Modularization Business Case Analysis Tool: Learning from Industry Practices

Abstract

Modularization is a method of enhancing project value by exporting a portion of site work to fabrication/assembly shops/yards. Maximizing modularization’s benefits, however, is something the industry is still struggling to achieve. To achieve it, the construction industry needs a new modularization business case analysis approach and an associated computational tool. Thus the Construction Industry Institute’s (CII) Research Team (RT) 283 has developed a business case process to identify the optimum proportion of work hours to be moved offsite via module scope; the process also identifies the drivers of modularization. An optimal decision-making process is thereby established. Still missing from modularization business case analysis is a tool to support this process. This study develops just such a tool with the support of the CII Modularization Community of Practice. The tool manages information on module project drivers and, to the different parts of a module job, assigns a cost/factor/productivity. In developing the tool, researchers collected existing business case analysis tools from different companies and from the literature. The most suitable elements from these have been incorporated into a new modularization business case analysis tool. The tool identifies the optimum level of work hours to move offsite, providing specific savings, not just an indicative value. The tool, set up in three layers, permits details to be added and can be used, as a project is further developed, at successive phases with increasing rigor. This tool was subsequently reviewed by CII Modularization Community of Practice. This tool, by selecting optimum level of modularization, should help the construction industry maximize the benefits of modularization.