Materials management is an important element in project planning and control. Materials represent a major expense in construction, so minimizing procurement or purchase costs presents important opportunities for reducing costs. Materials management is not just a concern during the monitoring stage in which construction is taking place. Decisions about material procurement may also be required during the initial planning and scheduling stages.

1. PLANNING OF
MATERIALS
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2. Outline:
■ Definition
■ Essence of Materials Management
■ Objectives and functions
■ Process and stages of Planning
■ Case Study
■ Technologies in Material Management
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3. Definition
■ Material planning includes planning purchasing work,
supply planning, and how material handling should
be carried out at the construction site.
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4. Essence of Materials Management
■ Materials management is an important element in project
planning and control. Materials represent a major
expense in construction, so
minimizing procurement or purchase costs presents
important opportunities for reducing costs.
■ Materials management is not just a concern during the
monitoring stage in which construction is taking place.
Decisions about material procurement may also be
required during the initial planning and scheduling stages.
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5. Functions of Materials Planning
 Purchasing the materials
 Procuring and receiving
 Storing and inventory control
 Supply and distribution of materials
 Quality assurance
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6. Process of material management
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7. Material Planning
The planning is a very important process to increase the
productivity, profit, and assisting the time to complete the
construction projects.
The productivity of the construction project will be hanged
if the material planning process is not implemented
properly.
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8. Material Procurement and Delivery
The materials for delivery to and from a construction site may be
broadly classified as :
(1) Bulk materials,
(2) Standard off-the-shelf materials, and
(3) Fabricated members or units.
The process of delivery,
including transportation,
field storage and
installation will be
different for these classes
of materials.
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9. Material Procurement and Delivery
■ Bulk materials refer to materials in their
natural or semi-processed state, such as
earthwork to be excavated, wet concrete mix,
etc. which are usually encountered in large
quantities in construction.
■ Standard piping and valves are typical examples
of standard off-the-shelf materials which
are used extensively in the chemical processing
industry.
■ Fabricated members such as steel beams
and columns for buildings are pre-processed in
a shop to simplify the field erection procedures.
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10. Case study
Freight delivery for the Alaska Pipeline Projectwww.civilscholar.com

11. Inventory control
Inventory control can be defined as, “which ensures the
supply of required quantity and quality of inventory at
the required time and at the same time prevent
unnecessary investment in inventories”
It decides about the types of ordering system, fixing the
safety stock limits, fixing up the reorder level &
maximum / minimum stock level.
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12. Technologies in construction
Material Management
There are several technologies which are used in
Material management and control. Two of them are:
Bar Codes Applications to Material Management
RFID-Radio Frequency Identification
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13. Bar Codes Applications
Bar code applications in construction are mostly intended to provide
accuracy in data collection, to save time in the data collection process.
■It saves time, money and labour while improving the accuracy of
inventory.
■Typically, bar codes are used for materials and inventory management.
Bar codes provide the advantage of relatively error free data collection,
which improves productivity and avoid errors.
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14. RFID-Radio Frequency Identification
A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system is an automated data
collection system similar to bar code. RFID applications in construction are
mostly intended to provide accuracy in data collection, to improve productivity
and to save time in the data collection process.
ADC (Automated Data Collection) technology:
■Uses radiofrequency waves to transfer data between a reader and a movable
item to identify, categorize, track..
■Is fast and does not require physical sight or contact between reader/scanner
and the tagged item.
■Attempts to provide unique identification and backend integration that allows
for wide range of applications.
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15. RFID Tags
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17. References:
■ Olafur Brynjolfsson, George Karathodoros- Material
planning in construction projects -
http://ascelibrary.org/
■ http://pmbook.ce.cmu.edu/
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