Life-Cycle Approach for Implementing RFID Technology in Construction: Learning from Academic and Industry Use Cases

Abstract

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is an effective automated data collection technology that has been adopted by a number of industries. Researchers and practitioners in the construction industry have explored and implemented RFID technology extensively in the past decade. To provide a holistic examination of this implementation, this paper first presents the state of the art of RFID technology and then demonstrates 39 academic research projects and construction industry use cases. On this basis, the paper analyzes the interaction between academia and industry, which reveals that this interaction is not fully utilized and that research is not the major driving force of the industry adoption. Suggestions on how to strengthen this interaction are provided. The paper also argues that successful adoption of RFID technology in the construction industry is not realized yet, and accordingly calls on more integrated RFID technology implementation from a building life-cycle perspective. The paper presents the potential benefits of such integrated implementation, including data consistency, decreased investment, and better standards and interoperability, and then identifies research questions to advance the implementation of RFID technology for building life-cycle management.