TY - JOUR
T1 - A review of 3D printing in construction and its impact on the labor market
AU - Hossain, Md Aslam
AU - Zhumabekova, Altynay
AU - Paul, Suvash Chandra
AU - Kim, Jong
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was supported by the Nazarbayev University Research Fund under Grants #SOE2017003. The authors are grateful for this support. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Nazarbayev University.
PY - 2020/10/2
Y1 - 2020/10/2
N2 - Construction industry is very labor-intensive and one of the major sources of employment in the world. The industry is experiencing low productivity with minimum technological innovations for decades. In recent times, various automation technologies including 3D printing have received increasing interests in construction. 3D printing in construction is found to be very promising to automate the construction processes and have the potential of saving laborious work, material waste, construction time, risky operation for humans, etc. There has been a comprehensive body of research conducted to understand the recent advances, future prospects and challenges of large-scale adoption of 3D printing in construction projects. Being one the labor-intensive industries, this study also investigates the possible impact on the labor market with increasing adoption of 3D printing in construction. It is found that 3D printing can reduce significant number of labors which can solve the labor shortage problem, especially for the countries where construction is heavily dependent on immigrant workers. In contrast, 3D printing might not be favorable for the countries where construction is one of the main workforces and labor is less expensive. Moreover, 3D construction printing will also require people with special skills related to this new technology.
AB - Construction industry is very labor-intensive and one of the major sources of employment in the world. The industry is experiencing low productivity with minimum technological innovations for decades. In recent times, various automation technologies including 3D printing have received increasing interests in construction. 3D printing in construction is found to be very promising to automate the construction processes and have the potential of saving laborious work, material waste, construction time, risky operation for humans, etc. There has been a comprehensive body of research conducted to understand the recent advances, future prospects and challenges of large-scale adoption of 3D printing in construction projects. Being one the labor-intensive industries, this study also investigates the possible impact on the labor market with increasing adoption of 3D printing in construction. It is found that 3D printing can reduce significant number of labors which can solve the labor shortage problem, especially for the countries where construction is heavily dependent on immigrant workers. In contrast, 3D printing might not be favorable for the countries where construction is one of the main workforces and labor is less expensive. Moreover, 3D construction printing will also require people with special skills related to this new technology.
KW - 3D construction printing
KW - Additive manufacturing
KW - Construction labor
KW - Immigrant workers
KW - Workforce
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U2 - 10.3390/su12208492
DO - 10.3390/su12208492
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85093078926
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 21
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
SN - 2071-1050
IS - 20
M1 - 8492
ER -