Explaining the MLIT's i-Construction Promotion Policy｜What Should Construction Sites Change?

Table of contents

• Preconditions for understanding the i-Construction promotion policy

• i-Construction is not a measure for construction only

• Three pillars emphasized in i-Construction 2.0

• What sites should change 1: View work in terms of the entire flow

• What sites should change 2: Assume data handover

• What sites should change 3: Plan construction with inspections in mind

• What sites should change 4: Shift to thinking that works with few people

• What sites should change 5: Ensure safety and quality within the flow

• Practical ways of thinking to realize the promotion policy on site

• Summary

Preconditions for understanding the i-Construction promotion policy

If you discard this precondition, you will tend to take i-Construction narrowly as a theme that applies only to construction sites. That leads to the idea that merely changing construction methods is sufficient, and weakens the perspective on how to connect with downstream processes and what information should be received from upstream processes. However, as noted in the fact memo, i-Construction includes not only construction but also investigation and surveying through to maintenance and renewal. Therefore, the changes required at sites cannot be limited to altering working methods. It is necessary to organize work with an awareness of the connections across the entire process.

What is important for site personnel is to understand i-Construction not as a new buzzword but as a policy for changing how they view their work. Rather than improving only the construction immediately in front of them, the starting point is to consider, within the whole sequence that includes investigation and surveying, design, inspection, and maintenance and renewal, where their site fits, and what kinds of data and deliverables they should pass on to the next stage.

First, the need to improve productivity arises from the necessity of reliably progressing required tasks within limited personnel and time. However, productivity improvement is not merely speeding things up. If the emphasis is only on moving faster, lack of checks and information omissions are likely to occur, leading to rework. The reason i-Construction is promoted as a measure that covers investigation and surveying through to maintenance and renewal is likely because it is necessary not simply to speed up a single stage, but to create a state in which the whole process can advance without undue strain.

Next, it is also important that quality assurance underlies these measures. Quality is not determined only at the moment of construction. It is shaped within the flow of what information is used for design, under what assumptions construction is carried out, how confirmation is done, and how those outcomes link to later maintenance and renewal. Since i-Construction targets the entire process, quality assurance must also be considered across processes. On site, it will be required not simply to complete their own stage neatly, but to leave information and deliverables in a form usable by the next stage.

i-Construction is not a measure for construction only

When people hear the term i-Construction, many immediately think of improving construction efficiency or on-site work processes. However, as the fact memo states, i-Construction is a productivity improvement measure that includes investigation and surveying, design, construction, inspection, and maintenance and renewal. Correctly accepting this definition naturally clarifies what sites should change. That is, to move away from an attitude that considers construction in isolation.

If you focus only on construction, discussion tends to skew toward how to speed up the work itself or reduce the burden on workers. Of course, those aspects are important. However, if you follow the i-Construction promotion policy, that alone is insufficient. If you do not consider how information obtained during investigation and surveying is handled in design, how design outputs are received in construction, and how information generated in construction is used in inspection and maintenance and renewal, it will be difficult to achieve productivity improvements across the whole process.

What becomes important here is the perspective of connections between stages. i-Construction is not a measure to optimize each stage in isolation but a measure that emphasizes the flow across stages. For site personnel, it is necessary to always be aware not only of what they receive from the previous stage but also of what they will hand over to the next stage, rather than thinking that their own stage must be self-contained. Even at the construction site, it is aligned with the promotion policy to consider not only the quality of the construction itself but whether the results are organized in a way that connects to inspection and maintenance and renewal.

This way of thinking also changes on-site decision criteria. Traditionally, finishing the work at hand may have been considered a milestone. Under i-Construction, however, what matters is whether the next stage can proceed smoothly after that stage ends. Work is not considered complete at the point construction ends; only when the deliverables are organized in a form that the next stage can handle easily is the quality of the work properly assessed.

