Attitudes towards offsite prefabrication: a fuzzy approach to examining uncertainty within U.K. industry perception

Abstract

Offsite prefabrication (OP) is an important approach in overcoming some inefficiencies in the U.K. construction sector. Whilst growth in OP can be demonstrated, its uptake is limited in relation to the expected benefit of its application. Perception, in part due to historical application, has been highlighted as a significant contributing factor in its limited uptake. However, despite recognition that the uncertainties associated with perception on OP are important to technological innovation adoption, these uncertainties were not explored in the previous studies. We adopt fuzzy-set theory, in combination with a survey from 76 organisations in the U.K., to explore these uncertainties in perception for a broad range of OP applications. Through fuzzy-set analysis, the study presents insight into some of the uncertainties related to the perception of OP through three themes: Uptake, Impression, and Strategy. This study proposes that the uncertainty in the perception of OP value, within specific and across all applications, needs to be explicitly considered to understand how perception is informing uptake. This research also suggests that negative perception is one of the key constraints to uptake and it is in fact the overall culture of the U.K. construction sector that is limiting the uptake of OP.