Opportunities and Challenges of Offsite Construction

Abstract

The interest in offsite construction technology continues to grow as project stakeholders are becoming increasingly comfortable with this modern and transformational construction method and its outcomes. While different studies have been conducted to investigate multiple aspects of offsite construction, there is still a lack of research that was directed to study the opportunities and challenges of offsite construction for the workforce. As such, this study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the workforce implications of offsite construction. To this end, the authors followed a methodology consisting of the interrelated review of previous studies as well as the analysis of industry experts’ opinions. First, literature review was performed to identify different workforce properties. Second, a survey was designed and distributed to industry experts to understand their perceptions on the identified workforce properties. Third, the implications of offsite construction were quantified using descriptive statistics based on the obtained responses. The findings reflected that offsite construction could create: (1) many opportunities for the workforce including greater productivity, higher learning rate, better working conditions, enhanced worker quality, and improved safety and health, among others, and (2) some challenges for the workforce including longer career path progression, higher cost of training and development, and displacement of local workers, among others. Ultimately, this study adds to the body of knowledge by helping practitioners in better understanding and quantifying the key workforce opportunities and challenges of offsite construction.