First, the phrase “a system that can operate with few people” directly reflects the background of addressing labor shortages. However, it should not be understood merely as making do with fewer people. Rather, it should be seen as a reassessment of the structure of the work itself, transforming it into a form that can function with fewer people without relying on overstretching. If site responses have relied on individual expertise or ad hoc decisions, reducing personnel will increase burden and risk. The idea of a sustainable system implies reducing such instability.

Furthermore, it is essential to note that the policy includes not only construction but also management. Given that i-Construction covers maintenance and renewal, the information and deliverables created on site are not meant to be one-off. It is assumed that information produced during the works phase will link into future management. From this we can infer that site work should not be organized solely to look good at completion, but should be structured with consideration for how it will be used afterwards.

Three pillars emphasized in i-Construction 2.0

i-Construction has been promoted since 2016, and i-Construction 2.0 clarifies the direction more explicitly. According to the fact memo, the pillars are automation of construction, advanced data linkage, and automation of construction management. It is important to understand these three not as separate topics but as pillars for reorganizing the overall flow on site.

Among them, advanced data linkage is particularly a pillar that changes how sites view their work under i-Construction 2.0. Since i-Construction already covers investigation and surveying through to maintenance and renewal, the change required at sites is to view work not only as construction but as a flow that includes data handover, management, and inspection. In other words, advanced data linkage is not simply increasing the volume of information but creating a state where information flows from upstream to downstream, and from site to management and inspection, and is actually used within the flow.

And automation of construction management indicates that construction and management should not be considered separately. If management does not keep pace with construction, the entire flow will not be cohesive. Conversely, if the checks and organization required for management diverge from actual site realities, it will be difficult to maintain a safe, high-quality system with few people. The inclusion of automation of construction management among the pillars reflects the need to review management systems as well as improve construction itself to achieve the aims of i-Construction 2.0.

Summarized, the three pillars mean that i-Construction 2.0 is not a policy just to speed up construction. It is a policy to reconsider construction, data, and management together and transform the entire process so it can operate stably with few people. The lesson for site personnel is clear: do not focus solely on improving construction; treat the data handled there and the subsequent management and inspection as a single flow. This is the basic way to interpret the three pillars of i-Construction 2.0 from a site perspective.

What sites should change 1: View work in terms of the entire flow

According to the fact memo, the most important change for sites is to adopt the perspective of thinking in terms of the flow that includes data handover, management, and inspection, rather than looking at construction alone. In other words, what should be changed first is not the subject of the work but how the work is viewed. Look at the whole flow, not parts. This shift in perspective is the starting point for translating the i-Construction promotion policy into practice on site.

On site, it is natural that priority tends to be given to progressing the construction in front of you. That in itself is understandable, but under i-Construction that is not enough. Since investigation and surveying, design, construction, inspection, and maintenance and renewal are connected as a single flow, even if your own stage goes well, it will not lead to productivity improvement overall if it does not connect to the next stage. Therefore, sites need to organize work with awareness of where their stage begins and where it connects.

With this perspective, the way work is evaluated also changes. You must consider not only whether construction has been completed, but whether the deliverables are arranged in a form that links to subsequent management and inspection, and whether the information received from upstream can be used on site without difficulty. In other words, the site’s role is not just as an executor of construction but also as a coordinator of the overall flow.

When sites begin to view work in terms of the whole flow, they cease to be merely places for tasks. They become places that receive upstream information, shape it on site, and pass the results to downstream stages. Once this understanding takes root, the mindset shifts from trying to improve construction only to trying to raise the quality of the entire flow. The change expected of sites under the i-Construction promotion policy depends precisely on this shift in perspective.

What sites should change 2: Assume data handover

Because advanced data linkage is one of the pillars of i-Construction 2.0, the next thing sites should change is to plan work on the assumption of data handover. Data handover here does not simply mean possessing information; it means receiving information from upstream, using it on site, and handling it in a way that connects to management, inspection, and beyond.

