A critical analysis of benefits and challenges of implementing modular integrated construction

Wai, Chan Tsz; Yi, Pang Wai; Olanrewaju, Oludolapo Ibrahim; Abdelmageed, Sherif; Hussein, Mohamed; Tariq, Salman; Zayed, Tarek

doi:10.26686/wgtn.14393696

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…This stage acts as a bridge between initial and final stages of MiC implementation. Although the success of this stage lies in effective collaboration and communication between project participants, suitable procurement strategies for materials, effective resource planning and scheduling and utilizing just-in-time methods for module production among others, there are certain risks factors that can affect this stage [43]. Dimensional conflicts between modules, defective design and information gaps, frequently changing orders from clients, inadequate inspection procedures, scheduling errors causing rework and low capabilities of manufacturers among other things, are some of the risk factors that hinder the factory production stage of the MiC method [44].…”

Section: Modular Integrated Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers towards Adopting Modular Integrated Construction for Affordable Sustainable Housing: A Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) Method

Khan

Liu

et al. 2022

Buildings

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This study features the development of a framework to identify drivers towards increasing adoption of modular integrated construction (MiC) methods for affordable sustainable housing (ASH). The rise of offsite construction (OSC) techniques, especially MiC, has been evident in recent years. MiC’s adoption in ASH is still underdeveloped; however, due to various benefits of MiC over conventional construction methods, it is envisioned to be a significant emerging approach for tackling growing housing demand, and ASH in particular. Although a few prior studies identified some factors for utilization of MiC towards ASH, studies to date have not provided a holistic review of drivers or a comprehensive framework of the interrelationships between such drivers. To address this issue, this study utilizes a three-way process including a systematic literature review, semi-structured interviews and the Total Interpretive Structure Modelling (TISM) method to study the drivers for MiC adoption in ASH. Initially, 111 drivers were extracted from a review of 40 studies in the existing literature. Following that, the significant drivers of MiC adoption for ASH were grouped into cost, time, productivity, quality, environmental, social, policy and demand. Drawing on concepts of systems thinking and graph theory, the TISM model for eight drivers was developed from both the literature review and the interview results. Four levels of hierarchy were found among drivers containing linkage, driving, depending and autonomous. Succeeding the steps of TISM and Reachability Matrix (RM) and Matrice d’ Impacts Croises-Multipication Appliqué a Classement (MICMAC) analysis, social drivers were found to have the highest driving and lowest dependency power, followed by productivity and policy drivers. This signifies the importance of social factors for enhancing MiC adoption for ASH. In addition, a strategic framework of boosting MiC adoption in ASH is also presented, highlighting the key stakeholders and strategies for transformation along with conclusions. This study delivers a wider landscape of drivers for MiC-ASH synergy that may assist practitioners, policy makers and relevant stakeholders to better understand the relationships between the drivers.

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Section: Modular Integrated Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers towards Adopting Modular Integrated Construction for Affordable Sustainable Housing: A Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) Method

Khan

Liu

et al. 2022

Buildings

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“…A number of studies promoted the sustainable benefits of MiC when compared to traditional construction methods [13,42,58,59], while others identified the obstacles hindering MiC implementations to support green and sustainability objectives [60,61]. For instance, Nahmens and Ikuma [43] examined the effects of MiC on different dimensions of sustainability, highlighting the way this construction method had a significant positive environmental impact by reducing material waste by 64%, a considerable social impact by avoiding unnecessary critical safety hazards such as excessive force, bad posture, and struck-by incidents, and a considerable economic effect by cutting production hours by 31%.…”

Section: Sustainable Operation Of Micmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The growing popularity of this construction technique has attracted the attention of researchers, who have examined a number of different aspects of MiC in recent years. There is now an extensive literature on this topic, including studies on associated costincreasing risk factor in MiC implementation [11], the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieved [12], and the benefits and barriers of implementing MiC [13][14][15]. The huge volume of work published in this field in the last few years highlights the need for a systematic analysis of the literature to identify the key research themes, the contributions made by authors in various countries, and to qualitatively analyze these contributions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Review of Trends in Modular Integrated Construction Research with a Focus on Sustainability

