Criticism concerning quality deficiencies and high production costs for housing has made many construction companies make efforts to improve performance, inspired by ideas from the manufacturing industry and in particular the car industry. This is often referred to as industrialised building. The ideas are not new but so far their spread has been limited. This study covers two years of one current effort to industrialise house building in a Swedish construction company, the Peab group. An investment in a new factory for automated production of concrete building elements had been made and start up of production in the factory took place during the time of the study. Two subunits, a contractor and a structural building element supplier were involved in the industrialisation effort and the study is confined to these. To improve performance, a prefabricated building system including Peab standards was to be developed and used across the organisation, instead of the existing local solutions. A project, Peab Gemensamt System concept (PGS), was established to conduct the task. The focus for the study is on the facilitators and barriers to make organisational changes for the purpose of industrialising house building in a construction company. Observations were made at meetings with the PGS core team and the involved Peab group staff was interviewed. Notions of organisational competence and embedded knowledge and action were applied to describe the studied company’s specific organisational context and to identify facilitators and barriers. Conclusions concern how organisational context, content of change and the change process interrelated and formed the outcome. In this case, fundamental ideas for change became local attempts. Establishing a project, PGS, for conducting change was new to the target organisation. Facilitators were not created to allow the organisation to learn to change in this new way. The PGS project could therefore not contribute directly to change. One building project introduced a prefabricated building system. It was beyond the team’s control to make necessary changes to benefit from it. Therefore, temporary adaptations to prevailing organisational conditions were made. Another building project introduced a new way of working during the detail design stage. It was within the team’s control to make necessary changes to benefit from it. Existing organisational competence could therefore be enhanced. The new factory had the potential to rationalise production of building elements, but it did not automatically solve problems related to the collaboration between the building element supplier and the contractor. Issues for improving performance through the studied ideas for industrialisation emerge from this. These concern combining the contractor’s and building element supplier’s different ways of working; meeting customer requirements while realising certain industrialisation ideas; and the roles of the permanent and temporary organisations for embedding knowledge without losing flexibility. / QC 20100924

The construction industry is today well known for its way to work in projects where each one is unique and needs its own detail solutions, ways to work and different processes. That means that in the start up phase of each project there has been a need to start all over again since just a fraction of knowledge and solutions pass from one project to another. Companies has been able to work this way due to the fact that lately the interest level has been favourable and the customers has had a buying power which enable construction to be carried out this way. Today the interest is so low that it cannot almost go any lower and the construction industry is therefore forced to find new ways to build houses more efficiently and cheaper to be able to match the market. The answer to this problem was found in the manufacturing industry and the way they work with repeated processes. The construction industry has looked into manufacturing and their ways of working before when they looked at the car industry in the early 20th century but it took about 100 years from that for the industrialized house building that we know today to be born. One of Scandinavia´s largest construction companies Veidekke is currently putting an effort in developing an industrialized house building concept called VeidekkeMAX that consists of three different areas. The three areas are a technical platform, process and an organisation with the purpose to find more effective ways to construct houses without compromising with the final outputs quality. When the work today is carried out with more repeatable process than before it is possible to measure the development of industrialized house building by looking at the maturity of its processes within the company. This study´s aim is to investigate a maturity measurement tool from the manufacturing industry and use it in the construction industry. This study will measure the maturity of the concept VeidekkeMAX and the measurement tool being used is CMM. CMM was developed in the software industry and it measure maturity in five different levels. It is important that the measurement can be repeated so it is possible to see how the development is going. Specific fields within the concept have been chosen for investigation and the empirics for the study has been collected through interviews with employees in the chosen fields. The respondent’s answers have been evaluated and the result is presented in this paper. The result shows that today the maturity in VeidekkeMAX is low since the employees are working in different ways and the observed processes within the company today are individual and varies a lot. The result also shows that it is possible to use CMM within the construction industry but it is as most useful if there are clear processes to measure. This thesis also briefly investigates the question whether it is possible to take standardisation within the construction industry too far and each interviewed was asked for their opinions on where VeidekkeMAX is going. The result showed that within the company there is a fear to take it one step too far which shows the importance to make sure that every employee is on-board with the change and that everyone is motivated to work with the concept and help develop it making it more efficient. / Bostadsbyggbranschen är idag välkänd för sitt sätt att arbeta i projekt där varje projekt är unikt och kräver sina egna detaljlösningar, sätt att arbeta samt processer. Vad det innebär är att man inför varje nytt projekt har varit tvungen att till stora delar återuppfinna hjulet då relativt lite kunskap och lösningar har gått från ett projekt till nästa. Företag har kunnat arbeta på det här viset då ränteläget den senaste tiden har varit gynnsamt och kunderna har haft en köpkraft som möjliggör att producera bostäder på detta vis. Idag är räntan på en så låg nivå att den snart inte kan sjunka lägre och således måste byggbranschen hitta nya sätt att producera bostäder på ett effektivare och billigare sätt för att kunna matcha marknaden. Svaret fanns hos tillverkningsindustrin och hur de arbetar med återupprepande processer. Byggindustrin tittade redan på tidigt 1900-tal hur tillverkningsindustrin arbetar men från det tog dröjde drygt 100 år till innan det industriella husbyggandet, som det ser ut idag, skapades. Ett av Skandinaviens största bygg företag, Veidekke, bedriver i dagsläget en satsning inom det industriella husbyggandet som heter VeidekkeMAX som är