importance-performance analysis of prefabricated building ...importance-performance analysis of...

Research ArticleImportance-Performance Analysis of Prefabricated BuildingSustainability A Case Study of Guangzhou

Linlin Xie 1 Yajiao Chen 1 Bo Xia 2 and Chunxiang Hua 3

1School of Civil Engineering and Transportation South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510641 China2School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment Queensland University of Technology Brisbane 4001 Australia3School of Economics and Management Tongji University Shanghai 200092 China

Correspondence should be addressed to Yajiao Chen 942034120qqcom

Received 24 May 2020 Revised 29 June 2020 Accepted 24 July 2020 Published 17 August 2020

Academic Editor Tayfun Dede

Copyright copy 2020 Linlin Xie et al -is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licensewhich permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited

In the era of sustainability as the development concept prefabricated buildings have gradually become an important way toachieve sustainable development of the construction process due to the advantages of high construction speed energy-saving andenvironmental protection In order to make the prefabricated building develop in a sustainable direction it is necessary tounderstand the importance and performance of the critical sustainability aspects of the prefabricated building However theexisting research has not fully explored this point and classification research on all aspects of sustainability according to themanagement priorities of sustainable development is lacking -e present study determines the critical sustainability charac-terization items (criteria) of prefabricated buildings and uses the importance-performance analysis (IPA) method to explore thesustainability importance and performance level of prefabricated buildings in Guangzhou on the basis of the three dimensions ofeconomic social and ecological sustainability In particular this study revises the traditional IPA method and uses the com-prehensive weight obtained by the analytical network process- (ANP-) entropy weight method to obtain the importance of itemsResults show that items ldquoenvironmental protectionrdquo and ldquoconstruction civilizationrdquo are of high importance and perform wellldquoConstruction costrdquo and ldquoproduct qualityrdquo are considered high-importance items with relatively poor performance that is theseareas require urgent improvement actions -e ldquopolicy supportrdquo item at the intersection of IPA coordinates is also an aspectworthy of attention and discussion -is study provides a useful reference for decision-makers and relevant personnel ondetermining the priority of project management and achieving the optimal allocation of resources to promote the sustainabledevelopment of prefabricated buildings

1 Introduction

-e construction industry significantly impacts the econ-omy society and ecology globally [1 2] -e industry is alsoalways accompanied by a high proportion of energy con-sumption [3] which significantly impacts sustainable de-velopment -e report of Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change indicated that buildings account for ap-proximately 40 of global energy consumption [4] Ap-proximately 40 of energy consumption and 36 of carbondioxide emissions in the EU come from buildings [5] Overthe past decade construction activity in China has increasedsignificantly especially in terms of construction area theresulting construction and demolition waste has reached

approximately 155 to 24 billion tons in China [6]-erefore shifting from traditional construction methods tosustainable ones is necessary [7] In particular the increasein peoplersquos awareness of environmental pollution and theaccompanying social problems has facilitated the acceptanceof the idea of sustainable construction by the constructionindustry [8 9]

In response to the development of sustainable con-struction the construction industry has paid increasingattention to the use of modular prefabrication in recentyears Prefabrication can overcome the shortcomings oftraditional construction methods and is considered an ef-fective method to reduce construction waste from the source[10 11] Prefabrication refers to assembling structural

HindawiAdvances in Civil EngineeringVolume 2020 Article ID 8839118 17 pageshttpsdoiorg10115520208839118

components at a factory or other manufacturing sites andtransporting complete components or subcomponents tothe construction site where the structure is located [12]Compared with the traditional cast-in-place constructionthe prefabricated building is a large-scale productionmethod It transfers part of the traditional site constructionwork to the factory for completion [13] and brings variousadvantages such as shortening construction time im-proving quality saving resources and reducing environ-mental pollution [14ndash18] Prefabricated buildings have beenwidely accepted as an alternative to traditional cast-in-placestructures because of their advantages [19] As a resultprefabricated buildings become an inevitable trend in thefuture development of the construction industry

In past research the sustainability of prefabricatedbuildings has been studied in different aspects Somescholars have investigated the sustainability performanceevaluation of prefabricated buildings [20 21] In additionmany studies have shown the results of analysis of affectingfactors of the sustainable development of prefabricatedbuildings [22 23] However these studies mainly focus onthe environmental sustainability of prefabricated buildingswhile the economic and social sustainability studies arerelatively lacking-e triple bottom line (TBL) sustainabilitystandards in all dimensions should be fully considered in thesustainable development of the entire prefabricated building[24] Moreover few studies have comprehensively consid-ered the importance and performance of the sustainability ofprefabricated buildings Attitude and awareness are theprerequisites for sustainable development actions [25 26] Ifwe do not pay attention to certain sustainability aspects ofprefabricated buildings then this aspect may not performwell -erefore in the research of the sustainability ofprefabricated buildings the following questions need to bepaid attention to what aspects are attached with importanceto the sustainability of prefabricated buildings What is thecurrent performance of prefabricated building constructionin all aspects of sustainability However the existing re-search rarely reviews the importance views and performancelevels of critical sustainability aspects (including economicsocial and environmental aspects) of prefabricated build-ings and the interdependence among criteria is ignored-ese studies cannot determine the critical sustainabilityaspects that require management actions (such as the aspectsof high importance but the worst performance) It lacksproper classification according to management prioritiesand cannot determine effective ways to promote the sus-tainable development of prefabricated buildings

To fill these gaps in research this study identifies criticalitems that can characterize the sustainability importance andperformance level of prefabricated buildings from theperspective of TBL categories namely the economic socialand ecological dimensions To review the importance andperformance level of various sustainability aspects ofprefabricated buildings this study introduces the impor-tance-performance analysis (IPA) method into the field ofconstruction engineering explores the relationship betweenthe importance and performance of prefabricated buildingsin sustainability characterization items and finds the key

development ways IPA is a useful tool to identify the mostcritical items related to management behavioral require-ments -e criteria involved in the sustainability assessmentof prefabricated buildings are usually complex and havedifferent interrelations given that it is a complex decision-making issue [27] -erefore considering the interdepen-dence of criteria in the weighting process is important [28]Analytical network process (ANP) is a useful method to dealwith the interdependency among criteria in complex systems[29] On this basis this study attempts to modify IPAtechnology by taking the comprehensive weight of ANP andentropy weight method as the measurement of the impor-tance of each item to improve the shortcomings of tradi-tional IPA method in the measurement of the importance ofthe item in IPA technology

High quality high efficiency and sustainable develop-ment are receiving unprecedented attention [30] and theproduction mode involving the installation of prefabricatedcomponents is still new for developing countries such asChina [31] -erefore the sustainable research of pre-fabricated building is important in the development stage ofsustainable building-is study explores the importance andperformance level of each key sustainability aspect of pre-fabricated buildings in Guangzhou based on the revised IPAmethod -is study aims to reveal the importance andperformance of various criteria for the sustainability ofprefabricated buildings and determine the most importantand least important aspects and the performance levelsshown in these aspects -is paper proposes targeted de-velopment strategies by categorizing these criteria accordingto management priorities It can provide theoretical basisand practical guidance for promoting the effective allocationof resources and improving the sustainable development ofprefabricated buildings In addition the application of IPAtechnology in this study can also provide a feasible methodand idea for future IPA research in the field of construction-e revised IPA technology in this study considers themutual influence among criteria and sets a reasonableconfidence interval which can be used as an effective tool foridentifying key criteria related to management actions

2 Literature Review

Prefabricated buildings which are an important part ofconstruction industrialization are receiving an increasingattention [32 33] Previous research has used various termsrelated to prefabricated buildings including ldquoprefabricatedrdquo[34] ldquoprefabricated concrete buildingrdquo [35] ldquoindustrializedbuildingrdquo [36 37] and ldquooff-site buildingrdquo [38] Some re-search results have shown that the use of the concept ofproduct modularity is beneficial to traditional construction[39] -e emergence of prefabricated buildings helps solvethe problems of large energy consumption and seriousenvironmental pollution in traditional cast-in-place build-ings [40] -rough the use of standardized design factoryprefabrication and prefabricated production methods thebuilding is decomposed and converted from on-site con-struction to on-site assembly this way not only can greatlysave the construction period but also have outstanding

2 Advances in Civil Engineering

performance in improving labor productivity saving energyand protecting the environment [41] -erefore pre-fabricated building is considered the future of the con-struction industry [42] and is widely used in many countriesas an effective way to help the construction industry pursuesustainable development [43 44]

In past research many studies have proven that fabri-cated technology can help improve the sustainable perfor-mance of all aspects of the building including economicsocial and ecological advantages For example Boyd et al[45] enumerated the advantages of off-site construction interms of construction time building quality and occupa-tional health and safety Tam et al [46] identified the ad-vantages of using prefabrication in improving the quality ofprefabricated products reducing construction time andcosts and enhancing environmental performance and aes-thetics Cao et al [47] proven that prefabrication has obviousadvantages in terms of material consumption energy useand drainage Wang et al [48] evaluated the environmentalimpact of prefabricated and traditional cast-in-placebuildings in the building life cycle by using a building with a40 assembly rate in Japan as a case study -e resultsshowed that the total energy consumption and carbonemissions of prefabricated buildings are 754 and 717lower than those of traditional cast-in-place buildingsduring the entire life cycle On the issue of building sus-tainability the implementation performance evaluation ofrelevant criteria is an important research content

After years of research and exploration many differentmethods have been developed to quantify and evaluate thesustainability of buildings Sustainability assessment systemshave been used in the construction industry for many yearsSustainability involves three critical dimensions namely theenvironment economy and society also known as the TBL[49] -e built environment and related processes signifi-cantly influence the TBL dimension of sustainable devel-opment [50] Sustainability assessments aim to collect andprovide information to simplify the decision-making pro-cess [51] -e development of assessment methods andcorresponding tools is a challenge in academia and practiceAn important category of sustainability assessment methodsis the sustainable building rating system Studies have shownthat more than 600 sustainability assessment rating systemsare currently available worldwide [52] For example theLEED developed by the American Green Building Associ-ation BREEAM developed by the British Building ResearchCenter GBC initiated and led by the Canadian Ministry ofNatural Resources CASBEE of the Japanese Ministry ofEnvironmental Protection German Ecological BuildingGuide LNB and NABERS of Australian Architecture En-vironmental assessment systems are relatively commonassessment systems Different evaluation systems will varywith different national backgrounds and cultures Under-standing the relationship and importance of the criteria usedin these assessment systems is necessary to help practitionersand governments implement measures to encourage sus-tainable construction [29] However the number of studiesto explore the relevance and weight of these evaluationcriteria is limited -ese sustainability rating systems also

expose many shortcomings during use process such as thecomplexity and diversity of standards the bureaucraticevaluation process and the high use cost [53] In additionthese assessment tools rarely comprehensively considermultiple aspects of sustainability and generally pay insuf-ficient attention to the economic and social aspects ofsustainability [54]

