Alhawamdeh, M and Lee, A (2025) A systematic review and meta-synthesis of the barriers of offsite construction projects. International Journal of Construction Management, 25(9), pp. 1087-1099. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Offsite construction (OSC) has been increasingly adopted in the construction industry, especially with increased practical interest in digital transformation in construction, automated production, assembly, and delivery. The uptake of OSC has not however been consistent internationally, and the adoption rate of modular and prefabricated construction is still poor in many developing and developed countries. This review aims to detect and classify the barriers for adopting OSC by assimilating previous research studies. This paper systematically analyses 75 research articles, published in the past decade spanning between 2012 and 2022 inclusive. A total of 47 barriers were identified through this review and the five most frequent barriers were: lack of skills and expertise in OSC within the organization, poor cooperation and integration between stakeholders in the value chain, higher project costs, higher capital cost, and lack of a national standards and design codes for prefabricated components. The analysis offers insights into gaps that exist that could support greater OSC activity globally. Barrier trends by publication year and country are reported to highlight changes in research activity to delineate recommendations for future work to ensure greater uptake.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | barriers; challenges; modular construction; offsite construction; prefabrication; review |
| Index terms: | publication, cooperation, prefabricated component, construction project, developing and developed country, prefabrication, capital cost, systematic literature review, construction industry, integration, value chain, project cost, transformation, modular construction |
| Subjects: | economic development, business, building construction, design methods, economics, accounting and finance, production management, research dissemination and communication, research evaluation and metrics, value chain strategy, psychology, organizational analysis, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Construction Technology, Supply Chain Management, Information Management, Design Practice, Cost Management, Organizational Design, Research Practice, Project Management, Business Strategy, International Construction |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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