Sarden, Y and Stehn, L (2006) Industrialisation as a tool for reducing uncertainty in construction. In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 22nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2006, Birmingham, UK.
Abstract
Construction projects are complex and have become more so during the late 20th century. This complexity is due to the failure of planning mechanisms and the apparent inability of plans to represent the reality of on-site construction. The occurrence of unpredictable events disrupts site processes and site conditions sometimes approach that of chaos. One strategy to deal with chaotic site conditions is to increase industrialisation, i.e. a controlled construction process following a predicted plan. The Swedish government suggests that increased competition could be obtained by an augmented use of timber in housing construction through developed building systems for multi-storey houses, and by using the knowledge of single family house manufacturers as catalysts for increased industrialisation in housing. Timber is a relatively 'new' frame material in Swedish multi-storey housing. Hence, the knowledge, techniques and business relations needed for timber housing are lacking in many aspects. The increased competition and the absence of knowledge, techniques and business relations, together with a focus on industrialisation, gives the construction sector a great opportunity to develop general construction activities by engaging in timber frame projects. The case study results presented in this paper provide a broad view of the use of different prefabrication strategies used in the Swedish timber housing market and how these strategies decrease the uncertainty experienced by many stakeholders when choosing a 'new' material such as timber for their facilities. The aim was to examine the possibility to use industrialisation as a tool for reducing uncertainty in construction. To manage this, three Swedish, multi-storey timber projects that have adopted a high degree of industrialised production were studied. The conclusion is that the novelty, and uncertainty, of Swedish, high-rise timber housing do not lie in the material, but in the new products, new techniques and new actors. Introducing prefabricated system components with a high degree of built-in knowledge concerning design and assembly may reduce uncertainties. If these components can be industrially produced, e.g. controlled and standardised, the uncertainty can be reduced even further.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | industrialisation; lean construction; prefabrication; project management; solid timber frame housing |
| Index terms: | case study, lean construction, site process, manufacturer, industrialization, construction activity, strategy, competition, residential construction, construction process, building system, construction project, complexity, project management, housing, prefabrication, construction sector |
| Subjects: | systems engineering, industry analysis, building construction, market analysis, project management theory and practice, production management, construction integration, economic development, management, construction operations, operations management, practitioner, engineering systems, construction type, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Construction Technology, Sustainability, Roles and Professions, Project Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Business Strategy, Site Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here