In addition to the abovementioned sustainability as-sessment systems developed by organizations or institutionsmany researchers have adopted various methods to evaluatethe sustainable performance of buildings by using principalcomponent analysis analytic hierarchy process and otherdecision-making methods to establish models [54 55] Inrecent years peoplersquos understanding of sustainable devel-opment of buildings has changed Initially emphasis wasplaced on resource constraints that is energy consumptionand ways to reduce the impact on the natural environment[56] Over the past 10 years research has focused on buildingand construction technology issues such as materialsstructural components building technology and energypower For example Braganca et al [51] proposed theviewpoint of sustainability assessment for the whole buildingfrom the current situation of building sustainability as-sessment the feasibility study of performance analysis andthe development of building life cycle extension assessment-ey also introduced and discussed the first step of thesustainability assessment method for Portuguese residentialbuildings Tsai et al [57] proposed an evaluation model forselecting green building projects by defining a series ofenvironmental sustainability standards (such as energy ef-ficiency and resource conservation) Wongbumru andDewancker [58] used a questionnaire for postevaluation andthe information provided by the research results will helpimprove the sustainability of new building developmentAtanda and Ozturk [59] analyzed the frequency data andresearch results to identify some potential factors that willinfluence construction practitioners to make the correctdecision for selecting and implementing social standards ingreen building assessment tools It should be mentioned thatsustainable architecture is considered to achieve balanceddevelopment in all aspects of the environment economyand society [60] However many works only focus on en-vironmental issues or only use one or very limited standardsto evaluate the sustainable performance of buildings Most ofthem focus on the ecological environment especially on theenergy-saving performance of buildings but pay little at-tention to the economic and social aspects of sustainability-is situation has led to a single dimension of the study andthe lack of comprehensive consideration of multidimen-sional sustainability aspects

Related research on the sustainability of prefabricatedbuildings can be classified into two aspects one is thesustainability performance evaluation of prefabricatedbuildings As with ordinary buildings many studies havefocused on one or a very limited number of criteria to discussthe sustainable benefits of prefabricated buildings For ex-ample Yong-Woo et al [61] applied lean and agile ideas toprefabricated building supply chain systems to assess theirenvironmental benefits Dong et al [62] compared the

Advances in Civil Engineering 3

carbon emissions of precast and cast-in-situ buildingsduring the construction phase based on the life cycle as-sessmentmethod and took a residential project in HongKongas a case -e results confirmed that the prefabricated con-struction method can achieve the emission reduction com-pared with cast-in-place construction method Mohammadand Kasun [63] studied the environmental performance ofprefabricated buildings over their life cycle -ey also pro-vided a comprehensive review of the advantages and chal-lenges of prefabricated building construction methodscompared with traditional methods Liu et al [64] used aprocess-based approach to assess carbon emissions during theoff-site factory prefabrication manufacturing process anddesigned a carbon emission benchmark for the energy as-sessment of prefabricated buildings in China On the otherhand most research topics are about the analysis of theinfluencing factors of the sustainable development of pre-fabricated buildings Many scholars have explored theinfluencing factors of the sustainable development of fabri-cated buildings for its promotion For example Li et al [65]analyzed the constraints on sustainable development ofprefabricated buildings from the four aspects of marketeconomy policy and technology -e model revealed therelationship among the factors and identified the key influ-encing factors Riduan and Jay [66] explored the improve-ment of the ecological performance of industrialized buildingsystems and analyzed the potential key sustainable drivers andconstraints of prefabricated building applications using theSWOTmethod Chang et al [23] analyzed the advantages anddisadvantages of prefabricated buildings from the perspectiveof environmental sustainability and resources identifying theobstacles to the development of prefabricated buildings -ecurrent research status reveals that many existing studiesfocus only on unilateral research on the economic social andnatural sustainability of prefabricated buildings especially onenvironmental sustainability However sustainability is acomplicated combination covering economic social andenvironmental dimensions which makes the problem morecomplex [67] -e sustainability aspects of prefabricatedbuildings should cover the three dimensions of economysociety and environment to promote their sustainabletransformationMoreover for the sustainable development ofprefabricated buildings focusing on the most important butrelatively poor performance is also necessary to prioritize theallocation of limited resources to the worst performing butimportant aspects of sustainability

-e construction industry significantly impacts theeconomy society and the environment [68] Understandingand evaluating the importance and performance of pre-fabricated buildings in terms of sustainability are importantto sustainably develop these buildings but the existingstudies have not adequately discussed this issue On theother hand the most important step in assessing buildingsustainability is to develop appropriate sustainability as-sessment standards [63] All applicable TBL sustainabilitystandards should be fully addressed throughout the life cycleMany previous studies do not analyze the sustainable per-formance level of prefabricated buildings and only focus onthe study of a single dimension -erefore the developed

methods are insufficient in the analysis of developing pre-fabricated buildings with low sustainability to high sus-tainability Moreover the research results focusing on theimportance or performance of sustainability indicate thatfew works comprehensively and simultaneously study theimportance and performance evaluation of sustainability inprefabricated buildings In China the government hasadopted strict measures to promote the development ofprefabricated buildings -e policy requires that at least 30of new buildings must adopt prefabricated constructionmethods by 2026 [69] However the proportion of pre-fabricated buildings in Chinarsquos existing building stock is stillrelatively low and the buildings are at the initial stage ofdevelopment [29] -e existing research is insufficient toidentify critical sustainability aspects of the development ofprefabricated buildings and does not properly categorizevarious aspects according to management priorities andidentify effective ways to promote development In additionitems with different levels of sustainability performance needto adopt differentiated implementation methods for bal-ancing the sustainable development of prefabricatedbuildings -erefore this study comprehensively considersthe sustainability of the three dimensions of ecologyeconomy and society and regards the interdependenceamong the evaluation criteria using the revised IPA tools toanalyze the importance and performance of the evaluationitems for overcoming the shortcomings of the above-mentioned research

3 Research Methodology

31 Research Framework In Chinarsquos prefabricated buildingdevelopment only prefabricated building demonstrationcities such as Shenyang Beijing Shanghai and Shenzhenhave a certain scale of industrial chain and base at presentCompared with the few demonstration cities most cities inChina including Guangzhou although the development ofprefabricated buildings has been gradually carried out theoverall development trend is still relatively slow -is studytakes Guangzhou as the representative of most domestic citiesand uses the IPA method to study the sustainable develop-ment of prefabricated buildings-e research first screens anddetermines the critical sustainability characterization items ofprefabricated buildings through literature analysis and expertinterviews -en IPA is used to analyze the correlation be-tween importance and performance of prefabricated build-ings in Guangzhou -is study uses the combined weights ofANP method and entropy weight method to measure theimportance of items Finally some targeted constructionopinions on the direction and countermeasures of promotingthe sustainable development of prefabricated buildings areproposed on the basis of the results of IPA Figure 1 illustratesthe framework and methodology of this study

32 Research Method

321 Importance-Performance Analysis -e IPA technol-ogy was originally proposed by Martilla and James [70] andit is a useful tool for identifying the most critical corporate


management behavior needs It can help decision-makersdetermine management priorities [71 72] help prioritizeimprovements and mobilize and deploy scarce resourceswhere they are most needed [73] IPA technology iscurrently a popular management tool and has been greatlywelcomed in many fields such as food educationbanking healthcare e-commerce public administrationand tourism [74ndash77] IPA is easy to apply in varioussituations and can make strategic recommendations [78]In the field of architecture a few scholars have used IPA tostudy the transition of construction companies to sus-tainable development [67] sustainable attitudes andperformance of construction companies and their em-ployees [68] and Chinarsquos prefabricated construction risks[79] Overall the IPA method has very limited applicationin the field of construction engineering and has not beeneffectively used yet Determining the sustainability aspectsthat are considered to be the most important least im-portant worst performing and best performing is nec-essary for the development of prefabricated buildings topromote their sustainability -is study attempts to applythe IPA method to the sustainability research of pre-fabricated buildings pay attention to the importance andperformance of various items and seek a more suitableresearch method for the sustainable development ofprefabricated buildings

In IPA two-dimensional coordinates are drawn to re-flect their relative relationship [80]-e x-axis represents theperformance of items and the y-axis represents the im-portance of items -us the chart is divided into fourquadrants

Quadrant I (Keep Up the GoodWork) Importance andperformance are high If the evaluation item locates inthis quadrant it indicates that the item plays an im-portant role in the sustainable performance of pre-fabricated buildings with a high contribution valueand is currently developing well -e follow-up de-velopment idea is to maintain or promote innovationon the basis of the originalQuadrant II (Concentrate Here) Low performance buthigh importance If the evaluation item locates in thisquadrant it indicates that the item plays a significantrole in the sustainable performance of prefabricatedbuildings and has a high contribution value Howeverits current status has not reached the performancedevelopment expectations -erefore the items in thisquadrant need urgent attention and focusing on im-provement actions in this region will have the greatestimpactQuadrant III (Low Priority) Low performance andimportance If the evaluation item locates in this

Key sustainability itemsof prefabricated

buildings

Literature review

Expert interview

e revisedimportance-

performance analysis

Performance

Questionnaire

IPA analysis and resultsfor sustainabledevelopment of

prefabricated buildings

Combinationweight

ANP-entropyweight

Project survey

Questionnaire

Discussion and conclusion

Importance measurement

Figure 1 Research framework


quadrant it indicates that the item plays a small role inthe sustainable performance of prefabricated buildingswith a low contribution value and is currently un-derdeveloped -e items in this quadrant are consid-ered to be relatively less important areas and are not apriority for implementing improvement measuresQuadrant IV (Possible Overkill) High performance butlow importance If the evaluation item locates in thisquadrant it indicates that the item plays a less im-portant role in the sustainable performance of pre-fabricated buildings and has a low contribution valueHowever the item is currently developing well-erefore improper resource allocation or investing inthese items may cause excessive waste

Although IPA has been used in the research for a longtime its application has some problems In this study IPA ismodified according to the following three problems (1) thelocation of the two-dimensional coordinate center of IPA(2) the measurement of the importance of the items and (3)the region division of quadrant edge items -e revised IPAcoordinates are shown in Figure 2

