Prefabrication experiments - 323 - Manufacturing methodologies - 03 - Made-to-stock

Made-to-stock is the consequence of mass production. Inventories are managed and derived from anticipated demand. Prognostics synchronized with supply chains determine product quantities, which are tagged, stored, and made available for purchase. Made-to-stock components redefined the way buildings are made in an industrialized economy. Fabrication of pieces, parts, equipment, or assemblies is decentralized, and supply is governed through project-specific documentation. Pieces are described, classified, and specified by architects, engineers and builders. Stocked pieces are brought together by general contractors to complete singular buildings repeating this same integration process from building to building. At best components are dimensionally coordinated but generally building elements and hardware are made without explicit regard to how they will come together. In rare cases manufacturers coordinate or facilitate assembly criteria, however onsite coordination has remained an artisanal and entangled undertaking.   Detailing has been the architectural solution to this very real challenge; architects specify, precisely draft, and arrange how all components are to be juxtaposed and fixed on the building site. In architecture and construction, this made-to-stock or off-the-shelf approach helped define a building culture marked by normalized conventions for itemizing contractual procurement and assembly of buildings. 

 

Organizing systemic hierarchies along with regulating production metrics and dimensions were all established to bring disparate elements together in a coherent and legally framed manner and have contributed to the «catalogued» industrialization of construction. Masonry, timber and steel are all identified by some type of normalized format, modular brick, the 2 by 4 and steel shapes can be ordered, purchased, and specified through industry channels understood and federated by producers, trades and professionals. A notable example of made-to-stock manufacturing in construction is the consistency of timber framing members. Pieces are cut to standardized sizes available for variable building projects. The platform frame, an evolution of balloon framing and box framing before industrialization is perhaps the greatest success story of applying made-to-stock methodology to construction. Each stud, joist or sill is milled to dimensional regularity, both in section and lengths. Timber norms were influenced by years of increasing demand for these versatile elements. Architects, builders, or lumber resellers, all stakeholders required the commodity to be of homogenous quality and compatible from the stock of one lumberyard to another. 

Made-to-stock milled timber