How to Generate Manufacturing Orders for Window Frames Autonomously by Using Data Within BIM Models
Authors: Machado Michael , Mendonça João Pedro 
Published: January 2025

Although manufacturing sector and the construction are some of the more relevant economic sectors to a country economy they seat at opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of evolution and adaptability. In one hand, manufacturing has always been in the forefront of finding solutions to produce faster and cheaper, such as the development of industry 4.0 paradigm. In the other hand, the construction sector is highly traditional and still using the same low efficient and productivity construction techniques despite several innovation initiatives.

Recently, construction sector stakeholders have been faced with an unprecedent global housing crises. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 1 600 million people will be affected by the global housing shortage. Moreover, the sector is under an unprecedented pressure from the stakeholders to reduce the carbon footprint of the sector, while increasing the efficiency of the construction process. This led to the construction sector to migrate manufacturing innovations to the construction sector workflow. A significant example of this is the development of the Construction 4.0 (C4.0) concept based on the principles of Industry 4.0. The Construction 4.0 concept advocated for a fully digital workflow, moving away from a paper-based workflow to a system that can store all the information in a cloud. One of the main enabling technologies of C4.0 is the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM encapsules all components relevant to a construction project in the same ecosystem, including drawings and technical information and other relevant information while ensuring its management during the entire building lifecycle.

Furthermore, in conjugation with BIM several authors believe that Off-site Construction (OSC) will play a pivotal role in overcoming the problems affecting the construction industry and complement the prospect of C4.0. The combination of digitalization of the construction sector and I4.0 can enable a higher efficiency, productivity, and safety for OSC. When comparing OSC with traditional construction methods is possible to reduce landfill waste by up to 70%, decrease noise pollution by 30 to 50% and eliminate over 80% of work accidents. In the other hand, OSC can decreases construction time up to 60%. Moreover, OSC can reduce CO2 emissions by at least 40 to 50%.

The merge of BIM and OSC can enable an opportunity to increase productivity and efficiency. Since it could enable bi-latterly data exchange between BIM and the manufacturing companies with little to no manual input. Moreover, would also reduce the resources used in translation and redrawing activities. Namely using data from BIM to feed the machines in shopfloor with reduce operator impact. However, several situations have made difficult the bilateral exchange between both systems. Namely due to interoperability problems, different design methods used in each ecosystem, different levels of detail necessary for each sector, and several others.

In this paper will be studied how to use data withing BIM to produce window frames in a fully digital ecosystem. At first will be studies what information is stored under BIM and its nature. Furthermore, will also be presented what information is reacquires to fully automate the window manufacturing process. In the second stage of this document, will be presented how to complement both methods to generate manufacturing orders and how to obtain the missing information by using AI tools.