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Modular integrated construction (MiC) is evoking interest as a sustainable construction method leading towards industry 4.0. However, its complex supply chain and fragile logistic operations impede project performance. This paper, therefore, explores the critical influencing factors of MiC supply chain operations and studies their interrelationships. A systematic review is conducted across multiple supply chain research domains to identify relevant factors. These factors are evaluated using eigenvector and MICMAC analysis. Four themes of critical factors are determined using factor's interrelationships: dominating, symbiotic, external, and potential influencing factors. These themes demonstrate the influencing nature and mechanism of factors. As a result, most of the assembling-related factors are found to dominate and dynamically control the MiC supply chain performance. This paper also highlights potential factors that need further research attention, studies prevalent factors affecting the MiC supply chain and offers future research directions. [Display omitted] • General supply chain management, logistics management and construction supply chain domains are systematically reviewed. • Forty-three significant factors were ranked using eigenvector approach. • Critical factors are evaluated and categorized using MICMAC analysis. • Factors' relationships are analysed, and four themes of factors are determined. • Paper studies prevalent factors affecting MiC supply chain and highlights potential factors that need further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modular construction is considered as the future of the construction industry. While the sector is growing rapidly in some areas, there are still barriers to overcome. For more than two decades, several regions and countries, such as mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore, were using prefabricated/precast components to construct high-rise buildings in both private and public sectors. Such practices suffered from several limitations, which warrant the need for modular construction. Modular construction method needs to evolve so as to meet different regional requirements and restrictions, namely regulations, economy, market and building types. But the regional requirements and constraints on adopting modular construction remain unexplored. These differences are not widely appreciated. Hence, this research aims to perform comparative analysis of modular construction practices in terms of policies, specifications, and real projects in Hong Kong, Singapore, and mainland China. The results of the comparative analysis indicate that Singapore has developed a relatively effective policy system to help the construction industry embrace modular construction, while the three regions have not issued authoritative specifications. In general, modular construction still needs more support from the government, especially in terms of technical guidance and innovation. Cases studies show that the sustainability performance of modular construction is not balanced in terms of the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The lessons and challenges of modular construction drawn from the cases are also summarized. The construction industry should work closely with the government to achieve sustainable construction of modular building. The developed research on modular construction will increase the understanding of common practices in close countries where the industry in each can benefit from such practices to advance the domain. Image 1042 • This study aims to perform comparative analysis of modular construction practices. • The three regions have not issued authoritative specifications. • The sustainability performance of modular construction is not balanced. • Construction industry should work closely with the government in modular building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main components of smart and sustainable urban management is well-performed sewer networks. Therefore, maintaining and enhancing the functionality of sewer projects at an affordable cost are major challenges for decision-makers. However, the embracement of the Value Engineering (VE) concept to assess new sewer designs has not yet been fully embraced especially in developing countries. Thus, this study introduces a systematic VE approach for major sewer projects. A computer model based on six phases of VE methodology was developed, and named "Value Engineering Model" (VEM). To show its efficacy, it was applied to a real-life case study, leading to the following major contributions to the body of relevant knowledge: (1) unraveling the logical relations between the project functions, (2) a detailed life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), (3) a weighted evaluation matrix towards facilitating the decision-making procedure and (4) achieving an approximate 36% reduction in the sewer's project cost as compared to the common VE analysis technique. The developed model serves as a guide for design engineers and decision-makers in sewer projects. It will enable achieving the embracement of smart and sustainable drainage systems within cities at a greater pace. The results of this study will be a guide for decision-makers to reduce costs and improve sustainability by introducing VEs in the Egyptian sewer industry. • A new inclusive value engineering model for major sewer projects is developed. • The logical relations between the project functions are unravelled. • A detailed life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of sewer projects is provided. • A weighted evaluation matrix towards facilitating the decision-making procedure is developed. • An approximate 36% reduction in the sewer's project cost is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green buildings (GBs) have been adopted mainly to minimize the negative effects of the design, construction, and building operations on the environment. However, the GB-related activities have been found to be jeopardizing the occupational health and safety (OHS) of related projects, thereby debilitating the safety and health of respective crew members. Despite such vital issues, no study has been conducted yet to investigate the safety issues associated with GB construction projects in developing countries, where the inclination towards the adoption of GB is on the rise. Using this as a point of departure, the present study assesses the safety risks caused by GB projects with the use of a fuzzy-based RAM, through the lenses of the experts in Kazakhstan. The proposed RAM integrates Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) and Fuzzy Best Worst Method (FBWM). The FDM results clearly indicated that sustainable buildings continue to endanger the safety and health of respective workers, while fall from height and overexertion are found to be the leading causes of GB-associated risks using the FBWM. Despite the research limitations, this study prudently assessed the OHS-related risks to the LEED-based (the most widely used certification in the country) projects, and offered a fertile ground for future research to be conducted in developing economy settings. The findings indicated that the construction key players need to pay more attention to the riskiest GB-related hazards by investing their efforts in making the built environment truly sustainable in a not-too-distant future, which can improve the well-being of workers involved. • The critical safety risks threatening the workers involved in green building construction projects are identified. • The critical safety risks in relation to GB projects are prioritized using fuzzy-based-constrained optimization model. • The prioritized safety risks are effectively evaluated using the concept of risk matrix. • The results produced from the study are validated through focus group discussion approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Off-site construction (OSC) is an innovative and sustainable construction method. One of its critical success factors is the proper management of its supply chain (SC). Recently, significant research attention has been focused on the modelling of OSC-SC to improve its performance and sustainability. However, the literature still lacks a comprehensive review of the modelling studies on off-site construction -supply chain management (OSC-SCM). Therefore, this research contributes by providing a comprehensive and up-to-date mapping and clustering of 309 journal articles on the modelling of OSC-SC to identify its trends and gaps, and hence, highlight future research opportunities. To achieve these objectives, a mixed review method, consisting of scientometric and systematic reviews, is used. The scientometric review identifies the most prolific journals, researchers, co-occurrence network of keywords, and their citation bursts. On the other hand, the systematic review classifies the articles based on OSC type and supply chain (SC) stage. At each SC stage, the articles are further classified based on problem settings and solution methods. The results show that production problems have received the most attention (i.e., by 28% of the included articles), followed by on-site construction (19%), design (13%), and logistics (7%) problems. However, researchers are more inclined to address problems at multiple SC stages (33%) due to the interrelationship between these stages. Besides, the systematic analysis shows that OSC-SC problems have been solved frequently by a variety of solution methods such as optimization (25%), simulation (13%) and building information modelling (BIM) (9.5%). However, researchers tend more to integrate multiple solution methods (35%) to address the complexities of OSC-SC problems. Finally, the included studies are classified based on the three sustainability dimensions. The results show that economic, environmental, and social sustainability dimensions have been considered in previous studies by 72%, 24%, and 4%, respectively. Therefore, the study identifies research gaps at each SC stage of each OSC type to incentivize future studies to consider more environmental and social sustainability factors in OSC-SC models. Since modular integrated construction (MiC) has the highest prefabrication level, this study provides future research directions for sustainable supply chain management (SCM) in MiC. The present research is an important reference guide that helps researchers and practitioners to understand different problem settings and their solution methods in OSC-SCM. [Display omitted] • Modeling of off-site construction supply chain management (OSC-SCM) is surveyed. • A scientometric review shows trendy and hot research topics in the modelling of OSC-SCM. • Studies are summarized and classified based on problem settings and solution methods. • Most of OSC-SCM models focused on the economic sustainability. • Future research directions to include other sustainability dimensions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]