EVALUATING AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS IN CONSTRUCTION – A COST-BENEFIT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK BASED ON VOFI

Industry 4.0 application scenarios, based on the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in combination with wearable devices like Smart Glasses or Head-Mounted Displays (HMD), offer construction companies several opportunities to better deal with the complexity of the construction environment. Despite the given maturity of AR technology, tools or methods to estimate the costs and benefits associated with its adoption have not been provided to date. In general, high implementation costs and unclear benefits of this technology are considered as barriers to its widespread adoption. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to develop an assessment framework for evaluating costs and benefits of information systems (IS) investments based on an AR-based application scenario in the construction domain. By the same token, we intend to demonstrate how a traditional cost-benefit analysis (CBA) can be applied more effectively to assist in the decision-making process. The assessment framework is developed by means of a systematic literature review and evaluated by means of expert interviews as well as a simulation using the appraisal method Visualisation of Financial Implications (VoFI). Additionally, risk considerations are made by conducting a sensitivity analysis and a probability risk analysis

Cost/benefit analysis model for implementing virtual reality in construction companies

Immersive technologies (ImT), like Virtual Reality (VR), have several potential applications in the construction industry. However, the absence of a cost-benefit analysis discourages construction decision-makers from implementing these technologies. In this study, we proposed a primary model for conducting a cost-benefit analysis for implementing virtual reality in construction companies. The cost and benefit factors were identified through a literature review and considered input variables for the model, and then using synthetic data, a Monte Carlo simulation was performed to generate a distribution of outcome. Given the uncertainty in input parameters, this distribution reflected the potential range of total net benefit. Considering synthetic data and input factors obtained only through literature and assumptions, VR implementation could be a promising decision based on the results. This study's results would benefit decision-makers in construction companies about the costs and benefits of implementing VR and other researchers interested in this field.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Identifying the Socio-Human Inputs and Implications in Robotic Process Automation (RPA): A Systematic Mapping Study

Recent studies show that the success rate of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) projects is between 50 and 70%. In cases where they are not successful, most failures are caused by organizational factors, i.e., people and their social environment. People in the organization have a significant influence on the success of a RPA project. Likewise, the imple mentation of RPA will bring some implications to them as well. This research is a preliminary study on visualization socio-human implica tions (VoSHI) in the RPA projects. As one of the office automation tech nologies, the application of RPA provides economic benefits and social implications. Unfortunately, most studies highlight the benefits and lack discussions on the impact of RPA on humans. This paper presents a systematic mapping study to analyze the current state-of-the-art on this topic, recognizing the socio-human implications of RPA implementations described in the literature. The research analyzed 56 primary studies selected from both academic digital libraries and grey literature. The results showed 16 positive and 6 negative implications of RPA imple mentations for humans and their social environment. Furthermore, this research also found 6 positive and 13 negative inputs contributed by humans, which can influence RPA implementations.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PID2019-105455GB-C31 (NICO

A STRATEGIC VIEW ON INTERTWINING DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL MATERIALITIES ACROSS LIFECYCLES OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Opportunities to use virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VAM-R) are emerging in various sectors of the economy. To seize them, managers need to develop comprehensive strategies that intertwine digital and physical forms of materiality. This paper proposes a way to assess and steer the transformations of the reality-virtuality continuum across lifecycles of products and services. Our approach identifies use cases for VAM-R according to the (1) strategic imperative, (2) physical materiality, (3) reality-virtuality assessment, (4) digital materiality, (5) information value, and (6) project portfolio. The findings result from three action research cycles in manufacturing and healthcare. For theory, we propose a framework to evaluate the reality-virtuality continuum and guide VAM-R transformations. For practice, we propose and test an artefact accessible to domain experts with different backgrounds, and a sequence of steps to assist managers in their digitalization strategies with VAM-R. Lifecycle approaches offer an alternative perspective to situational transformation, potentially improving the pervasiveness of organizational changes using information technologies

THE PROCESS AUGMENTABILITY CANVAS - HOW TO FIND THE SWEET SPOT FOR AUGMENTED REALITY

The adoption of augmented reality (AR) has been one of the defining technological trends of the past decade. While AR has experienced significant growth in consumer electronics, its potential for professional use still needs to be explored. Despite the growing interest in AR, determining its feasibility and potential to satisfy business needs remains challenging. To address this gap, we used a mixedmethod research approach to create a guiding framework called the process augmentability canvas. Drawing on a comprehensive case study of a major European maintenance, repair, and overhaul service provider, as well as state-of-the literature, we present a canvas that allows scholars and practitioners to evaluate AR’s applicability for a given process thoroughly. By providing a structured approach to analyzing AR solutions, the process augmentability canvas contributes to a better understanding of how AR can be used efficiently in organizational settings

