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

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• The Role of AR in Construction Management

• Efficiency Benefits of AR Adoption

• Quality Improvement Benefits of AR Adoption

• Examples of AR Use

• Recommendation: Simple Surveying with LRTK

• Conclusion

• FAQ

Introduction

In recent years, the use of AR (augmented reality) technology in construction and civil engineering management has attracted attention. By simply pointing a smartphone or tablet, it is becoming possible to overlay 3D design data and construction information onto live site images. Faced with challenges such as labor shortages, passing on craftsmen's skills, and preventing construction errors, the introduction of AR is expected to bring significant benefits in both streamlining operations and improving quality.

In this article, we explain in detail the efficiency and quality improvement benefits that AR technology brings to the field, illustrated with use cases of AR in construction management. By learning about concrete implementation examples, we hope you can imagine how AR can change construction management in practice.

The Role of AR in Construction Management

AR (Augmented Reality, 拡張現実) is a technology that overlays digital information on real-world scenes. When applied to construction management, AR allows on-site personnel to simultaneously view physical objects and digital design models. For example, by displaying the planned building model in AR through a tablet camera, teams can intuitively share the image of the finished product and visualize differences between the current construction status and the 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 issues can be identified immediately.

• Smoother communication: When clients, site supervisors, and workers all see the same AR view, misunderstandings are reduced and communication is streamlined.

• Faster decision-making: Intuitive on-site information enables quicker decisions on revising construction plans or issuing additional instructions.

• Skill transfer and training: With AR glasses or similar devices, work procedures and cautions can be visualized, providing an environment where inexperienced workers can learn veteran know-how in real time.

In other words, AR complements site information that cannot be fully grasped from drawings or photos alone, making it an important tool to support construction management—often dependent on intuition and experience—through digital technology. Now, let’s look in detail at the specific efficiency and quality improvement effects achieved by AR implementation.

Efficiency Benefits of AR Adoption

The efficiency benefits expected from integrating AR into construction management tasks include the following:

• Improved progress management: By overlaying the completed model and schedule data in AR while on site, current progress can be intuitively understood. Differences from the plan become clear at a glance, allowing immediate decisions on schedule revisions or personnel reallocation as needed. This real-time progress visualization can lead to shorter project durations and reduction of waste.

• Reduced effort in surveying and measurements: Measurements that traditionally required surveying instruments and manpower can be simplified with AR-enabled apps, enabling basic surveying with just a smartphone. For example, if earthwork volumes or layout positioning are measured on site via AR, preparation and post-processing work can be reduced, greatly speeding up routine surveying tasks.

• Time savings through remote communication: Sharing live site images via AR glasses or mobile devices makes remote assistance easy. Skilled technicians can provide real-time advice without traveling to the site, reducing travel time and accelerating decision-making.

• Improved task sequencing through process visualization: Displaying upcoming construction steps or expected completion images in AR allows workers to share a common image and work more efficiently. This reduces sequencing errors and communication omissions, improving team-wide productivity.

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

Quality Improvement Benefits of AR Adoption

Next, let’s look at the quality improvement benefits AR can deliver:

• Early detection and correction of construction errors: By overlaying design data on actual constructions, AR enables on-the-spot discovery of deviations and mistakes. For example, during piping work, confirming placement against design via AR allows correction of defects that would be hidden after completion. This reduces rework and material waste, helping prevent quality defects.

• Improved construction accuracy: Displaying dimensions from drawings as life-size AR models on site allows accurate work without relying on craftsmen’s intuition. AR can guide layout of foundations and verification of finished surface heights, enabling high-precision construction even without experts. This reduces variability in outcomes and improves overall finishing quality.

• Thorough quality control through shared information: When clients and site supervisors share current conditions and completion images via AR, discrepancies due to “he said, she said” or lack of recognition can be reduced. Everyone can review and give instructions while looking at the same final model, ensuring design intent is followed and preventing overlooked changes. Improved communication quality directly contributes to more stable construction quality.

