Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) Checklists for Off-Site Construction (OSC) Projects

Abstract

Off-Site Construction (OSC), which has the advantage of improving construction productivity, is being spotlighted as a solution to the limitations of conventional construction production methods. Despite the need for, and various advantages of, the introduction and utilization of OSC, however, several issues remain, such as design errors and reduction in design completeness, due to the lack of experience and expertise of project participants, as well as improper consideration of production environment and technical constraints. To resolve these issues, it is necessary to develop an optimal design plan that conforms to the OSC manufacturing environment and manufacturing efficiency; thus, there have been ongoing efforts in the construction industry to introduce Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA), to derive the optimal design plans for OSC projects. Some studies related to the application of DfMA to OSC have been conducted, however they neglected to present a checklist for reviewing the optimality of OSC design plans. This study has therefore developed an OSC–DfMA checklist, to review the optimality of design plans for OSC projects, by listing optimal design goals for OSC projects, the OSC process, and DfMA principles. This study utilized the systematic literature review, structured interview, and content validity analysis methods to develop the OSC–DfMA checklist presented herein. The developed OSC–DfMA checklist will be applicable to reviewing the optimality of the OSC design plans.