Identifying Challenges in the Adoption of Industry 4.0 in the Indian Construction Industry

Industry 4.0 holds tremendous potential to transform the operational productivity of industries. Construction sector of India has fallen behind to embrace Industry 4.0 framework. Delay in project completion and lack of coordination within departments due to unavailability of real-time information hampers the effectiveness of the operations on a daily basis. The investigation of impediments in the adoption of Industry 4.0 in the construction industry of India is an urgent requirement to restore the efficiency of the sector. Based on the extant literature review and discussions with the experts, 25 key challenges were identified. Using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool, fuzzy TOPSIS, which operates with uncertain and vague inputs, the ranking of the challenges was established. Huge costs incurred in the implementation and maintenance emerged as the biggest obstacle followed closely by problems in hiring skilled people with the required expertise. Heavy lay-offs, disruptions in compensation and legal barriers are some other serious issues that hinder adoption of Industry 4.0. Through this paper, key obstacles in the adoption of digital technology are expected to surface up that can inform management and assist in the timely decision making.