• Enhanced safety and reduced risk: AR also benefits safety management. Highlighting hazardous areas in AR or simulating construction procedures beforehand can reduce near-miss incidents on site. Thorough safety measures contribute to lowering accidents and troubles, which is a quality-related (project-wide quality assurance) benefit.

As described above, AR adoption increases the certainty and reproducibility of construction processes, preventing situations such as “it turned out different from the drawings” or “rework occurred due to poor communication.” With the ability to prevent and quickly correct quality defects, customer satisfaction and corporate reliability are likely to improve as a result.

Examples of AR Use

Below are several concrete examples of how AR is being used in construction management. From major construction firms to on-site support services, various initiatives are underway.

• Sharing expert skills on site via remote support NEC, a major manufacturer, offers an AR remote work support service that lets remote experts give instructions while sharing camera views from workers on site. With cameras or smartphones worn by site workers, distant specialists can provide real-time advice via video and audio. This enables accurate support without experts traveling to the site, improving both efficiency and accuracy of work. Being able to grasp site conditions remotely also helps reduce travel costs and prevent variability in work quality.

• Supporting heavy equipment operation with AR Komatsu, a construction equipment manufacturer, has developed a system that introduces AR into vehicle operator cabins to support operators. By compositing the stereo camera feed mounted on the machine with a completed-model display from design drawings and current position data in real time, operators can intuitively confirm during operation whether excavation and fill are being performed according to the design. This allows even inexperienced operators to perform accurate earthworks rather than relying on intuition, contributing to waste reduction and stable quality. With machine position and attitude displayed on the HUD, efficiency in machine placement and traffic flow management on large sites is also improved.

• Using AR apps for on-site surveying and inspection Obayashi Corporation developed an app that leverages iPhone and iPad AR functions to enable anyone to perform civil surveying easily. Tasks that previously required specialized surveyors to measure earthwork volumes and ground height by hand—such as measuring excavation and fill volumes and verifying ground elevation—can now be completed on site simply by pointing a smartphone and specifying the measurement area. No prior surveying baseline setup is required, and results can be confirmed immediately on site, significantly reducing daily surveying and as-built management time. In practice, introducing this AR surveying app has dramatically reduced the surveying burden in civil works, allowing construction managers to allocate resources to other important tasks.

• Streamlining quality checks and records during construction with AR Shimizu Corporation has introduced an AR construction management system that overlays BIM data (three-dimensional building models) from the design stage onto site images. When a tablet is pointed at the site, the design BIM model is displayed over building frames and equipment piping under construction, enabling on-the-spot verification of progress and piping placement. Because areas that will be hidden before finishing can be checked in real time for compliance with drawings, early detection of construction defects is possible. This system allows site supervisors to perform precise inspections in a short time, achieving both reduced rework and more efficient quality inspection tasks. Inspection results can be recorded digitally, reducing the effort required to prepare reports and improving the accuracy of site records.

• Exterior wall inspections with AR and reduced work time Haseko Corporation, experienced in condominium construction, developed a system using AR for percussion testing of exterior wall tiles (checking for tile delamination or detachment). Workers wear head-mounted AR devices and, while inspecting the wall with a hammer, can directly mark and record results on the AR display. Digitalizing the manual task of annotating drawings during inspection has greatly reduced the workload of keeping inspection records. Photos of inspected areas are automatically taken and linked, making later review and sharing easy. With this AR system, total work time for exterior wall inspections has been reduced by about 30%, while also preventing recording mistakes and improving inspection accuracy.

Beyond these examples, AR use in construction management is expanding. Examples include overlaying the locations of underground buried pipes during excavation to prevent accidental damage, comparing design shapes to finished slopes in slope works via AR, and projecting planned road alignments on site to check as-built conditions in roadworks. There are also cases where life-size projected models of the finished appearance are used to explain projects to local residents or clients, highlighting AR’s value as a sales and consensus-building tool.

