Writing Assignment : A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

Introduction The building and construction industry is exactly one of the most important that contribute to global economies. It also is the crucial process of architecture. Regarding the construction sector has a great say in any initiative development and any basic infrastructure of living.

Thus, the direct and indirect activities of construction sector have highly influential impact on the micro and macro-economic aspects of our nations (Majdalani et al., 2006). If related industries are included, such as manufacturers of building products and systems, architects, engineers, suppliers and construction companies, the construction sector accounts for about 15% of the national product of most countries (Marceau et al. 1999; Seaden and Manseau 2001, cited in Blayse and Manley, 2004).

Looking back to the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century (this transition from hand production methods to machine production methods), human has developed technology and scientific knowledge for improving standard of living throughout decades; people invented and learned how to use machine as a labour-saving device. Assembly line was invented by Harry Ford is a clear example; it can produce a new method of car manufacture. Then, moving to the twentieth century, construction sector is more diverse than any time of architectural history. Living and working places are necessary demands of life in the modernised world. In many industries, a company’s ability to develop mass products efficiently and effectively is required to stay competitive. Therefore, the achievement of technological competence has influenced the radical change in construction techniques because construction has developed from the hand craft to the industrialised including mass production (Veenstra et al., 2006).

The purpose of this essay is to determine and evaluate the factors that influence the initiation, implementation and successful development of modular housing which is result of industrialised architecture. Specifically, the three main questions Figure1: Assembly line by Henry Ford.

Image source: www.ford.co.uk

addressed by this study are as follows:

1. What is the different and similar between car manufacturing and construction sector?

How does it adapt to each other or it is impossible to do so?

2. How to change the nature of traditional construction company in which always follow the familiar technical knowledge?

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Vasuta Chan – MSc Advanced Sustainable Design

3. What types of contractor–supplier relationships are needed to develop and produce a modular housing system successfully?

Similarity of car manufacture and construction sector To begin with the useful background, there is a long tradition of seeing the manufacturing industry. Car manufacturing, for instance, has been widely known as a high demand in the globalised world. Car producers that can provide variety of products by using a modular approach and product platforms inspire the construction industry (Unger, 2006). Such phenomenon is a key concept of modular architecture. This is often referred to as industrialised architecture in how to build a larger number of houses while cost and time are saved. In the early 1900s, houses for factory production inspired by Ford’s methods were initially developed by influential architects (Gann 1996, cited in Unger, 2006). From this point it can be seen that the similar behaviour of mass production between car and building can be adopted to develop different aspect of frameworks.

Figure2: Show the different of car production and building production

However, Reichstein (2005) argued that cars and houses are completely different products so the production of them must be organised in different ways. For instance, it can be seen from 2

A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

figure2 houses are produced at the same place as they are located which normally response and interact with surroundings, whereas cars are shipped to the showrooms from the factories which mean every process of production is already finished at the factories (Unger, 2006).

Thus the construction industry is designed to operate various activities in construction procedures to create a unique product in unique location. This means builders play a vital role of on-site construction, although the majority of materials and components were produced in factory before transferring to site location. By way of contrast, in car production, large volumes of car components are produced and assembled by automated machines in the same place, so labour skills are less important than machines. This could imply logistics supply and labour need are considered in the different approaches. Such differences are the effect of production principles that are possible and feasible to transfer (Unger, 2006).

Moreover, in order to reach social demands and client’s requirements, it was widely asserted that the materials or components must be made between the uses of unique parts and standardised parts. However, if there are too extensive standardisations of building systems, it was found to be difficult to adapting the buildings to specific conditions. Therefore, it was not seen as a feasible way forward that standardisation would achieve large volume production (Unger, 2006). Furthermore, according to Hofman (2009) there are several reasons were revealed why the suppliers or builders preferred working in traditional methods which they are familiar rather than working in new standardised construction techniques. One of the reason is builders were unfamiliar with the new techniques and it could take long time to learn thus their willingness to work by previous experience. Anyway, Hofman (2009) also suggested that if the supplier had been involved in design for manufacturing and material development, it could have been improved because they can directly discover the tangible benefits.

