This project funded by ITC proposes to develop an RFID-enabled service-oriented BIM (Building Information Modeling) platform. The research project is collaborated by Prof. George Huang in Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Prof. Thomas Ng in Department of Civil Engineering, Dr. Wilson Lu in Department of Real Estate and Construction at the University of Hong Kong, Prof. Geoffrey Shen in Department of Building and Real Estate at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Hong Kong Housing Authority.

Built upon the research strengths in four departments at the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, this project aims to enhance prefabrication housing production in Hong Kong. Three scenarios are particularly covered by the integrated platform: (1) seamless communication and coordination among multiple stakeholders through improved information interoperability between processes; (2) more efficient cross-border prefabrication logistics and supply chain management (LSCM) through improving real-time information visibility and traceability; and (3) seamless communication and coordination between the logistics and on-site assembly to enable a Just-In-Time (JIT) housing production.

The whole life cycle of residential buildings includes several important stages, namely design, material procurement, prefabrication production cross-border logistics, on-site assembly and subsequent operation maintenance. Various stakeholders are involved in the above stages Solutions proposed in this research project can streamline all stage together to achieve integration and synergy.

Scenario 1: Prefabrication Production

Offshore prefabrication has been widely adopted for public housing projects in Hong Kong due to its higher efficiency, cleaner and safer

working environment, and better quality. The proposed service-oriented decision support (software) systems for prefabrication production aim to provide services which facilitate the design and prefabrication stages.

Scenario 2: Prefabrication Cross-border Logistics

The cross-border logistics is the linkage between the production and on-site construction phases, which involves the transportation of the

manufactured prefabricated components from factories to construction sites for assembly. The proposed enhancements to prefabrication cross- border logistics service, as part of the proposed solution, aim to achieve real-time visibility of logistics status and just-in-time logistics operations to provide seamless linkage and delivery tracking between prefabrication factories and construction sites.

Scenario 3: Construction On-site Assembly

On-site assembly of the prefabrication components is the last phase covered in this project for prefabricated public housing construction, which is executed after the arrival of prefabrication components at the construction site. Services provided by the platform can inherit information from prefabrication production and cross-border logistics, and facilitate the on-site assembly process.