Revolutionizing the Future of the Construction Industry: Strategizing and Redefining Challenges

Abstract

The construction industry is ripe for disruption. With the vast pace of new technologies innovating the whole life cycle of construction, the revolution seems vital. The ideas of digitization and digitalization in Industrial Revolution 4.0 are currently entering the market in most industries including the construction industry. While most other industries have undergone tremendous changes recently, the construction industry has been reluctant about plenarily embracing the newly emerging technological adoption. Varying sophistication of construction, this paper was empirically evaluating large construction firms' point of view on challenges of the construction industry in the era of Revolution 4.0 using survey data form. The findings reveal that construction companies need to deal with the manifold PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) challenges. By adopting the Revolution 4.0 hindered by lack of policies, financial problem, limited demand for innovation among large economic players, lack of trust towards foreign partners, and limited adaptability of foreign software. Clearly, this paper helps scholars and industry players to redefine the development of the construction industry into detailed strategic plans or policies in the future. In a nutshell, transforming the construction industry into digitization and digitalization might confront few challenges but the longterm benefits obtained throughout application should not be forgotten.

Identifying Challenges of Internet of Things on Construction Projects Using Fuzzy Approach

“…Studies on the challenges underpinning the implementation of IoT with respect to other industry sectors abound in the literature to some extent, although similar studies also exist in the construction industry with little or no specific experience in the construction project management sector. Among them are studied by Mohammadzadeh et al (2018), Gamil et al (2020) in construction, Malaysia;AlEnezi et al (2018) in smart government development in the US, India, and Kuwait; Qi et al (2020) in industrial construction in the U.S.; Lau et al (2019) in construction in Malaysia and Kunle et al (2017) in Nigeria. It is important to note that despite increasing research on implementation obstacles, little or no research effort has been made to resolve the challenges that impede the implementation of IoT in the Nigerian project management sub-sector.…”

Thematic Trends in Industry 4.0 Revolution Potential towards Sustainability in the Construction Industry

“…It should be noted that issues and challenges refer to industry challenges, while technology and tools discuss technological innovation; some of the articles discuss information technology in terms of software and hardware usage, others discuss construction management, and several articles discuss education related to IR4.0. Zabidin [32] Igwe [33] Ismail [34] Kavuri [35] Lau [36] Mahmud [37] Riazi [38] You and Feng [39] Lee [40] Belle [41] Yousif [76] In Table 4, the results show that the Engineering, Construction, and Architectural Management journal had the most published papers on this topic, with four publications, followed by Sustainability (Switzerland) with three, and the other journals with two and one article, respectively. To sum up, this section responds to RQ1.…”

“…Several articles addressed the difficulties and challenges confronting the building sector as it prepares for IR4.0. In their paper, Lau [36] discussed the challenges of deploying Building Information Modeling (BIM) for SME contractors. Similarly, because the construction support industry is primarily comprised of SMEs, their ability to invest in technology with unknown benefits is limited [2].…”

“…Several authors discuss the following topics: lack of safety and security, lack of documented standards, lack of benefit awareness, the improper introduction of IoT and lack of robustness in connectivity [19], implementing suitable motivational practices in the organization that will be effective in causing a positive impact on the employees [30], high implementation costs with an unclear return on investment, lack of skilled staff, and concern for the environment [36]. Notwithstanding, IR4.0 is likely to have substantial repercussions, both positive and negative, but these are the problems that key players must face to overcome future challenges in the coming days (Figure 6).…”

Pockets and Creases: Digital Fabrication for Biodiversity Regeneration

“…in the construction industry to ensure future-proof workflows and strategies (Lau et al, 2019). For this reason, this thesis used a method of iterative research by design to produce a research outcome focused on a potential workflow that could be automated and applied to a range of projects.…”