Crane operations and planning in modular integrated construction: Mixed review of literature

Cranes are the centrepiece of construction equipment during the on-site installation stage of Modular integrated construction (MiC). Any disruption which occurs during this stage can wipe away the efforts made in the production and transportation stages, and hence the privilege of adopting MiC is missed. Therefore, crane operations and planning (COP) research in MiC has witnessed tremendous growth over the past years. This research aims at monitoring and classifying of COP research in MiC to identify its trends and gaps, and hence highlight future research areas. To achieve this objective, this study utilizes a mixed review method of scientometric and systematic reviews. The scientometric review clarifies the most prolific journals, institutions, researchers, keywords correlations and geospatial connection network between research countries in COP. On the other hand, the systematic review analysis shows that there are five main research topics in COP of MiC. Further analysis shows that these topics are approached by six different solution methodologies. Four potential research areas identified in COP are COP in dynamic MiC sites, COP in multi-cranes high-rise MiC sites, risk management of COP and autonomous COP. [Display omitted] •A holistic review of crane operations and planning (COP) research in modular integrated construction (MiC) is conducted.•A scientometric review reveals collaboration networks of keywords and countries.•COP research in MiC is classified based on problem types and applied methodologies.•A systematic review indicates that five COP problems have been solved by six methodologies.•Future directions are COP in dynamic MiC sites, COP in multi-crane MiC sites, risk management of COP and autonomous COP.