ett koncept bestående av i tre olika delar. De tre delarna är en teknisk plattform, process och organisation som alla syftar till att bygga på ett effektivare sätt utan att kompromissa på slutproduktens kvalitet. När arbetet nu sker med flera återupprepande processer så öppnar sig möjligheterna att mäta utvecklingen för det industriella husbyggandet genom att se hur mogna dessa processer hos företaget är. Den här studien syftar till att undersöka huruvida det är möjligt att använda mognadsmätningsverktyg tagna från tillverkningsindustrin och sedan använda inom byggindustrin. Mognadsmätningen i denna studie kommer att ske av VeidekkeMAX och mätverktyget som testas är CMM. CMM kommer ursprungligen från mjukvaruindustrin och processmognaden mäts i fem olika nivåer. Viktigt är att mätningen går att återupprepa kontinuerligt för att på så vis kunna se hur utvecklingen sker. Specifika områden inom konceptet har valts ut för granskning och empirin för att genomföra mätningen samlas in genom intervjuer med anställda inom områdena. Därefter utvärderas deras svar och ett resultat av mätningen redovisas. Resultatet visade att mognaden inom VeidekkeMAX var relativt låg då de anställda arbetar på väldigt olika vis och de processer som observerade till stor del var individuella. Resultatet visar också att det går att använda mätverktyget CMM inom byggindustrin men det når sin största potential om det finns tydligt uppstyrda processer att mäta. Studien går även in på frågan om man kan gå för långt med standardisering inom byggbranschen och varje intervjuad anställd tillfrågades även om deras syn på vart VeidekkeMAX är på väg. Resultatet visar att det finns en rädsla att gå för långt och det belyser vikten av att se till att ha alla anställda med på tåget och se till att varje individ är motiverad till att hjälpa till att utveckla och förbättra satsningen.

A production strategy enables companies to effectively manage the different challenges that the production function face in a competitive environment. A production strategy helps a company to make operational and strategic decisions that follow a logical pattern and supports the corporate strategy and the competitive priorities of the company. When no strategy exists the decisions may be arbitrary and unpredictable leading to an under-achieving production system. Production strategy involves decisions that shape the long term capabilities of a producing company. For the traditional production industry there are a number of production strategy frameworks that facilitates the process of designing production systems. However, these frameworks typically leave project based production out of the scope or treat project based production as one type of production system, when in fact project based production systems can be multifaceted depending on product design and market requirements. This thesis focus on project based manufacturing in a house-building context. Houses can be produced by different types of production systems, and depending on how the production systems are designed they have strengths and weaknesses in different areas of competition. To be able to meet the increasing demand for residential houses, and improve performance in the house-building industry, the way houses are produced have to match different market requirements in a more effective and efficient way. To do this a production strategy has to exist. Typically there is a trade-off between productivity and flexibility, hence a production system designed to meet customer requirements concerning product design is probably not the best process choice if the customer thinks price and delivery time are the most important. A production strategy helps a company to make decisions so that the output of the production system meets customer requirements in the best possible way. Due to the fact that project based production is typically left out of the scope in traditional production strategy literature and that there is a lack of research concerning production strategy in a house-building context, the purpose of this research is: … to extend the production strategy body of knowledge concerning project based production in a house-building context. To fulfil the purpose the following four research questions are studied and answered: RQ1: What aspects can be useful in a classification matrix contrasting different production systems for house-building? RQ2: Which competitive priorities are important to measure when evaluating different production systems on a production strategy level in a house-building context, and how can they quantitatively be measured? RQ3: How does the characteristics of the production system, i.e. the process choice, affect information exchange in a house-building context? RQ4: How can a new production strategy be formulated and implemented in an industrialised house-building context and what challenges are important to consider in that process? To answer RQ1 a classification matrix was developed that classify production systems along two dimensions: a product dimension (degree of product standardisation) and a process dimension (degree of off-site assembly). The two dimensions are related, for example a high degree of standardisation should be matched with a high degree of off-site assembly and consequently a low degree of product standardisation should be matched with a low degree of off-suite assembly. A mismatch, e.g. high degree of off-site assembly and low degree of standardisation, typically leads to poor performance and should hence be avoided. To be able to see how different types of production systems perform in different areas of competition key performance indicators (KPIs) were developed. The KPIs presented in this research can be used to measure quality, delivery (speed and dependability), cost (level and dependability), and flexibility (volume and mix) at a production strategic level (RQ2). Furthermore, to answer RQ3, a production strategy perspective was taken on information exchange by relating information exchange to the design of the production system. The results indicate that employing different types of production systems leads to different approaches to information exchange. Employing a production systems using traditional production methods on-site and a low degree of product standardisation lead to a traditional approach to information exchange, e.g. project meetings, telephone and mail. Production systems employing some degree of off-site assembly have less complex and more stable supply chains and use ICT-solutions to a higher extent, which facilitates information exchange. The findings also indicate that a high degree of product standardisation facilitates the use of ICT-solutions such as ERP and BIM. RQ4 concerns the production strategy process, i.e. formulation and implementation. Failure in this processes can jeopardise the whole business. Based on a longitudinal case study of an industrialised house-builder a suggested production strategy process was developed, including both production strategy formulation and implementation. The study also identified context specific challenges that have to be considered in an industrialised house-building context, e.g. the complexity that comes with using two different production processes (off-site and on-site) in the same production system. The research is case based and a total number of eight different production systems have been studied. Data has been collected through interviews, observations, and review of company documents.

