With the expanding digital revolution of many industries, the construction industry has also joined the game. The general application of Industry 4.0 is merging with the construction industry, resulting in the term Construction 4.0. Construction 4.0 is the implementation of Industry 4.0 technology and principles in the construction field. It entails leveraging digital technologies and automation to revolutionise how buildings and infrastructure are designed, built, and maintained, focusing on enhancing efficiency, decreasing waste, and improving sustainability.
This industry adopts new technologies very slowly, causing a lower percentage of project efficiency and labour productivity. Due to this, a number of challenges present themselves, blocking the path of Construction 4.0 from taking place at a faster rate.
A 2024 study that researches construction employees who have worked in a digitally transformed company lists the angles of the industry challenges, and some of them are:
- High initial costs of implementing digital technologies, standards, and specifications.
- The application of digitalisation is a major challenge for small companies.
- Lack of awareness in learning new courses in digitalisation coupled with the shortage of experienced digitisation users.
- Software limitations contribute to challenges in digitalisation.
- Lack of demand from contractors and sub-contractors requiring the use of digitalisation in projects.
Aside from that, regarding data collection and analysis, the progress management approaches commonly used on construction sites are inaccurate and time-consuming. It involves a significant amount of manual effort, making it labour-intensive.
These are just a few listed challenges; in reality, there are many more. Digitalisation in the construction industry moves slowly due to many difficulties from different angles that must be considered. In the end, many companies get discouraged and choose to operate manually to avoid facing these challenges.
More underlying issues may cause hindrances for the whole industry in successfully adopting uniform digital transformation. A thorough research involving a more in-depth evaluation of cost management, risk management, and employee training will be needed to capture the root cause fully. By better understanding those challenges, researchers and industry leaders may create solutions to overcome them and increase the efficient implementation of digital technology in the construction industry.
