Yazdi, Alireza Jalali (2022) Developing an integrated design support framework to enable mass-customisation in multi-storey timber building projects. PhD thesis, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.
Abstract
The building industry has adopted mass-customisation (MC) strategies to address effciency issues associated with the customised nature of this sector. Multi-storey apartment buildings constitute a large segment of the Australian building sector, which possesses signifcant potential for MC. MC aims to provide choices for heterogeneous apartment demands in a prefabricated construction context. It intends to deliver marketable building products at a competitive cost close to mass-produced buildings. To maximise their benefts, mass-customisation strategies must be implemented from early design stages by developing a custom product that can be effciently manufactured, transported and assembled onsite. Implementation of general design rules, such as guidelines provided by Design for Manufacture and Assemble (DfMA), at the early design stages can enable the mass-customisability of the fnal building product. Implementing such generic DfMA rules is challenging, particularly due to the mathematical complexity of the building design problem. To successfully address this challenge, a systematic and automatic approach is necessary for exploring different design alternatives. However, the literature is slim in proposing a practical solution to optimise the design for MC. Such an optimisation platform must incorporate offsite manufacturing processes and effcient onsite assembly and installation operations into the design process.This research introduces a design support framework that enables MC of multi-storey buildings by incorporating both offsite manufacturing and onsite assembly requirements. The framework consists of three main components: (1) a design optimisation model to maximise standardisation while maintaining architectural fexibility, (2) a framework for transferring the optimisation results to a digital design platform, and (3) an onsite installation optimisation model for crane scheduling to avoid the formation of bottlenecks in assembling masscustomised components. Due to their increasing market uptake, and their high potential for customisation, Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) buildings are chosen as the case studies for the implementation of MC strategies. The masscustomised building designs were automatically generated and thoroughly explored using evolutionary algorithms. The optimal design solutions were visualised on a Building Information Modelling platform and then were used to generate an accurate bill of quantities for factory production. Results of the case studies showed that up to a 20% decrease in the CLT waste and a 10% decrease in the installation, delays are achievable by adopting the proposed methodologies. The outcomes of this research can be used by the building industry to achieve mass-customised designs that result in minimal waste during manufacture and a more productive onsite installation.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Fini, Alireza Ahmadian Fard; Nezhad, Ali Akbar and Er, Michael |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | building design; building information modelling; case studies; complexity; cross-laminated timber; manufacturing; market; multi-storey; optimisation; scheduling; timber |
| Index terms: | design for manufacture, building industry, standardization, early design stage, bills of quantities, cross-laminated timber, implementation, platform, case study, building information modelling, building design, customization, onsite, evolutionary algorithm, manufacturing process, methodology, design optimization, complexity, design process, scheduling, strategy, apartment building |
| Subjects: | building construction, digital design, design process, manufacturing engineering, algorithms, research methods, contractual arrangements, architectural design, construction manufacturing, operations research, construction type, industry analysis, systems engineering, information systems, performance measurement, management, financial and cost management, building materials, design methods, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Procurement, Quality Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Construction Technology, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Time Control |
| 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