ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Sustainable Design and Construction
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Automating Modular Construction Manufacturing for Affordable Housing
Provisionally accepted
- United Arab Emirates University College of Engineering, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
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The potential of modular construction to deliver affordable housing can be enhanced through automation. However, high upfront investment for automation raises concerns about its economic feasibility. This study aims to evaluate the economic viability and sustainability of automating modular construction manufacturing for affordable housing delivery by conducting a cost-benefit analysis. The study employs a two-stage quantitative approach. The first stage involves using simulation results from a previous study conducted by the authors to analyse the production time of manual and automated factory setups, while the second stage entails collecting and comparing the costs and metrics associated with both setups, focusing on labor wages, robot and machinery costs, and energy consumption. Results show that automation reduces production time by almost 40% per unit, labor wages by 69.7% per unit, and energy consumption cost by 11.6% per unit. While adopting automation requires a high investment in robotic systems — approximately 321% higher than the cost of manual setup — and increases annual maintenance costs by the same amount, the long-term savings and increased efficiency demonstrate the economic viability of automation, with an estimated payback period of around 3 years. The study concludes that automation offers substantial economic and operational benefits for modular manufacturing, offering valuable insights for stakeholders in the modular construction industry aiming to optimize their production systems for affordability and sustainability. The analysis is limited to the direct costs and benefits of the main manufacturing process, excluding idle time, indirect costs, and environmental and quality impacts. Future research should expand the model's scope to include full factory operations, MEP integration, logistics, and full assembly; apply probabilistic sensitivity analysis to capture uncertainty; and assess the environmental and life-cycle impacts of automation.
Keywords: Modular construction, Automation in construction, Robotic assembly, human-robotcollaboration, Sustainable Construction
Received: 29 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ouda and Haggag. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mahmoud Haggag, mhaggag@uaeu.ac.ae
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.