Systematic literature review of themes and definitions of industrialized construction

Purpose Industrialized construction has brought about expectations of improved productivity in the construction industry. However, the lack of a commonly accepted definition has created confusion regarding the types of development covered by the industrialized construction umbrella. These inconsistent definitions convoluted the discussion on this phenomenon. This study aims to clarify the definition of industrialized construction through a systematic literature review. Design/methodology/approach This systematic literature review was conducted according to PRISMA principles. Records were gathered from Scopus and Web of Science. Following the scientometric analysis, content analysis was conducted according to the template analysis approach. Findings The analysis of 121 articles revealed four main themes related to industrialized construction: 1) the construction concept, 2) construction methodologies, 3) systematization, rationalization and automatization and 4) societal and industrial change processes. Definitions of industrialized construction can be analyzed with seven clusters: 1) prefabrication, 2) standardization, 3) sector, 4) integration, 5) manufacturing practices, 6) technological investment and 7) none. Based on the content analysis, the proposed definition is: industrialized construction is the adoption of practices that minimize project-specific work in construction from the start of the design to the end of the building’s life cycle. Originality/value This study proposes a definition for industrialized construction following content analysis of broadly sampled literature. The proposed definition can provide a basis on which developments in the construction industry can be reflected.