Ways of doing business in offsite construction are being reformed by digital practices and platform thinking percolating into the construction sector, both fostered by advances in parallel industries. The highly repetitive, standardized production methodologies that accompanied the Second Industrial Revolution (mass production) introduced product families and design catalogues with little to no variability. Mobile home or kit-of-parts house manufacturers proposed products within a set of constraints and components.
Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (mass customization) is providing the prevalent configured-to-order ideology of variable architecture from a library of digitally organized parts. Current literature points to three business models in the industrialized construction field: the first is vertically integrated, the second is a digitally driven delocalized production model, and the third is related to spinoff factories set up to facilitate an integrated process for the conventional general contractor.
A design platform is the overarching umbrella theory infiltrating all three where chunks or sub-assemblies share similar components, criteria and parameters. The modular volumetric producer, spawned from the evolution of the manufactured housing company is a suitable representation of the vertical integration model. Planning and production are articulated to a dimensionally coordinated prism - the basic chassis (the platform) of any modular project. Supply chains, design possibilities and project management are tuned through a central company which coordinates production from bulk material orders to delivery along with building assembly.
Both the second and third business models are defined by a delocalized process and precise virtual design models that can be modularized and spilt into parts made in non-proprietary factories which are then delivered to site. Supply chains can also be comprehensively managed by a core company, however there is not necessarily one centralized location for production – projects are engineered to specific requirements including place, regulatory frameworks and architectural variability. This type of kit-of-parts approach configured or engineered-to-order relies on standardized details, harmonized supplier and core company relationships, flexible integrated project delivery methods, and upfront planning. These are all geared toward the assembly of interrelated parts common from project to project - simplifying coordination, supported by efficient rationalization and creating economies of scale based on sharing elements and methodologies.
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| Three business models: Left: Modular volumetric centralized production (Champion Homes); Center: Digital platform delocalized production (Project Frog); Right: Flying factory for bespoke building (Skanska) |
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