Direct digital construction: Technology-based operations management practice for continuous improvement of construction industry performance

• Published in: Automation in construction Vol. 107; p. 102910
• Main Authors: Tetik, Müge, Peltokorpi, Antti, Seppänen, Olli, Holmström, Jan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.11.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Construction industry; Construction operations; Continuous improvement; Cyber-physical systems; Direct digital construction; Direct digital manufacturing; Operations management; Virtual design and construction; Virtual design and construction; Construction operations
• ISSN: 0926-5805; 1872-7891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.autcon.2019.102910

Construction operations suffer from fragmented structures and loose coupling among project actors. Building on direct digital manufacturing (DDM), we describe direct digital construction (DDC) as a technology-based operations management practice aiming to improve construction performance through design reuse and diminished human interpretation. We develop the operational principles, describe the operations in practice, and identify alternative implementation paths based on case examples of partial implementations. The core principle of the practice is to direct the value-adding operations over the building's lifecycle through the digital design model, resulting in increased reusability, project-specific differentiation, and automation of designs and processes across projects. Three implementation paths are identified: (a) as-built modeling-driven path, (b) modular product architecture-driven path, and (c) algorithmic and parametric design-driven path for the incremental transformation of the construction industry. •A new construction operations management practice; Direct Digital Construction (DDC).•All value-adding operations directed by updated digital design model in a building.•High quality and efficiency by increased reusability and automation.•Eliminate improvisation and enable continuous improvement for industrial construction.•Design science with eight cases used to develop DDC practice via design theory.