Construction Management AR Use Cases: Benefits of Efficiency Improvement and Quality Enhancement from AR Adoption

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• The Role of AR in Construction Management

• Efficiency Benefits from AR Adoption

• Quality Improvement Benefits from AR Adoption

• Introduction of AR Use Cases

• Recommendation for Simple Surveying with LRTK

• Conclusion

• FAQ

Introduction

In recent years, the use of AR (Augmented Reality) technology in construction and civil engineering management has been attracting attention. It is becoming possible to overlay 3D design data and construction information onto site footage simply by pointing a smartphone or tablet at the scene. In an industry facing challenges such as labor shortages, passing on craftsmen’s skills, and preventing construction mistakes, AR adoption is expected to bring significant benefits in both operational efficiency and quality improvement.

In this article, we explain in detail the efficiency and quality improvement benefits that AR technology brings to construction sites, while introducing use cases of AR adoption in construction management. By learning about specific implementation examples, we hope you can imagine “how AR can change construction management.”

The Role of AR in Construction Management

AR (Augmented Reality) is a technology that overlays digital information onto real-world scenes. When AR is applied to construction management, it enables simultaneous confirmation of physical site conditions and digital design models. For example, displaying the planned building model in AR through a tablet camera allows you to intuitively share the image of the completed form and visualize discrepancies between current construction status and design drawings.

The main roles AR plays in construction management can be summarized as follows:

• Visualization of site information: Visualize progress and design verification results on the spot so that issues can be identified immediately.

• Facilitation of communication: By having clients, site managers, and workers view the same AR footage, misunderstandings are reduced and communication becomes smoother.

• Faster decision-making: Intuitive information obtained on-site enables quicker decisions for plan adjustments or additional instructions.

• Skill transfer and training: By visualizing work procedures and cautions through AR glasses, even inexperienced workers can learn veterans’ know-how in real time.

In other words, AR complements site information that cannot be fully grasped from drawings or photos alone, and is an important tool that supports construction management—which tends to rely on “intuition and experience”—with digital technology. Now, let’s look in detail at what kinds of efficiency and quality improvement effects can be obtained by introducing AR.

Efficiency Benefits from AR Adoption

The following are efficiency benefits you can expect by incorporating AR into construction management tasks.

• Streamlined progress management: By overlaying the completed model and schedule data in AR while on site, current progress can be intuitively grasped. Differences from the plan are instantly visible, allowing immediate decisions on schedule revisions or personnel reallocation as needed. This real-time progress “visualization” can lead to shorter construction periods and waste reduction.

• Labor savings in surveying and measurement work: Measurements that traditionally required surveying instruments and personnel can be simplified using AR-enabled apps, allowing basic surveying with just a smartphone. For example, measuring earthwork volumes or setting out positions with AR measurement on the spot eliminates pre-preparation and post-processing, dramatically speeding up routine surveying tasks.

• Time savings through remote communication: Sharing site footage via AR glasses or mobile devices makes remote assistance easy, enabling distant experts to give instructions and support in real time. Since experienced technicians do not have to travel to the site, travel time is saved and decision-making is accelerated.

• Improved setup through visualized workflows: Displaying the next construction steps or the expected finished image in AR helps workers share a common understanding and proceed with well-coordinated operations. This reduces setup mistakes and communication omissions, improving the overall team’s work efficiency.

Thus, AR adoption eliminates waste across various business processes and helps maintain high productivity with fewer personnel. Especially for less-experienced staff, AR guidance makes it easier to grasp key points, so in addition to labor savings, efficiency in human resource development can also be expected.

Quality Improvement Benefits from AR Adoption

Next, let’s look at the quality improvement benefits that AR utilization brings.

• Early detection and correction of construction errors: Overlaying design data onto actual work using AR allows discrepancies and errors to be discovered on site. For example, confirming the placement during piping work with AR ensures that issues that will be hidden after completion can be corrected during construction. This reduces rework and material waste, helping to prevent quality defects.

• Improved construction accuracy: Displaying dimensions from drawings as life-size AR models on site enables accurate work without relying on craftsmen’s intuition. AR can guide tasks such as foundation layout and finished surface height checks, allowing high-precision construction even without experienced personnel. As a result, variability in finished results is reduced and overall quality is improved.