-e first question involves the determination of theposition of the IPA coordinate center Determining theoptimal position of the coordinate center is a majorproblem in applying the IPAmethod [81]-e placement ofmost IPA center points is divided into two methods theldquoscale-centricrdquo and ldquodata-centricrdquo methods However pastIPA surveys indicate that many respondents tend tooverstate the importance and performance scores which isknown as a ldquocap effectrdquo [82] As a result ldquoscale-centricrdquo IPAmapping may not reveal some of the differences betweenrespondentsrsquo assessments of importance and performanceTo minimize this upper-limit effect a ldquodata-centricrdquo IPAmapping method is used in this study-emedian which isa measure of central tendency is theoretically preferable tothe average considering that true interval scales may notexist [70] On the basis of the characteristics of the dataobtained in this study the median intersection of themetrics of importance and performance is taken as theorigin of the IPA coordinates Among them the measure ofimportance takes the item weight value calculated on thebasis of the ANP-entropy weight method and the measureof performance takes the average value of each samplemeasurement

-e second question involves the measurement of theimportance of items Ameasure of the importance of items ismeaningful for prioritizing resource allocation [83] -e useof absolute importance rather than relative importancegreatly limits the predictive power of the importancemeasure [84] Some studies have used more sophisticatedmethods to directly measure importance including pairwisecomparison methods (such as analytic hierarchy processes)Mouthino et al [85] considered this method to be broadflexible and suitable for deriving numerical measures of therelative importance of decision variables -e treatment ofthe importance of items in the current study abandons thetraditional method of directly measuring with a 5-levelLikert scale to more scientifically measure the importance of

each item of the sustainability of prefabricated buildings-eANP-entropy weight method which can reflect the inter-action among criteria is used as a way to measure theimportance of each item for improving the performance ofthe items in a more profound and targeted manner

-e third issue involves the regional division ofmarginal items Data representing the performance of theitems identify certain areas for improvement and theeffectiveness of the organization [83] Some items mayfirmly belong to the ldquoKeep Up the Good Workrdquo quadrantother items may belong to the ldquoConcentrate Hererdquoquadrant but are very close to the ldquoKeep Up the GoodWorkrdquo quadrant boundary Traditional IPA cannot dis-tinguish between items assigned to the same quadrantthus decision-makers may fail to provide correct man-agement decisions for boundary items [86] -e Tar-rantndashSmith [87] framework is used in this study to makeIPA more sensitive to corresponding changes foraddressing the aforementioned issue For each item thestandard error (SE) of the itemsrsquo performance value iscalculated and then added to the data points on the IPAchart A horizontally extended confidence interval (CI) isestablished on the basis of the value of SE centering on theaverage value and the CI is calculated as shown in (1) Foritem a in Figure 2 the CI for the average performance iswithin the first quadrant which indicates that the averagevalue of this item in the figure is a true reflection of therespondentsrsquo attitudes In the case of item b the CI valueof the item spans the area of two quadrants At this timedecision-makers cannot guarantee that the item will beaccurately assigned to a single quadrant

CIiP

u Pi( 1113857 plusmn S Pi( 1113857n

radic (1)

where CIiP represents the CI of performance of item i u(Pi)

is the average performance of item i S(Pi) represents thestandard deviation of performance of item i and n is thesample number

IIConcentrate here

IKeep up the good

work

IIILow priority

IVPossible overkill

b a

Low HighPerformance

Low

Hig

hIm

port

ance

Figure 2 Revised IPA schematic


322 ANP-Entropy Weight Method -e methods for de-termining the weight of items can be roughly divided intotwo types subjective and objective assignment methods [88]-e weight assignment in the subjective weighting methodmainly depends on the decision-makerrsquos experience anddecision opinions with strong subjectivity and weakobjectivity Although the objective weighting method isbased on mathematics the weight obtained from the actualdata of the evaluation matrix may be contrary to the actualimportance of the index [89] -is study adopts the com-bination of ANP and entropy weight method to measure theimportance of the item for avoiding too subjective or ob-jective evaluation results and fully considering the interactionamong evaluation criteria -is way ensures the minimumimpact of the item weight on the evaluation results

ANP is a subjective weighting method that can calculatethe subjective weight of each item -e ANP model canmeasure all possible interrelationships among criteria whilethe analytic hierarchy process or rating law cannot [90] Inthe case where the research object needs to consider andquantify the correlation among some criteria ANP providesa more realistic method and better analysis for decision-making problems -is advantage is extremely important[91 92] -e application of ANP mainly includes three mainsteps establishing hierarchy model constructing judgmentmatrix and forming supermatrix and final priority [93]

-e entropy method is a weighting method with strongobjectivity [94] -is study uses the entropy weight methodto determine the objective weight of items Informationentropy describes the degree of dispersion of some item dataA great dispersion corresponds to a great impact of the itemon the evaluation results and a greater weight of the item[95] -e calculation principle of the entropy weight methodis mainly to calculate the entropy weight by obtaining theentropy value [96]

-e weight combination formula obtained by modifyingthe ANP method using the entropy weight method is asfollows [97]

W αWai +(1 minus α)W

ei (2)

where W is the combined weight determined by the ANP-entropy weight method Wa

i is the weight calculated usingthe ANP and We

i is the weight calculated using the entropyweight method

To achieve the minimum sum of squared deviations ofWa

i Wei and W the function is established as follows

minW 1113944n

i1Wi minus W

ai( 1113857

2+ Wi minus W

ei( 1113857

21113960 1113961 (3)

By combining two formulas the solution α 05 is ob-tained without losing generality

W 05Wai + 05W

ei (4)

4 Results and Analysis

41 Identification of Critical Sustainability Items From theperspective of the TBL the framework of sustainable

development assessment criterion system can be dividedinto three dimensions of environment economy and society[98] -erefore this study starts from the three dimensionsof the TBL to determine the critical sustainability items ofprefabricated buildings -is study first uses the literatureanalysis method to conduct a retrospective analysis of rel-evant literature in recent years [24 66 99ndash103] By referringto relevant literature and combining the characteristics ofprefabricated buildings in China some preliminary char-acterization items are extracted and summarized One of thetargets of sustainability evaluation research is to improve thereference value for formulating or implementing policies-erefore involving knowledgeable and experienced pro-fessionals for the selection of criteria is important -us weconducted a survey on the site of the Youth Palace Project inNansha District Guangzhou and invited five experts withrich experience in the construction of prefabricated build-ings to conduct interviews on the selection of character-ization items and increased or decreased the itemsdepending on the opinions of the experts -ereafter theresearch invited 30 experts in Chinarsquos construction industryespecially those with prefabricated construction experienceto score on the 5-point Likert scale through online e-mailand offline visit -e vast majority of experts in this surveyhave extensive professional experience and account for4667 of construction units 20 of owner units 2444 ofsurvey and design units and 889 of other units In generalthe mean score of Likert scale with a scale of 1ndash5 indicatesdisagreement within the range of 1ndash24 indicates neutralitywithin the range of 25ndash34 and agrees within the range of35ndash5 To ensure scientific and reasonable selection of itemsthis study eliminated the two items of ldquomarket awarenessrdquoand ldquocommunity environmental satisfactionrdquo with aweighted average score of less than 35 in the preliminaryselected items After a series of treatments the criticalsustainability items determined in this study are shown inTable 1 which lists the categories of each item and de-scription of the meaning of the items A total of 13 criticalsustainability characterization items including 5 items foreconomic sustainability and social sustainability and 3 itemsfor ecological sustainability were considered

42 IPA Implementation Process

421 Determination of Item Importance Based on ANP-Entropy Weight Method In this study we used the com-bined item weight values of ANP and entropy weightmethod to measure the importance of the items required inthe IPA method According to the critical sustainabilityitems determined in Section 41 this study considered thesustainability of prefabricated buildings as the overall goal ofthe model the three sustainability levels of economy societyand environment as the criterion level and the impact itemsof each criterion layer as the elements In the network layerthe impact item in each criterion layer was used as an el-ement group After the correlation among the elements wasanalyzed the ANP model diagram constructed is shown inFigure 3 After the ANP model is established a pairwise


judgment matrix needs to be established based on thecorrelation between the elements -en the obtainedcomparison data are filled into each judgment matrix toobtain an unweighted supermatrix -e ANP model is amesh model and its manual calculation is very complicatedand needs to be implemented by computer software-erefore this study used the Super Decision software tocalculate the weighted supermatrix and extreme supermatrixto obtain the subjective weights of each element

ANP theory was used in this study to develop a ques-tionnaire that meets the needs of the research -e design ofthe questionnaire was based on the correlation among theitems -e importance of each item was compared using a 9-level scale method Questionnaires were selectively sent outto knowledgeable and experienced experts through fieldsurveys of construction projects in Guangzhou (includingthe Guangzhou International Campus project of SouthChina University of technology which has the largestprefabricated building area in Guangzhou and meets theA-level evaluation standard) and online mail scholars andtechnicians to obtain research survey data Respondentswere employees from government owner constructiondesign consulting component production and otherscovering engineers project managers technicians and othermajor workers in the field of engineering More than 67 ofthe respondents have been in the construction engineeringfield for 6 years or more-erefore the objects of this surveyhave been in the engineering field for a long time are fa-miliar with the actual engineering construction and haverich work experience However prefabricated buildings arestill in the early stages of development in Guangzhou duringthe investigation process Although the relevant personnelhave been working in the traditional construction industryfor many years the time to participate in the construction ofGuangzhou prefabricated building project is only in recentyears A total of 88 questionnaires were collected in this partof the study and 70 valid questionnaires were obtainedthrough screening After the collected data were analyzedthe subjective weight of each evaluation item Wa

i [0237501491 00055 00281 00055 00599 00034 00513 0031600071 00376 02027 01806]

In the application of the entropy weight method toobtain the objective weight of each evaluation item the

Table 1 Critical sustainability items for prefabricated buildings

Prefabricated building sustainability (A)Dimension Item Description

Economic sustainability (B1)

Construction cost (C11) Total expenditure for the project construction processOperation and maintenance cost

(C12) -e cost needed for the operation and maintenance of the building

Construction technical difficulty(C13) Technical problems in the application of fabricated buildings

Policy support (C14) Policy measures taken by the government to promote prefabricatedbuildings

Investment risk (C15) Risk of investing in prefabricated buildings

Social sustainability (B2)

Product quality (C21) Refers to building stability user experience reliability andaesthetics

