Prefabrication is one strategy that has gained traction within construction and allows a team to mature from managing pure site-built projects, the vast majority of developments happening today, to an off-site manufacturing and assembly approach.

Moving construction processes off site into a prefab shop offers nominal advantages. The controlled environment permits work to continue regardless of inclement weather, quality is improved in a controlled environment, and skilled labor can be concentrated in the warehouse while unskilled labor can be deployed to perform on-site assembly.

While prefabrication solves some logistical problems, it also carries some critical limitations. Prefabricated components are limited to a maximum size and weight since they still must be transported to the jobsite. This process creates two locations to control because some assembly work happens in the prefab shop, while other activities take place on the construction site. These logistical issues increase the cost of large, low-density prefabricated assemblies.

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Over the last decade, the construction industry has come to terms with the need to make significant changes. Most major players have taken steps to improve efficiency, borrowing lessons from manufacturing industries and adopting digital design, off-site construction and prefabrication strategies. However, there are critical differences between high-volume, mass-production, industrialized manufacturing and one-off, hyper-customized, large-scale construction projects. These differences demonstrate the need for an altogether new approach to construction delivery.

Lessons from the Industrial Revolution

Until the Industrial Revolution, craftsmanship was the sole solution for creating goods, including buildings. Each product was developed by hand, with the potential for quality to vary across goods produced.

THE TRAJECTORY OF PRODUCTION STRATEGIES THROUGH THE INDUSTRIAL AGE

REFERENCE: “The drivers to new paradigms are market and society needs.” The Global Manufacturing Revolution: Product-Process-Business Integration and Reconfigurable Systems by Yoram Koren (November 2010). Reprinted with permission from John Wiley & Sons.

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, manufacturers were able to mass-produce goods to satisfy demand with a high volume of products. The tradeoff is that mass production relies on component standardization and limited product variety to achieve cost efficiencies. This standardization at high volumes removes any opportunity for personalized production.

Manufacturers of mass-produced goods are now beginning to navigate this challenge as they recognize the limits of industrialization in their own context. The emergence of Industry 4.0 is meant to support manufacturers in harnessing data to drive greater flexibility in production processes and the mass customization of goods. (more…)