Aligning product and processes to customer needs in prefabricated house building

Given the impact of increasing customer choice on operations, this thesis clarifies the role of customer preferences and its impact on the operations of a company in the house building industry. In doing so, an empirical investigation into customer choice requirements is offered and a framework that helps to align customer preferences with the product and processes is presented. A prioritisation of components is provided which ultimately helps to design houses that meet buyer requirements. Furthermore a method is presented that helps in prioritising problem areas. This study is built on two empirical pillars and the evidence drawn from these sources. First, on the basis of a case study a view of the house as a system of components and sub-components has been developed. This resulted in the set-up of a product architecture in which the Customer Order Decoupling Point (CODP) could be positioned. Second, a preference measurement task applying a pairwise comparison questionnaire was conducted so as to define the level of choice expected by customers for the components. An important outcome of the survey was to identify how customers actually prioritise categories and components in a prefabricated housing design. Combining the results of these two research exercises helps in making the correct decisions about the level of variety to offer. The generalisability of the findings is limited. However, the process of conducting the case study as well as the preference measurement is generalisable in research that concentrates on products with a complex product architecture. The framework can thus be adopted by practitioners manufacturing multi-attribute products seeking to pursue a mass customisation strategy. This research contributes by highlighting the importance of integrating process and product development in order to design a value chain that meets customer needs

Product, process and customer preference alignment in prefabricated house building

Much of the extant literature exploits the customer order decoupling point (CODP) from an aggregate product level. We develop a systematic approach to determine the alignment of CODP configurations at product, category and component levels, with customer preferences in terms of their customisation requirements. We adopt a participatory research method incorporating focus groups and interviews with personnel from a German case study company that builds prefabricated houses. From this we determine the product architecture. We also undertake a customer preference survey utilising a questionnaire that is based on a paired comparison technique. The survey informs customer preferences for choice for various elements of the architecture. We find that while at the product level the company produces a house that as a whole offers a high degree of customisation, at a category or components levels there are various offerings from pure standardisation to pure customisation. Furthermore, there is not always alignment between what customers want and what is actually being offered by the customer. So the company has options in terms of reconfiguring its operations, design new products/categories/components and/or seeking new marketplace opportunities. While the research has developed a technique that determines the extent to which the CODP positioning for a product architecture is aligned against customer preferences, there is a need for further research to test our findings beyond a single case study and into other industry sector contexts

The nature of choice in mass customized house building

There is a need to explore the actual uptake of specification options by clients in the context of the self-build housing industry. In so doing all the components in a house that can be customized were categorized so as to highlight the features that must be customizable and those that can be standardized. Through a longitudinal study of a German house builder, data from 16 projects over a 35-year time horizon have been collected. The extent of choice made in these projects has been determined by comparing the original standard building specification with the actual finalized fit-out specification of the project. In scrutinizing the collected data it became apparent that the number of changes made by the clients increased considerably over the timespan studied. More importantly, clients appreciated the freedom of choice as they were prepared to spend increasing amounts on customization. In particular specification options were made in the sanitary, internal design and façade categories. Moreover the results revealed that offering a high degree of choice is appropriate for most, but not all, components for the case house builder. Key areas for choice include those relating to sanitary ware and the façade