Smart manufacturing for the wooden single-family house industry

Vestin, A (2020) Smart manufacturing for the wooden single-family house industry. PhD thesis, Jönköping University, Sweden.

Abstract

To meet the demand of future building requirements, and to improve productivity and competitiveness, there is a need to modernize and revise the current practices in the wooden single-family house industry. In several other sectors, intensive work is being done to adapt to the anticipated fourth industrial revolution. The manufacturing industry has already begun its transformation with concepts such as smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0. So far, smart manufacturing has not been discussed to any significant extent for the wooden single-family house industry, even though it might be a way for this industry to improve productivity and competitiveness. The research presented in this thesis aims at increased knowledge about what smart manufacturing means for the wooden single-family house industry. This requires investigating what smart wooden house manufacturingis, what challenges that might be associated with it, and how smart wooden house manufacturing can be realized. At the core of this thesis is the conceptualization of smart wooden house manufacturingwhen realized, it is expected to contribute to improve the competitiveness of the wooden single family house industry. The findings presented here are based on three Research Studies. Two studies were case studies within the wooden single-family house industry. The third study was a traditional literature review. The findings revealed two definitions and 26 components of smart wooden house manufacturing. At large, smart wooden house manufacturing emphasizes digital transformation with a focus on digital information flow, how to add information, information compilation, and information distribution between systems/programs and departments. Some of the challenges associated with smart wooden house manufacturing are, e.g. culture, competence and manual transfer of information between systems. The findings indicate similarities of smart wooden house manufacturing within certain components of industrialized house building and Industry 4.0, these components could enable the realization of smart wooden house manufacturing.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Thesis advisor: Säfsten, K; Löfving, M and Schauerte, T
Uncontrolled Keywords: house building; manufacturing; productivity; competence; competitiveness; culture; case studies
Index terms: information distribution, fourth industrial revolution, competitiveness, productivity, transformation, industry 4.0, case study, program, competence, literature review, manufacturing industry, information flow, industrialized house-building
Subjects: management, software systems, professional development, personnel development, industry analysis, information systems, data collection methods, business, technology adoption, data analysis and analytics, market analysis, construction type
Topics: Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy, Construction Technology, Human Resources, Digital Applications
Descriptive scope: 4 PCEA

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