Cusumano, L; Farmakis, O; Granath, M; Olsson, N; Jockwer, R and Rempling, R (2025) Current benefits and future possibilities with digital field reporting. International Journal of Construction Management, 25(5), pp. 572-583. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Mobile phones and tablets enable contractors to digitally collect large amounts of production remarks and facilitate the acquisition. The increased data access and machine learning techniques allow the construction industry to take a significant step forward in shifting from implicit to explicit knowledge. However, this step requires both standardisation and data quality assurance combined with project incitements ensuring continuous data collection. Therefore, this study examines the current data quality and standardisation of inspection data generated using the production software Dalux Field, mining a dataset of more than 95000 production issues. Additionally, a survey of production software users assesses project and project member benefits and future possibilities with digital inspection reporting. The results show considerable benefits with digital inspection reporting, such as time savings, cost reductions and increased general quality control. However, the standardisation in reporting between projects and team members is low. Finally, this paper suggests methods for improving data quality and standardization for automation of the data analysis, allowing new projects in project-based organisations to benefit from previous project experiences.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | digitalisation; field-reporting; inspections; quality |
| Index terms: | digitalization, data analysis, explicit knowledge, survey, quality assurance, project-based organization, cost reduction, machine learning, dataset, acquisition, inspection, time saving, standardization, mining, quality control, construction industry, automation |
| Subjects: | organization, digital technology, knowledge management, automation and robotics, quality assurance, time analysis, business, data collection methods, project delivery, data analysis and analytics, artificial intelligence, economics, performance measurement, geotechnical engineering, data management, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Time Control, Organizational Design, Digital Applications, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Research Practice, Quality Management, Engineering Principles |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here