The Impact of Industry 4.0 Concepts and Technologies on Different Phases of Construction Project Lifecycle: A Literature Review

With the advent of the fourth Industrial Revolution, sensors, machines, tools, and intelligent systems became connected and can interact with each other along the production chain. Such changes tend to increase productivity, as well as to promote changes in the workforce profile, and intensify competitiveness. The construction industry, however, has not kept up with other sectors in terms of adding technologies to its processes. Among other reasons, the lack of understanding about how technologies can be helpful to the industry is one of the main factors hindering the adoption. The aim of this work is, therefore, to analyze how the changes driven by the so-called Industry 4.0 can impact the construction industry. A Systematic Literature Review was conducted to identify the technology trends discussed and analyzed by the academy in the last years. We grouped the technologies according to their similarity and analyzed which phase of the construction lifecycle they could mainly impact. The results provide an essential overview of the vectors that may transform the industry in the coming years. It is possible to see that technologies such as BIM, along with other virtual environment concepts, and 3D Printing are subjects with great expressiveness among the selected papers. Also, the planning and management phase tends to be most revolutionized by introducing new technologies, followed by the construction stage. This work can contribute to developing an innovative vision and culture within the construction industry.