The development of technologies associated with the fourth industrial revolution is rapid. Construction 4.0 represents the architecture, engineering, construction and operations industries exploration of new technologies, equivalent to Industry 4.0 for the manufacturing industry. These concepts address multiple perspectives besides the technological, such as management and processes. The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent research regarding construction projects addresses information and communication, automatisation or industrialisation technologies. A scoping review was the method used to perform a quantitative analysis of over two thousand journal papers published from 2015 onwards. The results show that new technologies are addressed separately, while synergy studies are uncommon. Longitudinal analyses show that there was no significant increase in journal papers concerning new technologies from 2015 to 2019. Information and communication was the search criterion with the least number of papers found. The environmental perspective of new technologies was present but the least common from 2019 to 2020. Hence, this review shows that there is an extensive research gap regarding Construction 4.0 technologies in the context of construction projects. Studies regarding synergy and environmental effects of new technologies should increase to start the progress towards a successful entry into the fourth industrial revolution.
Traditionally, the evaluation of changes in construction projects focuses on implications for cost and time. Analysis of impact on the configuration and subsequent end-user functionality is less analysed. Healthcare constructions have complex configurations and the functionality is imperative for patient care. There are problems with the deliveries in healthcare construction projects not fulfilling end-user functionality. Control of configuration changes reduces the risk for deviations from intended functionality. This study establishes the information required to obtain control and the availability in healthcare construction projects. A framework based on a literature review describes the information that is required to control configuration changes. In a case study of thirteen healthcare reconstruction projects, the available information about changes was compared with the framework. Management of changes was deficient in all the cases. In the investigated project logs, the implications of the configuration changes were significantly underestimated. Object models data provided detailed information about the impact of changes on the configuration, but this possibility was not used. There was no available information about requests to change the configuration, consequence analyses or implementation decisions. This study fills a research gap by adding the configuration perspective to change management in construction projects.
Public and private clients are beginning to set complex optimization requirements, taking into consideration environmental and cost-efficiency parameters over the built construction's lifetime. The early design process is currently irreversible, and this makes it difficult to change a concrete structure in the later detailed design stage, when more accurate information is available regarding environmental impact and life-cycle costs. There is a dilemma in complying with existing standards to achieve technical requirements while optimizing a concrete structure in order to reduce the climate impact. The long-term goal of the project is to develop a new theoretical concept for dynamic optimization strategies which can be applicable to the early design, the client-requirement preparation, the detailed design, the production and the follow-up stages. This paper presents the results of the up-start phase of the project. The work has focused on the identification of current practice regarding clients' requirements for technical, environmental and cost-efficiency parameters. An analysis of these requirements with sprayed concrete (shotcrete) in a number of ongoing projects has led to the identification of optimization parameter sets. The project has also shown how the physical values of those parameters can be collected from existing statistics, experience recovery databases and previous project requirements, or calculated according to standardized methods and tools. The concept developed will be used in a demonstrative modeling in the next project step.
The architecture, engineering and construction industry focus on the project rather than on the product management. However, the development of digital and automated techniques requires more product based processes. Configuration information is an essential part of product management to ensure high performance. This study aims to explore if systematic configuration information, used in product development, can be applied in construction projects. An international guideline and an extensive literature study identified five key areas of configuration information applicable to construction projects. This knowledge was synthesised into a conceptual model for managing configuration information. A survey investigated the application of configuration information in construction projects. In comparison with the model, the results from the literature review and the survey show that configuration information was insufficient and not managed systematically. However, the findings also indicate that systematic configuration information can be used to improve control over the product and solve several problems encountered by construction projects. This study fills a knowledge gap regarding the management of configuration information in the context of construction projects. The ongoing development of new technologies in the architecture, engineering and construction industry will make the subject of configuration information increasingly important.
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