Considering Prework on Industrial Projects

TLDR

Advances in design and information technologies have made prework methods—prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off‑site fabrication—more viable, offering substantial opportunities to improve project performance when appropriate. This paper seeks to identify factors that influence prework decisions and current industry practices, and to develop a decision framework and computerized tool to help practitioners evaluate prework applicability. The authors propose a systematic analysis and early decision‑making process that incorporates project‑specific factors, embodied in the decision framework and tool. Practitioners validated that the framework and tool are useful, effective, and easy to use for decision‑making.

Abstract

Prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off-site fabrication, collectively termed as prework have become more viable with recent advances in design and information technologies. These construction methods offer a substantial opportunity to improve project performance when circumstances merit. Successful implementation of these methods on a particular project requires systematic analysis and early decision making based on specific factors of the project. This paper identifies those factors influencing decisions on the use of prework, and current industry practices for evaluating the applicability of prework on industrial projects. It then presents a decision framework to assist industry practitioners with evaluating the applicability of prework on their project, and describes a computerized tool to aid project teams in the decision-making process. The developed framework and tool are useful and effective in the decision-making process, and easy to use, as validated by practitioners in the industry.