On sites that have so far centered their thinking on construction, it may have been enough to use the necessary information only on the spot. However, i-Construction treats investigation and surveying, design, construction, inspection, and maintenance and renewal as an integrated flow. Therefore, information held by the site or generated on site loses significance if it is confined to that stage. It is essential to consider who will use it, where it will be passed next, and at what stage it will be checked.

With this mindset, on-site decision-making also changes. For example, rather than focusing solely on progressing the immediate task, people will begin to be conscious of whether the information that remains as a result will be in a usable form for subsequent management and inspection. If information is assumed to be used within the flow, there will be fewer tasks that conclude based only on local convenience, and overall consistency becomes easier to maintain.

To assume data handover is to think of the site not as the endpoint of information but as an intermediary. Understand the contents at the point you receive them from upstream, organize them into the form needed on site, and include preparing them to hand off to the next stage as part of your work. If this perspective becomes established, the site will be closer to the cross-process thinking demanded by i-Construction. What the site needs is not only construction performance but an awareness of handling data within the flow. That is one of the practical cores of the promotion policy.

What sites should change 3: Plan construction with inspections in mind

The fact memo emphasizes thinking in terms of the flow that includes data handover, management, and inspection, and one aspect that is particularly easy to overlook is planning with inspections in mind. Even though construction is completed on site, the overall job does not end there. Because inspection is part of the flow, it is necessary to be conscious of inspection from the construction stage.

This does not mean thinking about inspection measures later. Quite the opposite: from the stage of planning how to proceed with construction, it is necessary to include what will be checked at inspection and how it will link to management. Since i-Construction targets the entire process, construction does not exist independently. The content handled in construction and the information generated there will be confirmed at inspection and then connected to subsequent management. That is why construction must be organized as a stage that supports downstream stages, not as an isolated task.

From a practical on-site perspective, it is important not to treat construction completion as the goal. If you try to arrange the ties to inspection and management after construction is done, the flow will often be strained. It is better to be aware, at the time of construction, of what will be needed next, what will be checked, and how things will be handed over; this leads to operations with less waste overall.

What the i-Construction promotion policy demands is not only technical improvements in construction but a rethinking of construction’s positioning itself. Rather than seeing construction as a standalone task separated from upstream and downstream, consider it as a stage that reliably connects to inspection and management. When this idea takes root on site, both how construction is carried out and which information is emphasized will change. Planning construction with inspections in mind is an indispensable viewpoint for practicing i-Construction on site.

What sites should change 4: Shift to thinking that works with few people

If traditional methods depend on headcount, a reduction in personnel directly translates into increased burden. In that state, efforts to improve safety and secure quality can easily be undermined. That is why i-Construction treats productivity improvement together with safety improvement, quality assurance, and responses to labor shortages. Working with few people does not mean merely reducing workload; it means organizing the flow itself to reduce strain.

What is important here is not focusing solely on construction. If you address labor shortages by only considering the construction stage, attention tends to concentrate only on on-site burdens. But i-Construction covers investigation and surveying through to maintenance and renewal. In other words, if work is organized so that connections with upstream stages and the preparation of information handed to downstream stages are well arranged, it becomes easier to operate with few people. Conversely, if stages remain fragmented, the fewer the people the more likely things are to stall.

Shifting to the idea of operating with few people also means not looking only at the number of people on site. What matters is how the site’s work is supported within the entire process. If necessary information is appropriately handed over from upstream and on-site results are organized to link to management and inspection, the site’s burden is distributed within the flow. If those connections are weak, the site will increasingly have to compensate onsite, and a small crew will be unable to sustain it.

Therefore, what sites must truly change is not just the mindset of innovating because people are lacking. It is to assume operation with few people from the start and design the entire process accordingly. This aligns with the core of the i-Construction promotion policy. Operating with few people is an outcome, and what supports that outcome is the design of work that connects construction, data, management, and inspection.

What sites should change 5: Ensure safety and quality within the flow

Behind i-Construction are not only productivity improvements but also quality assurance and safety enhancement. These two are often treated as separate issues on site, but i-Construction’s concept is that they should be supported together within the overall flow. What sites must change is to stop treating safety and quality as separate checklist items and instead secure them through the way work is organized across stages.

