Promoting Off-Site Construction: Future Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)AE.1943-5568.0000081IntroductionWhile manufactured construction can be traced back to approxi-mately 1851 (Gibb 2001), in the last two decades, a resurgencehas occurred, which has now started to gain increased popularityand momentum (Arif and Egbu 2010). For example, in the UnitedKingdom (UK), the off-site construction industry grew from£2.2 billion in 2004 to £6 billion in 2006 (Goodier and Gibb2007); and the UK is not unique in the adoption of manufacturedconstruction, as different types of off-site construction techniquesare quite common worldwide.However, if off-site construction is to make a sustained positivecontribution in the marketplace, research is needed to identify thepervadingissuesthatconstraintheuptakeofthis,orconversely,canpromote this in a more reasoned and defendable way, especiallytaking into consideration the existing societal, cultural, and currentbusiness models associated with conventional thinking and prac-tice. Cognizant of this, a task group (TG74) was commissionedby the International Council for Research and Innovation in Build-ing and Construction (CIB). This group had a mandate to leadinternational research strategy to address theories relating to pro-duction and business models within the built environment disci-plines; it was also tasked with developing an off-site builtenvironment research roadmap for construction. This paperpresents preliminary findings of a TG74 workshop that focusedon identifying the core drivers, variables, and strategic prioritiesfacing the construction industry in the short to medium term.CIB Background and Task Group 74CIB is the acronym of the French (former) name ConseilInternational du Bâtiment (in English this is InternationalCouncil for Building). The name CIB was revised in 1998 toInternational Council for Research and Innovation in Buildingand Construction but the acronym CIB was retained. CIB was setupin1953 withfunding fromthe United Nations withamandatetostimulate and facilitate international cooperation and informationexchange between governmental research institutes in the buildingand construction sector. Currently, it has 500 organizations asmembers and 5,000 experts from these organizations who partici-pate in the research activities of CIB. CIB addresses issues relatedto current areas of research in the building and construction sectorwiththeformation oftaskgroupsandworking commissions.Thesetask groups and working commissions act as platforms for re-searchers and practitioners to exchange ideas. The funding of thesetask groups and working commissions is the responsibility ofmembers participating in them.Background for the WorkshopTG74 is a task group consisting of researchers, academics, andpractitioners associated with manufactured construction research,teaching, and practice. The purpose of this workshop was to de-veloptheresearchagendaforoff-siteconstruction,withaparticularemphasis on short- to medium-term (0–10 years) priorities. In thisrespect, the TG74 presented a nine-item agenda framework fordiscussion (see Table 1), the rubrics of which had been developedover the course of six months with leading domain experts andmembership participants of TG74. The individuals who led discus-sions on individual areas are listed in Table 1 below.Within the contextof off-site construction, each of the three ma-jor areas of process, technology, and peoplewere analyzed for theirimpact on design, manufacturing, and construction. The findingsfrom this workshop would help inform strategic thinking, leadingto the development of a research roadmap for off-site manufactur-ing. This paper presents the results of this workshop.Theinitialnineareasproposedfortheworkshopweredevelopedover a period of six months with academics and practitioners. Thisculminated in three online conference validation sessions hostedover the Internet. These conference sessions were used to garnerinternationalfocusandestablishcorepriorityareasforthein-personworkshop session. Individuals participating in these workshopswere located in the UK, Scandinavia, Germany, and Australia.The results of this in-person workshop are presented in this paper.Specific topics identified in these nine areas through onlineworkshops were:Design technology:• Technology embedded in the product (in the factory);• Technology underpinning the business process;• E-readiness of organizations (and the supply chain):holistic implications on the business;• Building information modeling (BIM) for off-site (productand process): potential to exploit.Manufacturing technology:• Justifiable automation: how much is enough? (e.g., optimi-zation, business case, payback);• Product and process design: design for manufacture (DIM)(software and systems development, decision supportsystem, integrated product delivery, etc.);• Supply chain management: manufacturing resourceplanning (MRP) and enterprise resource planning (ERP)expensive (inflexible and somewhat limited);• Modelingandsimulation:trainingneeded(e.g.,systemsana-lysis, discreet event simulation, and modeling).