A scientometric review of management of prefabricated construction from 2011–2021

Prefabricated construction (PC) is an increasingly popular method of construction utilized globally due to its high productivity and efficient performance. PC as an advanced building technique is susceptible to problems such as the immaturity of the PC industry’s development, inability to realize production benefits, and application-related risks and uncertainties. The management of PC (MPC) can be applied to resolve these difficulties and generally enhance performance. Reviews pertinent to the MPC are scarce, making it challenging to concentrate and comprehensively summarize the research situation of the MPC. The MPC review was conducted by Li et al. in 2014. However, there has been a lot of change in the MPC research field. Therefore, this study is an extension of the work of Li et al. (2014). This article aims to analyze and summarize the current research situation and future trends of the MPC, employing a bibliometric search and scientometric analysis from MPC-related publications between 2011 and 2021. This paper outlines current research topics, gaps, and future development from four perspectives based on publications gathered: (1) PC development, (2) PC performance management, (3) PC life cycle management, and (4) technological applications in the MPC. Based on the discussion of these four performance indexes, the following future research directions are proposed: (1) PC industry development considering a combination of Industry–University–Research, (2) the performance impact of management methods and technologies, (3) the rationality of management methods and technologies. This study is vital for scholars to understand MPC research and to conduct further research

Mapping the knowledge domains of emerging advanced technologies in the management of prefabricated construction

Emerging advanced technologies (EAT) have been regarded as significant technological innovations which can greatly improve the transforming construction industry. Given that research on EAT related to the management of prefabricated construction (MPC) has not yet been conducted, various researchers require a state-of-the-art summary of EAT research and implementation in the MPC field. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review by analysing the selected 526 related publications in peer-reviewed leading journals during 2009–2020. Through a thorough review of selected papers from the state-of-the-art academic journals in the construction industry, EAT is recognised as the key area affecting the development of the MPC discipline. This study has value in offering original insights to summarise the advanced status quo of this field, helping subsequent researchers gain an in-depth understanding of the underlying structure of this field and allowing them to continue future research directions

Stakeholders' power over the impact issues of building energy performance gap : a two-mode social network analysis

Energy-related stakeholders play a critical role in energy-saving and emission reduction. However, most previous studies focused on only a few stakeholders (e.g., occupant, designer and owner). Therefore, there is a lack of systematic analysis of energy-related stakeholders. Improving building energy efficiency requires the collaboration of all stakeholders in the building lifecycle. This study applies a two-mode social network model to investigate the stakeholders’ power over the impact issues of building energy efficiency. Results show that all issues can be addressed by at least two stakeholders, thereby indicating the potential of collaboration in building energy management. Designers, manufacturers, commissioning agents and researchers are the most influential stakeholders with the highest degree centrality, betweenness centrality and eigenvector centrality. Insufficient knowledge and experience, lack of information integrity and unclear responsibility are the most influential impact issues. With the density of interaction being 1.000, nine core stakeholders (i.e. owner, designer, contractor, subcontractor, supervisor, manufacturer, commissioning agent, energy manager and researcher) and four core issues (i.e. unclear responsibility, poor collaboration and communication, insufficient knowledge and experience, and lack of information integrity) have intensive relationships. The core stakeholders account for 75% of the total stakeholders, whereas the core issues account for 25% of the total issues. Moreover, five strategies that are useful in promoting collaboration are proposed and validated. After the proposed strategies are implemented, the density of the collaboration network increased from 1.242 to 2.652. This study is not only expected to help researchers in understanding the complex interrelationships between stakeholders and issues but also practitioners in promoting effective collaboration strategies

The application of advanced information technologies in civil infrastructure construction and maintenance

Information technologies have widely been used in the construction and maintenance of civil infrastructure. The advantages of information technologies provided a broader range of methods for infrastructure and enhanced its level of maintenance. However, a systematic summary of the research development of information technologies used in civil infrastructure is limited. This study aims to supplement this field by providing an objective, systematic summary of relevant literature in mainstream journals employing bibliometric retrieval and quantitative analysis from 2010 to 2020. The following results are obtained: (1) This study discusses the application of advanced information technologies in different phases and provides a critical analysis of the application of these existing information technologies, which includes wireless sensor networks (WSN), fiber optic sensing (FOS), building information modelling (BIM), radio frequency identification (RFID) and other advanced information technologies. (2) The digital twins can be used as tools for the planning and management of next-generation smart infrastructure, making the future of civil infrastructure smarter and more sustainable

Advances in the research of building energy saving

Effectively controlling and reducing the energy consumption of buildings is the global focus. A considerable variety of research on building energy saving (BES) had been raised in the past. However, most of the previous reviews focus on a single topic within the area, and systematic review and objective analysis are lacking. This study comprehensively reviews 2569 papers on BES published between 1974 and 2020 through bibliometrics, network mapping analysis and in-depth content analysis to fill this research gap. This paper discusses the development evolution and research trends in the field based on the analysis results, and the following three major research themes are identified and discussed: (1) influence factors of building energy consumption (BEC), (2) implementation of BES and (3) barriers and drivers of BES. Lastly, the current study indicates the possible potential research direction in the future; for example, intelligent integration of energy management and control system, quantitative and qualitative analyses of the interaction of BESM and comprehensive summary and quantitative analysis of the driving and hindering factors of BES. The contribution of this study is that it can help scholars and practitioners to have a comprehensive cognition of the research status and trends in the field of BES