Configuration of Platform Architectures in Construction

Sammanfattning: Construction is often defined as a project oriented industry developing complex one-of-a-kind products in an engineer-to-order (ETO) driven process by temporary organizations. That is resulting in a fragmented design process with loose connection between different disciplines. Many studies indicate that the early stages of product development is critical for product constructability, but technical solutions that are developed in specific projects lead to integral product architectures that are difficult to re-use in a continuous improvement process. The ETO process also means that very few components can be produced before ordering, a prerequisite for creating economies of scale in production. By changing the product realization process to "modify- to-Order" (MTO), "configure- to-order" (CTO) or "select variant" (STP), which is based on the theories of mass customization, technical solutions can be reused between the specific projects. However, several researchers in the construction industry proclaim that the contexts of construction industry cannot be compared with other industries and products. The variation of interacting functional requirements creates unique end products that cannot be separated in similar way as in the manufacturing industry. Arguments are based on the uniqueness of the end products that is analysed with regards to the highest level in the product architecture, which is why a more nuanced view is required. Mass Customisation can be described as an approach to combine economies of scale from mass production with increased customization for the end customer. To successfully achieve this, the generic product architecture need to be based on a modular architecture with clear separation between functional requirements (FR) and design parameters ( DP) and well-specified interfaces between the modules. Selected market segment affects the demand for product customization relatively the order point and thus affects its product realization process; MTO, CTO and STP, whereupon the selected specification level also affects the generic product architecture with its product platform and how the customization can be done. The purpose of this thesis is to describe whether and how mass customization can be used in the construction industry by describing the relationships between product architectures and the specification levels. Several case studies in the specification levels MTO, CTO and STP have been made based on theory of mass customization. The case studies have been performed in a deductive approach where theories have been tested in real cases and validated through experiments. Results from the cases have improved the understanding in this area and been used in following case studies, why the thesis as a whole can be described as abduction. Research results shows that in the MTO and CTO specification level, product platforms should be based on modules that can be developed incrementally. STP products can be developed with integral product architecture, but if changes in the customer segment occur there is great risk that production will be affected negatively. In all studied specification levels, it is important to understand the market segment volumes to justify the development costs. Introduction of "Design variant module" for modular systems means that configurators for subsystems can be developed. Customization of MTO platforms then consists of a mixture of traditional design and configuration of modules. But to accomplish this, the link between ICT tools in the MTO and CTO process needs to be connected with traditional ICT tools in the construction industry. However, using modular product architectures in the design greatly reduce the information exchange between disciplines. If STP products are developed customization can be done using a web interface. In conclusion, if using the "Products in Product" concept (Erixon, 1998) it is possible to implement theories from mass customization in construction. It is also seen that modular product architecture creates opportunities to repair information chains and minimizes the exchange of information between different disciplines, enabling the use of ICT tools developed in other industries. By introducing a new module category to the existing theory, namely "Design variant module", the traditional design process (ETO) can be coupled with predefined product platforms and develop incrementally.