Purpose-The Japanese prefabrication industry not only has automated its processes to a high extent, but it also innovates due to the fact that it delivers buildings of outstanding quality accompanied by a multitude of services. In order to explore and specify the concepts and parameters that have driven this industry, Japan's prefabrication industry, its cultural, economic and technological surrounding, as well as the applied processes, technologies and economic strategies, have to be illustrated and analyzed. The proposed research aim was to identify, describe and analyse these concepts and their related parameters, as well as to recognize the most influential drivers for the future, that provide an indication into which direction the industry could evolve. Research Methodology-Being aware that literature does not provide relevant information and data, which would allow the authors to explore concepts and parameters explaining the success of the Japanese prefabrication industry, the authors performed field surveys, visited factories, R&D centres and sales points of all major Japanese prefabrication companies. In some cases authors also interviewed general managers, researchers and developers, and academicians at Japanese universities. Based on an extensive literature review in the area of product development, production technology, modularisation, mass customisation, and innovation, the authors qualitatively and quantitatively analysed all major prefabrication companies according to a fixed scheme. Findings-The concepts and parameters identified and analyzed in this paper, demonstrate that the Japanese prefabrication industry, which is leading in large-scale industrialization, nowadays focuses towards services that are related to the building's utilization phase, rather than delivering products. By involving customers it enhances the companies' customer relations, creating thus competitive advantages. Originality/ value-Overall the paper shows that Japanese prefabrication industry rather acts like a "production industry" than a "construction industry". Similar to many other high-tech industries, Japan's prefabrication industry incorporates latest product and process technologies and combines automation, products and services into complex value-capturing systems.

Building production" technology, i.e. construction automation and robotics (CAR), is on a worldwide level increasingly recognized as stating a key element of the future of construction, although CAR up to date has never experienced large-scale real-world implementation. However, the recent significantly growing demand for sustainability has the potential to serve as the necessitated trigger for CAR's large-scale deployment. In that context, systematic guidance for the construction industry is however missing, and there have been limited attempts to thoroughly investigate the impacts of utilizing CAR with regard to the sustainability performance of construction and buildings. The research presented in this paper makes a first step to fill this research gap by reviewing and investigating the available CAR strategies and technologies and developing for the first time a consistent framework of indicators for assessing the sustainability performance of utilizing CAR for buildings. The overall goal of the research is to develop, through this framework, a robust and reliable assessment method that can be used in the industrial context to assess the sustainability of building construction projects that consider using CAR. Beyond the development of the indicator framework, the research plan adopting the V-Model approach foresees to translate the framework into an assessment method which will then in several iteration cycles be verified and validated in real world.

The Cambridge Handbooks on Construction Robotics series focuses on the implementation of automation and robot technology to renew the construction industry and to arrest its declining productivity. The series is intended to give professionals, researchers, lecturers, and students basic conceptual and technical skills and implementation strategies to manage, research, or teach the implementation of advanced automation and robot-technology-based processes and technologies in construction. Currently, the implementation of modern developments in product structures (modularity and design for manufacturing), organizational strategies (just in time, just in sequence, and pulling production), and informational aspects (computeraided design/manufacturing or computer-integrated manufacturing) are lagging because of the lack of modern integrated machine technology in construction. The Cambridge Handbooks on Construction Robotics discuss progress in robot systems theory and demonstrate their integration using real systematic applications and projections for off-site as well as on-site building production. Robot-Oriented Design introduces the design, innovation, and management methodologies that are key to the realization and implementation of the advanced concepts and technologies presented in the subsequent volumes in the series. This book describes the efficient deployment of advanced construction and building technology. It is concerned with the co-adaptation of construction products, processes, organization, management, and automated/robotic technology, so that the implementation of modern technology becomes easier and more efficient. It is also concerned with technology and innovation management methodologies and the generation of life-cycle-oriented views related to the use of advanced technologies in construction.

The technological development of construction robots is underway globally. However, current development activities face significant uncertainties, particularly in terms of the definition and management of system requirements, which are primarily based on vague assumptions about the future. Thus, a new tool is required to grasp how construction robots-and their surrounding ecosystems-will be used. This research adopts an unprecedented scenario-based approach to develop and analyze future alternatives for construction robotics in a systematic manner. Hong Kong "toward 2035" is used as an initial test case, and four scenarios of the robot ecosystem, i.e., "Bottleneck," "Age of Iron Worker," "Dynamic Co-evolution of Robotization and Modularization," and "Rise of the Robots," are developed from evidence-based analysis. Scenarios highlight the crucial role of workers for construction robot utilization. Driving forces, opportunities, and challenges are identified for elaborating strategies under each scenario. The integrated scenario approach and findings lay an important foundation for systems engineering processes in construction robotics to develop a new tool for structuring system context and specifying system requirements.

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