Adopting Digital Twin and Internet of Things in the Construction Industry: A SWOT Analysis

Abstract

The growing project scales and complexity, increasing number of stakeholders, globalization, developing technology, changing business models, and decreasing profit margins are forcing the construction industry to go under a digital transformation. While moving towards digitalization, new technologies are rapidly adopted in various processes to increase efficiency. Digital twins and the internet of things (IoT) are among these prominent digital developments in recent years. The aim of this paper is to analyze the challenges of using digital twin and IoT technologies within the construction sector. A structured literature review methodology was adopted to examine the state of the art, reveal the research trends, and determine the gaps in the literature. A SWOT analysis is then presented to discuss the benefits offered by these technologies and discuss possible solutions to the challenges identified. The utilization of Digital Twins and IoT technologies within the construction sector offers substantial advantages such as better project management, decreased errors and redo, and heightened productivity and efficiency. The challenges of adoption, on the other hand, include initial costs, integration of digital twins with existing systems, IoT data management, and lack of standardization and security.