Digital Twin for Supply Chain Coordination in Modular Construction

TLDR

Modular construction offers reduced scheduling and cost benefits, but logistics schedule deviations threaten these advantages and limit widespread adoption. The study develops a digital twin framework that integrates IoT, BIM, and GIS to simulate logistics in real time and predict potential risks and accurate module arrival times. The framework creates a virtual replica of modules that is continuously updated from BIM data via IoT sensors and then used in a GIS‑based routing application to simulate logistics, evaluated on a factory‑to‑site delivery case. The framework successfully detects logistical risks and predicts accurate arrival times, enabling better supply‑chain coordination and enhancing project performance and modular construction adoption.

Abstract

Over the past decades, the construction industry has been attracted to modular construction because of its benefits for reduced project scheduling and costs. However, schedule deviation risks in the logistics process of modular construction can derail its benefits and thus interfere with its widespread application. To address this issue, we aim to develop a digital twin framework for real-time logistics simulation, which can predict potential logistics risks and accurate module arrival time. The digital twin, a virtual replica of the physical module, updates its virtual asset based on building information modeling (BIM) in near real-time using internet of thing (IoT) sensors. Then, the virtual asset is transferred and exploited for logistics simulation in a geographic information system (GIS)-based routing application. We tested this framework in a case project where modules are manufactured at a factory, delivered to the site via a truck, and assembled onsite. The results show that potential logistical risks and accurate module arrival time can be detected via the suggested digital twin framework. This paper’s primary contribution is the development of a framework that mediates IoT, BIM, and GIS for reliable simulation which predicts potential logistics risks and accurate module delivery time. Such reliable risk prediction enables effective supply chain coordination, which can improve project performance and the widespread application of modular construction.