that is stored in a computer in today’s world. A database application is a program that can retrieve and store the data. It is an inevitable component of modern companies and offices and some of the popular database applications are Oracle, MySQL and Microsoft Access. I will specifically talk about some uses of databases in design offices.

Customer Management[2]

A customer relationship management database can help companies manage the relationship with its customers. The database stores the information about customers including accounts, contact information, orders, details of customer service calls and anything that the companies have contacted with.

Employee Database[2]

The employee database manages the information about the employees. The database helps the human resource department and higher managers to organize their teams. Companies apply the database to smoothly run their internal operations. Not only the simple information about employees such as name, birthday, salary and address but also an intelligent method to find the right people to do the right tasks could be provided by the database.

BIM[3]

Building Information Modelling is also a representation of an advanced database. It shows that databases are not only limited to words and number but also 3D models like Revit. BIM could store and repeatedly use parametric designs such as families. Working with other cloud service, BIM could even be used in mobile devices to easily present your ideas to different stakeholders.

Cloud Service

Cloud services such as Dropbox and iCloud become more and more powerful. Cloud service is an advanced database application. You could easily upload your works into the cloud and use it through all your devices. Sharing is another significant function for cloud service application. You could work together with your partner on the same document from wherever you get accessed to Internet. It could save tons of time and money.

Reference:

[1] http://www.herzing.ca/blog/winnipeg/the-importance-of-database-applications-in-the-office/

[2] http://smallbusiness.chron.com/database-uses-business-64298.html

[3] http://www.autodesk.com/solutions/bim/overview

Comments

Joe Dressel

Thank you for explaining what object oriented databases are. You also compared relational databases with object oriented databases. Now I understand the differences between these two types of databases and the benefits of using object oriented databases. I think BIM is a good example that contains a huge object oriented database.

Rachel Frank

The idea of organizational memory is very interesting. I like how organizational memory helps the construction industry to quickly process information from the past. Also, web-based databases are also a useful tool because they are easy to learn and use. However, you mentioned the security issues about using web-based databases as a disadvantage. What would you like to use if you are a construction manager?

Ronald Herazo

Thank you for describing relational databases in detail. Your pictures really helped me to understand the concept. Also, you talked about SQL in the end. I thought SQL is one type of databases before. Now I know that SQL is a language to manipulate relational databases. It is like a communication channel connecting databases.