Productivity (C22) Ratio of actual output to maximum output under fixed inputHealth and safety of workers (C23) -e physical health and safety of construction workersQuality requirement of workers

(C24) -e professional skills required by construction workers

Industrial linkage development(C25) Other industry development driven by prefabricated buildings

Environmental sustainability(B3)

Resource consumption (C31) Resource-saving benefits from prefabricated buildingsEnvironmental protection (C32) Pollutions reduced by prefabricated buildings

Construction civilization (C33) Civilized construction method compared with traditionalconstruction

APrefabricated building sustainability

B1Economic sustainability

B2Social sustainability

B3Environmental sustainability

C11 C12

C13

C15

C14

C21 C22

C23

C25

C24

C31 C32

C33

C11 C12 C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

C31 C32 C33

A B Represents element A affecting element B

C Represents that elements in group C are interdependent

Figure 3 ANP model diagram


principle of the entropy weight method was used to developa questionnaire Similarly 45 valid questionnaires wereobtained in the form of field survey of Guangzhou pre-fabricated building project and online mail-e intervieweesare some experts and scholars who fill in the ANP methodquestionnaire Although the data collection method of thequestionnaire is subjective the influence of individualsubjectivity can be greatly reduced by using the entropymethod and increase the objectivity and rationality of theweighting results In the questionnaire the importance ofeach item was divided into five levels using Likert scales thatis least important (1 point) less important (2 points) gen-erally important (3 points) more important (4 points) andvery important (5 points) Respondents judged and scoredeach item depending on their own experience After the datawere normalized the entropy value of each item ei [0720507578 07068 07356 08327 07505 07417 07822 0812608170 07841 07335 07955] and the objective entropy weightWe

i [00923 00799 00968 00873 00552 00823 0085300719 00619 00604 00713 00880 00675] according to theprinciple of calculating the entropy weight method

According to formula (4) the subjective weights of ANPand objective weights of entropy weights were compre-hensively calculated -e final summary table of weights ofevaluation item is shown in Table 2

422 IPA Results In terms of performance data acquisitionthis study targeted personnel in the field who are familiarwith prefabricated buildings in Guangzhou We sent emailsto invite the respondents in the abovementioned survey toconduct a questionnaire survey and asked them to providesome other respondents who belong to the research ob-jectives According to the clues formed we used the snowballmethod to visit the new respondents -e questionnaire hastwo parts one is the background information of the in-terviewees and the other involves the subjective feelings ofthe respondents on the sustainable performance of pre-fabricated buildings in Guangzhou which were measured bya 5-level Likert scale -e scores range from 1 to 5 withhigher scores indicating that the respondentrsquos evaluation ofthe sustainability performance of prefabricated buildings isbetter A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed in thestudy and 224 valid questionnaires were recovered (vali-dation rate of questionnaires 896) When using Cron-bachrsquos α as the criterion for assessing the reliability of thequestionnaire αlt 030 is unreliable 030lt αlt 040 indicateslow reliability and is only acceptable in preliminary studies040lt αlt 050 means slightly reliable 050lt αlt 070 meansreliable (the most common reliable range) 070lt αlt 090 isvery reliable (the second most common range of reliability)and 090lt α is completely reliable [104] In this studyCronbachrsquos α values of the three dimensions of economicsustainability social sustainability and environmental sus-tainability are 0779 0761 and 0691 respectively -eoverall Cronbachrsquos α value is 0785 which belongs to therange of 070lt αlt 090 -erefore the content of thequestionnaire shows high reliability and internal consis-tency -e results are shown in Table 3

-e background information of the interviewees col-lected from the questionnaire includes gender age educa-tion level jobs construction engineering field employmentduration and prefabricated building participation durationin which the working years were calculated by rounding(Table 4) Among the 224 respondents males account for6295 of the sample which accords with the characteristicsof the gender proportion in the construction engineeringfield Most of the respondents are between the ages of 26 and45 and the number of undergraduates and above is relativelyhigh From the perspective of the jobs the respondents comefrom different employments and the distribution ratio isrelatively balanced and ranges from 402 to 1696 Interms of working duration in the construction engineeringfield 6ndash10 years has the most frequency and accounts for4018 of the sample and respondents with 11 years or moreof working experience account for 3884 -erefore mostof the respondents have a long working period in the en-gineering field and have rich work experience For theconstruction time of prefabricated buildings the proportionof respondents from 1 to 5 years reaches 5446 and thetotal proportion of respondents from 6 years and abovereaches 2501-ose less than 1 year also occupy 2054 ofthe sample -e reason is that prefabricated buildings haveonly begun to develop in Guangzhou and even throughoutChina in recent years -is result also shows that thequestionnaire collected in this study can effectively reflectthe current situation of the sustainable development of theprefabricated buildings in Guangzhou which confirms thereliability of the research results to a certain extent

Table 5 shows the results of the IPA using (1) and theTarrantndashSmith framework method (using a 95 CI to set SEfor the average performance value of each item) combinedwith the item comprehensive weights shown in Table 2 andthe performance questionnaire survey Table 5 presents thevalues of the importance of each item (the comprehensiveweight of the item) the average performance of the item SECI and the TSF results In the TSF column ldquomdashrdquo representsthat no corresponding value exists for the median in the CIof the item that is no problem related to the two quadrantsexists ldquotimesrdquo represents that a corresponding value exists forthe median in the CI of the item which crosses twoquadrants -e results in Table 5 indicate that the overallmedian values of performance and importance locate on theitem C14 ldquopolicy supportrdquo which are 33438 and 00577respectively -erefore the coordinate origin of the two-dimensional graph of IPA should be determined as thecoordinate corresponding to the item (33438 00577)

-e two-dimensional IPA established by ordinal cor-respondence of values representing item performance andimportance is shown in Figure 4 -e following is a briefanalysis of each quadrant according to IPA results

Quadrant I (Keep Up the GoodWork)-e importanceand performance of the items C32 (environmentalprotection) C33 (construction civilization) C12 (op-eration and maintenance cost) and C23 (health andsafety of workers) in this quadrant are relatively high-e subsequent development of the four items should


be based on the original basis to continue to maintainor promote innovation for the sustainable developmentof prefabricated buildings in GuangzhouQuadrant II (Concentrate Here) -e items in thequadrant are C11 (construction cost) and C21 (productquality) -e two items have relatively low performancebut high importance For the ldquoconstruction costrdquo itemthe weight value is the largest among all items-erefore improving the performance of the item isparticularly urgent and taking the improvement actionfor this item will have the greatest promotion effectAccording to the TarrantndashSmith framework the CI ofthe ldquoproduct qualityrdquo item falls in the first quadrantand we cannot determine exactly whether the perfor-mance of the item is good However if viewed con-servatively certain measures also need to be taken topromote the improvement of the quality of construc-tion products for the sustainable development ofprefabricated buildingsQuadrant III (Low Priority) -e items included in thisquadrant are C13 (construction technical difficulty)C15 (investment risk) C24 (quality requirement ofworkers) and C25 (industrial linkage development)-ese items are currently relatively low in performanceand importance -erefore the attributes of the fouritems are not the areas that should be focused on topromote the sustainable development of prefabricatedbuildings in Guangzhou nor the priority of imple-menting improvement measuresQuadrant IV (Possible Overkill) -e items in thisquadrant are C22 (productivity) and C31 (resourceconsumption) -e performance value is high and the

development is good at present but the importance islow According to the TarrantndashSmith framework theCI of the item C22 in this quadrant locates in quadrantIII Similarly we cannot confidently determine theperformance level of this item However according tothe IPA results if too much attention and investmentare made on the item C31 then excessive waste may begenerated in the process of promoting the sustainabledevelopment of prefabricated buildings in Guangzhou

Notably the item C14 (policy support) at the origin ofthe coordinates cannot be classified into any quadrant norcan it be completely separated into four quadrants -eanalysis results in the IPA chart indicate that the importanceand performance level of the item are in a medium state andwhether the item needs to take action for improvement isdifficult to determine However the construction of pre-fabricated buildings in various regions and cities includingGuangzhou has set off a wave since the country introduced aseries of policies Local governments have taken measuresfrom policy economy and industrial technology aspects toincrease policy support research and development invest-ment and production university research cooperation forpromoting the healthy and rapid development of pre-fabricated buildings [105]

5 Discussion

Prefabricated buildings are considered by many countries asimportant solutions for environmental construction andindustry [43] -e data of ldquoForecast 2019 Panorama Map ofChinarsquos Prefabricated Building Industryrdquo in 2018 indicatedthat the proportion of prefabricated building areas inChinarsquos new construction area is much lower than in theUnited States Japan France Sweden and other developedcountries -e previous IPA results show the importanceand performance of the sustainability of prefabricatedbuildings in Guangzhou and indicate that the sustainabledevelopment of prefabricated buildings in Guangzhou is notvery good Only some prefabricated building model citiessuch as Shenyang Beijing Shanghai and Shenzhen have acertain scale of industrial chain and base in terms of pre-fabricated building applications in China Most domesticcities including Guangzhou have a weaker developmenttrend for prefabricated buildings than a small number ofmodel cities -e research on the sustainable performance ofprefabricated buildings conducted in this study withGuangzhou as a representative also actually represents thesustainable performance of prefabricated buildings in mostcities and regions in China to a certain extent -erefore theresearch results are not limited to the prefabricated buildingsin Guangzhou but also have certain reference significance toother cities and regions in China

-e previous IPA results show that the items C11(construction cost) and C21 (product quality) are in thesecond quadrant which is of high importance but lowperformance Since the CI of C21 mostly locates in quadrantII for the sake of conservativeness this item should beplaced in this quadrant for analysis By virtue of the ldquothree-

Table 2 Summary table of evaluation item weights

Item ANP weight Entropy weight Combination weightC11 02375 00923 01649C12 01491 00799 01145C13 00055 00968 00511C14 00281 00873 00577C15 00055 00552 00304C21 00599 00823 00711C22 00034 00853 00444C23 00513 00719 00616C24 00316 00619 00467C25 00071 00604 00338C31 00376 00713 00544C32 02027 00880 01453C33 01806 00675 01241

Table 3 Reliability analysis

Dimension Number ofitems

Cronbachrsquosα values

Economic sustainability 5 0779Social sustainability 5 0761Environmentalsustainability 3 0691

