TY  - CONF
TI  - Understanding performance limits in off-site structural frame construction
AU  - Rathnayake, Asitha
AU  - Murguia, Danny
AU  - Asmone, Ashan Senel
AU  - Middleton, Campbell
AD  - Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, asithar@uom.lk, orcid.org/0000-0002-1389-7801
AD  - Assistant Research Professor, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK, dem52@cam.ac.uk, orcid.org/0000-0003-1009-4058
AD  - Research Associate, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK, asa79@cam.ac.uk, orcid.org/0000-0002-2173-3890
AD  - Deceased; formerly, Emeritus Professor, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK, orcid.org/0000-0002-9672-0680
ED  - Hamzeh, Farook
ED  - Poshdar, Mani
ED  - Garcia-Lopez,, Nelly P.
ED  - Gan, Vincent
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/22
T2  - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34)
C3  - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34)
CY  - Singapore, Singapore
SP  - 775
EP  - 786
DO  - 10.24928/2026/0212
SN  - 2789-0015 (ISSN)
AB  - Off-site construction is promoted as a means of improving productivity in the construction industry. Its standardised production processes create a favourable environment for applying lean principles. However, evidence suggests it does not always result in faster construction. We investigate the reasons by analysing the superstructure work package of a 14-storey residential building in London, using installation data for 2,070 precast columns, twin-wall cores, and lattice slab components. Construction speed, measured as the production rate (m² of floor area per day), showed a significant linear relationship with installation variability. Variability arose from factories producing similar components in batches for multiple projects, delays in issuing designs to factories, and out-of-sequence deliveries to sites with limited storage capacity. Handovers between off-site and on-site activities also exhibited greater variability than purely on-site handovers. The findings suggest that, if variability were minimised, construction speed would follow an inverse U-shaped trend, with initial improvements due to workers’ learning effects, followed by subsequent reductions associated with longer transportation distances for pre-manufactured components at higher levels. This study quantifies the variability-performance relationship in off-site construction and identifies the interface variability gradient between off-site and on-site handovers.
KW  - Modular and off-site construction
KW  - productivity
KW  - variability
KW  - logistics
KW  - learning.
L1  - https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/2514/pdf
UR  - https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/2514
DB  - IGLC.net
LA  - English
N1  - Export date: 04 October 2026
ER  -