Mapping the capabilities and benefits of AR construction use-cases: A comprehensive map

The construction industry has undergone a radical transformation in its design and documentation process as it evolved from the days of the drafting board to today’s Building Information Modeling process. Despite the progress, a paradox of designing 3D in 2D space remains, calling for new visualization technologies that leverage the use of information in construction. Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology that can serve as an information aggregator and a data-publishing platform, allowing users to view and interact with information while collaborating with others in real-time from remote locations. While AR holds the key to advance the construction industry, no research project has yet comprehensively investigated the holistic integration of AR in construction. Thus, this paper presents a comprehensive map that provides a holistic framework to understand the integration of AR into the construction phase. To achieve the research objective, the paper identifies and describes 23 use-cases of AR in the construction phase, nine AR capabilities, and 14 AR potential benefits. Then, four AR applications in construction are explored, where the underlying use-cases are discussed and mapped as a function of their corresponding AR capabilities and potential benefits. These AR applications provide an example to illustrate the concept behind the comprehensive map. Finally, the map is developed by outlining the relationships between the identified AR use-cases, capabilities, and potential benefits. The findings of this paper are crucial for the AR implementation roadmap as it provides industry practitioners an understanding of the capabilities and benefits of integrating AR into construction tasks

How Do We Support Technical Tasks in the Age of Augmented Reality? Some Evidence from Prototyping in Mechanical Engineering

Industrial sectors like mechanical engineering currently define themselves primarily through their product business. However, a change can currently be observed. Instead of continuing to engineer products for maximum reliability, solution systems are developed that leverage their performance from services such as maintenance. For these, information supply is an essential factor, since the underlying products are becoming more complex. Additionally, these products are integrating information and communication technology, which can supply technicians, e.g. with actual condition data. To be able to use this information, technicians need service support systems (SSS) that yet exist on mobile and simple wearable devices. This article reports from the development of an SSS-based on augmented reality glasses. The developed system was used to support a LEGO assembly task and evaluated with the Task-Technology Fit model. The result shows that AR glasses can be used for the information supply of technicians but still need further development to allow for adequate service support

Indoor Mapping and Reconstruction with Mobile Augmented Reality Sensor Systems

Augmented Reality (AR) ermöglicht es, virtuelle, dreidimensionale Inhalte direkt innerhalb der realen Umgebung darzustellen. Anstatt jedoch beliebige virtuelle Objekte an einem willkürlichen Ort anzuzeigen, kann AR Technologie auch genutzt werden, um Geodaten in situ an jenem Ort darzustellen, auf den sich die Daten beziehen. Damit eröffnet AR die Möglichkeit, die reale Welt durch virtuelle, ortbezogene Informationen anzureichern. Im Rahmen der vorliegenen Arbeit wird diese Spielart von AR als "Fused Reality" definiert und eingehend diskutiert. Der praktische Mehrwert, den dieses Konzept der Fused Reality bietet, lässt sich gut am Beispiel seiner Anwendung im Zusammenhang mit digitalen Gebäudemodellen demonstrieren, wo sich gebäudespezifische Informationen - beispielsweise der Verlauf von Leitungen und Kabeln innerhalb der Wände - lagegerecht am realen Objekt darstellen lassen. Um das skizzierte Konzept einer Indoor Fused Reality Anwendung realisieren zu können, müssen einige grundlegende Bedingungen erfüllt sein. So kann ein bestimmtes Gebäude nur dann mit ortsbezogenen Informationen augmentiert werden, wenn von diesem Gebäude ein digitales Modell verfügbar ist. Zwar werden größere Bauprojekt heutzutage oft unter Zuhilfename von Building Information Modelling (BIM) geplant und durchgeführt, sodass ein digitales Modell direkt zusammen mit dem realen Gebäude ensteht, jedoch sind im Falle älterer Bestandsgebäude digitale Modelle meist nicht verfügbar. Ein digitales Modell eines bestehenden Gebäudes manuell zu erstellen, ist zwar möglich, jedoch mit großem Aufwand verbunden. Ist ein passendes Gebäudemodell vorhanden, muss ein AR Gerät außerdem in der Lage sein, die eigene Position und Orientierung im Gebäude relativ zu diesem Modell bestimmen zu können, um Augmentierungen lagegerecht anzeigen zu können. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden diverse Aspekte der angesprochenen Problematik untersucht und diskutiert. Dabei werden zunächst verschiedene Möglichkeiten diskutiert, Indoor-Gebäudegeometrie mittels Sensorsystemen zu erfassen. Anschließend wird eine Untersuchung präsentiert, inwiefern moderne AR Geräte, die in der Regel ebenfalls über eine Vielzahl an Sensoren verfügen, ebenfalls geeignet sind, als Indoor-Mapping-Systeme eingesetzt zu werden. Die resultierenden Indoor Mapping Datensätze können daraufhin genutzt werden, um automatisiert Gebäudemodelle zu rekonstruieren. Zu diesem Zweck wird ein automatisiertes, voxel-basiertes Indoor-Rekonstruktionsverfahren vorgestellt. Dieses wird außerdem auf der Grundlage vierer zu diesem Zweck erfasster Datensätze mit zugehörigen Referenzdaten quantitativ evaluiert. Desweiteren werden verschiedene Möglichkeiten diskutiert, mobile AR Geräte innerhalb eines Gebäudes und des zugehörigen Gebäudemodells zu lokalisieren. In diesem Kontext wird außerdem auch die Evaluierung einer Marker-basierten Indoor-Lokalisierungsmethode präsentiert. Abschließend wird zudem ein neuer Ansatz, Indoor-Mapping Datensätze an den Achsen des Koordinatensystems auszurichten, vorgestellt

