Off-Site Prefabrication: What Does it Require from the Trade Contractor?

The purpose of the paper is to show what is required to industrialize a building process from the standpoint of the trade contractor. Rationalization of building processes has, over the years, caught the attention of numerous IGLC papers. Although significant contributions have been made to further understand and improve existing construction processes, relatively few contributions have focused on the opportunities for industrialization from the trade contractor’s perspective. This paper uses an in-depth case study to address the deployment strategy for off-site fabrication techniques and processes used for modular plumbing fixture carriers deployed on two large-scale hospital projects in the United States. Findings include the organizational and technological arrangement for prefabrication. The paper applies value stream mapping to visualize the process and improve it. Because this work looks at only one case study, the conclusions are limited in generalizability to other prefabrication operations. However, it represents an important in-depth case from the trade contractors’ perspective and will contribute to the growing body of research focused on industrialization and prefabrication in lean construction. .