To this point the focus has been on the similarity and difference of car and house production, particularly in addressing the terms of standardisation that occasionally builders would not follow the new techniques. However, it is important to recognise that innovation is really important for recent construction techniques. I will therefore now consider innovation of construction sector and investigate how it does develop; because it is one of the most essential that could drive the future direction of architecture.

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Vasuta Chan – MSc Advanced Sustainable Design

Innovation of construction sector It is widely acknowledged that one of the key

factors

contributing

to

national

economic growth, competitiveness, and higher

living

standards

is

result

of

innovation; it is a part of modern life (Ozorhon, 2013). Thus, it is considered a vital role of construction sector. Research has contributed to the analysis of innovation at the project level. In term of developing technology

in

materials,

environmental

sustainability has driven agendas (Blayse

Figure3: The process of developing innovation in construction sector

and Manley, 2004).

Therefore, scientific methods provide a framework to explore various components of innovation. The main sources for construction innovation are manufacturing firms, because basically they provide innovative components and building products are often incorporated into buildings (Anderson and Manseau 1999, cited in Blayse and Manley, 2004). In fact, it can be seen from figure3 manufacturing firms tend to manage in more stable and standardised markets than do contractors and consultants, allowing them to maintain research and develop programmes(R&D). These programmes are key drivers of innovation in the construction sector. Manufacturing firms are also able to increase knowledge bases because they do not need to focus on project based, enabling them to avoid learning discontinuities. Then the original innovations developed by manufacturers are adopted by construction clients, contractors and consultants, all of these process improving the performance of the construction industry (Blayse and Manley, 2004). In other words, the better construction technique is the sake of architecture.

In addition, according to Dubois and Gadde (2000) that the main factor for the construction industry’s failure to develop its efficiency and innovation is a lack of relationships between firms. This leads to difficulties in gathering and allocating corporate learning among projects: the project-based, customised design and execution process fails to capture the benefits of standardised work processes (Hofman et al., 2009). Thus, firms should have some specific capabilities to benefit from research. For construction organisations to take full advantage of

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A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

innovation, they need to have sufficient ‘absorptive capacity’. Gann (2001) considered that absorptive ability is a function of prior knowledge and on-going technical capability. For this point, the extent to which firms employ a ‘critical mass’ of professionally qualified employees able to comprehend research results is totally significant (Blayse and Manley, 2004).

Transferring from traditional to industrialised firm Clearly innovation of construction and absorptive ability of firms are very important, and these have been outlined above. However, dealing with change of cultural method in construction organisations is not easy. Issues related to this situation will now be considered, with a focus on Netherland.

Dutch house-building company will be examine in various aspects of details that is developing an ‘industrialised’ modular housing system in collaboration with several specialised suppliers. Notions of aligning modular product architectures, which have spread widely through other industrial and retail sectors, have largely bypassed the house-building industry (Hofman et al, 2009).

A new idea of working by Vos Construction, part of the Vos Group, was used as a case study.

It is a building development company organising in the central, north and east parts of Netherlands. The company has about 550 workers, but can make profit of about E140 million per year. An important measurement in selecting this company for study was its developing and offering conceptual customised housing. To address the different demand, several initial models of unique house types were developed by Plegt-Vos Living, a department within Vos Construction, in 2003. Each house type starts concept with lowest standard requirements. The analysed framework of this design concept takes customisation and standardisation to a higher level than possible with the current concept, Vos Construction and the architect Jan Wind are now developing a new type of house with modular product architecture (Veenstra et al., 2006).