Total 13 0785


factor theoryrdquo proposed by Kano et al [106] C11 and C21belong to the ldquofundamental factorsrdquo of the three factors -eso-called ldquobasic factorsrdquo that is if these factors are notsatisfied they will bring dissatisfactory effects however ifthey are satisfied or better than expected they are notnecessarily satisfactory -e negative performance of thesefactors will have a greater impact on the development level ofoverall performance than the positive performance ldquoBasicfactorsrdquo are prerequisites for the product [107] -ereforetaking management actions to improve the performance ofthe items ldquoconstruction costrdquo and ldquoproduct qualityrdquo isparticularly urgent to improve the sustainability level ofprefabricated buildings in Guangzhou -e item C14 (policysupport) at the origin of IPA coordinates also needs specialattention In fact the policy requiring the implementation of

prefabricated buildings has greatly promoted the develop-ment of Chinarsquos prefabricated industry [108] Although theChinese government has proposed a series of policies for thedevelopment of prefabrication in recent years [109] theimplementation of prefabrication in China still lags behindthose in other developed countries [110] Previous studieshave shown concerns about potentially high capital costs oreven high total costs in prefabricated construction projects[111] Many studies have shown that the unit cost of pre-fabricated buildings is estimated to be 2ndash17 higher thanthat of traditional buildings [20 111] Prefabricated build-ings are still in the initial stage of development in China[112] -us cost issues play an important role in the de-cision-making process when choosing innovative buildingmethods -is is also the main factor that hinders the

Table 4 Background information of respondents

ItemTotal sample (n 224)

Number Percentage ()SexMale 141 6295Female 83 3705

Age25 and lower 2 08926ndash35 92 410736ndash45 45 200946ndash55 39 174156 and higher 46 2054

Educational levelHigh school and below 41 1830Junior college 44 1964Undergraduate 64 2857Master 47 2098Doctor 28 1250

Work unitGovernment 16 714Owner 29 1295Construction 34 1518Survey and design 38 1696Supervision 12 536Consulting 34 1518Colleges and universities 9 402Prefabricated factory 17 759Others 35 1563

Working time in the field of construction engineering5 and lower 47 20986ndash10 90 401811ndash15 20 89316ndash20 11 49121ndash25 19 84826 and higher 37 1652

Prefabricated building participation time0 46 20541ndash2 39 17413ndash5 83 37056ndash10 33 147311ndash15 6 26816ndash20 7 31321ndash25 4 17926 and higher 6 268


construction industry from advancing prefabricated build-ings as highlighted in the literature and pilot project research[16 113] Many consumers think that prefabricated build-ings are inferior low-end products they are also skeptical ofprefabricated buildings due to a series of quality problemssuch as poor seismic performance and weak thermalinsulation performance in the process of developing pre-fabricated buildings in China [114 115]

-e use of prefabricated construction will likely conflictwith the projectrsquos economic interests which inevitably re-duces the developerrsquos willingness Because in the con-struction industry investment market it is profit-orientedProjects without profit or even causing losses will affect theinvestment enthusiasm Some measures should be taken tosolve this problem and promote the sustainable economicdevelopment of prefabricated buildings In recent yearsprefabricated buildings have shown a continuous develop-ment trend driven by policies [43] Mao et al [116]

emphasized that the regulations and policies issued by thegovernment have a crucial impact on the widespread ap-plication of prefabricated buildings -e government shouldadopt a positive attitude to formulate strategies and policiesfor promoting the implementation of prefabricated build-ings Jiang et al [117] also put forward this opinion and gavea detailed policy system and feasible guidelines to solve theobstacles in the current implementation of prefabricatedbuildings However the construction cost of prefabricatedbuildings has remained high because of the significant in-crease in the production and installation costs of pre-fabricated components [101] -erefore the development ofdomestic prefabricated buildings in the current initial stageshould be promoted with policy incentives as the guide Fordevelopers sufficient concessions can be given in terms ofland use and taxation to reduce development costs andencourage developers to choose prefabricated constructionmethods For manufacturers of prefabricated components

Table 5 Importance-performance analysis results

ItemPerformance

ImportanceAverage value SE CI TSF

C11 29777 00768 (29009 30545) mdash 01649C12 35714 00768 (34946 36482) mdash 01145C13 30982 00777 (30205 31759) mdash 00511C14 33438 00811 (32627 34248) times 00577C15 31920 00804 (31116 32724) mdash 00304C21 32902 00830 (32072 33732) times 00711C22 34063 00902 (33161 34964) mdash 00444C23 34911 00847 (34064 35757) mdash 00616C24 31518 00882 (30636 32400) mdash 00467C25 32455 00892 (31563 33347) mdash 00338C31 37455 00763 (36693 38218) mdash 00544C32 40045 00683 (39362 40728) mdash 01453C33 37098 00754 (36344 37852) mdash 01241

28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438

Possible overkillLow priority

Keep up the good work

Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce

Figure 4 IPA results


certain subsidy policies can be adopted to encourage large-scale production by enterprises -e resulting economies ofscale can reduce overall construction costs and improve costefficiency For consumers appropriate economic subsidiescan be adopted to increase their willingness to purchaseprefabricated houses Moreover product quality is also oneof the important affecting factors of the development ofprefabricated buildings -is factor includes various aspectsthe quality of the house the performance and the diversedesign requirements Tool-based assistance and automaticcontrol in the manufacturing process should be used tofurther improve the accuracy of components reduce thefrequency of replacement during the building operationphase and develop environmentally friendly multi-performance building materials It will increase the eco-nomic benefits of consumer use and facilitate publicacceptance by this way Only when the public accepts thequality of the building can the developerrsquos willingness andmotivation to invest in prefabricated buildings bestrengthened to effectively achieve the sustainable and stabledevelopment of prefabricated buildings It is worth men-tioning that governments in different regions should adaptto local conditions and improve local policy incentivesGuangzhou which is one of the few first-tier cities andinternational business centers in China has strong talentsand scientific and technological resources -e city shouldtake advantage of its strong economy and resource ad-vantages to promote the development of its fabricatedbuildings

6 Conclusion

-is study investigates the importance and performancelevel of the sustainability of prefabricated buildings by takingGuangzhou as a study case According to the sustainabilitydimension contained in TBL this study identifies criticalsustainability characterization items for prefabricatedbuildings On this basis this study attempts to amend theIPA method and introduce it into the research of theconstruction industry by surveying the employees of therelevant fields in prefabricated buildings IPA provides asimplified method to analyze the importance and perfor-mance level of the research object which helps identify themost critical aspects that require special attention-e ANP-entropy weight method can determine the weight of eachinteracting item under different circumstances of knowledgeand experience for obtaining more scientific and compre-hensive weight results -e results show that ldquoconstructioncostrdquo and ldquoproduct qualityrdquo are considered high-importancebut low-performance items which need to be focused onand take measures to promote improvement -e ldquopolicysupportrdquo item at the intersection of IPA coordinates is alsoan aspect worthy of attention and discussion Effective policyincentives will greatly promote the development of domesticprefabricated buildings in China which is still in the earlydevelopment stage

Although this study takes the importance and perfor-mance evaluation of the sustainability of prefabricatedbuildings in Guangzhou as an example the results have

certain reference significance and enlightenment for thesustainability evaluation research of prefabricated buildingsin other cities in China and other countries as well -eresearch ideas and results of this study can provide a newreference for the sustainability research methods of pre-fabricated buildings -e main contributions of the researchare as follows (1) from the perspective of research methodsthis study has made various amendments to the IPAmethodIn particular the combination of the ANP method thatconsiders the interaction among criteria and the objectiveentropy weight method is used as a measure of the im-portance of items It overcomes the shortcomings of existingresearch and is applied to the research field of prefabricatedbuildings In the current research related to the constructionfield IPA has not been widely and effectively applied Al-though some research results on the sustainability evaluationof prefabricated buildings are available measurement of thesimultaneous analysis of the importance and performancelevel of critical items is lacking-is study further shows thatthe modified IPA method can evaluate and measure theimportance and performance level of items and providemanagement recommendations for each item in the con-struction field -is study shows an example for future IPAresearch in the field of construction and provides a feasiblemethod and idea which helps enrich the current knowledgesystem (2) In terms of evaluation results this study com-prehensively considered the sustainability of the three di-mensions of TBL (economic social and ecological) makingup for the deficiencies that most current studies only analyzethe sustainability of single or limited dimensions Accordingto the results of a survey to investigate the importance andperformance level of the sustainability of prefabricatedbuildings in Guangzhou the critical items that are in urgentneed of improvement and the priorities for the imple-mentation of management measures are identified And thecorresponding development countermeasures are proposedon the basis of the evaluation results -is study provides anew research perspective for the sustainable developmentstrategy of future prefabricated buildings -rough thisperspective a theoretical basis can be provided for pro-moting the sustainable construction and operation man-agement of prefabricated buildings -e related theoreticalresults and conclusions studied in this work can also providecertain references for decision-makers and constructioncompanies

-e IPA results of the sustainable development ofprefabricated buildings in this article can help practitionersand decision-makers in the construction industry under-stand the sustainability and performance level of pre-fabricated buildings in each sustainability dimension andunder the overall TBL to select sustainable best planHowever sustainable development is a dynamic process andthus changes over time It also depends onmany parametersand the regional differences exist among prefabricatedconstruction projects in different places Prefabricatedbuilding is an effective way to promote the industrializationof the construction industry and is also popular in recentyears -erefore further exploring of sustainability evalu-ation and research methods is still necessary In the future


research more consideration may need to be given to thecompleteness of sustainability coverage and the balancebetween applicability and dynamic effectiveness to applyassessment methods and results in more real-time and ef-fective ways

Data Availability

All data generated or used during the study are availablefrom the corresponding author by request

Disclosure

-is paper is based on a conference paper presented at theConstruction Research Congress 2020 Tempe ArizonaUnited States

Conflicts of Interest

-e authors declare no conflicts of interest

Acknowledgments

-e authors gratefully acknowledge the funding and supportprovided by the National Natural Science Foundation ofChina (Grant no 71871096)

References

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[2] H Kang Y Lee and S Kim ldquoSustainable building assess-ment tool for project decision makers and its developmentprocessrdquo Environmental Impact Assessment Review vol 58pp 34ndash47 2016

[3] Z Xu X Wang and W Zhou ldquoIntegration study on theevaluation method of green construction based on ontologyand BIMrdquo Advances in Civil Engineering vol 2019 ArticleID 1609523 18 pages 2019

[4] Yuan IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007(AR4) Working Group I 5e Physical Science Basis IPCCIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change GenevaSwitzerland 2007

[5] EU ldquoEnergy performance of buildingsrdquo EU Brussels Bel-gium 2014 httpseceuropaeuenergyentopicsenergy-efficiencyenergy-performance-of-buildings

