From Construction to Production: Enablers, Barriers and Opportunities for the Highways Supply Chain

The report presents the initial findings of a project part of the Lean Collaborative Research at Highways England with academia that aims at understanding enablers, barriers and opportunities to transform the current highways construction supply chain into a more manufacturing-like environment, where the benefits of production thinking can be achieved. The focus of the project is mostly on the adoption of off-site/modular (O/M) construction systems and advanced technologies, under a greater vision called “manufacturisation” of the highways supply chain

DfMA: Towards an integrated strategy for a more productive and sustainable construction industry in Australia

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) is an important part of the future of the construction industry due to the promise of speed of project delivery, quality control, worker safety, and waste minimization onsite via the purposeful design for manufacture and assembly offsite. However, the adoption of DfMA in Australia has been slow. This paper investigates the barriers prohibiting widespread uptake and how digital construction will be a catalyst for improving use on commercial-scale projects. A total of six leading experts were interviewed to elicit their opinions, and seven recent case studies of high-rise modular apartment and hotel buildings constructed by Hickory were cross-referenced as evidence of DfMA capability. The experts suggested that the reasons for slow adoption in Australia were community mindset, government regulations and incentives, planning and building codes, unionization and business politics, finance, and supply chain management. The case studies suggest that compatible building type and transportation distance are also factors. These barriers can be addressed by the clever integration of building information modelling tools with lean construction processes as part of a proposed strategy leading to smarter (more productive) and better (more sustainable) outcomes predicated on growth in digital construction practices. The paper concludes with a proposed framework for change that conceptualizes the ‘ecosystem’ needed to support widespread DfMA in the Australian context, including the paradigm shift from building to manufacturing/assembly, the displacement of workers from onsite to offsite activity, and the expansion of interdisciplinary design and construct collaboration

Integrated Approaches to Digital-enabled Design for Manufacture and Assembly: A Modularity Perspective and Case Study of Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China

Countries are trying to expand their healthcare capacity through advanced construction, modular innovation, digital technologies and integrated design approaches such as Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA). Within the context of China, there is a need for stronger implementation of digital technologies and DfMA, as well as a knowledge gap regarding how digital-enabled DfMA is implemented. More critically, an integrated approach is needed in addition to DfMA guidelines and digital-enabled approaches. For this research, a mixed method was used. Questionnaires defined the context of Huoshenshan Hospital, namely the healthcare construction in China. Then, Huoshenshan Hospital provided a case study of the first emergency hospital which addressed the uncertainty of COVID-19. This extreme project, a 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days, implemented DfMA in healthcare construction and provides an opportunity to examine the use of modularity. A workshop with a design institution provided basic facts and insight into past practice and was followed by interviews with 18 designers, from various design disciplines, who were involved in the project. Finally, multiple archival materials were used as secondary data sources. It was found that complexity hinders building systems integration, while reinforcement relationships between multiple dimensions of modularity (across organisation-process-product-supply chain dimensions) are the underlying mechanism that allows for the reduction of complexity and the integration of building systems. Promoting integrated approaches to DfMA relies on adjusting and coupling multi-dimensional modular reinforcement relationships (namely, relationships of modular alignment, modular complement, and modular incentive). Thus, the building systems integrator can use these three approaches to increase the success of digital-enabled DfMA

Robotic Technologies for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Assembly

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stacks and their components are currently being manufactured using laboratory fabrication methods. While in recent years these methods have been scaled up in size, they do not incorporate high-volume manufacturing methods. In this context, manufacturing R&D is necessary to prepare advanced manufacturing and assembly technologies that are required for low-cost, high-volume fuel cell power plant production. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has identified high-priority manufacturing R&D needs for PEMFCs. Along with efforts to develop technologies for high-speed manufacturing of fuel cell components, DOE identified the need for demonstrating automated assembly processes for fuel cell stacks. The scope of this chapter is to review current manufacturing R&D efforts in the area of automated processes for assembling PEMFC stacks, to present the current state of development, successful demonstrations, related technological challenges and the technical solutions used to overcome them. An emphasis of this review is on the design of tools used for robotic grasping, handling and inserting fuel cell components in the stack and on the use of design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) strategies that enable the automated assembly process

A scientometric review of management of prefabricated construction from 2011–2021

