The Role of Digitalized Visual Management to Empower Selfmanaged Crews in Construction Projects

Abstract

This theoretical study encompasses the role of digitalization in visual management (VM) applied in construction projects to increase the situational awareness (SA) of construction workers and crews. A literature review on VM, SA and self-managed crews shows that the level of digitalization in the construction industry is low when compared to other industries, that information silos are a common practice and that the decision-making processes depend largely on the construction manager role, causing a bottleneck of information and repeated time waste. As more digitalization enters construction sites and the amount and quality of available data increases, appropriate use of this data can bring meaningful improvement to construction site management. The study shows that using updated and real-time data for VM devices can increase information flow among construction workers and crews, increasing SA throughout the construction project. This can enable the construction crews to be more autonomous and self-managed, resulting in decentralized decision-making processes to solve task-related problems. Further steps for empirical research are suggested.