Interoperability in construction – Mission impossible?

Abstract

Throughout the history of human civilization, specialization and division of labour have been key factors of progress. They were made possible by the cooperation of ever-larger groups of people. Construction has been no exception. However, specialization leads to fragmentation - unless specialization is supported by approaches and technologies that enable people to work together and that systems are interoperable. When it comes to interoperability, the construction sector is often considered special, but it is not incomparable to other industries. Methodologically, this paper is based on the frameworks developed in the field of Enterprise Information Systems. It considers interoperability as a means to achieve a goal. Novel is the understanding that the ultimate goal is neither integration nor more efficient construction but rather the division of labour and specialization. A comparison of approaches to interoperability with those in other areas reveals some gaps. Research in construction information technology has focused on one type of interoperability - semantic interoperability - intending to achieve computer integrated construction. There are other types of interoperability - legal and organizational - and other levels of interoperability - federated and unified. These also deserve investigation. In the future, there will be a growing number of systems that would need to be made interoperable, especially in connection with the construction 4.0’s Internet of Things, sensors, intelligent systems, etc. Since interoperability problems are caused by the emerging specializations, the problems of interoperability will never go away. The industry will have to recognize that it will always operate in an environment where interoperability is challenged. While research will continue working towards making systems interoperable and integrated it would need also to give attention to exploring collaboration in environments that are only partially interoperable.