FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS

CONSTRUCTION PROCUREMENT

BPD 24703

SECTION 1

INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY – CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: CHALLENGES IN

DIGITALISATION

DUE DATE: 16 OCTOBER 2023

NAME YONG YIN YIN

NO. MATRIC AP220445

COURSE BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT AND

BUSINESS (BPC)

LECTURER’S ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR. MD. ASRUL NASID BIN

NAME MASROM
Construction industry is a sector of the economy that involved in planning, design,
construction and maintenance of buildings, infrastructure and other physical assets.
Construction industry also a vast and complex industry, encompassing a wide range of
activities and professions. The construction industry playing an important role in the global
economy, which providing jobs for millions of the people around the world. In 2023, the
construction industry in Malaysia employs 1.2 million people, accounting for 9.5% of the
overall workforce.

With continuous innovation and progress of science and technology, construction

industry also moving toward to technology and digitalisation, like other industry. Digital
technology can help construction industry to improve efficiency, productivity and safety,
while also reducing costs and waste. Thus, there are a number of challenges that need to be
addressed in order to achieve successful digitalisation in the construction industry.

Firstly, construction industry may face challenge in resisting to change. This is due to
the reason that some of the construction industry is still using traditional method and
machine. Most of them is known for being risk-averse and there can be resistance to change
from both workers and management. Hence, it become an issue to develop or introduce new
digital technologies and process in construction industry. Perhaps some construction
industries are interested in changing to digitalisation but they also facing limited resources
and budget constraints. Digital transformation needs in new hardware, software and training
programmes. Thus, for most of the company, these investments may be difficult to justify due
to budget constraints and limited resources.

Moreover, the other challenge of changing in digitalisation for construction industry is

jobsite challenges. Construction industry make decision to change in digitalisation may
decrease the number of front-line workers beside skilled technology front-line worker. Hence,
it will meet the issue in lack of cost and management change. This is due to the necessity for
the construction company to provide personnel with the training and skill required to install
and utilise digital technologies. Besides, construction company has to access the market for
highly compensated specialised personnel. The other issue may have surfaced is skills
shortage.

Additionally, the construction industry may also face the challenge in poor resource
utilization and management. This has occurred as the consequence of every construction
project requires a large number of workers and supplies, and the largest issue is making wise
use of all available tools and resources. Poor resource management proves to be excessive
given the amount of the money put in them. Besides, the difficulty is brought through the
project zone’s lack of data and visibility. Hence, resource management played an important
role in a company and it is further hampered by the fact that manual channels are the only
means of communication between the workers and leaders.

Furthermore, one of the challenges in digitalisation for construction industry is

insecure and unsafe project environment happen. This is due to the reason that utilising new
technologies and mechanics required a significant amount of data to support and ensure that
is safe and appropriate to be utilised. Hence, using a new technology with lack of data may
cause the construction project to be delayed and create a dangerous environment while the
project undergoing. We believe that there is no workforce would choose to work in an
environment that is hazardous. Besides, the construction projects usually include multi-
person, designing and implementing a new information management process can be
challenging. Digital and tools can unintentionally be exploited if revenue is not invested in
the creation of new processes and training in their usage.

In a conclusion, every stage in the lifecycle of the created asset already benefits from
the use of digitalisation. Through the effects of these new processes are not universal,
continued work is required to continued to develop the digital building tools in order for them
to be more general employed. As a technologist, it is their responsibility to continue to better
understand the workflows that Digital Construction tools are intended to replace. They also
need to be aware that the knowledge investments needed in further should be implemented
these tools, problems are also being solved by technologies. The technologies and procedures
related to digital construction have already been shown to provide large, concrete economic
benefits.
References :

1. Stone, V. and Veronica StoneVeronica Stone is a content writer at Procore. She’s

passionate about writing stories from the industry and sharing construction with the
world. (2023) Four challenges with digital transformation in the construction
industry, Jobsite. Available at: https://www.procore.com/jobsite/four-challenges-with-
digital-transformation-in-the-construction-industry#:~:text=Non%2Dintegrated
%20software,create%20security%20or%20privacy%20concerns. (Accessed: 14
October 2023).
2. Admin (2022) Five challenges to digital construction, PointFuse. Available at:
https://pointfuse.com/news/five-challenges-to-digital-construction/ (Accessed: 14
October 2023).
3. Limited, G.C. (no date) 6 challenges construction sector faces in Digitalization,
LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-challenges-construction-
sector-faces-digitalization-glodoncompany (Accessed: 14 October 2023).
4. (No date) 3 digital transformation challenges in construction industry - SIBL.
Available at: https://www.sibl.com.sg/resources/ck/files/ENTERPRISE
%20MEMBERS/BUILD%20NEWS%20January%202022.pdf (Accessed: 14 October
2023).
5. Digital Construction - significance and challenges for the future construction
industry (2023) Hexagon Geosystems Blog. Available at:
https://blog.hexagongeosystems.com/digital-construction-significance-and-
challenges-for-the-construction-industry-of-the-future/ (Accessed: 14 October 2023).
6. Stone, P. (2023) 5 key trends for digitalization in the construction industry, Digital
Process Automation (DPA) Tool. Available at: https://www.flowforma.com/blog/5-
key-trends-for-digitalization-in-the-construction-industry (Accessed: 14 October
2023).