Conceptualizing Digital Twins in Construction Projects as Socio-Technical Systems

Digital Twin (DT) has been proposed in the construction sector as the evolution of static Building Information Modeling (BIM) by enabling seamless data flow between physical and digital environments. This paper presents an integrated framework that conceptualizes DT in construction projects as a socio-technical system. This framework aims to address the social dynamics inherent in construction projects when implementing digital technologies. The proposed framework is developed as an amalgamation of components from existing DT and socio-technical systems to enable simultaneous focus on technical requirements and social readiness. It represents different DT maturity stages spanning from static digital models to fully functional DT with bi-directional data flow. These stages are mapped against the dimensions of a socio-technical system including goals, people, technology, processes, infrastructure, and culture. The findings of this study can serve as a research roadmap for creating a comprehensive approach for DT implementation in the construction industry. This approach can ultimately evolve into a DT execution plan (DTEP), which can be requested by clients and as an addendum to contracts in the future. Future work involves validating the framework and benchmarking it against established frameworks in other industries. Additionally, the framework can be extended to incorporate external factors such as policy, legal, and commercial factors.