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Purpose Off-site manufacturing (OSM) has emerged as a method of modern construction that provides several benefits including achieving lower costs, a quicker schedule and environmentally friendly solutions. Although numerous researches are available that advocate the adoption of OSM, the devotion towards OSM safety is somewhat limited. However, OSM invariably generates safety risks, including dynamics and uncertainty in safety management. There is a unique call to have an investigation on the identification of OSM safety risks. Design/methodology/approach To provide a full picture on the OSM safety, a systematic literature review was adopted based on interpretivist philosophical stance. The literature search was conducted in key electronic databases to identify OSM safety-focused publications. Bibliometric analysis was adopted to identify co-occurrences of keywords and collaboration among authors in OSM safety-related research publications. Content analysis was conducted to provide a taxonomy of OSM safety risks. The identified studies were critically analysed to determine the focus of OSM safety research and provide future research directions. Findings The results demonstrated frequently appeared OSM safety aspects while highlighting the limitedness of collaborative research outputs in common authorships. Content analysis subsequently unveiled safety risks in OSM under human, organisational and work environmental factors. A critical analysis of extant literature revealed seven research classifications of OSM safety. Directions were offered to enhance OSM safety by applying principles of targeted safety management concepts, technology-driven safety measures and bespoke training programs. Originality/value This study provides a comprehensive review on the identification of safety risks throughout OSM while presenting the avenues useful for the development of OSM safety management strategies.

The construction industry consistently reports higher fatality and injury rates due to its inherent dynamic nature. As an alternative to traditional construction, offsite manufacturing (OSM) has become a construction method that presents many benefits including optimised schedule, quality control, waste reduction and improved site safety. Contrastingly, recent statistics on OSM indicated that in the USA for instance, the number of safety incidents were higher compared to traditional construction. There is a suggestion that organisations simply shift site-based construction activities to a factory. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of organisational safety climate on OSM safety performance. Initially, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify organisational safety climate factors. Following this, 131 questionnaires were collected from Australian OSM practitioners. Finally, a Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the influence of organisational safety climate on OSM safety performance. Findings asserted that safety communication has the greatest impact on safety performance. Contrary to traditional construction practice, greater influence from managers was identified over supervisors towards safety performance. The novelty of this research lies in its attempt to comprehend the association between organisational safety climate and safety performance, which may make contribution to OSM safety knowledge and practice.

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Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is a current trend worldwide, offering many environmental benefits. With the flagship SolarNova Programme in Singapore, solar PV has gained its momentum. However, it remains important to explore new avenues to introduce solar PV in the urban settings. The housing development board (HDB) green towns promote sustainable living. Therefore, introducing solar PV is essential. This research study aims to propose and conduct an economic evaluation on solar PV for the HDB’s covered linkways. HDB covered linkways connect buildings within the green towns. Hence, installing solar PV systems in covered linkways facilitates to self-produce required energy and export extra electricity to the grid. This research study used PVWatts calculator to calculate the power generation. A thin film solar PV is used for the study with fixed array type and azimuth is 180°. Four solar PV systems, namely (1) 4 kW, (2) 5 kW, (3)10 kW, and (4) 20 kW, were evaluated in this research study. The initial cost ranges from S$7000 to S$38,000 for the four types. For 4 kW and 5 kW systems, the payback period is 6.22 years. The highest payback period is for a 20-kW system, which is 7.4 years. The 10-kW system generates a significant portion of the electricity requirements, and the payback period is 6.04 years. This research contributes to the solar PV domain by proposing a novel grid-connected solar PV system for covered linkways while identifying the most cost-effective solution.