Keywords: field engineer, programming, project control, quantities, haul, invoice.

The question guiding this study is can construction project field engineers reduce repetitive tasks through the use of programmed functions. Field engineers have repetitive tasks, some of these are endogenous tasks and others are exogenous tasks. Generally the more tasks converted from exogenous tasks to more easily expressed as formulas endogenous tasks, allows focusing available resources on those remaining exogenous tasks.

Here at the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) Hartman [1] wrote on integration of the process model through XML. Chua [2] of the National University of Singapore published an article outlining the use of XML to automate some tasks of the scheduler. Again here at Stanford, Cheng [3] investigated the application of process specification language (PSL) as a method to integrate various project management software tools. Recently Rebolj [4] of the University of Maribor published a journal article on LandXML.

A potential field engineer task is to verify that haul truck invoices are correctly calculated using a variable fuel surcharge. In this example, a macro function is written to pull the weekly average fuel unit cost from a US government website, apply a recipe formula to calculate the percent surcharge then check the invoiced cost against the calculated cost.

As a result, the combination of macros and recipe-formulas were able to successfully complete the invoice verification process. Individually neither macro tool could accomplish the task. Macros are able to perform an exogenous field engineer task, i.e. lookup fuel cost, and several endogenous tasks, i.e. calculate surcharge and cost. The difficulty in performing these tasks with macros was unexpected. This study is limited in the macro tools and tasks tested.

The results indicate that adding macros to construction engineering courses as part of laboratory assignment solutions would provide a benefit to engineers in their employment. Three continuing paths of research are suggested: First, explore introducing macros into a course laboratory assignment. Second, define criteria to identify tasks most likely to benefit. Third, explore the establishment of a shared library of common recipe formulas encoded as macros. As field information systems become prevalent, the processing of the resulting information will make the three paths suggested above more relevant to field engineering.

1

T. Hartmann, M. Fischer, E. Rank, M. Schreyer, F. Neuberg, "Integration of a Three Dimensional CAD Environment into an Interactive Workspace", Stanford University Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, CIFE Technical Report, 146, 2003.

2

D.K.H. Chua, S.L. Jun, B.S. Hwee, "Integrated Production Scheduler for Construction Look-ahead Planning", IGLC-7, Berkeley, CA, 287-298, 26-28 July, 1999.

3

J. Cheng, "A Simulation Access Language And Framework With Applications To Project Management", Stanford University, 2006.

4

D. Rebolj, A. Tibaut, N. Cus-Babic, A. Magdic, P. Podbreznik, "Development and application of a road product model", Automation in Construction, 17(6), 719-728, August 2008. doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2007.12.004

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