Essay On Whole Life Cost Implications Of Prefabricated Buildings

 

This report will present a brief understanding of different cost components that are being included in a prefabricated building throughout its life cycle. Through this report, clarity of cost components and cost implications involved in the project of prefabricated building, the cost components involved in each phase of the building construction will be discussed here briefly. In this report, different sorts of cost implications that are involved in the entire life cycle of the prefabricated building will be discussed. The impacts which can be caused to the decision-making by the stakeholders and project managers of the prefabricated building are also discussed in a part of this report. All the information presented in this report will facilitate the stakeholders and the project managers of the prefabricated building construction project to determine the cost efficiency throughout its lifecycle. 

 

The major cost components that are involved in the life cycle of a prefabricated building are the cost incurred in the project during its construction phase, the cost incurred in the building for its maintenance, and the cost related to the disposal of the entire building. The cost related to the life cycle is being given attention in the projects of prefabricated building construction for maintaining the sustainability of the construction process. The major components of the cost related to the life cycle of the prefabricated building can be calculated or estimated by analyzing all the equipment being utilized during the entire lifecycle and taking the known equipment as the priority.  All the calculations related to the costing of the building life cycle are being utilized by the project managers and other stakeholders for developing the concept of green building construction. Cost components of the building can be easily determined through the serving life of the building (Dwaikat & Ali, 2018).

 

The life cycle of a prefabricated building is consist of different stages such as planning, manufacturing, construction, maintenance & operations, and demolition. The major cost components that are included in the planning phase are the cost incurred for designing the building structure, and the cost required for planning the process of building construction. The cost components which are involved in the manufacturing phase of the prefabricated components are the cost of raw material, cost of labor, cost of renting different essential equipment, and cost incurred for the plant where prefabricated elements will be made, etc. For the process of constructing the building through the prefabricated elements, the cost components involve the cost of labor, cost of different machinery and equipment used for assembly, cost of assembly elements, cost of admixtures and jointing agents, etc. After the construction of a prefabricated building, the cost incurred for maintenance and operations includes various components such as the cost of repairing different elements, cost of replacing the building elements, cost of operating various mechanical elements in the building, etc. And finally, the cost involved in the demolition phase of the building are costs of equipment, cost of labor, etc (FS.Fed.US, 2022).

 

The analysis of the life cycle cost for a prefabricated building is important as it will help the project managers and other stakeholders in checking the cost efficiency of the building by changing the different elements in the building. The cost-efficiency can be checked based on different options which can be used in the building for a particular element (Fuller, 2016).

 

 

The different sort of cost implications that can be found by the project manager and the stakeholders during the construction process of a prefabricated building is defined as follows:

 

 

1. The total amount of time that was required in the project for its completion.

 

 

2. Energy and efforts were provided by the different team members and the stakeholders during the execution of the prefabricated building construction project.

 

 

3. The money that is spent on the different sorts of amenities and other aspects required for the completion of constructing a building through the prefabrication method (Islam, et al., 2015). 

 

 

All the above-mentioned factors are considered as the cost implications for the project of constructing a building through the prefabrication method. Talking majorly about the construction projects, the major cost implication is within the time required for construction of the project and the different sort of costs being incurred in the entire lifecycle of the building such as designing and construction cost of the building, cost incurred for maintenance and operations of the building, and cost needed for disposal or the irregular building costs (Safiki, et al., 2015).

 

The rate of inflation also plays an important role in the calculation or estimation of the costing components of a prefabricated building’s life cycle, as this will be utilized in the calculation for calculating the disposal rate of the building. In the construction industry, the aspect of cost implication can be sorted by maintaining the proper records related to the costing and expanses of the project (Illankoon & Lu, 2020).

