Industrial Revolution 4.0 in the Construction Industry: Challenges and Opportunities

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

DBA, Department of Business Administration, Beirut Arab University, Beirut Lebanon

Abstract

Industry 4.0 has been a common concept recently to characterize the movement toward digitization and automation in the industrial world. When comparing the innovations of other industries, the building industry is slow to integrate these revolutionary developments into its standard procedures, considering the rapid advancements used in other industry sectors and covid-19 which undoubtedly brought more urgency to this task.  Despite a number of advantages and opportunities, there are many barriers that prohibit the construction sector from adopting IR 4.0 due to a variety of factors. Therefore, the paper aims to determine the key issues that are preventing the introduction of IR 4.0-related technology in the construction industry, as well as the long-term opportunities. The paper concludes, despite the challenges, the implementation of IR 4.0 within the Construction Industry would drive the industry’s performance to match with their industry counterparts such as the manufacturing, and automotive industry. Industry 4.0 is indeed the way of the future and must be embraced. There is no alternative to digitization, even on the building site Construction needs to catch up.

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