Practical issues in application of RFID to pipeline construction and its benefit analysis

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been applied to the construction industry for improving the efficiency of material and process management. Most RFID-related studies have focused on building or plant construction. The application of RFID has been limited in pipeline construction projects where materials are stored and stacked across a large construction site. This paper investigates practical issues in pipeline construction, improves the read rates of RFID tags, and tests their utility by putting them into practice. This paper demonstrates the benefits that may be expected with the use of improved RFID tags and the development of an automated pipeline construction management system. As a result, pipeline construction management time decreased by 28 hours per month compared to the conventional method. Cost decreased by about 26%.