Prefabricated construction (PC) is an increasingly popular method of construction utilized globally due to its high productivity and efficient performance. PC as an advanced building technique is susceptible to problems such as the immaturity of the PC industry’s development, inability to realize production benefits, and application-related risks and uncertainties. The management of PC (MPC) can be applied to resolve these difficulties and generally enhance performance. Reviews pertinent to the MPC are scarce, making it challenging to concentrate and comprehensively summarize the research situation of the MPC. The MPC review was conducted by Li et al. in 2014. However, there has been a lot of change in the MPC research field. Therefore, this study is an extension of the work of Li et al. (2014). This article aims to analyze and summarize the current research situation and future trends of the MPC, employing a bibliometric search and scientometric analysis from MPC-related publications between 2011 and 2021. This paper outlines current research topics, gaps, and future development from four perspectives based on publications gathered: (1) PC development, (2) PC performance management, (3) PC life cycle management, and (4) technological applications in the MPC. Based on the discussion of these four performance indexes, the following future research directions are proposed: (1) PC industry development considering a combination of Industry–University–Research, (2) the performance impact of management methods and technologies, (3) the rationality of management methods and technologies. This study is vital for scholars to understand MPC research and to conduct further research

Digital built Britain: level 3 building information modelling - strategic plan

[Ministerial Foreword] Construction is a sector where Britain has a strong competitive edge. We have world class capability in architecture, design and engineering and British companies are leading the way in delivering sustainable construction solutions. It is also a sector with considerable growth opportunities with the global construction sector forecast to grow by up to 70% by 2025. We are not starting from scratch. The Government in collaboration with industry has already committed to the Level 2 BIM programme as well as investing £220M in the development of a High Performance Computing programme and over £650M in the delivery of transformational high speed Broadband across the UK by 2015. We have a recent track record of world class construction deliveries such as the 2012 Olympics and Crossrail the largest construction project in Europe now reaching the half-way point. We have seen the global reaction to our Level 2 BIM programme’s successful delivery and significant cost savings which have greatly assisted the construction costs savings of £840M in 2013/4, with several major EU nations including France and Germany announcing similar BIM programmes. If we want to retain our strength in this economy we cannot stand by. We need concerted joint action from Government, Industry and Academia working in partnership toward the success of the sector and ensuring that benefits are felt across the rest of the economy. The Information Economy is transforming the way we live and work. It is crucial to our success on the global stage and to facing the challenges of urbanisation and globalisation that we grasp the opportunity that Digital Built Britain presents. [RT Hon Dr Vince Cable MP - Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade

DFMA-based design guidelines for high-rise modular buildings

This research aims to develop DfMA-based design guidelines for high-rise modular buildings to facilitate the widespread application and development of innovative OSC technology. This research contributes to linking the DfMA philosophy with the constructability of high-rise modular buildings in terms of manufacturability, transportability and assemblability

A holistic review of off-site construction literature published between 2008 and 2018

Off-site construction (i.e., OSC) has become an emerging research domain in the recent decade. Through a three-step holistic review approach incorporating bibliometric search, scientometric analysis, and in-depth qualitative discussion, this study contributes to the body of knowledge in OSC by critically reviewing and summarizing: 1) the latest research keywords and main research topics in OSC; 2) the performance of OSC compared to that of conventional construction approach; 3) current research gaps in integrating OSC with other emerging construction concepts; and 4) future research directions in OSC. OSC is a domain that can be extended to cross-disciplinary research from the perspectives of engineering, management, and technology. Existing research have been focusing on many research disciplines, such as structural behaviors and joint connections of prefabricated components, scheduling and planning of off-site activities, as well as performance evaluation of OSC. However, further research is needed in integrating the emerging digital construction technology, integrated project delivery method, lean construction, and issues of sustainability of OSC. There are still limited studies linking OSC to the concept of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly. Future research should also adopt a larger database and allow for comprehensive evaluation of OSC performance

Advanced Tools and Technologies for Collaborative Product Development and Knowledge Management

The shortcomings of the current state-of-the-art in distributed / collaborative product development of engineering products from concept to production are: A lack of an integrated interface for the full spectrum of functions needed by complex conceptual design for manufacture and assembly; and management and re-use of concept design knowledge within an integrated design environment. Recommendations are given on the integration of these disparate technologies for the benefit of collaborative work teams to enable them to use a seamlessly integrated interface to develop, review, analyse and reuse engineering and manufacturing knowledge and models within the enterprise and the supply chain. A proposed methodology and a functional description of such a system is presented. The system utilises the Protégé-2000 expert system on top of the Windchill data management / collaboration software. International Standard for the Exchange of Product model data – STEP is to be used for machining feature definition