EVALUATING THE RECEPTIVENESS OF THE SINGAPORE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY TOWARDS THE ADOPTION OF CONSTRUCTION 3D PRINTING

Abstract

Productivity is imperative to every industry. In Singapore’s construction industry, the need to improve productivity is crucial, given the benefits such as cost savings, time savings and labour savings. Today, the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore has been imposing stricter employment regulations, yet actively promoting efforts and enforcing upgrades in the construction industry. This emphasis on improving construction productivity is thus necessary and construction robotics serve as a desirable solution. Construction 3D printing, being a subset of construction robotics, has a high potential to be applied in the industry. It is a new emerging technology that had been successfully applied to various building projects around the world. This dissertation thus looks at the possibility of adopting construction 3D printing in the Singapore context, with regards to the factors that may influence decision-making. In order to assess the receptiveness, primary data would be collected via survey questionnaire from various stakeholders in the construction industry, as well as an interview to validate the data. After the evaluation of the data collected, the factors were then ranked to identify the more pertinent reasons that affect the adoption of construction 3D printing. The findings showed that impact on project duration, cost of implementation and impact on construction productivity are the main factors that will significantly contribute to the decision-making process of adopting new technology. Underlying these findings is the general lack of awareness about, and lack of knowledge of, construction 3D printing. Maximising the potential of widespread adoption would require the mitigation of these challenges, hence achieving the ultimate goal of increasing construction productivity.