The current use of industrialized construction techniques in France: Benefits, limits and future expectations

Abstract

Offsite construction has been considered by academics and practitioners in many countries as an efficient way of delivering buildings. The benefits concerning time, cost and quality are well-documented. Even though the use of this technique provides many significant advantages, the current level of using these techniques in the French construction industry is limited. In addition, research studies that investigate this topic in France are rare. For these reasons, this study aims to fill the gap by first, explore the definition of construction industrialization in the French construction context and second, investigate the perceived benefits and hindrances of prefabrication's applications. A questionnaire survey was conducted in order to target the main construction industry players: manufacturers, contractors, designers and consultants. More than 55 questionnaires were completed and returned. The results indicated that advantages of using these techniques include improving productivity, minimizing construction time, improving quality, reducing waste and openness to industrialization and automation of construction. The top four hindrances were requirement of a long coordination work between the design office and the pre-manufacturer before starting production, inability to block the design early enough to start production at the factory, key decisions already taken exclude the prefabrication approach and the obligation to accept the lowest cost.

Keywords

• Offsite construction
• Prefabrication
• Construction industrialization
• Questionnaire survey
• France