Abstract
The construction industry has been associated with inefficiencies. In contrast, Off-Site Construction (OSC) is a modern method of construction that has demonstrated significant improvements over conventional on-site methods. Despite that, OSC represents a tiny portion of the construction industry with a limited rate of diffusion and acceptance. One reason for that is associated with the lack or immaturity of OSC-related research and innovation benchmarking. This benchmarking helps in expanding OSC implementation as a component in driving and directing OSC research as well as roadmapping and measuring the innovation advancements. Hence, this study was intended to contribute to the OSC benchmarking by mapping innovation that paves the road towards building a strategic research and innovation roadmap in OSC. Among different innovation types, this study is limited to two types: technology-oriented and OSC method-oriented innovation. Unlike the traditional roadmaps in the literature, the envisioned roadmap design for OSC innovation in this study is based on maturity modelling. This design includes four components: framework, maturity scales, benchmarks, and targets. However, the focus of the current stage is on the developing the mapping components (framework and maturity scales). Consequently, two sets of frameworks and maturity models were developed to realize the two identified innovation types in OSC. The applicability of these frameworks and scales was demonstrated through hypothetical examples and a case study that is limited to technology-oriented research in the Canadian context. Accordingly, the subsequent case study scope embraces the last three research community meetings (2015-2019) relevant to our study in the indicated context. Based on this case study, the framework was found easy to understand, simple to implement, scalable, applicable across different contexts, and facilitates capturing benchmarks and targets. This confirms promising benefits of the developed frameworks and their effectiveness in roadmapping OSC innovation.
Highlights
Construction is a series of integrated engineering and management processes that consume resources within a preset scope to produce a facility conforming of specific requirements
The research body reviewed on construction methods was limited to Off-Site Construction (OSC) methods to align with the scope of our research
This study was initiated to address the lack of innovation benchmarking and pave the road towards building a strategic roadmap of innovation in OSC
Summary
Construction is a series of integrated engineering and management processes that consume resources within a preset scope to produce a facility conforming of specific requirements. For a long-time, the construction industry has been associated with inefficiencies, which is argued to be mostly facilitated by the conventional on-site method of construction (McKinsey Global Institute, 2017). To address the on-site construction inefficiencies, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) have been introduced as a new approach to improve efficiency. MMC embraces a range of non-traditional methods of onsite and off-site construction techniques that provide alternatives to traditional construction approaches. MMC is an umbrella term that ranges from innovative techniques for laying bricks onsite to factory-built volumetric modules fully finished off-site (NHBC Foundation, 2018). The industrialized construction and manufacturing in factory environments promise a great potential in transforming construction industry and boost its efficiency
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