Abstract
It is widely known that industrialized building systems can positively impact construction projects in terms of efficiency, duration, safety, and quality. Although the use of industrialized building systems can potentially simplify the production process on-site, the complexity of the overall delivery system tends to be high, especially in engineered-to-order (ETO) environments, due to factors such as uncertainty related to goals and methods, conflicts between different trades on-site, and interdependence between supply chain members. This paper explores the concept of modularity, which has proven to be useful in different industries as a way of dealing with complex systems. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how modularity can reduce the complexity of ETO industrialized building systems, in companies that adopt a mass customization strategy. This investigation is based on two descriptive case studies on the development of modular structural steel systems for buildings that have adopted innovative beam-to-column connections. The main contribution of this research is demonstrating the need to adopt an integrated product and process-oriented conceptualization of modularity in industrialized building systems. Moreover, the comparison between the two case studies pointed out that the management of tolerances plays a key role in achieving high productivity and short lead times in structural steel building systems. This investigation also illustrates how the adoption of a limited set of modular components can be used to decouple design decisions, and standardize different types of processes.
Highlights
Potential benefits of industrialized building systems in comparison to on-site stick-built systems include: increase in productivity [1], improvement in working conditions [2], better quality [3], reduction of construction waste [4], and higher sustainability performance [5].Industrialization in construction is all too often viewed as using off-the-shelf mass-produced components that are fabricated off-site
The aim of this paper is to illustrate how modularity can reduce the complexity of ETO industrialized building systems, structural steel systems for building construction
This paper has contributed to the understanding of how modularity can reduce the complexity of ETO industrialized building systems, based on two case studies from companies that devised modular structural steel systems
Summary
Potential benefits of industrialized building systems in comparison to on-site stick-built systems include: increase in productivity [1], improvement in working conditions [2], better quality [3], reduction of construction waste [4], and higher sustainability performance [5].Industrialization in construction is all too often viewed as using off-the-shelf mass-produced components that are fabricated off-site. Industrialized building systems can potentially simplify the production process by reducing of the number of steps, parts, and linkages [10], the level of complexity in ETO industrialized building systems is usually high: (i) much uncertainty exists because it is necessary to define delivery dates in the early project stages, when the product is not yet completely defined [7]; (ii) as is the case on any other construction projects, unanticipated conflicts may arise between trades on-site during site installation [11]; (iii) the supply chain tends to be complex, involving several companies or business units [12]; and (iv) some resources, such as manufacturing plants, assembly equipment, and crews, must be shared among different construction projects [13]. This type of production system fits the definition of project complexity proposed by Williams [14], which has two dimensions:
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