2022

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Modular integrated construction (MiC) is an innovative technology that minimizes the adverse impacts of construction not only in terms of material resources, energy consumption and environmental issues but also by reducing construction times and costs. The widespread adoption of these practices could therefore contribute to the construction industry’s sustainable development. Despite the increasing public attention of MiC with a number of published works in various aspects, there is still a lack of systematic assessment of its sustainability performance. We therefore reviewed the published literature addressing the sustainability of MiC over the last two decades using a desktop research method integrating a bibliometric search with quantitative and qualitative analyses. Our objective was to investigate, evaluate, and summarize the ongoing research trends for sustainability-related studies in MiC published in leading construction journals to identify promising potential directions for future research. This research is intended to serve as a useful resource for practitioners and researchers seeking to better understand the significance of this outstanding technology as we strive to develop a more sustainable construction environment.

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“…Equation (4) shows that the indirect costs include the overheads (CIC) and the mobilization and demobilization costs (MC) of each piece of equipment and human resource used in the production, logistics and installation processes. The latter is calculated using Equation (5). The second cost component is the direct cost (DC) associated with the production, logistics and installation processes.…”

Section: Objective Functions and Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Off-site construction (OSC) is a sustainable construction method in which parts of the structure are produced off-site and then transported to the construction site for erection [1,2]. OSC has many advantages for the improvement of productivity [3], quality [4], and safety [5] of the built environment. Besides this, OSC brings environmental improvements to the construction industry [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation-Optimization for the Planning of Off-Site Construction Projects: A Comparative Study of Recent Swarm Intelligence Metaheuristics

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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Off-site construction is a modern construction method that brings many sustainability merits to the built environment. However, the sub-optimal planning decisions (e.g., resource allocation, logistics and overtime planning decisions) of off-site construction projects can easily wipe away their sustainability merits. Therefore, simulation modelling—an efficient tool to consider the complexity and uncertainty of these projects—is integrated with metaheuristics, developing a simulation-optimization model to find the best possible planning decisions. Recent swarm intelligence metaheuristics have been used to solve various complex optimization problems. However, their potential for solving the simulation-optimization problems of construction projects has not been investigated. This research contributes by investigating the status-quo of simulation-optimization models in the construction field and comparing the performance of five recent swarm intelligence metaheuristics to solve the stochastic time–cost trade-off problem with the aid of parallel computing and a variance reduction technique to reduce the computation time. These five metaheuristics include the firefly algorithm, grey wolf optimization, the whale optimization algorithm, the salp swarm algorithm, and one improved version of the well-known bat algorithm. The literature analysis of the simulation-optimization models in the construction field shows that: (1) discrete-event simulation is the most-used simulation method in these models, (2) most studies applied genetic algorithms, and (3) very few studies used computation time reduction techniques, although the simulation-optimization models are computationally expensive. The five selected swarm intelligence metaheuristics were applied to a case study of a bridge deck construction project using the off-site construction method. The results further show that grey wolf optimization and the improved bat algorithm are superior to the firefly, whale optimization, and salp swarm algorithms in terms of the obtained solutions’ quality and convergence behaviour. Finally, the use of parallel computing and a variance reduction technique reduces the average computation time of the simulation-optimization models by about 87.0%. This study is a step towards the optimum planning of off-site construction projects in order to maintain their sustainability advantages.

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A critical analysis of benefits and challenges of implementing modular integrated construction

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Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Drivers towards Adopting Modular Integrated Construction for Affordable Sustainable Housing: A Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) Method

Drivers towards Adopting Modular Integrated Construction for Affordable Sustainable Housing: A Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) Method

Critical Review of Trends in Modular Integrated Construction Research with a Focus on Sustainability

Simulation-Optimization for the Planning of Off-Site Construction Projects: A Comparative Study of Recent Swarm Intelligence Metaheuristics

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