Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) and Design for Deconstruction (DfD) in the Construction Industry: Challenges, Trends and Developments

A building faces several challenges across its lifecycle stages. Challenges such as production inefficiency and inadequate waste management hinder advancement in the construction industry. Furthermore, the sector has emerged as one of the largest producers of waste in the world, which can lead to detrimental impacts on the economy and the environment. Conventional approaches are insufficient to eradicate these concerns. Thus, practitioners have sought to implement novel methods to ameliorate the construction process. In this regard, design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) and design for deconstruction (DfD) have gained prominence, as studies have elucidated the methods’ unprecedented potential to wholly transform the construction process and mitigate the unwanted impacts brought about by the industry. This study identified the applications and benefits of DfMA and DfD in construction, as well as recent developments and research gaps, through a literature review, using Scopus as the primary database and MATLAB for conducting data text analytics. The current body of knowledge necessitates a further assessment of the following research gaps: (1) development of standard construction-oriented DfMA guidelines; (2) corroboration of the developed DfMA tools through practical application; (3) integration of these holistic design approaches with emerging technologies, such as additive manufacturing and digital fabrication; (4) comparison of structures constructed using DfMA and DfD with structures built with conventional approaches; (5) comprehensive application of DfD guidelines to structural systems; (6) integration of DfMA and DfD; (7) execution of sustainability assessment studies to evaluate the impact of DfMA and DfD; and (8) identification of solutions to the barriers to DfMA and DfD uptake in construction.