[6] Z Chen C An H Fang et al ldquoAssessment of regionalgreenhouse gas emission from beef cattle production a casestudy of Saskatchewan in Canadardquo Journal of EnvironmentalManagement vol 264 2020

[7] A Elmualim and D Alp ldquoPerception and challenges forsustainable construction in developing countries northCyprus caserdquo Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecturevol 10 no 4 pp 492ndash500 2016

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[9] U A Umar N Shafiq A Malakahmad M F Nuruddin andM F Khamidi ldquoA review on adoption of novel techniques in

construction waste management and policyrdquo Journal ofMaterial Cycles and Waste Management vol 19 no 4pp 1361ndash1373 2017

[10] A Barbudo J Ayuso A Lozano M Cabrera and A Lopez-Uceda ldquoRecommendations for the management ofconstruction and demolition waste in treatment plantsrdquoEnvironmental Science and Pollution Research vol 27 no 1pp 125ndash132 2020

[11] W Zhang M W Lee L Jaillon and C-S Poon ldquo-ehindrance to using prefabrication in Hong Kongrsquos buildingindustryrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 204 pp 70ndash812018

[12] V W Y Tam and J J L Hao ldquoPrefabrication as a mean ofminimizing construction waste on siterdquo InternationalJournal of Construction Management vol 14 no 2pp 113ndash121 2014

[13] Z Li G Q Shen and X Xue ldquoCritical review of the researchon the management of prefabricated constructionrdquo HabitatInternational vol 43 pp 240ndash249 2014

[14] W T Chan and H Hu ldquoConstraint programming approach toprecast production Schedulingrdquo Journal of Construction En-gineering and Management vol 128 no 6 pp 513ndash521 2002

[15] N Blismas C Pasquire and A Gibb ldquoBenefit evaluation foroff-site production in constructionrdquo Construction Manage-ment and Economics vol 24 no 2 pp 121ndash130 2006

[16] V W Y Tam I W H Fung M C P Sing andS O Ogunlana ldquoBest practice of prefabrication imple-mentation in the Hong Kong public and private sectorsrdquoJournal of Cleaner Production vol 109 pp 216ndash231 2015

[17] P S Wong C Zwar and E Gharaie ldquoExamining the driversand states of organizational change for greater use of pre-fabrication in construction projectsrdquo Journal of ConstructionEngineering amp Management vol 143 Article ID 040170202017

[18] J Du H Jing D Castro-Lacouture and V SugumaranldquoMulti-agent simulation for managing design changes inprefabricated construction projectsrdquo Engineering Con-struction and Architectural Management vol 27 no 1pp 270ndash295 2019

[19] Y Ji S Chang Y Qi Y Li H X Li and K Qi ldquoA BIM-basedstudy on the comprehensive benefit analysis for pre-fabricated building projects in Chinardquo Advances in CivilEngineering vol 2019 Article ID 3720191 13 pages 2019

[20] W Lu and H Yuan ldquoInvestigating waste reduction potentialin the upstream processes of offshore prefabrication con-structionrdquo Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviewsvol 28 pp 804ndash811 2013

[21] G Tumminia F Guarino S Longo M Ferraro M Celluraand V Antonucci ldquoLife cycle energy performances andenvironmental impacts of a prefabricated building modulerdquoRenewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews vol 92pp 272ndash283 2018

[22] W Nadim and J S Goulding ldquoOffsite production in the UKthe way forward A UK construction industry perspectiverdquoConstruction Innovation vol 10 no 2 pp 181ndash202 2010

[23] Y Chang X D Li E Masanet L X Zhang Z Y Huang andR Ries ldquoResources conservation amp recyclingrdquo vol 139pp 259ndash261 Elsevier Amsterdam Netherlands 2018

[24] KMohammad andH Kasun ldquoDevelopment of performancecriteria for sustainability evaluation of modular versusconventional construction methodsrdquo Journal of CleanerProduction vol 142 pp 3592ndash3606 2017

[25] E A M Bevan and P Yung ldquoImplementation of corporatesocial responsibility in Australian construction SMEsrdquo


Engineering Construction and Architectural Managementvol 22 no 3 pp 295ndash311 2015

[26] L Zhang and J Zhou ldquo-e effect of carbon reductionregulations on contractorsrsquo awareness and behaviors inChinarsquos building sectorrdquo Journal of Cleaner Productionvol 113 pp 93ndash101 2015

[27] P Yi W Li and D Zhang ldquoAssessment of city sustainabilityusing MCDM with interdependent criteria weightrdquo Sus-tainability vol 11 no 6 p 1632 2019

[28] S Wagenhals W Garner L Duckers and K Kuhn ldquoSus-tainability index with integrated indicator dependenciesrdquoBusiness Management and Education vol 12 no 1pp 15ndash29 2014

[29] P C Y Liu H-W Lo and J J H Liou ldquoA combination ofDEMATEL and BWM-based ANPmethods for exploring thegreen building rating system in Taiwanrdquo Sustainabilityvol 12 no 8 p 3216 2020

[30] J Gao H Ren andW Cai ldquoRisk assessment of constructionprojects in China under traditional and industrial produc-tion modesrdquo Engineering Construction and ArchitecturalManagement vol 26 no 9 pp 2147ndash2168 2019

[31] G Liu R Chen P Xu Y Fu C Mao and J Hong ldquoReal-time carbon emission monitoring in prefabricated con-structionrdquo Automation in Construction vol 110 Article ID102945 2020

[32] Q Wang Z Guo T Mei Q Li and P Li ldquoLabor crewworkspace analysis for prefabricated assembliesrsquo installa-tionrdquo Engineering Construction and Architectural Man-agement vol 25 no 3 pp 374ndash411 2018

[33] L Xu F Zha C Liu and B Kang ldquoExperimental investi-gation on carbonation behavior in lime-stabilized expansivesoilrdquo Advances in Civil Engineering vol 2020 Article ID8946530 21 pages 2020

[34] J Liu G Q Shen C Mao Z Li and K Li ldquoLife-cycle energyanalysis of prefabricated building components an input-output-based hybrid modelrdquo Journal of Cleaner Productionvol 112 pp 2198ndash2207 2016

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[37] J H Meiling M Sandberg and H Johnsson ldquoA study of aplan-do-check-act method used in less industrialized ac-tivities two cases from industrialized housebuildingrdquoConstruction Management and Economics vol 32 no 1-2pp 1ndash17 2013

[38] W Pan A G F Gibb and A R J Dainty ldquoLeading UKhousebuildersrsquo utilization of offsite construction methodsrdquoBuilding Researchamp Information vol 36 no 1 pp 56ndash67 2008

[39] C Rocha C Formoso and P Tzortzopoulos ldquoAdoptingproduct modularity in house building to support masscustomisationrdquo Sustainability vol 7 no 5 pp 4919ndash49372015

[40] W S Zhao B B Zhang and Y Yang ldquoEmpirical study ofcomprehensive benefits for prefabricated buildings a casestudy of Hefei cityrdquo e International Journal of ElectricalEngineering amp Education 2020

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Engineering Construction and Architectural Managementvol 27 no 4 2019

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[44] D Yeoh and M Fragiacomo ldquo-e design of a semi-pre-fabricated LVL-concrete composite floorrdquo Advances in CivilEngineering vol 2012 Article ID 626592 19 pages 2012

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[50] A Sev ldquoHow can the construction industry contribute tosustainable development A conceptual frameworkrdquo Sus-tainable Development vol 17 no 3 pp 161ndash173 2009

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[52] T Saunders ldquoA discussion document comparing interna-tional environmental assessment methods for buildingsrdquo2017 httpwwwprresnetProceedings5CPapers5CReed_International_Rating_Toolspdf

[53] R Reed A Bilos S Wilkinson and K Schulte ldquoInterna-tional comparison of sustainable rating toolsrdquoe Journal ofSustainable Real Estate vol 1 no 1 pp 1ndash22 2009

[54] E Conte and V Monno ldquoBeyond the buildingcentric ap-proach a vision for an integrated evaluation of sustainablebuildingsrdquo Environmental Impact Assessment Reviewvol 34 pp 31ndash40 2012

[55] F Yang Z Li and Y B Yuan ldquoStudy on evaluation methodof sustainable development of construction industryrdquoJournal of Engineering Management vol 24 no 3pp 258ndash261 2010

[56] H Zabihi F Habib and L Mirsaeedie ldquoDefinitions con-cepts and new directions in industrialized building systems(IBS)rdquo KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering vol 17 no 6pp 1199ndash1205 2013

[57] W-H Tsai S-J Lin Y-F Lee Y-C Chang and J-L HsuldquoConstruction method selection for green building projectsto improve environmental sustainability by using an MCDMapproachrdquo Journal of Environmental Planning and Man-agement vol 56 no 10 pp 1487ndash1510 2013

[58] T Wongbumru and B Dewancker ldquoPost-occupancy evalua-tion of user satisfaction a case study of ldquooldrdquo and ldquonewrdquo publichousing schemes in Bangkokrdquo Architectural Engineering andDesign Management vol 12 no 2 pp 107ndash124 2016


[59] J O Atanda and A Ozturk ldquoSocial criteria of sustainabledevelopment in relation to green building assessment toolsrdquoEnvironment Development and Sustainability vol 22 no 1pp 1ndash27 2018

[60] G K C Ding ldquoDeveloping a multicriteria approach for themeasurement of sustainable performancerdquo Building Re-search amp Information vol 33 no 1 pp 3ndash16 2005

[61] K Yong-Woo and B Jinwoo ldquoAssessing the environmentalimpacts of a lean supply system case study of high-risecondominium construction in Koreardquo Journal of Architec-tural Engineering vol 16 no 4 pp 144ndash150 2010

[62] Y H Dong L Jaillon P Chu and C S Poon ldquoComparingcarbon emissions of precast and cast-in-situ constructionmethods - a case study of high-rise private buildingrdquoConstruction and BuildingMaterials vol 99 pp 39ndash53 2015

[63] K Mohammad and H Kasun ldquoLife cycle performance ofmodular buildings a critical reviewrdquo Renewable and Sus-tainable Energy Reviews vol 62 pp 1171ndash1183 2016

[64] G Liu T Gu P Xu J Hong A Shrestha and I Martek ldquoAproduction line-based carbon emission assessment model forprefabricated components in Chinardquo Journal of CleanerProduction vol 209 no 1 pp 30ndash39 2019

