Abstract:
The development of the construction industry has
rapidly increased with the introduction of new construction
technologies. Among these novel construction methods,
Prefabricated Construction (PFC) plays a significant role as it has
the potential to cater the increased demand as well as to resolve
the current problems in the construction industry. Despite the
benefits that PFC offers, still PFC contributes to only a very small
percentage of construction activity in the country compared to
Traditional On-site Construction (TOC) methods. Lack of records
on successful experiences in PFC methods is identified as a major
reason for the poor perception of practitioners on PFC. Within this
context, evaluating the project performance of PFC projects
compared to TOC is crucial to make the practitioners aware
whether the actual benefits of PFC have been gained by such
projects in practice. Hence, the aim of this study was to evaluate
and compare the project performances of PFC with TOC building
projects. To attain the research aim, this study employed four case
studies wherein both semi-structured interviews and documentary
reviews were used to collect the required data. The research
findings revealed that the performance of selected PFC projects
was lower compared to TOC in terms of time, cost, and quality
performance aspects due to different challenges. However, the
performance in terms of health and safety criteria was found to be
good in PFC cases. Besides, the findings disclosed that by adopting
the panelised PFC method rather than the sub-assemblies and
component PFC method, successful time, quality performances
can be achieved. However, realisation of the stated benefits in the
real life scenario might differ.
