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.

Owners’ aversion to risk and their lack of knowledge about off-site construction—cited by the study as being top impediments to its adoption—are further evidenced by their preference for traditional delivery methods. Nearly half of the surveyed owners say they use traditional design-bid-build delivery, which Ethan Cowles, a principal at FMI and a study co-author, says doesn’t lend itself to the up-front planning that makes off-site construction methods viable. “Changing owner behavior is the big thing,” Cowles says.

But that might be more easily said than done, particularly if owners lack in-house expertise to fully weigh the opportunities and risks associated with off-site techniques. Along with being a departure from conventional construction processes, the economics of off-site methods often necessitate different products, materials, vendors and supply chains, which can vary from one project to the next.

What’s more, owners must decide early in a project whether to use off-site methods—something that many of them are unwilling or unable to do, says Pete Dumont, vice president of global strategic projects for nVent Thermal Management, Houston, and president of CURT. Even when information and expertise is available, Dumont adds, opting for off-site construction requires more thought. “It’s not always a slam-dunk decision,” he says.

对于某些类型的项目，尽早决定使用异地施工方法也可能是不切实际的。18luck官网虽然许多医疗保健设施都使用预制组件，例如高架走廊架，浴室摊位和患者头板组件，但围绕特定类型的设备建造的一些空间并不适合标准化。

考虑到与这些泰相关较长时间才能交货pes of projects, says Rob Taylor, president of Birmingham, Ala.-based Brasfield & Gorrie, “there’s a concern that the technology will change” in the interim, minimizing the potential benefits of prefab.

公共部门所有者也可能会面临排除现场建设的法定约束。总部位于芝加哥承包商Skender的首席执行官Mark Skender认为，许多机构都依靠标准化的采购文件和模型，这些文件和模型“造成了抑制创新风险”。例如，斯凯德（Skender）描述了一个即将进行的公共资助的建筑项目，该项目非常适合由其公司的新制造部门提供的模块化建筑，其中包括一个专门用于这些业务的西南芝加哥工厂。Skender认为，异地方法将有助于加速项目的时间表，这一主张可能吸引了许多私营部门所有者。

但是，鉴于公共部门项目的资金结构，Skender补充说，所有者可能会面临提前完成的处罚。他说：“这意味着该项目必须以旧的方式完成。”

Overcoming such statutory and regulatory barriers may be a long and difficult process, observes Sabine Huynen Hoover, FMI’s content director and co-author of the owner study. The “tipping point” comes, she says, as more contractors develop expertise to perform off-site construction and owners become more aware of the downsides of conventional methods.

“We hope it will happen,” she says, “but we don’t know when that will be.”

Change Through Education

That fact that the learning and acceptance curve for off-site construction parallels that of design-build is not lost on Dumont. “There’s a reluctance in our industry to be the first to experiment,” he says. “The culture does not lend itself to adapting new things.”

但是，阿拉巴马州伯明翰的布洛克斯（Blox）首席执行官克里斯·吉蒂纳（Chris Giattina）强调，异地建设代表了所有者部分的范式转变，而不是集成设计和建筑服务。他指出，现场建设是在“连续构建器”所有者中取得了大量工作或寻求驱散废物的人的最大成功。

As such, they see off-site construction as “an important tactic in a strategy that emphasizes productivity,” Giattina says. Rather than taking a passive approach, he adds, “they make a decision early on and say, ‘this is how project will go.’ Then everybody is working from that premise.”

所有者教育很可能是促进对现场建设的更多了解和使用的关键，但承包商必须首先为此做出令人信服的案例。FMI的Cowles表示，它始于了解所有者项目的价值主张以及设计和建筑团队如何添加。他说：“经常，建筑人员不考虑这一点。”“他们需要分享更多信息，并帮助所有者了解与业务案例有关的可能性。”

If an owner remains reluctant or unable to use off-site construction, contractors are advised to build their own knowledge and capabilities, Cowles says, even if they lose money early on. “As soon as an owner recognizes the risk of traditional construction and wants to try modularization or prefabrication, they will look for firms that can do it,” he says. “And if you can’t, they’ll look elsewhere.”

Dave May, president of Roeslein & Associates Inc., St. Louis, which specializes in design-manufacture-construct projects for the beverage industry, says that realization may come sooner for some owners than others.

“直到你得到的压力变化,你可能会do things the same way,” May says. But as the labor supply shrinks and becomes more expensive, “that’s when you learn how to do off-site construction and see the opportunities that are available.”

Skender cites recent productivity studies (“Improved Productivity Requires New Management Mind-Set,” ENR 2/13/17 p. 22) for influencing his firm’s strategy to acquire design services. “To make modular and off-site construction work, we had to have more control over the design,” he says. Eliminating barriers between design and construction results in a product-delivery approach that Skender expects will become more appealing to owners.

“We’re at a point of convergence of escalating construction costs, lack of skilled labor, client frustration with current project-delivery models, and advances in technology,” he says. “Owners feel they have to seek alternatives.”

胡佛指出，承包商不应该感到压力成为现场建设的直接专家，尤其是如果他们没有看到所有者的这些方法的强烈吸引力。她说，与产品制造商的联盟为交换专业知识提供了理想的机会。

“The contractor learns about manufacturing and materials, while the product manufacturer learns about construction,” she adds. “Such exchanges will provide the contractor the ability to not only respond to project issues with solutions, but also offer them proactively.”

胡佛说，尽管许多业主可能知道在异地建设中寻找什么，但承包商不应该等待他们问。她说：“这个想法可能不会在今天或明天使用。”“但是，如果确实出现了这个机会，您想准备就绪。”