Determining the Cost of Business Continuity Management - A Case Study of IT Service Continuity Management Activity Cost Analysis

This single organisation case study discusses the cost of business continuity management in IT services. Information technology (IT) expenses can amount to a substantial part of operational costs in a company, and IT leaders tend to aim for thorough IT cost management to meet financial targets. Thus, information security activities such as business continuity management (BCM) rank among the most important concerns for IT leaders. Despite the concerns of IT management, senior management appears to be hesitant to spend on BCM as much as IT management would hope for. Senior management may struggle with the question of how to justify spending on an activity that proves its usefulness only when a rare event occurs. The challenge for measuring costs of sociotechnical activities was the inspiration for this work – to find out whether the cost of business continuity management (BCM) could be explained better to help decision making. Two main paradigms emerged from literature – BCM activities in the context of organisational routines, and IT cost and information security cost classifications. The theoretical assumption was that the relationship between IT costs and BCM activities emulates the activity- based costing theory (ABC) – the premise of cause-and-effect relationship between activities and costs. The key question is “How to determine the cost of BCM activities in IT services?” To find out, I used comprehensive archival data set from a case company and designed a retrospective quantitative model to analyse the association between BCM activities and IT costs. By employing causal-comparative method and multiple linear regression analysis, I compared distinct groups of IT services to determine how much of the variation in IT costs could be explained by BCM activities. In addition, I measured the relative effect of each independent variable towards the total cost of BCM. As both statistical and practical significance test results were supported, several interesting results were observed between BCM activities and IT costs – namely human, technology and organisational resources, as well as IT service designs. The research presents two theoretical contributions and one empirical contribution to the theory. The first and primary contribution is the BCM activity cost model. This is the final product for the main research question of determining the cost of BCM in IT services. The second contribution is the total cost of BCM framework. This framework contributes to the broader academic discussion of information system (IS) cost taxonomies in IT services and information security. The third contribution is empirical confirmation how to observe unknown cost effects by multiple regression analysis. Learnings from this research can contribute IS researchers focused on the economic aspects of IS and IT. The research also introduces three practical contributions. The first one considers the observation of overall BCM cost effects on IT services. Although the results of a single case study cannot be generalized directly to every organization, information herein may aid companies to evaluate BCM impact on their budgets. The second practical contribution considers the challenges regarding measurement of activity costs that can be difficult to observe directly. Within the limitations of this research, nothing here suggests that the BCM activity cost model could not be productized and integrated into other cost appraisal tools in a company or applied in other IT service management areas. The last important practical contribution are the definitions of BCM activity cost variables. Confirming the cost association between theoretical and empirical BCM frameworks can help BCM professionals to promote BCM process.Tämä yhden organisaation tapaustutkimus pohtii jatkuvuudenhallinnan kustannusten osuutta tietojärjestelmäpalveluissa. Informaatioteknologian (IT) kustannukset saattavat muodostaa merkittävän osa yrityksen menoista, ja IT-johtajat pyrkivät yleensä tarkkaan kulujenhallintaan saavuttaakseen yrityksen taloudelliset tavoitteet. Siksi tietoturva-aktiiviteetit kuten jatkuvuudenhallinta (business continuity management, BCM) ovat heidän olennaisimpia huolenaiheitaan. IT-johtajien huolista huolimatta ylin johto ei yleensä ole kovin innokas panostamaan BCM:ään niin paljon kuin IT-johto toivoisi. Ylin johto saattaa