A Study of Drone-based Reality Capture for Construction Management: Kaizen in Daily Huddles

This study explores the application of drone-based reality capture technologies in enhancing Lean Construction practices, particularly through the optimization of daily huddles. While prior studies tend to focus either on drone technology or construction management in isolation, this study integrates both perspectives by developing a practical deployment workflow and a set of reality capture tools tailored to typical stakeholder activities. A set of Lean-aligned evaluation metrics was designed to assess performance quantitatively. The proposed approach was implemented and tested in two real-world construction projects in Southeast Asia—one in Thailand and one in Singapore—representing the first time these project teams adopted drone-based workflows. Quantitative results demonstrate improvements in productivity, waste reduction, Just-in-Time execution, and stakeholder collaboration. The findings suggest that drone-based reality capture solutions, when strategically integrated with existing workflows, can significantly support Lean objectives.