• Thorough quality control through information sharing: When clients and site managers share the current state and the finished image via AR, disputes over “who said what” and gaps in understanding are reduced. Since everyone can review and instruct while viewing the same completed drawing, design intent is enforced and change omissions are prevented. Improved communication quality directly contributes to stable construction quality.

• Improved safety and risk reduction: AR helps not only quality but also safety management. By highlighting hazardous areas in AR or simulating construction procedures beforehand in AR, near-miss incidents on site can be reduced. Comprehensive safety measures also bring quality-related benefits (project-wide quality assurance) such as fewer accidents and incidents.

In this way, AR adoption increases the certainty and reproducibility of construction processes, preventing situations like “the finished product differed from the drawing” or “rework occurred due to communication gaps.” Because AR enables prevention of quality defects and early correction, it ultimately leads to improved customer satisfaction and enhanced corporate reliability.

Introduction of AR Use Cases

Below are several concrete examples of AR being used in construction management. From major construction firms to site support services, various initiatives have started.

• Sharing expert skills on site through remote assistance NEC, a major manufacturer, offers an AR remote work support service that allows remote supporters to provide instructions while sharing the on-site worker’s field of view via camera footage. This system enables seasoned technicians in remote locations to give real-time advice via video and audio through the camera or smartphone worn by on-site workers. As a result, accurate support is possible without experts traveling to the site, improving work efficiency and accuracy. Because remote viewers can grasp site conditions, this helps not only reduce travel costs but also prevent variability in work quality.

• Supporting heavy equipment operation with AR Komatsu, a construction equipment manufacturer, has developed a system that integrates AR into machine operator cabins to support operators. By compositing the stereo camera footage on the vehicle with the completed model from design drawings and current position information in real time, operators can intuitively confirm during operation whether they are excavating or filling according to design. This enables accurate earthwork operations even for less-experienced operators, reducing wasted work and stabilizing quality. Since machine position and attitude are also displayed on the HUD, heavy equipment placement and traffic flow management on large sites are also streamlined.

• Using AR apps for site surveying and inspection Obayashi Corporation developed an app that leverages AR functions on iPhone and iPad to allow anyone to easily perform civil engineering surveying. Tasks that were traditionally done manually by specialized surveyors—such as measuring earthwork volumes for fills and excavations and checking ground elevations—can be completed on site simply by pointing a smartphone and specifying the measurement area. Since pre-survey baseline setting is unnecessary and measurement results can be confirmed on the spot, routine surveying and as-built management work times are greatly shortened. In practice, the introduction of this AR surveying app has dramatically reduced the surveying burden in civil engineering work, enabling construction managers to allocate resources to other important tasks.

• Streamlining quality checks and records during construction with AR Shimizu Corporation has implemented an AR construction management system at sites that overlays design BIM data (three-dimensional building models) onto site footage. When a tablet is pointed at the structure, the design BIM model is displayed over the building frame and equipment piping under construction, allowing on-the-spot verification of work progress and piping layout. Including areas that will be hidden before finishing, it is possible to check in real time whether construction conforms to the drawings, enabling early detection of defects. This system allows site managers to perform precise inspections in a short time, achieving both rework reduction and increased efficiency in quality inspection tasks. Because inspection results can be recorded digitally, the effort required to prepare reports is reduced and the accuracy of site records is improved.

• Wall surface inspection and reduced work time using AR Haseko Corporation, with experience in condominium construction, developed a system that applies AR technology to percussion inspection of exterior tiles (checking for tile detachment or hollowing). Workers wear head-mounted AR devices and can directly mark and record inspection results on the AR display while tapping the exterior with a hammer. Digitizing a task that previously involved manual note-taking on drawings has greatly reduced the burden of inspection recordkeeping. Photos of inspected locations are also automatically taken and linked, facilitating later review and sharing. With this AR system, overall exterior wall inspection work time was reduced by about 30%, while preventing record errors and improving inspection accuracy.

Beyond these examples, AR utilization in construction management is spreading. Examples include displaying underground buried pipe locations in AR during excavation to prevent accidental damage, comparing designed slope shapes with finished surfaces in slope works using AR, and projecting planned road alignment onto the site for as-built checks in road works. AR is used in many on-site situations. There are also cases where full-scale models of the completed image are projected on site for explanations to residents and clients, highlighting the value of AR as a sales and consensus-building tool.