Vos Construction collaborates Wind Company fulfilled the role of systems architect in developing the system multi-project level modules, such as floor parts (structure and system), exterior walls, columns and their interfaces. The design rules for the new products (functions and interfaces) is operated by them to restructured and aligned the supply chain to achieve the desired result of modularised housing. Vos Construction and Wind Company did not own the

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Vasuta Chan – MSc Advanced Sustainable Design

fundamental resources (materials and money) or the knowledge which are required to develop and produce these modules. One of the intentions, for instance, is to assemble the pre-cast concrete parts on site in the multi-project level, which is generally produced off-site.

Vos Construction, however, is a traditional construction company so they do not own factories and have no comprehensive experience with industrial production systems.

Therefore, Vos Construction has to rely on external suppliers and outsource production and in so doing gain access to essential resources and knowledge (Hofman et al, 2009).

During meetings with different suppliers, it became clear that the suppliers were initially defiant to lose money in developing new product lines to create the new modules or to invest in, for example, the special moulds needed to produce the structural floor parts. This is symbolic of a decentralised business network: participants do not have sufficient power to force partners to follow their new design rules, even when it is proved that the new design rules are better than the old methods in terms of increased efficiency and timing in product development (Hofman et al, 2009).

In the above discussion several aspects of innovation have been considered. It is important however to start examining modular architecture because it could be accounted for one of the reflection of industrialised architecture.

Modular architectures in terms of mass production Due to inadequate of building materials and labours after the Second World War; mass production became the reasonable answer for housing in Europe. Many European governments supported mass production of housing by launching various housing projects during the 1950s and 1960s to rapidly restore living and working places which ruined by war (Adler 2001, cited in Unger, 2006).

To mention one of the most obvious exemplar, Crystal Palace was one of the great monuments of nineteenth-century architecture. It was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton to house the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations in 1851; locating in Hyde Park, London. The Great Exhibition building was 564 metres long, with an interior height of 39 metres. Due to the recent invention of the cast plate glass method in 1848, it allowed for large sheets of cheap but strong glass, it was at the time the largest amount of glass ever seen in a building (Architecture.com, n.d.). In that time of period, it was initially industrialisation architecture; one size of glass was chosen and this in turn determined the size of the repetitive units.

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A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

Therefore, modular design enabled a low cost of construction and it also would be built quickly due to repetitive size and kind of material (Figure4). In just nine months 19 acres of Hyde Park were under glass.

After the exhibition at Hyde Park; it was shipped and re-erected in Sydenham in south of London, which was the last site until the fire of 30 November 1936 (Architecture.com, n.d.).

Modularity can be referred to a system for manipulating Figure4: Illustrate the concept of modular design of Crystal Palace

complex

products

and

processes

effectively. Generally, a modular system is organised of modules that are independently designed but work

as an integrated whole (Baldwin and Clark 1997, cited in Hofman et al., 2009). System combinations are determined by the final product architecture. Consequently, Baldwin and Clark (1997) suggested that there are three viewpoints of modularity that architects or designers have to be balanced: modularity in use, modularity in production, and modularity in design (Hofman et al., 2009).

Firstly, modularity in use is about offering variety. Customers have opportunities to mix and match elements depending on their own lifestyles and tastes. The costs can be reduced by using modular product designs because funding sources of modular product is cheaper than with fully customised and or unique solutions. Secondly, modularity in production is a development process into controllable tasks that can be operated independently of each other and then achieved through the assembling of the production. Lastly, modularity in design is achieved by integrating information into visible design rules and procuring benefits of mass production (Hofman et al., 2009). Thus, construction is of mass production, each material has been produced in factory before transferring to the market, so supplier system is more complicated than the past.

The product architecture can be referred modular method and has been designed in such a way that offsite production is possible for a large number of components or materials.

However, the rest subsystems of building will still be assembled onsite location. To examine the aspects in modularising product architecture, the Design for Variety method was used (Veenstra et al., 2006). This method is for manipulating design process to enable designers or

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Vasuta Chan – MSc Advanced Sustainable Design

architects in initial developing of product architecture that incorporates standardisation and modularisation which aims to decrease design and construction costs (Hofman et al, 2009).

