Lean Thinking and Industrial 4.0 Approach to Achieving Construction 4.0 for Industrialization and Technological Development

• Main Authors: Amusan Lekan, Aigbavboa Clinton, Ojo Sunday Isaac Fayomi, Owolabi James
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Buildings
• Subjects: construction 4.0; industrialization; disruption; lean thinking; technology; building informatics
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/10/12/221

The construction industry is responsible for the infrastructural and physical development of nations and plays a pivotal role in determining economic equilibrium of nations of the world; hence, there is a need for constant evolving of advanced ways of carrying out construction operations. The concept has led to the evolution of Construction 4.0, which entails harmonizing disruption in technological applications to enhance construction productivity. The study, therefore, provides an attempt at evolving an enhanced approach to improve construction processes and resource management through application of lean construction and Industry 4.0. The purposive sampling method was used in this study to collect data. The data collection instrument consists of a structured questionnaire designed in a Likert scale of 1 to 5 distributed to 100 construction professionals through an online method that is actively involved in construction operations. The following parameters were censored and profiled, while the results are in tables and charts. The parameters include areas of lean thinking that could enhance Construction 4.0, areas of disruption in Industry 4.0 that influence Construction 4.0 advancement and parameters for practical integrating of lean thinking approach and Industry 4.0. Additionally, the influence of Industry 4.0 in technological development for the construction industry, disruptive innovation of Industry 4.0 and gains towards Construction 4.0. Furthermore, the relevance of Construction 4.0 in construction productivity, the importance of Construction 4.0, industrial application drivers in achieving Construction 4.0, future of Construction 4.0, achieving automation goal in construction and performance expectation of lean thinking and Industry 4.0 in the construction industry are found necessary. Simple percentage, Spearman rankings, Chi-square test, Student-T test, Mann–Whitney-U test and Relative Agreement and Importance index are the tools used to process the data. The study discovered, among others, the veracity of contingency approach in harnessing attributes of the lean thinking concept and disruptive applications in achieving Construction 4.0. The study recommends the application of the hybrid model suggested in the study as a guide to deployment of an application that could help in industrial productivity.