Editorial

Citation

Mohammed Arif, D. (2009), "Editorial", Construction Innovation, Vol. 9 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci.2009.33309aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Construction Innovation, Volume 9, Issue 1

Off-site construction, off-site manufacturing, manufactured construction, modern methods of construction, no matter what the name, the fundamental idea is to move some effort away from the construction site to a more controlled environment of the manufacturing floor. Although, Gibb (2001) traces back the history of manufactured construction as far back as 1851, I would actually go one step further and argue that the use of big boulders instead of smaller bricks in pyramids is no different than using prefabricated wall panels. Mankind has always looked for better ways of building faster; and the use of pre-cut rocks and boulders leveraged the opportunity to fill large volumes of pyramid structures more quickly. Although we have come a long way with cranes, robotics and laser guided precision construction; fundamentally, the focus of all these innovations is to speed up the construction process, minimising waste and inefficiencies, maximising quality, and improving health and safety. The benefits extolled by manufactured construction have been documented extensively in the literature (Blismas et al., 2006; Goodier and Gibb, 2007; Jeong et al., 2006; Barriga et al., 2005). However, in order to reap the maximum benefits of manufactured construction, one has to synchronize three major functions: construction, manufacturing and design. This issue is truly a global issue, with significant contributions from UK, the USA, Australia, Sweden, Canada and Turkey, highlighting challenges associated with off-site construction in different parts of the world. In this respect, this special issue includes papers on a wide array of issues related to off-site construction, addressing different aspects of all the three major functions mentioned above.

The paper by Pan and Gibb, compares the maintenance performance of off-site and insitu bathrooms, and develops a framework of strategies that can potentially improve the innovative design and help maintain them for better performance over the lifecycle.

The paper by Jeong et al., evaluates the applicability of the current customer relationship management (CRM) systems and develops a more manufactured housing specific CRM. This new CRM could potentially significantly improve Supply Chain performance in the manufactured housing industry.

The paper by Davidson contends that the changes required technically for the construction industry to move towards manufactured construction should also entail organisational changes, and through systematic organisational design.

The paper by Sabharwal et al., presents research on component subassembly redesign, and the associated material handling costs associated with facility layout and the overall production efficiency.

The paper by Blismas and Wakefield, presents the current state of affairs in the off-site manufacturing sector in Australia, in light of similar developments in UK and the USA. They identify skills shortages, and lack of adequate knowledge as two major challenges facing the off-site manufacturing sector in Australia.

The paper by Nahmens and Mullens, applies the concepts of lean production to mass customisation in the manufactured housing industry – which constantly faces the issue of product customisation. Findings from this paper also provide definitive guidelines for builders interested in better addressing specific customer needs, while managing the operational complexities resulting from product variety.

The paper by Polat highlights that efficiency benefits can potentially be achieved even in on-site construction given the proper commitment to organizational change.

This Special Issue, through the compilation of these seven papers, provides a wide spectrum of research which provides critical reflection and promotes deeper understanding of the importance of these factors in the manufactured construction sector.

Dr Mohammed Arif