Supply chain structure designs are complementary and that alignment leads to better performance, these were found in the previous research in other industries such as the aircraft, and computer industries (Brusoni et al. 2001, cited in Hofman et al., 2009). For example, Novak and Eppinger (2001) supported that integral product architectures (products consisting of a large number of components that are highly interdependent) worked well with more integrated supply chain structures (Hofman et al., 2009). A number of academic reports have examined this relationship and suggest that a modular architecture, with standardised materials between the modules, enables the firms supplying the modules to specialise. Fully specified materials define the input and output requirements for the several modules and influence the firms to carry out their development, production, and marketing plans autonomously and concurrently (Sanchez 2000, cited in Hofman et al., 2009).

In these present days, the housing industry is finding design methods of their future house to facilitate and improve the influence of the customer demands, but it should not be increasing the price too much and missing the benefits of project-based production (Wolters 2001, cited in Hofman et al., 2009). If a modularisation strategy will be adopted by a housing company, it can choose between two sub-strategies. Firstly, it could compete as a systems architect and integrator (Hofman et al, 2009); defining the product architecture or mass production and developing the design processes for a product made up of modules, and then communicate this to its suppliers. Alternatively, it can be a competition of module supplier that who can produces materials or components that meet to the design by architect (Baldwin and Clark 1997, cited in Hofman et al, 2009).

New characteristic of construction firm To produce variety effectively, modern construction methods that are based on modularity in design and production are adopted increasingly by housing suppliers. The key idea for integrating efficiency and variety is the sharing of a generic platforms and modules across various products and projects. This aspect makes it possible to reduce complex process but in the same time increase diversity and flexibility in product design (Sanderson and Uzumeri 1995; Muffato and Roveda 2000; Halman et al. 2003, cited in Hofman et al., 2009), increase speed in product development, reduce product development costs and increase product reliability (Muffato and Roveda 2000, cited in Hofman et al, 2009).

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A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

Interestingly, construction companies have been developing to be beyond than typical constructors or builders. They have improved the quality of traditional craft and also developed the level of complexity of a production by providing various services such as CAD drawing, technical support, design service, structural calculations, on-site support and Installation. These companies tend to be popular among architects because they understand the conceptual design and also can develop detail design in the same way of architect (Gambatese and Hallowell, 2011). A big company name SCG in Thailand is a case in point.

In fact, in the past they were just manufacturer of construction materials but nowadays they are providing information of construction process and also have plenty of designers for sitevisiting service. Customers of them are diversity including architects, engineers, builders or just ordinary people who want to decorate or refurbish their own houses. This sort of services enables easy tasks to architects. Thus it can be seen that this company is very successful in Thailand in short period of time.

The importance of procurement system Having examined the role of modular architecture and reviewed a precedent of new character of construction organisation, it is now necessary to consider the procurement system which is a vital role that can drive the industrialised construction.

A detailed understanding of manufacturing, supplier and how to design properly with the materials in the market should result in saving construction time and also reducing cost of construction comparison with traditional construction methods (Gambatese and Hallowell, 2011). As this aspect, procurement system is a key factor in driving construction for more complex projects. To improve communication, development, and negotiation outcomes on straightforward, projects partnering alongside fixed cost contracts might be involved. (Blayse and Manley, 2004). At various points in the procurement process, it is increasingly clear that the framework and associated predictive model will be of essential use, for instance, in client’s estimating. Nevertheless, implementing such a proposed framework into the entire procurement process as currently practised would produce several cultural, financial and social challenges that would need to be reached. For example, should a client specify to a contractor that they should use the client’s construction programme produced from a typical model of framework? (Blyth., 2004). Cost and time in construction process can be estimated if procurement system is prepared favourable.

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Vasuta Chan – MSc Advanced Sustainable Design

The scope of standardised programme could be quickly created from limited project information. However, the simplification of working processes would allow information models, time schedule, and budget to be built smoothly in the future. Unless unnecessary procedures have not been eliminated, project delivery timescale, administration and management costs and project waste would not be reduced (Blyth et al, 2004).

