Virtual Reality in the construction business is a relatively new topic. Companies and urban construction offices started evaluating this technique just a few years ago and now a part of them uses it on a daily basis. This paper investigates: The degree of implementation on the market today. We’ve tried to enlighten why not a bigger part of the market uses this innovative technique and why the use differs between cities in the country. By executing an inquiry distributed among the biggest cities in Sweden we map up the answers to these questions and backs and broadens the theories with interviews with experienced people on different levels of the construction industry. Results shows that the use is a lot more spread among the bigger cities in the country, but some results implies that smaller cities generally implements virtual reality on a deeper level. They also shows a generally positive view on virtual reality and our respondents sees lots of advantages and think that this will be a given feature in all construction projects of some complexity in the future.

Virtual Reality in the construction industry has begun to get its foothold, the use of thetechnique is somehow mixed up of being a show-off tool for visual presentations and not reallycontributing to economic improvements. The project aims to investigate if virtual reality couldcontribute to profitability when used in the construction-design phase to prevent design errorsfrom occurring which later leads to cost overruns in the specific project. The information wasmainly collected through literature studies and a 10-question survey. Phone-interviews are laterexecuted with experienced construction engineers that is familiar with the new technique tocomplement parts of the survey that didn’t cover enough facts. The results of this study showthat using virtual reality during the construction-design phase when projecting schools, hospitals,residence and hotels leads to less expenses throughout the project by preventing design errorsfrom occurring thanks to the virtual visualisation the technique offers. Dealing with designerrors in the early stage of the project could therefore help companies to reduce unexpectedexpenses and present more accurate cost estimates.

Detta examensarbete genomfördes hos ett tillverkande företag utanför Stockholm. Företagets produktion består delvis av egenbyggda maskiner. Lämpliga instruktioner för underhåll, riggning samt felsökning fanns inte tillgängliga för dessa maskiner. En av de mest kritiska avdelningarna hos företaget kallas för klipp- och rullavdelningen. För tillfället finns endast en operatör i avdelningen som känner till samtliga maskiners funktioner. Denna operatör innehar så kallad tyst kunskap. Målet med detta examensarbete har varit att dokumentera tyst kunskap genom digitalisering av instruktioner. Efter att mål, problemdefinition och tillvägagångssätt fastställts gjordes en faktainsamling som bestod av primär- och sekundärdata. Diskussioner med företagets VD och de operatörer som arbetar i den aktuella avdelningen genomfördes. Detta bidrog till en djupare förståelse av problemet som i sin tur skapade en grund för hur digitaliseringen skulle ske. Arbetet bestod även av en teoretisk referensram vars syfte var att bidra till förståelse av vetenskaplig karaktär. I den teoretiska referensramen studerades även det nya konceptet för digitalisering inom industrin och dess påverkan på små och medelstora företag (SMF). Digitaliseringen karaktäriseras av smart teknologi. I dagsläget anses inte vissa smarta teknologier, så som virtual reality (virtuell verklighet) och augmented reality (förstärkt verklighet) tillämpbara hos företaget. Augmented reality (AR) kan dock komma att underlätta reparation och liknande arbetsuppgifter i framtiden. Den metod som valdes för att ta fram instruktioner var videoinspelning. Tillämpning av detta ansågs vara ett adekvat val då projektet utfördes. För att kunna spela in, redigera och använda videoinstruktioner krävs dock kompatibel hård- och mjukvara. De rekommendationer som gavs till företaget var att lagra filerna på ett intranät eller någon molntjänst som skapar lättillgänglighet. Förutom videoinstruktioner rekommenderas även praktisk handledning av en erfaren operatör. Detta skapar en kombination av praktisk och teoretisk inlärning. Instruktioner för hur företaget ska redigera och lagra videoinspelningarna togs fram för att skapa ett standardiserat arbete. / This project was conducted at a manufacturing company outside of Stockholm. Production is partially operated by machines that are manufactured by the company; however, appropriate maintenance instructions, machine settings and error search are currently unavailable for these machines. The most critical department within the workshop is called “cut and roll”, the department only has one operator who has full knowledge of the machines and their functions. This type of knowledge possessed by the operator is called tacit knowledge. The aim of this project is to document and transfer the tacit knowledge through digitalisation of instructions. After defining the problem, methods and aims of the project, primary and secondary data was collected. Furthermore, discussions were held with the chief executive of the company and the operators working in the cut and roll department. This led to a deeper understanding of the main problem and created a foundation for the methods used to digitalise instructions. The project also contains a literature review to conduce the scientific aspects of the problem. Moreover, the upcoming concept regarding digitalisation within manufacturing companies and its effect on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) was also taken into consideration. The concept is characterised by smart technology. These types of technologies, e.g. virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), are not adequate to implement in the company today. Even so, AR could be a complementary tool regarding maintenance and similar tasks in the future. The method used to digitalise instructions was video recording, serving as the most adequate digital tool whilst executing the project. However, compatible hardware and software is necessary to create video instructions. Recommendations proposed to the company are that instructions should be stored in an intranet or cloud; and, in addition to video instructions, practical supervision given by an experienced operator is recommended. Thereby giving a combination of both practical and theoretical learning. Instructions on how to edit and store the videos was created to maintain standardized working methods.