Abstract
ABSTRACT Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) is known as both a philosophy and a methodology whereby products are designed in a way that is as amenable as possible for downstream manufacturing and assembly. As construction is moving towards a combination of offsite prefabrication and onsite assembly, DfMA is gaining momentum in this heterogeneous industry. Nevertheless, a comprehensive review of DfMA in construction, its prospects and challenges in particular, seems absent from the literature. This study reviews the processes and principles of DfMA and explores the possible perspectives of DfMA with a view to providing implications to the construction industry. It was found that DfMA in construction has been interpreted from three perspectives: (1) a holistic design process that encompasses how structure or object will be manufactured, assembled and guided with DfMA principles; (2) an evaluation system that can work with virtual design and construction (VDC) to evaluate the efficiency of manufacturing and assembly; and (3) a game-changing philosophy that embraces the ever-changing prefabrication and modular construction technologies. This study suggests that development of design guidelines, forming multidisciplinary team, use of VDC systems and understanding the lean principles are factors that could further enhance the successful application of DfMA in construction.
Highlights
Many studies have explored various aspects of prefabrication, or otherwise known as offsite manufacturing, including its business models (Goulding, Rahimian, Arif, & Sharp, 2015; Pan & Goodier, 2011), barriers and constraints (Blismas, Pendlebury, Gibb, & Pasquire, 2005; Mao, Shen, Pan, & Ye, 2013), benefits (Blismas, Pasquire, & Gibb, 2006) and opportunities (Arif, Goulding, & Rahimian, 2012; Goodier & Gibb, 2007)
Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) is viewed as a systematic procedure, which can add value to the construction/production process by standardizing component and reducing design variabilities (Goulding et al, 2015)
The application of DfMA overcomes this problem by breaking the ‘wall’ so that designers can consult manufacturing engineers at the design stage (Boothroyd, 1994), and later forming proprietary methodologies to help them in design (Fox et al, 2001)
Summary
Many studies have explored various aspects of prefabrication, or otherwise known as offsite manufacturing, including its business models (Goulding, Rahimian, Arif, & Sharp, 2015; Pan & Goodier, 2011), barriers and constraints (Blismas, Pendlebury, Gibb, & Pasquire, 2005; Mao, Shen, Pan, & Ye, 2013), benefits (Blismas, Pasquire, & Gibb, 2006) and opportunities (Arif, Goulding, & Rahimian, 2012; Goodier & Gibb, 2007). A report from KPMG (2016) cautioned ‘offsite manufacturing alone will not overcome the challenges the construction industry is facing, to do so requires a partnership with an integrated design process, like the Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) method’. DfMA method is commonly known as methodological procedures for evaluating and improving product design for both economic manufacturing and assembly. Unlike the increasing uptake of lean thinking (originated in manufacturing) by construction firms to improve the construction process, very few studies (Fox, Marsh, & Cockerham, 2001) attempted to shed light on best practices of design engineers, the building designer’s counterparts in manufacturing, in the design stage such as the DfMA method. DfMA can guide cost reduction efforts early in the product design process, so that product’s full potential of lean production can be realized since some potential manufacturing problems and assembly issues have already been addressed in the design. The aim of this paper is to review critically the concepts and principles of DfMA, to discuss the perspectives of DfMA in the construction industry, and to suggest key strategies for better implementation of DfMA in construction
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