Relationship of each party in industrialised housing In these days, it is increasingly accepted that a wide range of roles in the construction industry is necessary to provide a variety of construction projects. Many factors influence on recent construction were noted: clients and manufacturing firms, structure of production, industry relationships, procurement systems, regulations/standards, and organisational resources. Although presenting many challenges, these influences can be strategically managed to maximise construction outcomes (Blayse and Manley, 2004).

Therefore, relationship between designers, contractors and clients is interesting point; the major question is what types of designer-contractor-client relationships are needed to develop and produce a modular housing system successfully (Hofman et al, 2009). Communication in construction process, collaborative working among team members and strong commitment proved to be the strategy of vital success; reluctance, cost, and inexperience were regarded as obstacles to construction development. Sophisticated understanding of the nature of industrialised architecture could improve innovation performance. Thus, the developed framework is expected to be suitable to other project-based environments (Ozorhon, 2013).

A ‘culture of collaboration’, in which people are able to question ways of working without fear of penalty if the ambiguous detail happen in any parts of construction; a shared perception that participants are all striving to achieve a greater result of each other’s goals because each career always has different background for looking and considering at things (Barlow 2000, cited in Blayse and Manley, 2004). Basically, it should be awareness that success learning requires openness to new ideas and on-going dialogue (Love et al, 2002).

In 1985, the contractor of the project has started to be partner with the client, when the client decided to take benefit of collaborated working with their contractors. The main factor for these alliances was to keep developed their construction time so that they would be built faster for less money and would offer high performance building (Ozorhon, 2013).

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A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

Figure5: Relationship of creating innovation process in construction project.

In the project, it can be seen from figure 5, construction companies do not usually seek new technique or method by themselves because the ease of traditional system allows familiar task to them, so clients should play an important role in both creating the project conditions in which boundary of work can flourish and in detailed understanding and communicating project needs to the related parties. In other words, client can act as a great leader and create new ideas for supportive framework which concerned about environment. The strategic partnering approach was the primary success of this type of project. The contractor typically conducted research and develop programmes (R&D) on behalf of the client and shared specific knowledge to explore new solutions for the client. Thus, expertise and experience gained throughout the variety of projects, starting from the early design to construction procedures and operated management, were critical. The partnering approach throughout the supply chain and the repeatability of the modularised project was a key element in ensuring the diffusion of industrialised construction. The contractor also takes advantage from the buying power of their partnering client, which was crucial to achieve the cost effectiveness of the energy efficient products, because in product development and production, companies

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Vasuta Chan – MSc Advanced Sustainable Design

essentially can opt to develop and produce parts in-house or they can buy development and standardised production capacity on the market (Ozorhon, 2013).

The important point which should be considered is related to overcoming barriers that prevent development. The construction sector seems unwilling to invest in new ways or techniques of construction, because in order to shift from the traditional way of working is challenging and nobody can completely guarantee that the huge amount of investment will return in certain time. However, collaborative working, long-term procurement relationships, and early engagement in projects are efficient methods of developing trust among co-workers and thereby facilitating industrialised construction. In addition, management support is indispensable to break employees’ resistance to change (Ozorhon, 2013).

The leader in manufacturer fulfils the role of systems architect. Nevertheless, suppliers and constructors have to meet the high expected level of demands of numerous customers in decentralised networks, and the standardisations are determined by component producers, assemblers, and users through market processes or negotiation. Nobody in the network has right to control others, and if other producers and users do not follow their lead, anyone who attempts to standardise in decentralised network would be risked isolation. Thus most construction firms are now organising in such a decentralised network of suppliers and customers, and draw on the production capacity of various external suppliers. In this kind of networks, it is difficult to function as a lead firm, a systems architect, and introduce design rules for standardised product modules. This is also due to the natural way of working in the construction industry and the often distinctive site environmental contexts. The alternatives to standardise are usually limited to the project level: construction projects can be seen as temporary companies between and within companies, and therefore standardisation at the multi-project level is difficult as project teams and product designs change from project to project (Hofman et al, 2009).

