As prefabrication, modularization and other off-site construction techniques gain favor among contractors, a new study suggests that a substantial percentage of owners appear reluctant to adopt—or even explore—these methods for their own projects. And that could well pose an obstacle for builders trying to use these techniques to improve productivity and bridge the shortfall in skilled craft labor.
A recent survey of more than 100 owner organizations conducted jointly by FMI, the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) and the Construction Industry Institute (CII), says that only 38% of owners expressed high acceptance of manufacturing-oriented off-site construction. Even then, use of these methods is limited, since fewer than 50% of participants’ capital projects involve off-site construction.