tuskailla sen kanssa, miten perustella kulut toimiin, joita kaivataan vain harvinaisissa poikkeustilanteissa. Sosioteknisten kulujen mittaamisen haaste antoi inspiraation tälle tutkimukselle; tavoite oli selvittää, olisiko mahdollista selittää BCM-kustannuksia paremmin päätöksenteon tueksi. Kirjallisuudesta nousee esiin kaksi keskeistä aihepiiriä: BCM organisaation toimintatapojen kontekstissa sekä IT-ja tietoturvakulujen luokittelu. Teoreettinen oletus oli, että IT-kulujen ja BCM- toimenpiteiden suhde emuloi toimintolaskennan (activity-based costing, ABC) teoriaa – se, että toimenpiteiden ja kulujen välillä on syy-seuraussuhde. Avainkysymys on ”Miten määritellä BCM- toimenpiteiden kulut IT-palveluissa?” Tämän selvittämiseksi käytin kattavaa arkistodataa caseyhtiöstä ja kehitin retrospektiivisen kvantitatiivisen mallin analysoidakseni BCM-toimenpiteiden ja IT-kulujen suhdetta. Kausaalis-komparatiivisen metodin ja lineaarisen regressioanalyysin avulla vertailin erilaisia IT-palvelujen ryhmiä selvittääkseni missä määrin BCM-toimenpiteet voisivat selittää IT-kulujen vaihtelua. Lisäksi mittasin jokaisen muuttujan suhteellisen vaikutuksen BCM:n kokonaiskustannuksiin. Kun sekä tilastolliset että käytännölliset testitulokset huomioitiin, BCM- toimenpiteiden ja IT-kulujen suhteesta ilmeni useita kiinnostavia tuloksia: sekä inhimillisiä että teknologia- ja organisaatioresursseihin ja IT-palvelujen muotoiluun liittyviä. Tutkimus tuotti kaksi teoreettista kontribuutiota sekä yhden empiirisen todistuksen teorialle. Ensimmäinen ja olennaisin näistä on BCM-toimenpiteiden kustannusmalli. Tämä lopputuotos vastaa tutkielman avainkysymykseen BCM-kuluista IT-palveluissa. Toinen kontribuutio on BCM-kehyksen kokonaishinta. Tämä voi ruokkia laajempaa akateemista keskustelua tietojärjestelmien (information system, IS) kustannustaksonomioista IT- palveluissa ja tietoturvassa. Kolmas kontribuutio, empiirinen todistus, osoittaa epäsuorien kulujen mittaamisen olevan mahdollista regressioanalyysiä hyödyntäen. Tutkimuksen havainnoista voi olla hyötyä IS:n ja IT:n taloudellisiin aspekteihin keskittyneille IS-tutkijoille. Tutkimuksesta nousee esiin myös kolme käytännön kontribuutiota. Ensimmäinen liittyy siihen, miten BCM-kokonaiskulujen vaikutuksia IT-palveluihin seurataan. Vaikka yhden tapaustutkimuksen tuloksia ei voida yleistää, tutkimuksen havainnot voivat auttaa yrityksiä arvioimaan BCM:n vaikutuksia budjetteihinsa. Toinen käytännön kontribuutio liittyy haasteisiin siinä, kuinka mitata toimenpidekustannuksia, joita on hankala tarkkailla suoraan. Tämän tutkimuksen rajoissa ei ilmennyt mitään syytä sille, etteikö BCM-toimenpiteiden kustannusmallia voitaisi tuotteistaa ja integroida yrityksen muihin kustannusarviotyökaluihin tai etteikö sitä voisi soveltaa muille IT-palvelujen hallinnon alueille. Viimeinen merkittävä käytännön kontribuutio on BCM-toimenpiteiden kustannusmuuttujien määrittely. BCM-ammattilaiset voivat helpommin edistää BCM-prosessia, kun teoreettisten ja empiiristen BCM-kehysten kulujen vastaavuus vahvistetaan

The Concept of a Smart Action – Results from Analyzing Information Systems Literature

In recent years, the term \u27smartness\u27 has entered widespread use in research and daily life. It has emerged with various applications of the Internet of Things, such as smart homes and smart factories. However, rapid technological development and careless use of the term mean that, in information systems (IS) research, a common understanding of smartness has not yet been established. And while it is recognized that smartness encompasses more than the use of impressive information technology applications, a unified conceptualization of how smartness is manifested in IS research is lacking. To this end, we conducted a structured literature review applying techniques from Grounded Theory. We found that smartness occurs through actions, in which smart things and individuals interact, process information, and make data-based decisions that are perceived as smart. Building on these findings, we propose the concept of a \u27smart action\u27 and derive a general definition of smartness. Our findings augment knowledge about how smartness is formed, offering a new perspective on smartness. The concept of a smart action unifies and increases understanding of \u27smartness\u27 in IS research. It supports further research by providing a concept for describing, analyzing, and designing smart actions, smart devices, and smart services