Quality is not determined only by the result of construction. It must be consistently supported within the flow that begins with investigation and surveying and continues through design, construction, inspection, and maintenance and renewal. For that reason, even if you optimize construction alone, weak connections with upstream and downstream stages will make it hard to assure overall quality. On site, you must be conscious of quality that will be maintained in the next stages, not just quality that is contained within your own stage.

The same applies to safety. Improving safety is not something achieved solely by people being careful. If the goal is to create a safe, high-quality system even with few people, any unreasonable flows or unstable handovers will leave safety dependent on people’s extra effort. The fact that i-Construction requires a review of the entire process reflects that safety cannot be separated from how the flow is designed.

What is important on site is the awareness of arranging the entire flow to protect safety and quality. If necessary information is properly passed from upstream and what is handled during construction links to management and inspection without strain, actions to confirm safety and quality are more easily embedded within the flow. Conversely, if connections between stages are weak, ad hoc checks and decisions increase, making safety and quality more unstable.

This is the practical meaning of the i-Construction promotion policy. It seeks to make safety and quality protection and productivity improvement not opposing aims but achievable together by organizing the overall flow. What sites should change is not just the quantity of checks. It is to create a flow in which checks function without strain. With that perspective, safety improvement and quality assurance become realistic goals within i-Construction.

Practical ways of thinking to realize the promotion policy on site

First, it is important not to view your work as something that can be completed within a single stage. Even on sites involved in construction, there are things you receive from upstream and things you hand over downstream. Simply being aware of these upstream and downstream connections significantly changes how work appears. Asking what you receive, what you leave behind, and what you connect—looking at the site with this question—is the practical entry point for i-Construction.

Second, do not consider data handling as an auxiliary task. Since advanced data linkage is a pillar of i-Construction 2.0, data should not be peripheral but a central element that supports the flow. Improving construction alone will not lead to overall productivity improvement if data does not connect to the next stage. On site, the emphasis should be on handling data in a form that connects, rather than merely recording it.

Third, do not place management and inspection far away as distant downstream processes. If you assume the flow including management and inspection from the construction stage, you will reduce the amount of work that must be forced into shape afterward. This directly relates to building a system that can operate with few people. The fewer retroactive adjustments required, the more stable the flow becomes, and the easier it is to maintain safety and quality.

Fourth, it is also important not to judge solely by immediate efficiency. While productivity improvement underlies i-Construction, its purpose is not the simple pursuit of speed. The goal is to build a sustainable system for maintenance and management that includes quality assurance, safety enhancement, and responses to labor shortages. Therefore, decision-making should be based not only on whether something is easier now, but on whether it reduces strain within the overall flow and connects to the next stage.

From a practical standpoint, what really needs to change on site is not individual tasks but the framework for understanding work. From a construction-centered view to a flow-centered view, from optimizing each stage to ensuring overall connections, from completing a local task to handing deliverables to the next stage—when this shift in viewpoint occurs, the i-Construction promotion policy stops being a distant regulation and begins to function as an organizing axis for daily work.

Summary

Viewed from a site perspective, the changes required by this promotion policy are clear. Think of work not only in terms of construction but as a flow that includes data handover, management, and inspection. Move away from a view that completes within your own stage and become conscious of how you connect with upstream and downstream stages. Only by considering not just construction improvements but also data handling, linkage with management, and connection to inspection will the i-Construction mindset take root on site.

For site personnel it is important not to dismiss i-Construction as merely a new regulation or a new buzzword. It is a policy to change how work flows are viewed and reorganize them into forms that can be sustained while maintaining safety and quality with few people. Do not complete work only at the construction in front of you. Receive from upstream and connect to downstream. Whether you can adopt that mindset will be the dividing line for sites going forward. That is precisely the essence of the i-Construction promotion policy.