Adoption of construction industry 4.0 among small and medium sized contractor in Malaysia

Abstract

All industries are shifting towards new revolution due to the faster technological advancement including construction industry itself. Manufacturing and banking are some of the industries that ahead in term of the new revolution which known as Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Whereas construction players still hesitant in moving towards this direction. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to identify the level of adoption of 4IR technologies in construction industry and to identify the perceived performance impact by using quantitative methods. A total of 50 questionnaires were distributed; however, only 76% (38) respondents answered the question completely. Collected data were analyzed using score factor and weighting factor. Based on the findings, the awareness level towards 4IR in construction industry is in the moderate state. In addition, Internet of Things (IoT) is the highly used technology in the construction industry. Besides, most of the construction organizations need to address the 4IR impact towards perceived technology, materials and tools; processes and operations; strategies and business models; people, organizations and cultures; rules and policies; and public procurement. 4IR adoption mainly hampered by system shortages, financial problems, limited demand for innovation among SME players, lack of trust in foreign partners and limited ability to adapt foreign software. In short, the process of transforming the construction industry into digitalization and digitization might be hindered by lot of problems, but the long-term benefits gained throughout the application should not be forgotten.