When Social Science Meets Lean and BIM: Towards Industry 5.0

9th International Workshop

20-21st June 2022, Western Sydney University,
Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Extension of abstract submission deadline

• 4^th April: Deadline for abstract submission
• 10^th April: deadline for abstract acceptances
• 18^th May: deadline for attendees to confirm if they will attend the workshop virtually or physically in Sydney, Australia

Industry 5.0 has been defined in different ways. Essentially, it relates to taking the next step from Industry 4.0 where the focus is on improved automation and optimisation across cyber-physical systems utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI), sensors, robots, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoTs), virtual and augmented reality, additive manufacturing, etc. As such, it seeks to introduce a more human-centric and human-machine interaction approach to technology across collaborative models, moving from technology centric models. At its broader scope, Industry 5.0 embraces and embeds circular economy as part of the production system, an embedded environmental consideration which adopts the minimisation of waste (including the use of materials and processes that have a harmful impact to the environment) and an inherently social dimension to humans operating in industries as well as the interaction between them.

The previous 8 International Workshops focused on Lean Construction, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and digitalisation more broadly as central means supporting ongoing transformation and improvements across the construction industry. They recognised that research has so far mainly emphasised the technology or production process aspects through the successful adoption of technologies and processes. They also recognised that successful implementations have depended as much on social aspects like collaboration and the business environment, indicating that there is a clear need and opportunity for a social science perspective in this context. Indeed, It can be argued that the current fragmented transformation in construction provides an interesting challenge for social science research.

Historically, the field of management, understood as social science, has dissociated itself from concerns related to design and production. This creates difficulties in explaining phenomena that are intrinsically embedded in productive activities. With Industry 5.0 however, production and human-machine interactions are inseparable and integral providing limited opportunities to observe one against the other, but rather observe and make sense of a system. Some approaches, such as socio-technical systems, actor network theory amongst others, embrace phenomena belonging to production and the use of artefacts and boundary objects, provide new possibilities. The challenges explored in previous workshops have highlighted important aspects of Lean and BIM and their understanding through the lenses of social sciences.

There is an opportunity for social science researchers to observe interesting social phenomena in Industry 5.0 settings, such as creativity, human-machine interactions, problem-solving, collaboration in human-technology systems, co-creation, commitment and trust, which may lead to improved methods and models of production management. The evolving digital and business landscape provides many interesting issues for researchers to study.

The 2022 workshop themes include:

• Client requirements management
• Lean Design
• Human-machine production systems
• BIM and Lean Implementation
• Integrated project delivery
• Industry 4.0
• The role of technology and human interaction in Industry 5.0
• Blockchain and AI
• Digitilisation and Automation in production and assurance/legislative systems
• Cyber-physical systems
• Production management
• Facilities management
• Living Labs
• Circular economy and sustainability
• Social housing retrofit

The Workshop is jointly organised by School of Arts and Humanities’ Innovative Design Lab (IDL) of the University of Huddersfield, UK; the Building Innovation Research Unit (NORIE) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil, and the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment at Western Sydney University in Australia.

Previous events

The first workshop was held at the University of Salford (UK), in 2013. This event has been subsequently delivered by the University of Helsinki (Finland) in 2014, University of Liverpool (UK) in 2015, University of Huddersfield (UK) in 2016, University College Northern Denmark in 2017, University of Huddersfield and École de Technologie Supérieure (Canada) in 2018, and Università degli Studi di Firenze (Italy) in 2019. The 2020 workshop has been postponed due to the pandemic, and was delivered in November 2021 in Maceio Brazil.

Organising committee

• Prof. Patricia Tzortzopoulos, University of Huddersfield (UK)
• Prof. Carlos Formoso, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
• Prof Mike Kagioglou, Western Sydney University
• Kim Vincent, Western Sydney University

Scientific committee

• Prof Robert Amor, The University of Auckland (New Zealand)
• Prof Dayana Costa, Federal University of Bahia – UFBA (Brazil)
• Prof Makarand (Mark) Hastak, Purdue University (USA)
• Prof. Hanelle Kerosuo, University of Helsinki (Finland)
• Prof. Lauri Koskela, University of Huddersfield (UK)
• Prof Doris Kowaltowski, UNICAMP (Brazil)
• Prof. Kathy Michell, University of Cape Town (South Africa)
• Prof Srinath Perera, Western Sydney University (Australia)
• Dr Algan Tezel, Aston University (UK)

Abstract submission

Extended abstracts need to be submitted by authors that would like to present their work at the Workshop. A maximum of two-page abstracts (plus references) should be submitted to the following email address: lean-bim@westernsydneyedu.onmicrosoft.com

One special edition of the Journal Architecture, Engineering and Design Management in ‘Lean Design and Digitalisation: towards construction 5.0’ is linked to the workshop - so authors are encouraged to present and discuss their research at this event and submit full papers to this special issue.