Evaluation Method for Quality Risks of Safety in Prefabricated Building Construction Using SEM-SDM Approach

Area of Science:

• Construction Management
• Risk Assessment
• Building Science

Background:

• Prefabricated construction offers efficiency but presents challenges in quality control and safety risk management.
• Existing safety risk evaluation systems need adaptation for the specific context of prefabricated buildings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a systematic approach for identifying and assessing key factors influencing quality and safety risks in prefabricated building projects.
• To establish a robust safety risk model for prefabricated construction.
• To evaluate the investment risk associated with these projects.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and structured questionnaire distributed to 408 Chinese construction organizations.
• Integration of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and System Dynamic Model (SDM) for risk assessment.
• Empirical verification through a detailed case study.

Main Results:

• Pre-construction, during-construction, and after-construction phases were identified as significant factors influencing quality risk, in descending order of impact.
• The overall safety risk score was 92.71, indicating controllable construction safety and guaranteed quality for the studied residential building.
• SEM and SDM effectively assessed the investment risk of prefabricated building projects.

Conclusions:

• The developed systematic approach provides a framework for understanding and mitigating quality and safety risks in prefabricated construction.
• Findings offer valuable insights for improving the safety risk performance of prefabricated building projects.
• The study contributes to the body of knowledge by addressing quality-risk-influencing factors specific to prefabricated buildings.