Critical success factors, barriers and challenges for adopting offsite prefabrication: a systematic literature review

Egypt suffers from a huge deficit in low-income housing despite several mitigation attempts. The housing deficit has reached 3.5 million units in 2017 due to several issues including high population increase rate, overcrowding, slum dwellings, poor housing stock and poor performance of the construction sector. In order to address these challenges, offsite prefabrication has been proffered as an innovative solution to provide decent housing to the least advantaged households. This paper presents the findings of a systematic review of selected literature on adopting offsite prefabrication in several developing and developed countries. The review concluded that the housing deficit would not be reduced through conventional construction methods; hence, a new construction approach is needed that integrates manufacturing with construction. On the other hand, the critical success factors for successful adoption of offsite prefabrication include governmental support, adopting new building codes, integration of the private sector, industrial capabilities and social and cultural factors. It is concluded that offsite prefabrication can leverage low-income houses delivery in addition to improving the performance of the Egyptian construction sector.