Technologies Innovations for the Brazilian Construction Companies Digital Transformation

The sustainable industrialization and innovation became a recent target in the construction industry, recognized as one of the least digitized sectors in the world. The digital technologies that constitute construction 4.0 can be introduced in all areas or processes of the construction companies with the overall objective of increasing productivity, simplifying work and reducing errors. This paper investigated the main motivations and challenges for digital technologies implementation by construction companies. The research design involved a descriptive and exploratory approach, whose procedure included a literature review to prepare the checklist used in data collection for the case study of six construction companies in the Recife city in Brazil. Data analysis ranked the motivation, training, barriers and benefits of digital transformation in construction companies and the implementation of digital technologies in percentage terms. The key findings show that BIM is the digital technology of greatest interest to construction companies, and that implementation begins in the design development process. Furthermore, the implementation costs and conservatism culture represent the main barriers for construction companies digital transformation. The paper main contribution is the digitalization in construction companies diagnosis, whose findings can help in defining actions for digital transformation in similar context.