Title: BIM-driven Industry 4.0 in the construction industry: a scientometric review

Authors: Vijayeta Malla; Amit Hedau

Addresses: School of Construction and Technology, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India; National Institute of Construction Management and Research, Hyderabad, Telangana, India ' School of Business Management, National Institute of Construction Management and Research, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Abstract: Construction operations are marred by low productivity due to intensive human involvement and continuous processes with the meagre intervention of automation for ages. Non-construction sectors skyrocketed their efficiencies with the infusion of technology-driven processes leaving meagre scope for human intervention. Industry 4.0, the connectivity of physical systems with technological tools, is ruling the current era's industrial operations. Industry 4.0 is steering umpteen industries enabling agile mindfulness, real-time operations, remote procedures, transparent outcomes, and trust among the stakeholders. Building information modelling (BIM) revolutionised construction management through its enhanced visualisation and identification of risks pre-emptively with its information-rich models. Although automation percolates in diverse sectors, the construction domain still reels with mundane problems and has yet to tap into the fullest potential of embracing technological tools in its process. The current study explores the extant literature on BIM drivers for Industry 4.0 (I4.0). It presents a scientometric study of scholarly articles on Industry 4.0 applications in the built environment domain using VOSviewer. Social network maps of publications related to I4.0 in the construction domain are developed to present a co-occurrence of keywords and co-authorship sociogram. This scientometric review presents prospects of research through thematic analysis (TA).

Keywords: Industry 4.0; automation; building information modelling; BIM; VOSviewer; thematic analysis; TA; construction.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2023.132563

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2023 Vol.23 No.1, pp.64 - 76

Received: 30 Dec 2022
Accepted: 02 Apr 2023
Published online: 28 Jul 2023 *

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