A BIM-Based Multi-Criteria Bridge Design Evaluation Framework Integrating Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) for Prefabricated Bridge Construction

Abstract

This study has examined how the integration of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) principles into a Building Information Modelling (BIM) based multi-criteria evaluation process affects the quality of design decisions in prefabricated bridge construction, and it has developed and tested a framework for evaluating competing bridge design alternatives at the concept and preliminary stages. The central problem has been that bridge design alternatives are conventionally selected on cost and structural adequacy alone, at a point when manufacturing, transport, lifting, and erection knowledge has not yet entered the process, so that buildability problems are discovered during shop-drawing production or on site, when the design is frozen, the moulds are cut, and correction is possible only through rework, variation, or site improvisation. Guided by five research questions, concerning how BIM-based DfMA integration affects design evaluation performance, which DfMA attributes most influence assembly outcomes, which multi-criteria decision-making methods are most robust for bridge design evaluation, what risks conventional cost-dominated evaluation carries, and how manufacturability, logistics, and lifecycle criteria improve evaluation reliability, the study has proposed a framework comprising five contributing constructs: BIM design representation and parametric maturity; DfMA principle embedment in bridge design; multi-criteria evaluation rigour and weighting robustness; manufacturability and logistics constraint integration; and lifecycle sustainability and cost criteria integration, with design evaluation effectiveness as the outcome. A quantitative, cross-sectional design supplemented by a prototype evaluation of a precast bridge design set has been used, and data have been collected from bridge design engineers, BIM and digital engineering leads, precast production engineers, construction and erection managers, and client advisers. Out of 268 distributed questionnaires, 231 valid responses have been retained, producing an 86.2% valid response rate. The analysis has included descriptive statistics, reliability testing, correlation analysis, multiple regression, hypothesis testing, and a prototype evaluation of buildability-issue resolution timing, DfMA attribute influence, and the rank stability of competing decision methods under weight perturbation. The findings have shown that all five constructs were significantly and positively associated with design evaluation effectiveness, that the regression model was significant, F(5, 225) = 57.74, p < .001, explaining 56.2% of the variance, and that DfMA principle embedment and manufacturability and logistics constraint integration were the strongest predictors.