Elsevier

Building and Environment

Volume 42, Issue 10, October 2007, Pages 3642-3654
Building and Environment

Towards adoption of prefabrication in construction

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.10.003Get rights and content

Abstract

There is an urgent issue on huge quantities of wastage generation in construction. There should not be lack of environmental support from construction stakeholders. The current implementation of prefabrication seems unable to provide satisfactory results to the construction industry. This paper provides a feasibility analysis in adopting prefabrication in construction activities. Advantages, hindrances and future development on prefabrication's applications are provided based on a questionnaire survey. The suitability in adopting prefabrication of various project types is also examined. Furthermore, a financial analysis is also investigated by a local case study. It found that wastage generation can reduce up to 100% after adopting prefabrication, in which up to 84.7% can be saved on wastage reduction.

Introduction

Construction waste is considered as one of the main factors having an impact on the environment. Construction waste is defined as the by-product generated and removed from construction, renovation and demolition workplaces or sites of building and civil engineering structure [1]. With the increasing demands in implementing major infrastructure projects, together with many commercial buildings and housing redevelopment programmes, a large amount of construction waste is being produced. Existing works have proposed various waste management approaches. Petts [2] promoted the proactive community involvement in implementing waste management, and suggested consensus building among the public in order to control waste generation and mitigate the waste impacts to the environment. Coffey [3] pointed out that considerable waste reduction can be achieved if waste management is implemented as part of project management functions. He suggested that whilst the choice of the optimum waste handling methods should be determined by considering the cost implications, any practice, which will induce waste reduction, must be encouraged.

The provision for training and education among staff and involving employees’ participation are more effective approaches in implementing waste management [4], [5]. However, employees’ participation could only be effective with genuine support from the management [4]. In fact, a previous survey reported that waste management has been receiving less attention from business senior management in comparison to construction cost and time [5]. The cost for implementing waste management is often given more concern than the possible benefits that the organization can gain from the implementation.

In recent years, construction waste reuse and recycle have been promoted in order to reduce wastes and protect the environment, but the effectiveness of their application has been of limitation largely because the conditions for applying these approaches were not provided [6]. These conditions include proper site location and equipment for sorting out waste, good experience in waste recycling operations, trained supervisors and employees, knowledge of secondary materials markets and knowledge of environmental and safety regulations.

In Hong Kong, the government is promoting the sense of environmental protection, and has been addressed in 1989 white paper, which laid down the framework for a comprehensive 10-year plan to fight against construction waste.

The local government's controls in construction waste include the implementation of Environmental Management System (EMS), Waste Reduction Framework Plan (WRFP) and various environmental related Ordinances. However, the implementation of prefabrication for the major wet-trade construction activities seems to lack the enforcement of the government on the building development.

This paper provides a feasibility analysis in the applications of prefabrication in construction activities. The following issues are highlighted:

  • examines waste management in construction;

  • investigates benefits, difficulties and measures in adopting prefabrication;

  • proposes effective prefabrication models for various project types; and

  • explores a financial analysis in adopting prefabrication by a local case study.

Section snippets

Waste management strategy

Waste management in construction activities had been promoted for protecting the environment in line with the recognition that the wastes from construction works contribute significantly to the polluted environment. Construction activity approximately generates 20–30% of all wastes deposited in Australian landfills [7]; 29% of the solid-waste stream in the USA is construction waste [8]. More than 50% of the waste deposited in a typical landfill in UK comes from construction waste [9].

The survey

Many prefabricated building components had been introduced in Hong Kong construction. The applications of facade and staircase are the most common practices for construction activities, which can effectively reduce the waste generation and improve the environmental performance for the overall site conditions. In order to unveil the advantages, hindrances and further development of the applications of prefabrication on construction site, a questionnaire survey was conducted, which were sent to

Advantages for adopting prefabrication

Many researchers had identified the advantages of applying prefabrication [14], [15]. Seven benefits of applying prefabrication are used for conducting the survey: (i) frozen design at the early design for better adoption of prefabrication; (ii) better supervision on improving the quality of prefabricated products; (iii) reduce overall construction costs; (iv) shorten construction time; (v) environmental performance improved for waste minimization; (vi) integrity on the building design and

Suitability of prefabricated building system for various project types

After the measures for better implementation of prefabrication are surveyed on the aforementioned sections, a feasibility study is examining the prefabrication of building models for various types of building projects. The idea of applying manufacturing technologies to the construction industry has been applied for many years. Designers had explored the use of industrialized building techniques and methods as a solution for solving problems in human behaviour. Industrialization in building

Wastage levels between conventional and prefabrication constructions

Prefabrication is considered as an effective and efficient procedure for waste minimization. Prefabrication technique can be applied for all of the construction projects; however, no research has been done on the effectiveness of implementing prefabrication on various types of construction projects. In order to explore wastage reduction by adopting prefabrication, 30 construction projects adopting conventional construction and prefabrication have been measured and the levels of waste generation

Financial analysis in adopting prefabrication: a case study

After analysing the wastage reduction in adopting prefabrication, a typical project is illustrated to highlight the financial behaviour of the project. The quantities of materials used in an example of a project are summarized in Table 15.

Four materials are focused in this project, including concrete, reinforcement, plastering and tiling. The wastage level of this project is 20% (stated as “Original quantity of waste” in Table 15). As analysed the wastage reduction after adopting prefabrication

Conclusions

Waste management is becoming an important issue in the construction industry. Prefabrication can provide a better solution to the problems in huge waste generation on site activities. Adoption of prefabrication has potential in the construction industry though there are still many problems in the applications on prefabrication. Although there are many hindrances to prefabrication, supervision can lead to achieving better environment and quality. Long-term construction costs can be reduced even

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