Luo, Y (2008) Decision support for prefabrication strategy selection on building systems. PhD thesis, Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Abstract
The rapid growth in sustainable construction and improvements in technology presents many opportunities for incorporating prefabrication in green buildings. However, the value of prefabrication is often limited when its benefits are not well understood by a project team and prefabrication decisions are not made early in the design phase. Existing decision-making tools for prefabrication are focused on project level decisions vs. system-level optimization and are intended to be used by contractors instead of designers or project teams. To help project teams make more informed prefabrication decisions on a system level, this research identified a list of generic prefabrication opportunities and tactics and developed a dynamic programming based decision-making and analytical tool: Prefabrication Strategy Selection Methodology (PSSM). The term “prefabrication strategy” indicates a system-level action plan which involves many prefabrication-related decisions during each phase of the system’s delivery. These decisions should be carefully coordinated since many of them are interrelated and can have a significant impact on one another. PSSM evaluates and determines prefabrication strategies according to their impact on the overall project goals regarding the initial cost, schedule, quality, and sustainability. This research examined three types of building systems: wood framing systems, curtain wall systems, and mechanical systems. The predefined list of opportunities and tactics as well as the framework of PSSM were validated on nine case study projects. Preliminary observations and recommendations on the use of prefabrication among the three trades were collected from field visits for future study.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | optimization; project team; sustainability; fabrication; green building; prefabrication; programming; sustainable construction; designer; case study |
| Index terms: | green building, programming, curtain wall system, methodology, decision-making, decision support, sustainable construction, framing, strategy, design phase, building system, dynamic programming, future study, fabrication, project team, mechanical system, prefabrication, case study, designer, wood |
| Subjects: | decision analysis, building construction, sustainable construction, building systems, research methods, traditional and composite building materials, algorithms, design practice, manufacturing engineering, management, project delivery, conceptual models, professional practice, programming, engineering systems, mechanical systems, research design and methodology, profession, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Construction Technology, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Construction Materials, Design Practice, Digital Applications, Risk Management, Sustainability, Project Management, Engineering Principles |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here