In recent years, industrialised house building has gained shares on the Swedish house building market. The market demands for industrialised house building are exceeding the available supply of housing and experiencing a substantial increase in the housing production costs. For industrialised house building, the design has been identified as a critical phase with the systematization of the design a necessary part of industrialisation. Therefore, companies strive towards the inclusion of standardization and controlled processes in the design phase. Product platforms have proved to be related to the standardization of processes and products. Introducing a product platform approach in the design phase of house building could be a way to improve the design and ensure value creation in entire processes. Thus, the aim of this research is to outline means to support and improve the design phase of industrialised house building by using a product platform approach. A Swedish multi-storey house building company that uses glulam post and beam building system with a focus on platform development was used as the single case study in this research. The company intends to achieve increased efficiency by moving towards industrialized approaches. Empirical data were mainly gathered from interviews, observations, workshops, and document analysis. The findings present the existing challenges in the housing building industry and outlines twenty critical success factors that need to be considered in the design phase. Also, the result outlines support methods and tools that can be used for the improvement of the design phase when applying a product platform approach. Moreover, a flexible product platform can be developed with the support of parametric modelling and used to design building components having an engineer-to-order characteristic. Finally, the results show that a building system can be considered as part of a product platform in light of the necessity of an adequate support in the design process to maintain a sustainable platform. Thus, the contribution includes the addition of knowledge to platform theory in general and its application on the design phase of industrialised house building. / Under de senaste åren har det industriella husbyggandet tagit andelar på den svenska husbyggnadsmarknaden. Behovet av bostäder på marknaden överstiger tillgången och med ökning av bostadsproduktionskostnaderna som konsekvens. För det industriella husbyggandet har projekteringen identifierats som en avgörande fas och dess systematisering är en nödvändig för industrialiseringen. Som en följd strävar företag i segmentet efter att inkludera standardisering och kontrollerade processer i projekteringen. Produktplattformar har kunnat kopplas till standardisering av processer och produkter. Införandet av produktplattformar i projekteringen kan vara ett sätt att förbättra designen och säkra värdeskapandet igenom hela processen. Således är syftet i denna avhandling att ta fram medel för att stödja och förbättra projekteringen för industriellt husbyggande genom att tillämpa en ansats med produktplattformar. Ett svenskt byggnadsföretag med flera våningar som använder limträ- och balksystem med fokus på plattformsutveckling användes som en enda fallstudie i denna forskning. En fallstudie har genomförts på ett företag som bygger flervåningshus med ett pelar-balksystem i limträ med fokus på plattformsutveckling. Företaget har ambitionen att nå högre effektivitet genom att röra sig mot ett mer industriellt tillvägagångssätt. Data samlades in från intervjuer, observationer, workshops och dokumentanalyser. Resultaten visar vilka de befintliga utmaningarna är för husbyggandet och presenterar tjugo kritiska framgångsfaktorer som ska beaktas i projekteringen. Studien har även tagit fram supportmetoder och verktyg som kan användas för att förbättra projekteringen vid tillämpning av produktplattformar. Vidare, en flexibel produktplattform kan utvecklas med stöd av parametrisk modellering och användas för att projektera byggnads-komponenter med engineer-to-orderegenskaper. Slutligen, resultaten pekar mot att ett byggsystem kan betraktas som en del av en produktplattform ur perspektivet att tillräckligt med stöd i projekteringen krävs för att underhålla en hållbar plattform. Således, arbetet har bidragit med kunskap till teori om plattformar i allmänhet och dess tillämpning på projekteringen för industriellt husbyggande.