Centre for Smart Modern Construction Roundtable

The Joining up Construction Conversation Roundtable is a bi-annual discussion forum organised by the Centre for Smart Modern Construction to foster greater levels of engagement and collaboration between construction industry stakeholders and academia.  Technology advancements in the future construction industry are mostly renowned around the concepts of industrialisation, digitalisation and globalisation. Introduction of industry 4.0 has enabled convergence of technology and business creating disruption in many industries, which is not an exception to construction as well. The dynamics of disruption are enabling the construction industry to be driven towards adoption of different technologies such as Off-Site Construction and Manufacturing (OSCM), automation, building information modelling, artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality, virtual reality, internet of things, blockchain and the like. These aspects of various technological advancements indicate its footprint in the ever lazy construction industry in the mode of factory based manufacturing. Even though one can argue that OSCM has been present in construction from the beginning with the simplest form of material production, futuristic OSCM is nothing similar to prevailing site based construction activities.  Current state of OSCM emphasises on increasing shift of previous onsite construction activities to offsite factory based prefabrication. Emergence of knowledge-based environment; rapid change in information technology; changing marketplace and competition have resulted in moving from traditional construction methods to modern methods of construction. Effect of OSCM is visible in many areas of construction as work is shifting from onsite to factories, changing the business models, skills required and performance levels while providing a break through towards sustainability.  Thus, this year’s second industry roundtable is themed on ‘OSCM (Off-Site Construction and Manufacturing) and Digitalisation: Implications to the Construction Industry of Australia’ to align well with the moving trends in the current construction industry.