Recommendation for Simple Surveying with LRTK

As described above, AR technology greatly contributes to efficiency and quality improvement in construction management. However, when actually using AR on site, there are issues such as “how to align positions” and “whether special equipment is required.” One solution drawing attention is the service our company provides called “LRTK.”

LRTK is a cloud service that enables easy AR surveying and overlaying of design models simply by attaching a compact high-precision GNSS antenna to a smartphone or tablet. Traditional AR systems required placing markers at each site or performing initial coordinate calibration, but LRTK uses satellite positioning (RTK-GNSS) to constantly acquire high-precision positions, so tedious alignment work is unnecessary. For example, if you upload design drawings or BIM models to the cloud, the model can be displayed in AR at true-to-scale and accurate coordinates simply by pointing a smartphone at the site. Even without specialized surveying skills, the ease of allowing anyone with one smartphone per person to perform simple surveying and AR verification has been well received on sites.

LRTK is already being used at many civil engineering and construction sites, receiving high praise such as “surveying time was dramatically reduced” and “data sharing between the site and office became easier.” It is a state-of-the-art AR-compatible positioning tool that supports i-Construction (construction DX) promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and will be a powerful ally in realizing accurate and efficient construction management even with small teams. If you are interested in simple AR surveying or digitalizing construction management, please take a look at LRTK’s detailed information and bring a new “visualization” experience to your site.

Conclusion

Introducing AR technology into construction management accelerates the DX (digital transformation) of sites, transforming tasks that previously relied on manpower and experience. By fusing site conditions with design information in real time, AR enables efficient progress management and high-quality construction without mistakes. As seen in the examples, concrete effects have already been reported at many sites, including remote support, heavy equipment operation assistance, and labor savings in surveying and inspection.

On the other hand, introducing the technology requires preparation and data organization to fully utilize it, but recently, easy AR solutions combining smartphones or tablets with cloud services have emerged, steadily lowering the barriers. Adopting AR in your construction management could greatly help compensate for labor shortages, improve work efficiency, and ensure quality.

Start by considering, with reference to the content and cases introduced in this article, “What issues at our sites can be solved by AR?” By beginning AR utilization even in small areas, you may find an opportunity to raise your site’s productivity and quality management to the next level.

Finally, we introduced tools such as LRTK as one example of AR-enabled construction management. By adopting appropriate solutions, you can maximize the efficiency and quality improvement benefits. Use the power of new technology to bring innovation to construction management on site.

FAQ

Q: What devices and preparations are needed to use AR on a construction site? A: Basically, you can get started with an AR-capable device such as a smartphone or tablet. By using a dedicated AR app or cloud service and preparing construction drawings or 3D model data there, AR display on site becomes possible. If you require higher accuracy, attaching a GPS receiver to a tablet or using AR glasses can smooth position alignment, but you can sufficiently try AR with common mobile devices first.

Q: Does AR implementation incur costs? What is the cost-effectiveness? A: Implementation costs depend on the case, but in recent years you can start relatively inexpensively by using smartphone apps and cloud services. Even if you procure dedicated equipment, the barrier to entry is lower compared to conventional large surveying instruments or VR systems. More importantly, effects such as “surveying work was halved” and “fewer re-inspections shortened schedules” have been reported, so cost benefits from reduced labor and fewer mistakes are significant. AR is effective even on small sites, so overall cost-effectiveness can be expected.

Q: Does AR usage also help improve on-site safety? A: Yes, AR is effective for safety management. For example, visualizing hazardous areas or restricted zones in AR to alert workers, or supplementing equipment blind spots with AR displays, helps prevent accidents. AR-guided work procedures also reduce human error and mistakes due to misunderstandings. In safety training, AR simulations can provide virtual experiences of high-place work to enhance hazard prediction training. In this way, AR adoption contributes not only to efficiency and quality but also to improved safety.

Q: What is the difference between VR (Virtual Reality) and AR, and which is more suitable for construction? A: VR immerses users in a computer-generated virtual space, typically using goggles to experience a digital world separated from reality. AR, on the other hand, overlays digital information onto real scenes, allowing simultaneous viewing of real site conditions and digital data. Because construction management often requires on-site confirmation and work, AR is more suitable in many cases. AR enables reference to design information while observing the site, directly supporting progress management and mistake checks. VR is used for virtual experiences of the finished product or for pre-simulation of construction procedures. Both are used depending on the purpose, but for supporting on-site work, AR is the leading technology.