[65] K B Li B K Qi and H Wang ldquoAnalysis of the restrictivefactors of the development of prefabricated buildings basedon DEMATELrdquo Housing Industry no 8 pp 49ndash51 2013

[66] Y Riduan and J Yang ldquoImproving ecological performanceof industrialized building systems in Malaysiardquo ConstructionManagement and Economics vol 32 no 1-2 pp 183ndash1952014

[67] R D Chang J Zuo V Soebarto Z Y Zhao G Zillante andX L Gan ldquoDiscovering the transition pathways towardsustainability for construction enterprises importance-per-formance analysisrdquo Journal of Construction Engineering andManagement vol 143 no 6 Article ID 04017013 2017

[68] R D Chang J Zuo Z Y Zhao et al ldquoSustainability attitudeand performance of construction enterprises a China studyrdquoJournal of Cleaner Production vol 172 pp 1440ndash1451 2017

[69] State Council of the Peoplersquos Republic of China Guidelines onthe Development of Prefabricated Buildings in China StateCouncil of the Peoplersquos Republic of China Beijing China 2016

[70] J A Martilla and J C James ldquoImportance-performanceanalysisrdquo Journal of Marketing vol 41 no 1 pp 77ndash791977

[71] N Johns ldquoImportance-performance analysis using theprofile accumulation techniquerdquo e Service IndustriesJournal vol 21 no 3 pp 49ndash63 2001

[72] K Matzler E Sauerwein and K Heischmidt ldquoImportance-performance analysis revisited the role of the factor struc-ture of customer satisfactionrdquoe Service Industries Journalvol 23 no 2 pp 112ndash129 2003

[73] N M Levenburg and S R Magal ldquoApplying importance-performance analysis to evaluate e-business strategies amongsmall firmsrdquo E-service Journal vol 3 no 3 pp 29ndash48 2005

[74] W Deng ldquoUsing a revised importance-performance analysisapproach the case of Taiwanese hot springs tourismrdquoTourism Management vol 28 no 5 pp 1274ndash1284 2007

[75] J F Cohen E Coleman and M J Kangethe ldquoAn impor-tance-performance analysis of hospital information systemattributes a nursesrsquo perspectiverdquo International Journal ofMedical Informatics vol 86 pp 82ndash90 2016

[76] I K W Lai and M Hitchcock ldquoA comparison of servicequality attributes for stand-alone and resort-based luxuryhotels in Macau 3-Dimensional importance-performanceanalysisrdquo Tourism Management vol 55 pp 139ndash159 2016

[77] B Phadermrod R M Crowder and G B Wills ldquoImpor-tance-performance analysis based SWOT analysisrdquo Inter-national Journal of Information Management vol 44pp 194ndash203 2019

[78] L S L Lai andW M To ldquoImportance-performance analysisfor public management decision makingrdquo ManagementDecision vol 48 no 2 pp 277ndash295 2010

[79] Z-L Wang H-C Shen and J Zuo ldquoRisks in prefabricatedbuildings in China importance-performance analysis ap-proachrdquo Sustainability vol 11 no 12 p 3450 2019

[80] H-S Lee ldquoMeasurement of visitorsrsquo satisfaction with publiczoos in Korea using importance-performance analysisrdquoTourism Management vol 47 pp 251ndash260 2015

[81] B B Boley N G McGehee and A L Tom HammettldquoImportance-performance analysis (IPA) of sustainabletourism initiatives the resident perspectiverdquo TourismManagement vol 58 pp 66ndash77 2017

[82] J Hua andW Y Chen ldquoPrioritizing urban riversrsquo ecosystemservices an importance-performance analysisrdquo Citiesvol 94 pp 11ndash23 2019

[83] J J Kim Y Lee and H Han ldquoExploring competitive hotelselection attributes among guests an importance-perfor-mance analysisrdquo Journal of Travel amp Tourism Marketingvol 36 no 9 pp 998ndash1011 2019

[84] E Azzopardi and R Nash ldquoA critical evaluation of im-portance-performance analysisrdquo Tourism Managementvol 35 pp 222ndash233 2013

[85] L Mouthino P Rita and B Curry Expert Systems inTourism Marketing Routledge London UK 1996

[86] A L P Freitas ldquoAssessing the quality of intercity roadtransportation of passengers an exploratory study in BrazilrdquoTransportation Research Part A Policy and Practice vol 49pp 379ndash392 2013

[87] M A Tarrant and E K Smith ldquo-e use of a modifiedimportance-performance framework to examine visitorsatisfaction with attributes of outdoor recreation settingsrdquoManaging Leisure vol 7 no 2 pp 69ndash82 2002

[88] M Sahoo S Sahoo A Dhar and B Pradhan ldquoEffectivenessevaluation of objective and subjective weighting methods foraquifer vulnerability assessment in urban contextrdquo Journal ofHydrology vol 541 pp 1303ndash1315 2016

[89] T-C Wang and H-D Lee ldquoDeveloping a fuzzy TOPSISapproach based on subjective weights and objective weightsrdquoExpert Systems With Applications vol 36 no 5 pp 8980ndash8985 2009

[90] H Guo W Qiao and Y Zheng ldquoEffectiveness evaluation offinancing platform operation of buildings energy savingtransformation using ANP-fuzzy in China an empiricalstudyrdquo Sustainability vol 12 no 7 p 2826 2020

[91] Z Chen H Li A Ross M M Khalfan and S C KongldquoKnowledge-driven ANP approach to vendors evaluationfor sustainable constructionrdquo Journal of Construction En-gineering and Management vol 134 no 12 pp 928ndash9412008

[92] F Yucelgazi and I yitmen ldquoAn ANPmodel for risk responseassessment in large scale bridge projectsrdquo Civil Engineeringand Environmental Systems vol 37 no 1-2 pp 1ndash27 2020

[93] P Xu E H W Chan H J Visscher X Zhang and Z WuldquoSustainable building energy efficiency retrofit for hotelbuildings using EPC mechanism in China analytic NetworkProcess (ANP) approachrdquo Journal of Cleaner Productionvol 107 pp 378ndash388 2015

[94] Y Ji G H Huang and W Sun ldquoRisk assessment of hy-dropower stations through an integrated fuzzy entropy-


weight multiple criteria decision making method a casestudy of the Xiangxi riverrdquo Expert Systems with Applicationsvol 42 no 12 pp 5380ndash5389 2015

[95] A Malekian and A Azarnivand ldquoApplication of integratedshannonrsquos entropy and VIKOR techniques in prioritizationof flood risk in the shemshak watershed Iranrdquo Water Re-sources Management vol 30 no 1 pp 409ndash425 2016

[96] Y D Dou and X L Xue ldquoEvaluation of industrializedconstruction capability of construction enterprises based onAHP-entropy methodrdquo in Proceedings of the ICCREM 2017pp 199ndash206 November 2017 Guangzhou China

[97] Y Tang Research on Performance Evaluation of ScientificResearch Projects in Zhejiang Universities Based on AHP-Entropy Weight Method Zhejiang University of TechnologyHangzhou China 2012

[98] G D Wu K F Duan J Zuo X B Zhao and D Z TangldquoIntegrated sustainability assessment of public rentalhousing community based on a hybrid method of AHP-entropy weight and cloudmodelrdquo Sustainability vol 9 no 4p 603 2017

[99] Y Chen G E Okudan D R Riley and R David ldquoSus-tainable performance criteria for construction method se-lection in concrete buildingsrdquo Automation in Constructionvol 19 no 2 pp 235ndash244 2010

[100] J Hong G Q Shen Z Li B Zhang andW Zhang ldquoBarriersto promoting prefabricated construction in China a cost-benefit analysisrdquo Journal of Cleaner Production vol 172pp 649ndash660 2018

[101] B K Qi Y Zhu B Ma and S Liu ldquoResearch on com-prehensive benefit analysis method of prefabricated build-ingsrdquo Construction Technology vol 45 no 4 pp 39ndash432016

[102] Z F Li N Zhang and C Fu ldquoResearch on comprehensivebenefit evaluation of housing industrialization based on setpair analysis theoryrdquo Journal of Engineering Managementvol 30 no 2 pp 7ndash11 2016

[103] P D Sang and Y J Wang ldquoRestrictive factors for pre-fabricated house development-based on principal compo-nent analysisrdquo Journal of Engineering Management vol 32no 6 pp 23ndash28 2018

[104] P-Z Chen and W-Y Liu ldquoAssessing management per-formance of the national forest park using impact range-performance analysis and impact-asymmetry analysisrdquoForest Policy and Economics vol 104 pp 121ndash138 2019

[105] P D Sang and J X Li ldquoRisk evaluation of development andconstruction of prefabricated building project based onstructural equationrdquo Journal of Civil Engineering andManagement vol 34 no 4 pp 89ndash95 2017

[106] N Kano N Seraku F Takahashi and S Tsuji ldquoAttractivequality and must-be quality hinshitsurdquo e Journal ofJapanese Society for Quality Control vol 14 pp 39ndash48 1984

[107] K Mauler and E Sauerwein ldquo-e factor structure of cus-tomer safisfaction an empirical test of the importance gridand the penalty-reward- contrast analysisrdquo InternationalJournal of Service Industry Management vol 13 no 4pp 314ndash323 2002

[108] X Gan R Chang and T Wen ldquoOvercoming barriers to off-site construction through engaging stakeholders a two-modesocial network analysisrdquo Journal of Cleaner Productionvol 201 pp 735ndash747 2018

[109] F Yao Y Ji H X Li et al ldquoEvaluation of informatizationperformance of construction industrialization EPC enter-prises in Chinardquo Advances in Civil Engineering vol 2020Article ID 1314586 18 pages 2020

[110] L Jiang Z Li L Li and Y Gao ldquoConstraints on the pro-motion of prefabricated construction in Chinardquo Sustain-ability vol 10 no 7 p 2516 2018

[111] L Jaillon C S Poon and Y H Chiang ldquoQuantifying thewaste reduction potential of using prefabrication in buildingconstruction in Hong Kongrdquo Waste Management vol 29no 1 pp 309ndash320 2009

[112] X-L Gan R-D Chang C Langston and T Wen ldquoEx-ploring the interactions among factors impeding the diffu-sion of prefabricated building technologiesrdquo EngineeringConstruction and Architectural Management vol 26 no 3pp 535ndash553 2019

[113] X Zhai R Reed and A Mills ldquoFactors impeding the offsiteproduction of housing construction in China an investi-gation of current practicerdquo Construction Management andEconomics vol 32 no 1-2 pp 40ndash52 2014