According to Hofman (2009) it is difficult to make strong recommendations for improving modular housing system. However, it is useful to investigate relationship strategies that are important to construction outcomes. These include: 1) As client is a vital role of developing framework, enhancing client leadership through high levels of technical skill, advanced demand patterns, and cautious risk-taking. Wider vision is result in wider outcome.

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A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

2) Improving vigorous relationships with manufacturers supplying the industry, by supporting their research & development programs, which will be long-term benefit for all parties.

3) Gathering integrated background aspects to construction projects, in respect to proliferation of small group of parties such as suppliers, which have different attitudes to project. In this case empirical data would be necessary to support when the different attitude arise.

4) Contributing knowledge flows, by developing more intensive industry relationships between clients, designers and contractors to ameliorate the drawbacks of production based on temporary alliances of firms.

5) Compilation of previous experiences into continuous business processes to reduce the loss of technical knowledge between projects. Making mistakes are sort of learning but it should not be occurring again.

6) Promoting innovative procurement systems, including partnering or alliancing, to enhance cooperative problem solving, the adoption of nonstandard solutions, and equitable allocation of risk.

Conclusion The literature review supports that industrialised architecture is result of innovation of construction sector, modular design also is one aspect of industrialised architecture but it is essential in terms of developing national economic. It is understandable that the population growth is expected to increase in the future, the proportion of living and working place should be cautiously considered; and the modular housing can be right solution for this issue due to several exemplars which were mentioned in this paper. The decentralised method is a strategy to achieve a goal that every related party in construction sector has to collaborate and operate in diverse approaches. Based on the analysis of the contractor–supplier relationships, different supplier relationships could be distinguished for different product modules: integrated and non-integrated relationships. Importantly, the optimistic vision of the client also is a key reason to drive the new modular framework, even the large amount of investment cannot be exactly guaranteed in some cases. It should be considered long-term benefit rather than short-term outcome. Furthermore, if the procurement system in traditional method is remodelled, several outcomes are the advantage for participants. The future 13

Vasuta Chan – MSc Advanced Sustainable Design

direction of industrialised construction is now developing and it will never be stop. Further research is needed to explore the significance of risks of different contractor– supplier relationships.

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A Review of Contemporary Systems for Industrialised Housing

References Architecture.com, (n.d.). The Crystal Palace. [online] Available at: http://www.architecture.com/Explore/Buildings/CrystalPalace.aspx [Accessed 18 Oct. 2014].

Blayse, A. and Manley, K. (2004). Key influences on construction innovation. Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management, 4(3), pp.143-154.

Blyth, K., Lewis, J. and Kaka, A. (2004). Developing a framework for a standardized works programme for building projects. Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management, 4(4), pp.193-210.

Gambatese, J. and Hallowell, M. (2011). Factors that influence the development and diffusion of technical innovations in the construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 29(5), pp.507-517.

Hofman, E., Voordijk, H. and Halman, J. (2009). Matching supply networks to a modular product architecture in the house-building industry. Building Research & Information, 37(1), pp.31-42.

Love, P., Irani, Z., Cheng, E. and Li, H. (2002). A model for supporting inter-organizational relations in the supply chain. Eng, Const and Arch Man, 9(1), pp.2-15.

Majdalani, Z., Ajam, M. and Mezher, T. (2006). Sustainability in the construction industry: a Lebanese case study. Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management, 6(1), pp.33-46.

Ozorhon, B. (2013). Analysis of Construction Innovation Process at Project Level. J. Manage. Eng., 29(4), pp.455-463.

Unger, C. (2006). Industrialised house building - fundamental change or business as usual?.

Doctoral Thesis. KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Veenstra, V., Halman, J. and Voordijk, J. (2006). A methodology for developing product platforms in the specific setting of the housebuilding industry. Res Eng Design, 17(3), pp.157-173.

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