An AHP Approach for Selecting and Identifying Off-Site Construction Systems

Abstract

Many studies have shown the positive impact of applying lean principles in off-site construction. However, limited research have focused on evaluating the attributes associated with those various systems needed to highlight their difference. In fact, off-site systems present different advantages and disadvantages implying a need to evaluate their value maximization in terms of cost, time, quality, etc. when selecting the appropriate offsite system. Although some research studies have attempted to compare off-site against onsite systems, none has performed a comparison among non-volumetric systems (e.g. panelized and natural materials), volumetric systems, and hybrid systems. Therefore, this paper takes the initial steps and presents work targeted towards identifying the optimal offsite systems for a given project by extracting and elaborately analyzing the attributes of the different systems using the Analytical Hierarchy Process technique (AHP). The outcomes of this study will yield standardized policies for properly choosing optimal off-site systems based on lean principles.