Patent ID: 8830239

Claim:
A materials management system for a site, the system comprising: a materials database storing information relating to the nature, identity, status and location of each item of material on the site; a progress control database storing information on changes to be made to each item at the site as indicated by one of a Rules of Credit assigned to the item, and the progress control database stores information on a current status of each item indicating the last change made to each item at the site as the item progresses toward completion, wherein the last change is according to the one of the Rules of Credit assigned to the item; a software module for color-coding each item in a three-dimensional (3D) model of the site, the software module monitoring the materials database and the progress control database and, as the current status of an item changes in at least one of the materials and progress control databases, changing the color of the item in the 3D model to give a visual indication of the current status of the item; and, a mobile data processing device including a data scanner for scanning machine-readable information, including item identification information and information relating to the current status of the item, wherein the machine-readable information is provided in an identification tag attached to the item, and a GPS receiver operatively connected to the mobile data processing device for obtaining the GPS coordinates of the item, the mobile data processing device transmitting the GPS coordinates of the item, the identification information of the item and the current status information of the item, to at least one of the progress control database and the materials database whereby, in use, the current status of each item of material on site can be tracked.