[114] G C Liu Z D Wen and J Shen ldquoInfluencing factors of thedevelopment of prefabricated building based on ISMrdquoJournal of Shenyang Jianzhu University (Social Science Edi-tion) vol 20 no 4 pp 377ndash382 2018

[115] Y F Shi Y Kang and X F Wang ldquoResearch on devel-opment countermeasures of prefabricated buildings in Chinabased on SWOTanalysisrdquo Building Economy vol 37 no 11pp 5ndash9 2016

[116] C Mao Q P Shen W Pan and K H Ye ldquoMajor barriers tooff-site construction-e developersrsquo perspective in ChinardquoJournal of Management in Engineering vol 31 no 3 ArticleID 04014043 2015

[117] R Jiang C Mao L Hou C Wu and J Tan ldquoA SWOTanalysis for promoting off-site construction under thebackdrop of Chinarsquos new urbanisationrdquo Journal of CleanerProduction vol 173 pp 225ndash234 2018


components at a factory or other manufacturing sites andtransporting complete components or subcomponents tothe construction site where the structure is located [12]Compared with the traditional cast-in-place constructionthe prefabricated building is a large-scale productionmethod It transfers part of the traditional site constructionwork to the factory for completion [13] and brings variousadvantages such as shortening construction time im-proving quality saving resources and reducing environ-mental pollution [14ndash18] Prefabricated buildings have beenwidely accepted as an alternative to traditional cast-in-placestructures because of their advantages [19] As a resultprefabricated buildings become an inevitable trend in thefuture development of the construction industry

In past research the sustainability of prefabricatedbuildings has been studied in different aspects Somescholars have investigated the sustainability performanceevaluation of prefabricated buildings [20 21] In additionmany studies have shown the results of analysis of affectingfactors of the sustainable development of prefabricatedbuildings [22 23] However these studies mainly focus onthe environmental sustainability of prefabricated buildingswhile the economic and social sustainability studies arerelatively lacking-e triple bottom line (TBL) sustainabilitystandards in all dimensions should be fully considered in thesustainable development of the entire prefabricated building[24] Moreover few studies have comprehensively consid-ered the importance and performance of the sustainability ofprefabricated buildings Attitude and awareness are theprerequisites for sustainable development actions [25 26] Ifwe do not pay attention to certain sustainability aspects ofprefabricated buildings then this aspect may not performwell -erefore in the research of the sustainability ofprefabricated buildings the following questions need to bepaid attention to what aspects are attached with importanceto the sustainability of prefabricated buildings What is thecurrent performance of prefabricated building constructionin all aspects of sustainability However the existing re-search rarely reviews the importance views and performancelevels of critical sustainability aspects (including economicsocial and environmental aspects) of prefabricated build-ings and the interdependence among criteria is ignored-ese studies cannot determine the critical sustainabilityaspects that require management actions (such as the aspectsof high importance but the worst performance) It lacksproper classification according to management prioritiesand cannot determine effective ways to promote the sus-tainable development of prefabricated buildings

To fill these gaps in research this study identifies criticalitems that can characterize the sustainability importance andperformance level of prefabricated buildings from theperspective of TBL categories namely the economic socialand ecological dimensions To review the importance andperformance level of various sustainability aspects ofprefabricated buildings this study introduces the impor-tance-performance analysis (IPA) method into the field ofconstruction engineering explores the relationship betweenthe importance and performance of prefabricated buildingsin sustainability characterization items and finds the key

development ways IPA is a useful tool to identify the mostcritical items related to management behavioral require-ments -e criteria involved in the sustainability assessmentof prefabricated buildings are usually complex and havedifferent interrelations given that it is a complex decision-making issue [27] -erefore considering the interdepen-dence of criteria in the weighting process is important [28]Analytical network process (ANP) is a useful method to dealwith the interdependency among criteria in complex systems[29] On this basis this study attempts to modify IPAtechnology by taking the comprehensive weight of ANP andentropy weight method as the measurement of the impor-tance of each item to improve the shortcomings of tradi-tional IPA method in the measurement of the importance ofthe item in IPA technology

High quality high efficiency and sustainable develop-ment are receiving unprecedented attention [30] and theproduction mode involving the installation of prefabricatedcomponents is still new for developing countries such asChina [31] -erefore the sustainable research of pre-fabricated building is important in the development stage ofsustainable building-is study explores the importance andperformance level of each key sustainability aspect of pre-fabricated buildings in Guangzhou based on the revised IPAmethod -is study aims to reveal the importance andperformance of various criteria for the sustainability ofprefabricated buildings and determine the most importantand least important aspects and the performance levelsshown in these aspects -is paper proposes targeted de-velopment strategies by categorizing these criteria accordingto management priorities It can provide theoretical basisand practical guidance for promoting the effective allocationof resources and improving the sustainable development ofprefabricated buildings In addition the application of IPAtechnology in this study can also provide a feasible methodand idea for future IPA research in the field of construction-e revised IPA technology in this study considers themutual influence among criteria and sets a reasonableconfidence interval which can be used as an effective tool foridentifying key criteria related to management actions

2 Literature Review

Prefabricated buildings which are an important part ofconstruction industrialization are receiving an increasingattention [32 33] Previous research has used various termsrelated to prefabricated buildings including ldquoprefabricatedrdquo[34] ldquoprefabricated concrete buildingrdquo [35] ldquoindustrializedbuildingrdquo [36 37] and ldquooff-site buildingrdquo [38] Some re-search results have shown that the use of the concept ofproduct modularity is beneficial to traditional construction[39] -e emergence of prefabricated buildings helps solvethe problems of large energy consumption and seriousenvironmental pollution in traditional cast-in-place build-ings [40] -rough the use of standardized design factoryprefabrication and prefabricated production methods thebuilding is decomposed and converted from on-site con-struction to on-site assembly this way not only can greatlysave the construction period but also have outstanding














32 Research Method







buildings

Literature review

Expert interview



Performance

Questionnaire



Combinationweight

ANP-entropyweight

Project survey

Questionnaire











CIiP

u Pi( 1113857 plusmn S Pi( 1113857n

radic (1)



IIConcentrate here

IKeep up the good

work

IIILow priority

IVPossible overkill

b a

Low HighPerformance

Low

Hig

hIm

port

ance








ei (2)






minW 1113944n

i1Wi minus W

ai( 1113857

2+ Wi minus W

ei( 1113857

21113960 1113961 (3)


W 05Wai + 05W

ei (4)









i [0237501491 00055 00281 00055 00599 00034 00513 0031600071 00376 02027 01806]






















C11 C12

C13

C15

C14

C21 C22

C23

C25

C24

C31 C32

C33

C11 C12 C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

C31 C32 C33

















5 Discussion









Total 13 0785

















ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References










































































































































32 Research Method







buildings

Literature review

Expert interview



Performance

Questionnaire



Combinationweight

ANP-entropyweight

Project survey

Questionnaire











CIiP

u Pi( 1113857 plusmn S Pi( 1113857n

radic (1)



IIConcentrate here

IKeep up the good

work

IIILow priority

IVPossible overkill

b a

Low HighPerformance

Low

Hig

hIm

port

ance








ei (2)






minW 1113944n

i1Wi minus W

ai( 1113857

2+ Wi minus W

ei( 1113857

21113960 1113961 (3)


W 05Wai + 05W

ei (4)









i [0237501491 00055 00281 00055 00599 00034 00513 0031600071 00376 02027 01806]






















C11 C12

C13

C15

C14

C21 C22

C23

C25

C24

C31 C32

C33

C11 C12 C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

C31 C32 C33

















5 Discussion









Total 13 0785

















ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References


































































































































buildings

Literature review

Expert interview



Performance

Questionnaire



Combinationweight

ANP-entropyweight

Project survey

Questionnaire











CIiP

u Pi( 1113857 plusmn S Pi( 1113857n

radic (1)



IIConcentrate here

IKeep up the good

work

IIILow priority

IVPossible overkill

b a

Low HighPerformance

Low

Hig

hIm

port

ance








ei (2)






minW 1113944n

i1Wi minus W

ai( 1113857

2+ Wi minus W

ei( 1113857

21113960 1113961 (3)


W 05Wai + 05W

ei (4)









i [0237501491 00055 00281 00055 00599 00034 00513 0031600071 00376 02027 01806]






















C11 C12

C13

C15

C14

C21 C22

C23

C25

C24

C31 C32

C33

C11 C12 C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

C31 C32 C33

















5 Discussion









Total 13 0785

















ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References




































































































































CIiP

u Pi( 1113857 plusmn S Pi( 1113857n

radic (1)



IIConcentrate here

IKeep up the good

work

IIILow priority

IVPossible overkill

b a

Low HighPerformance

Low

Hig

hIm

port

ance








ei (2)






minW 1113944n

i1Wi minus W

ai( 1113857

2+ Wi minus W

ei( 1113857

21113960 1113961 (3)


W 05Wai + 05W

ei (4)









i [0237501491 00055 00281 00055 00599 00034 00513 0031600071 00376 02027 01806]






















C11 C12

C13

C15

C14

C21 C22

C23

C25

C24

C31 C32

C33

C11 C12 C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

C31 C32 C33

















5 Discussion









Total 13 0785

















ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References



































































































































ei (2)






minW 1113944n

i1Wi minus W

ai( 1113857

2+ Wi minus W

ei( 1113857

21113960 1113961 (3)


W 05Wai + 05W

ei (4)









i [0237501491 00055 00281 00055 00599 00034 00513 0031600071 00376 02027 01806]






















C11 C12

C13

C15

C14

C21 C22

C23

C25

C24

C31 C32

C33

C11 C12 C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

C31 C32 C33

















5 Discussion









Total 13 0785

















ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References
































































































































i [0237501491 00055 00281 00055 00599 00034 00513 0031600071 00376 02027 01806]






















C11 C12

C13

C15

C14

C21 C22

C23

C25

C24

C31 C32

C33

C11 C12 C13 C14 C21 C22 C23 C24

C31 C32 C33

















5 Discussion









Total 13 0785

















ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References










































































































































5 Discussion









Total 13 0785

















ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References













































































































































ItemPerformance



28 32 36 40000

005

010

015

020

C11

C12

C13C14

C15

C21

C22

C23

C24

C25

C31

C32

C33

00577

33438



Performance

Concentrate here

Impo

rtan

ce




6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References































































































































6 Conclusion







Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References































































































































Data Availability


Disclosure




Acknowledgments


References






























































































































importance-performance analysis of prefabricated building ...importance-performance analysis of...

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