Towards Assessing Productivity in Off-Site Building Methods for Engineering and Construction Projects

Abstract

In the past few decades, the construction industry in many countries has suffered from poor performance and low productivity. The labour-intensive nature of the industry and diminishing levels of specialist skills and craftsmanship have been major factors hampering productivity growth in construction. A key solution for resolving the productivity constraints of traditional on-site (in-situ) construction has been off-site construction, which uses methods such as prefabrication and modularisation in order to improve efficiency and standardise the management of quality. Off-site production is suggested as producing a positive way forward, although many studies are somewhat overly anecdotal and lack an empirical objective means to clearly define the parameters that lead to positive gains. The work described here presents an initial literature review (secondary research) towards addressing the productivity of off-site construction and a(n ongoing) focus on employee empowerment, with reference to operational management tools and techniques; future work shall seek the development of an operational management approach able to go towards an improvement in the performance of building installation in general, and labour productivity in particular.