Can NFC support virtual lean construction?

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short-range (0-10 cm) wireless connectivity and identification technology that evolved from a combination of passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and peer-to-peer technology. NFC is currently experiencing a major breakthrough in low-cost consumer electronic devices such as mobile phones and it has the possibility of becoming a technology that is simple and easy to introduce as a support within digitalisation of data collection in construction. Therefore, it was decided to evaluate if NFC is capable of supporting Virtual Lean Construction by testing an early prototype of a quality and project progress management application for NFC enabled mobile phones. According to the author's observations, interviews, questionnaires and technology experiments the future users perceive benefits of enabling the technology during planning, quality management and follow-up. Use of traditional consumer equipment such as the NFC compatible mobile phones, was found to be a crucial aspect to lower the barrier of introducing automatic object identification in construction, but it is proposed to combine this technology with other identification technologies to improve reading distance and thereby potential uses.