Prefabrication and industrialized construction intellectualize edifices and their parts as products resulting from harnessing the efficiencies of manufacturing principles. The spectrum of manufacturing processes that have been related to building include job (offsite produced prototypes), batch (mobile homes) and flow (modular building). The methodologies vary from completely customized to mass produced. Job production is most closely related to construction. Materials, labour, and tools are set up or arranged to fabricate a unique object or product according to a predetermined design. Objects generated in this way are usually complex, errors can be corrected along the way and a prototype is the result.
Architecture and construction are a type of job process and perhaps here lies the challenge of industrializing their production. Industrial processes are based on continuous and repeating methods and materials to realize economies of scale. Batch and flow, both serial production, include prototyping as part of the design process, not the result. Supply chains and production strategies are studied to design for productivity. Batch production determines an amount after which each subsequent collection can be tweaked to further increase efficiencies. This requires a high level of standardization. Flow processes are related to the batch process but tuned to a just-in-time methodology as tasks are organized to allow each step of production to be tweaked and optimized.
Mobile homes, modular and panelized construction have proven that putting a building together can become, ideologically, more like production. Singularity, however, is still a strong concept that impedes high levels of industrialization in most cultures. Building edifices as prototypes is part of the problem. Prototyping is part of an industrial process that once optimized makes batch and flow production both feasible and fruitful. Aiming to include industrial prototyping in construction, Virtual Design and Construction using information technology is the current way of testing before building. The knowledge gained from prototyping is augmented from project to project, fostering integration and decreasing fragmented decision making which has become the emblem of construction inefficiencies. Architecture could benefit from this outlook that is closer to making things from of a design for production process.
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| job, batch or flow in industrialized architecture and construction |
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