Evaluating the effectiveness of a digital traceability pilot

What we are doing and why

We are supporting research by the University of Melbourne, through the Building 4.0 Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), to investigate how a digital traceability pilot performs within a live construction project.

Australia faces persistent challenges in achieving reliable digital traceability of building products and components across the construction lifecycle. Limited visibility of product data contributes to compliance risk, rework, product substitution, poor handover quality and long‑term asset management deficiencies. Addressing these challenges requires insights from real project experience to understand and validate how digital traceability operates under real-world conditions.

This project will independently evaluate a digital traceability pilot implemented within a PT Blink-enabled construction project. By evaluating data integrity, operational feasibility, and value delivered to stakeholders, the research will examine how digital traceability operates in practice and generate direct insights into performance in a commercial setting.

The project will undertake a structured evaluation of the pilot system, including analysis of traceability workflows, data capture and governance mechanisms, and interactions between designers, contractors, suppliers and certifiers. By grounding the research in a commercial delivery context, the study will validate practical enablers and constraints associated with deploying digital traceability at scale.

The outcomes will provide evidence‑based insights and a scalable framework to support the implementation and governance of digital traceability within the Australian construction sector. These findings will inform industry, regulators and asset owners seeking to improve compliance assurance, reduce risk and enhance lifecycle data continuity for buildings and infrastructure.

The University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor Wen Li is leading the research.

The project is jointly funded by the Building 4.0 CRC, BPC, Master Builders Victoria and PT Blink.

What we have achieved so far

This research project commenced in April 2026 and is due for completion in 2027.

This project builds on an earlier Building 4.0 CRC scoping study supported by the BPC, which found that digital traceability in construction is limited by fragmented supply chains, uneven industry readiness, and concerns about cost, trust and data security. The study showed that the key challenge is not whether the technology exists, but whether it can work reliably and provide real value on live projects. This project responds directly to that finding by independently evaluating a digital traceability pilot on an active construction project, to generate practical, evidence‑based insights for industry and regulators.