Constraints on the Promotion of Prefabricated Construction in China

Lei, Jiang; Li, Zhongfu; Li, Long; Gao, Yuan

doi:10.3390/su10072516

Cited by 114 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Since prefabricated buildings have contributed greatly to the global fight against the new coronavirus "COVID-19", they have again attracted global attention. Prefabricating buildings has long been considered a sustainable practice in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries [1], and involves moving a partially finished building from a construction site into a controlled component factory [2]. Other terms related to prefabricated buildings include prefabrication [3], industrialized buildings [4], precast buildings [5], prefabrication techniques [6], prefabricated…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Yuan

Wang

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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As a sustainable and cleaner type of facility, prefabricated buildings face more design barriers than traditional non-prefabricated buildings. Identifying and managing these barriers is key to improving the success rate of prefabricated building design. However, direct studies on these design barriers are extremely rare. The present study solved this problem by combining multiple methods, including grounded theory (GT), structured self-intersection matrix (SSIM), analytic network process (ANP), and the linear weighted sum method (LWSM). GT was adopted to identify the barriers to prefabricated building design and then SSIM was used to analyze the interactions among them. The eight design barriers were finally identified and classified into three clusters: technical barriers, economic barriers, and management barriers. A further analysis found that there is dependence and feedback among these clusters. The technical barrier cluster and management barrier cluster experience self-feedback. A network model based on ANP was next established to calculate the weights of the barrier elements and then this model was combined with LWSM to evaluate the overall design barrier strength of a project case. The results showed that architectural individualization has the greatest impact on prefabricated building design, followed by the collaborative issues among multiple units and professional designer issues. The overall design barrier strength of the project case was larger. Therefore, the first suggestion provided to the facility management sector is to establish a library for standard house types to achieve architectural design through multihouse combinations.Sustainability 2020, 12, 2994 2 of 16 construction [7], and off-site construction [8]. Whether emergency-driven or market-driven, prefabricated buildings are becoming increasingly popular. However, several barriers affecting the development of prefabricated buildings are often mentioned, including a higher total cost [9], impaired aesthetics [10], additional risks [11], a lack of professional expertise [12], and the absence of management experience [13]. Nevertheless, prefabricated buildings are still favored by the government of China due to their many advantages, including their faster construction speed [14], less required on-site labor [15], higher construction quality [16], sustainable development [17], and superior occupational health and safety [18]. With the development of prefabricated buildings, some new issues are beginning to emerge and become increasingly prominent, especially the design changes of prefabricated buildings. Bogenstatter noted that the design stage determines up to 80% of operational costs, as well as the environment impacts [19,20]. Hence, design changes can waste a great deal of time and money and even affect the quality of buildings. Overcoming this issue remains a troubling prospect for industry insiders and researchers.Design changes are common not just for ordinary buildings but also for prefabricated buildings. However, the design of a p...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Yuan

Wang

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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“…Determine and review the work activities for unit production in factory (determine factory work) 1, 17, 27, 28, 29 23 Prepare shop drawings and check interference in unit production 22 24 Prepare unit production line design 23 25 Prepare manufacturing tolerance management plan 17, 22, 23, 26 26 Prepare quality management plan 22, 25…”

Section: Manufacturing 22mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, if the Road Traffic Act regulations of an area are not considered in a related design step, the size of units may need to be reworked for transportation, which can cause schedule and cost overruns.In modular construction, the complexity involved makes identification of the information flows difficult [14]. To facilitate the integration of participants and identification of the information flows in the design phase of a modular project, an integrated design process is required to ensure that the project is managed considering the entire project process, including design, unit production, transportation, erection, and performance [22,23]. However, designs are still established based on conventional stick-built construction methods, which are unsuitable for modular construction, and lack of expertise and knowledge in the marketplace make it difficult to recognize the need for the integrated design process [18,22,24].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Design Process for Modular Construction Projects to Reduce Rework

et al. 2020

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In modular construction projects, unit production and onsite work are conducted concurrently, enabling shorter duration, lower cost, and improved quality. Because of the nature of the work, building design details should be determined early in the design phase, which requires information from participants. However, the design process for stick-built construction does not include such information, which leads to errors in design, such as omissions and conflicts of information from participants, causing reworking in the design phase. To reduce errors, an information flow should be identified representing when/what/how the information should be shared, and with whom. This paper proposes an integrated design process based on the information flow. To identify the flow, a precedence relationship between activities is represented using a dependency structure matrix (DSM). Then, the order of activities is rearranged using a partitioning algorithm. In this manner, unnecessary feedback and reverse information flow, which are related to errors, are reduced. Finally, the rearranged activities are proposed as an integrated design process. To validate the impact of the proposed process and methodology, interviews with experts were conducted. The validation results suggest that the project delivery method should also be considered in the early project phase in practical application.

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“…Boafo et al pointed out that prefabrication improved the speed of construction, quality of architecture, efficiency of materials, and worker safety and limited the environmental impacts of construction [25]. Jiang et al found that IB efficiency has a positive effect on the economic factors, livability, safety, environmental factors, and social benefits [26]. Environmental performance evaluations are also of great interest to many researchers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Performance of Buildings through Modular Prefabrication in the Construction Phase: A Comparative Study

et al. 2019

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Prefabrication has been considered an effective alternative to conventional building. It has gained an increasing amount of attention over the last few decades as a way to advance sustainable construction. This study focused on the construction stage to compare sustainable performances of prefabrication with conventional building. Sixteen indicators were extracted from a literature review and specialist interviews to conduct a sustainability evaluation. A survey was delivered to developers, designers, superintendents, manufacturers, and contractors of a Chinese case project. A total of 51 valid responses were collected. Projection pursuit (PP), based on the real-coded accelerating genetic algorithm (RAGA), was employed to evaluate the sustainability of prefabrication. The results showed that there was a consensus among the participants that prefabrication has more obvious sustainable performances in the construction phase compared with conventional building. However, cognitive differences among the participants regarding the sustainability of prefabrication were also pronounced. The findings presented in this paper may assist the government to propose feasible policies and measures to promote the development of prefabrication in China.

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Constraints on the Promotion of Prefabricated Construction in China

Cited by 114 publications

References 38 publications

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Research on the Barrier Analysis and Strength Measurement of a Prefabricated Building Design

Integrated Design Process for Modular Construction Projects to Reduce Rework

Sustainable Performance of Buildings through Modular Prefabrication in the Construction Phase: A Comparative Study

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