Embracing The Digital Twin for Construction Monitoring and Controlling to Mitigate the Impact of COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 has affected a lot of industries in Malaysia including the construction industry. In an effort to curb the spread of the pandemic, the government has introduced the Movement Control Order (MCO), which has halted all developments and construction activities. Thus, this study was conducted to understand the pandemic's effects on the construction industry and the usage of technology during the MCO.  A quantitative research method was adopted, where 400 questionnaire surveys were sent to contractors grade G5, G6, and G7 in Malaysia and 30.5% of responses were received. Data obtained were analysed using descriptive analysis and the Relative Important Index (RII). Findings show that the significant impacts are the increased project cost, labour shortage, project delay, late payment, COVID-19 cluster on-site, limitation to visit the site and reduced number of construction projects. In terms of technology usage, BIM, IoT, and Computing are commonly used by the majority of the contractors. These 3 technologies are vital in moving towards the implementation of Digital Twin. Based on the findings, the Digital Twin strategies were then proposed to mitigate the effects faced by the contractors in terms of automation, prediction, monitoring, modelling and resource management.