Towards Lean Automation in Construction—Exploring Barriers to Implementing Automation in Prefabrication

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Author

Thank you for submitting to the Sustainability journal.

Please find the attached file.

Best Regards

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1,

thank you very much for your review and your suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.

Please see the attachment including a detailed response to your comments.

Best regards,

Finn Feldmann

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper explores barriers to implementing automation in the context of modular construction. The work is interesting; however, the following points can be considered to improve its content.

A few images/graphs can be included to improve the presentation rather than just text.

Future research directions shall be included.

Though this is predominantly a qualitative analysis, the representation of results could still be quantified by using some ranking/rating scheme. In its current form, it is extremely difficult for the readers to get the core idea of the paper.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

thank you very much for your review and your suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.

Please see the attachment including a detailed response to your comments.

Best regards,

Finn Feldmann

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors

It is a very interesting article on identifying barriers for implementing  lean automation in construction.

Following are some suggestions in order to improve the paper as well as its readability:

1) Section 2 - Theoretical background needs to be shortened as it is quite long and it seems bit repetitive or some things which are obvious. 

3) Method - Most of your interviewee's are from three countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (guessing all are German speakers), therefore, you need to highlight this in the title as well as ensuring that it is limited to specific region.

4) Results - These are presented in an excellent manner. Only one thing which is bothering me is the IT infrastructure and it does not say anything about privacy or security. With the increased digitalisation, cybersecurity is a big cost and issue.

5)   Discussion and Conclusion are fine. 

Overall, its a good paper.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 3,

thank you very much for your review and your suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.

Please see the attachment including a detailed response to your comments.

Best regards,

Finn Feldmann

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The research methodology must start from a new row.

Thanks!