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Factors impeding the offsite production of housing construction in China: an investigation of current practice

Version 2 2024-06-03, 16:31
Version 1 2014-10-28, 10:04
journal contribution
posted on 2014-01-01, 00:00 authored by Xiaolin Zhai, Richard Reed, Anthony MillsAnthony Mills
The promotion of offsite production is a possible future strategic direction for the construction industry as it provides economic, environmental and social benefits. However, in China, the uptake of offsite production, particularly in the housing sector, is relatively low and few studies have identified and examined the reasons behind this trend. This research gap is addressed and factors that inhibit the wider use of offsite production in China’s housing construction industry are investigated. A questionnaire survey was carried out, examining the views of 110 construction professionals in China including developers, designers, contractors, manufacturers and suppliers. Factor analysis of 21 separate variables was undertaken which extracted six principal factors, namely: ‘constructability implementation’, ‘social climate and attitudes’, ‘architectural performance’, ‘costing’, ‘supply chain’ and ‘preparatory stage’. The findings identify both barriers and challenges to increasing the uptake of offsite production in China. This provides a rare insight about the housing construction industry in China with possible implications for other developing countries that are seeking to identify and overcome barriers to the wider uptake of offsite production.

History

Journal

Construction management and economics

Volume

32

Issue

1-2

Pagination

40 - 52

Publisher

Routledge

Location

Abingdon, Eng.

ISSN

0144-6193

eISSN

1466-433X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2014, Taylor & Francis