ABSTRACT
The nature of construction management research understandably attempts to address these challenges individually, concentrating on improvement to efficiency, human relationships and worker safety. Often these are simply ‘patches’ to larger, more systemic issues. While best practice solutions are very useful, their contributions are incremental rather than revolutionary and therefore offer marginal improvements. Developments in materials, processes and knowledge have not substantially changed construction over the past century, and it is argued that this reductionist approach will not effect any substantial improvements into the future, and cannot hope to provide solutions to construction’s ‘sustainability’ challenges. A fundamental paradigm shift is lacking in these approaches. The industry needs to engineer new and different solutions. This chapter proposes that off-site manufacture (OSM) in construction is one approach which has the potential to overcome many of the challenges facing the construction industry in the twenty-first century.
