AI Factory for Construction

The construction industry has long had challenges with low productivity development, lack of efficiency and has also been noted for high quality deficiencies, which drives costs (Boverket, 2018).

The structures throughout the high-fragmentation urban development sector with many of the companies collaborating on projects in ever-new constellations contribute to a sub-optimized culture where the incentives of individual actors are only in the delivery of part of the chain, and the business models do not promote the entire cohesive process or the end product.

This project has a great focus, and structures for knowledge feedback and learning between the projects as well as the ability to continuously improve efficiency.The construction process is information-intensive and characterized by "many to many" relationships in the exchange of information between the actors.

Managing and processing information and turning it into practical knowledge is a success factor for a construction project.

Having the right knowledge and information at any given time provides the conditions for decision-making that increases predictability, reduces risks and thereby contributes to increased productivity and efficiency in the construction process, which consists of the production phase of the Civil Engineering process.

This project will focus on the production phase where information management is central to being able to make the right decisions at the right time and thus ensure efficiency in the process and quality of delivery.

A construction site can be considered a temporary factory with a large amount of available resources to be used optimally to ensure delivery, and where a downtime can quickly result in large losses.Construction companies use digital technology in several areas such as finance and administration, planning, interaction, logistics, 3D modelling, management and follow-up, resource planning, work environment and safety.

Results from ongoing research (Engström, Räisänen, Simu, 2021) show that digitalisation on the construction site is mainly used to carry out administrative, planning, work preparation and managerial activities that are essentially based on the application, or expected use, of digital technology based on current roles and working methods.

Digitalisation is primarily seen as a technological change that in itself has the ability to change and optimize working methods and routines and there is an expectation that the benefits can be achieved by introducing new digital technologies. (Wernicke & Engström at LTU 2022).

The role of Site Management is challenging because it requires an ability to ensure many aspects during a construction project, such as safety, cost, quality standards, legal regulations, sustainability standards, uncertainties, delays and risks.

Collecting the data and information that is required and spread out in different data sources, and using AI for analysis, decision support and continuous improvements in production management will create benefits for the project, companies and individuals.

Based on the conditions and needs that exist in the production phase, the project will contribute to changes in culture, attitudes and working methods.In an article in the Harvard Business Review ("How AI is changing work"), companies that wait to implement AI in their business will never catch up in the digital transformation.

This takes into account the investment in system development time, integration time and time needed to manage the human interaction with AI and the governance needed to truly benefit from AI in the organization.

It is therefore of great importance that the construction industry now concretely starts the development journey required to use all the benefits that AI technology can offer and contribute to.This project will create the conditions for the digital transformation of the production phase in community building and focus in particular on the use and application of digital technology