Exploring the Digital Thread of Construction Projects

The construction industry is one of the most information-intensive industries where the success of projects depends on information being accurate, complete, timely, readily available, and understandable by different recipients. As projects become complex and processes become more digitized, the value of capturing, tracking, accessing, and sharing lifecycle-spanning data becomes critical for project stakeholders. One way to capitalize on the value of data is through the concept of Digital Thread. The Digital Thread breaks down the silos of information and makes it accessible to the right stakeholder at the right time, promoting high-fidelity collaboration among stakeholders, enabling richer stakeholder-driven analysis, enhancing decision-making, and increasing transparency and information exchange. With the concept being relatively new in the construction industry, research on Digital Threads remains limited. Thus, this paper addresses the gap by exploring the concept and its pillars. The paper proposes a comprehensive definition of the Digital Thread of the construction project and explores the interconnectivity between people, processes, and data (three pillars) along the construction project Digital Thread. The paper also presents a case study to further investigate the interconnections between the three pillars and proposes a three-Dimensional Digital Thread Infrastructure using the construction phase of the Design Bid Build project in the Middle East. Future work will build on the findings of this paper to create an interface for the Digital Thread schema for the construction project and build a platform to provide all stakeholders with the means to achieve full project lifecycle traceability.