Recommendation: Simple Surveying with LRTK

As described above, AR technology greatly contributes to improving efficiency and quality in construction management. However, practical on-site AR use raises questions such as “how to align positions” and “whether specialized equipment is required.” One solution drawing attention is the service our company provides called LRTK.

LRTK is a cloud service that allows 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 on site or performing initial coordinate calibration for each location, but LRTK uses satellite positioning (RTK-GNSS) to maintain high-precision positioning at all times, eliminating the need for complicated alignment tasks. For example, if you upload design drawings or BIM models to the cloud, the model will be displayed in AR at true scale and accurate coordinates when you point your smartphone on site. Even without specialized surveying skills, the ease of "one smartphone per person" enables anyone to perform simple surveying and AR verification, a convenience that is gaining support on construction sites.

LRTK is already being used in many civil and construction sites, receiving high evaluations such as "surveying time was dramatically shortened" and "it became easier to share data between the site and the office." It is the latest AR-compatible positioning tool that supports the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s i-Construction (construction DX) initiative, and it can be a powerful ally in achieving accurate and efficient construction management with small teams. If you are interested in simple surveying with AR or digitalizing construction management, please take a look at LRTK’s detailed information and consider bringing a new visualization experience to your site.

Conclusion

Introducing AR technology into construction management accelerates on-site DX (digital transformation) and is transforming tasks that previously relied on manpower and experience. By fusing site conditions and design information in real time, AR enables efficient progress management and high-quality, error-free construction. As shown in the examples, concrete effects have already been reported across many sites, including remote support, heavy equipment operation support, and labor-saving surveying and inspection.

On the other hand, adopting the technology requires preparation and data organization to use it effectively, but recent easy-to-use AR solutions that combine smartphones or tablets with cloud services have lowered the barriers. Incorporating AR into your construction management can greatly contribute to addressing labor shortages, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring quality.

Start by considering the issues in your operations that AR could solve, using the content and examples in this article as a reference. Even beginning with small applications of AR can be the trigger to raise productivity and quality management levels on site.

Finally, we introduced tools like LRTK as one example of AR-enabled construction management. By selecting appropriate solutions, you can maximize the benefits of efficiency and quality improvement. Embrace new technologies and bring innovation to construction management on site.

FAQ

Q: What equipment and preparations are required to use AR on construction sites? A: Basically, you can get started with AR-compatible devices such as smartphones or tablets. By using dedicated AR apps or cloud services and preparing construction drawings or 3D model data there, you can display AR on site. If you need higher accuracy, using GPS receivers attached to tablets or AR glasses can make positioning smoother, but it is sufficient to try AR with common mobile devices at first.

Q: Does AR adoption incur costs? What is the return on investment? A: Implementation costs vary by case, but in recent years it has become relatively low-cost to start using smartphone apps and cloud services. Even when equipping specialized devices, the entry barrier is lower compared with traditional large surveying instruments or VR systems. More importantly, effects such as "surveying work was halved" and "fewer re-inspections led to shortened schedules" have been reported, so the cost benefits from reduced labor and fewer errors are significant. AR can be effective even on small sites, so overall the return on investment is expected to be favorable.

Q: Does AR help improve on-site safety? A: Yes, AR is effective for safety management. For example, AR can visualize hazardous areas and restricted zones to alert workers, or compensate for blind spots of heavy equipment with AR displays to help prevent accidents. AR-guided work procedures also help reduce human errors and misunderstandings. In training, AR simulations can provide virtual experiences of working at height to enhance hazard prediction drills. Thus, 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 by wearing goggles, separating them from reality. AR overlays digital information on real-world scenes so you can view the actual site and digital data simultaneously. For construction management, where on-site verification and work are necessary, AR is often more suitable. AR allows reference to design information while viewing the site, directly supporting progress management and error checking. VR, on the other hand, is used for virtual experiences of finished designs or pre-simulation of construction procedures. Each has its purposes, but for supporting on-site work, AR is generally the leading choice.