article · International Journal of Construction Management
Modular construction is acknowledged as important for sustainable development, yet its adoption in residential projects within developing nations remains limited due to numerous obstacles. To examine these impediments, an assessment of thirty potential adoption barriers was conducted using survey data. Through exploratory factor analysis, fuzzy synthetic evaluation, and multi-criteria decision-making ranking techniques, the barriers were structured and prioritised. The analysis established five core barrier categories, revealing that issues concerning cost, coordination, and industry standards present the most significant challenges. Other notable obstacles include technical and practical difficulties, supply chain inflexibility, deficits in skills and awareness, and societal hesitations. These insights clarify the principal bottlenecks restricting modular building methods and provide a basis of recommendations to foster broader adoption across developing construction sectors.
Modular construction provides an efficient, sustainable alternative to traditional building, yet developing countries face distinct hurdles in adopting it. By identifying that cost, coordination, and regulatory standards are the most critical bottlenecks, this work gives construction planners and policymakers a focused roadmap for targeted reforms, workforce training, and industry investments needed to support modern housing infrastructure.
The study offers strategic guidance for construction enterprises, housing authorities, and policymakers seeking to introduce modular methods into residential markets. Being an empirical diagnostic study rather than a commercial product, it represents early-stage research. Real-world application depends on industry stakeholders and governments translating these prioritised barriers into updated building codes, revised procurement practices, and supply chain partnerships.
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Modular construction (MC) is recognized as pivotal for sustainable development in developed countries. However, its implementation faces barriers in residential projects in developing nations. This study aims to address the knowledge gap resulting from the limited uptake of MC in residential projects, mainly attributed to existing barriers. To accomplish this goal, a questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the significance of thirty adoption barriers. Subsequently, an exploratory factor analysis method was applied to categorize these barriers, followed by their assessment and ranking using fuzzy synthetic evaluation. A novel aggregation and ranking method that integrates the WASPAS and TOPSIS techniques for order preference, by similarity to an ideal solution approach, was employed. The rankings derived from different decision-making methods were combined using an ensemble approach based on half-quadratic theory. Our findings reveal that the adoption barriers can be grouped into five main categories, with cost, coordination, and standards emerging as the most prominent barriers. They are followed by technical and practical barriers, inflexibility and supply chain barriers, abilities and awareness barriers, and societal and desire-related barriers. The study results offer significant insights into the barriers impeding MC adoption in developing countries' construction sectors, providing recommendations to improve its uptake.
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DOI: 10.1080/15623599.2023.2299557
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