 

As per the authors (Ji, et al., 2014), the three best approaches that can be utilized for decision-making are defined as Environmental Priority Strategy System, Eco-Efficiency, and Certified Emission Reduction Price. These approaches are being proposed to be used for decision-making by considering the emission of CO2 and project cost for acquiring the environment-friendly and pocket-friendly design of the structure. The major decisions taken in any of the projects of prefabricated building construction are based on the costing of the project, time taken for completion, quality maintained during the construction project, and relationships with different stakeholders of the project. After conducting the research on the different aspects related to the cost implications in the project of prefabricated construction, it has been found that financial, technical, and engineering aspects are the major ones that affect the decision-making of the project. Various decisions taken during the execution of the construction project were taken instantly or within a smaller interval of time. The various sort of impacts caused in the project of constructing a building aided by the prefabrication are increased in the budget decided for the construction project and delay in the timely completion of the project. The decision-making of stakeholders involved in the project depends upon different sorts of activities or the aspects such as the cost overruns in the project required for various materials. Either than the cost implications of the project, the experience and knowledge possessed by the individuals also play an important role in making appropriate decisions related to the project (Chong, et al., 2017).

 

As per the research conducted by (Akomah, et al., 2020), it has been claimed that the different sort of cost implications that might impact the decision-making of the construction project of a prefabricated building are frequent design changes, errors in billing or pricing, changes in the relative price of different material, unexpected conditions of the ground, and purchasing of material without warranty. The stakeholders and the project managers can effectively reduce the impact of all the cost implications by conducting relevant studies about different factors, frequent visits to the site, exploring and investigating the ground conditions, etc. Due to all these cost implications of the prefabricated building construction project, the decision-making can get delayed and due to that delay, the entire project can get delayed and the overall cost of the project can also get hiked. Because of delayed or ineffective decision-making in the project, the quality of the project can also get compromised. Above all the mentioned impacts, one of the major impacts which can be seen in decision making due to the cost implications is the scarcity of reliable resources for the project that might give rise to the project budget as the alternative needs to be used for effectively executing the project (Hossain & Gencturk, 2016). 

 

Through this report, it can be concluded that the determination of the cost-efficiency of a building throughout its lifecycle can be done with the help of life cycle cost analysis and cost implications. This report has presented a brief aspect related to the life cycle cost of a prefabricated building structure. Various kinds of cost components that can be involved in different phases of a prefabricated building are defined in this report with adequate information. The components of each phase in a prefabricated building’s life cycle are defined in this report which incurs more cost. Along with that this report also covers the different sorts of cost implications involved in the life cycle of a prefabricated building along with the impacts those implications forced on the decision-making by the various involved stakeholders in the project.

 

Akomah, B., Mustapha, Z. & Ayeh, E., 2020. Impact of Cost of Construction Projects in Cape Coast Metropolis. Buletinul Institutului Politehnic Din Iaşi, 66(1), pp. 95-112.

 

 

Chong, H.-Y.et al., 2017. Cost implications for certified Green Building Index buildings. Institution of Civil Engineers-Waste and Resource Management, 170(1), pp. 29-40.

 

 

Dwaikat, L. N. & Ali, K. N., 2018. Green buildings life cycle cost analysis and life cycle budget development: Practical applications. Journal of Building Engineering, Volume 18, pp. 303-311.

 

 

FS.Fed.US, 2022. Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Buildings Is Easier Than You Thought. [Online] Available at: https://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm08732839/page01.htm

 

 

Fuller, S., 2016. Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA). [Online] Available at: https://www.wbdg.org/resources/life-cycle-cost-analysis-lcca

 

 

Hossain, K. A. & Gencturk, B., 2016. Life-Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Buildings Subjected to Natural Hazards. Journal of Architectural Engineering, 22(4), p. A4014001.

 

 

Illankoon, I. C. S. & Lu, W., 2020. Cost implications of obtaining construction waste management-related credits in green building. Waste Management, Volume 102, pp. 722-731.

 

 

Islam, h., Jollands, M. & Setunge, S., 2015. Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost implication of residential buildings—A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 42, pp. 129-140.

 

 

Ji, C., Hong, T. & Park, H. S., 2014. Comparative analysis of decision-making methods for integrating cost and CO2 emission – focus on building structural design. Energy and Buildings, 72(1), pp. 186-194.

 

 

Safiki, A., Solikin, M. & Nursahid, M., 2015. Cost Implications of Building Design Plans: a Literature Review Analysis. ICETEA, pp. 51-56.