Modular and Offsite Construction (MOC) Summit Proceedings
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Offsite Construction in the UK Housing Sector: Barriers and Challenges
Get PDFOffsite construction (OSC) has been presented by researchers and practitioners all over the world as an efficient and effective way of delivering buildings. The benefits regarding time, cost and quality are well-documented. However, it has not been successfully implemented in housing, especially in the affordable housing sector. This paper uses the case study method from the affordable housing sector to document these challenges and proposes a way forward for the sector. Also, findings indicate that the high cost of production was identified as a major barrier to the proliferation of off-site housing in the UK. However, the research found that the effective implementation of processes and practices such as Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) could reduce the likelihood of cost escalation
Detailed Analysis of Texasäó»s Manufactured Housing Growth and Competition
Get PDFManufactured homes provide a cost-effective alternative for satisfying the growing housing needs. Despite the industry commitment for improvement, manufactured home constitute small share of satisfying the housing demand. Supporting the future growth of this industry through public policy advocacy cannot be achieved without evaluating its historical production and demand trends. Available data from professional and governmental sources lack the ability to provide a granular picture of the characteristics of the industryäó»s manufacturers, customers, and product. Accordingly, this paper attempts to fill this gap by analyzing the available license record data for the manufactured homes in the state of Texas that cover the years from 1982 to 2015. The raw data included around 913,663 records of homes ownership and manufacturing. The data analysis included three main tasks: 1) data processing to integrate this large amount of data and eliminate outliers; 2) analyzing the competition characteristics of Texasäó»s manufactured housing market using descriptive entry and exit metrics; and 3) analyzing demand characteristics of manufactured homes in terms of their physical requirements the relations between their demand volume and inventory times. The conclusions of this paper would provide a more detailed understanding of the manufactured housing industry to support its growth as a viable cost-effective housing option
Designing for Pre-Fabrication and Assembly in the Construction of UBCäó»s Tall Wood Building
Get PDFThe construction of a 53 m, 18 story mass timber high-rise on the Vancouver campus of the University of British Columbia poses significant challenges in its design, approval, procurement and construction. As a way to facilitate the project delivery process, the project team called upon extensive use of virtual design and construction (VDC) and building information modelling (BIM) that are supported through a 3rd party VDC service provider. One of the key uses of BIM and VDC in the project is extensive design for pre-fabrication and assembly of mass timber elements and envelope panels as well as mechanical elements. The processes, techniques and tools used to support design for pre-fabrication and assembly on the UBC Tall Wood Building project are presented in this paper. The challenges and lessons learned in the deployment and use of these tools and processes and their impact on project delivery are also discussed. Lastly, the trade-offs and design considerations that support design for pre-fabrication and assembly are examined. Initial findings indicate that the design for pre-fabrication and assembly process is a highly involved and collaborative process which requires the presence of key decision makers up front in the project delivery process. They also indicate that the involvement of a 3rd party BIM and VDC modeller, using highly sophisticated digital tools, is necessary to ensure proper information flow and capture relating to the elements being designed for pre-fabrication and assembly. Ultimately, in the context of mass timber high-rise construction, where competitive advantage over other approaches resides in speed and quality of execution, aesthetic and sustainability concerns notwithstanding, designing for pre-fabrication and assembly is key in ensuring the projectäó»s economic viability
Production Monitoring and Process Improvement for Floor Panel Manufacturing
Get PDFPanelized home construction allows for the construction of homes to be completed in a factory, but in only two dimensions, compared to the three dimensional module that is produced in modular construction facilities. Keeping the panels detached until they reach the final destination permits for more efficient transport of panels and allows the factory to be divided into more specialized areas. This paper presents a case study of an established panelized home manufacturer, where the floor production area is identified as an area for potential process improvement. Possible areas for process improvement are identified by conducting a time study, carrying out observation, and constructing a simulation model in which potential process improvements can be tested. Opportunities are identified for process improvement, and the anticipated results of implementing certain changes are quantified through the use of simulation in order to aid management in making decisions regarding which changes are to be implemented and in what order. Some possible areas for improvement of the floor production area, including reducing the waiting time for the multi-function bridge by manually applying glue, aligning the joists in the correct orientation prior to their reaching the floor jig to eliminate the need to rotate the joists, and installing a bridge for sheathing board delivery that eliminates the time spent walking to retrieve the sheathing boards
Strengthening Sustainability Rating Credit for Off-Site Construction
Get PDFOff-site construction has inherent advantages over conventional construction in terms of sustainability that extend well beyond lower construction site waste, yet the common building sustainability rating systems in the U.S. and Canada provide little or no credits to reflect prefabricationäó»s sustainability-promoting characteristics. As project owners in the U.S. and Canada increasingly demand that their projects receive certification by one of the common building sustainability rating systems, off-site constructionäó»s inherent advantages over conventional construction in terms of cost and time may be reduced by off-site constructionäó»s lack of advantages in terms of sustainability rating credits. After identifying sustainability rating credits that favor off-site production and other credits that disfavor off-site production, the paper concludes by identifying actions off-site construction producers should consider to increase
sustainability rating credits for their products
Measuring the Sustainable Benefits of Modular and Offsite Construction Delivery Techniques Against Conventional On-Site Construction
Get PDFIt is well known that the use of modular and offsite construction (MOC) techniques for project delivery can yield significant economic, environmental, and social benefits throughout a projectäó»s lifetime. Despite these benefits highlighted by the MOC community, there exists a need to objectively measure the sustainable benefits and to integrate them in a comprehensive framework to compare delivery alternatives. The Sustainable Efficiency (SE) model is presented and used to compare the construction of a 2-storey hotel using two delivery methods: i) a conventional onsite construction (COC); and ii) modular and offsite construction (MOC). Sustainable criteria identified in the model originate from ISOäó»s 21929-2 äóìFramework for sustainability indicator for civil engineering worksäó�. These criteria are used to encompass the entire life-cycle of the project, from production and extraction of materials, through construction, operations and maintenance, to the end-of-life or decommissioning stage. MOC presents a significant amount of benefits throughout the entire life-cycle of the project and the SE model presented highlights and takes these benefits into account. Recognizing these benefits can help build the business case for MOC, going past the prescriptive, lowest initial cost, and onsite construction delivery that is widely used in the Canadian construction industry today. Allowing for both the quantitative and qualitative benefits to be included in an objective and metric-based model can address the challenge of making changes to conventional procurement methods, and will strengthen and promote the use of MOC in the construction industry. It was found that, through the use of MOC, the hotel obtained a positive 16.8% sustainable efficiency score over a conventional stick build method. Significant benefits were a result of reduced greenhouse gas emissions, non-renewable energy use, waste production, and worker health and safety. The single disadvantage determined was the social criteria äóìJob Creationäó� where there was a reduced quantity of worker hours required to complete the project
Analyzing the Critical Sources of Dimensional Variability during the Lifecycle of a Steel Framed Modular Construction Project
Get PDFThis paper presents a case study which analyzes critical sources of dimensional variability in a modular steel framed construction project. If not managed properly, dimensional variability can lead to conflicts during alignment and interfacing of components and modules. The management of dimensional variability can be expressed in distinct categories based on its impact on structural safety, constructability, aesthetics and functionality. This case study explores the use of a laser scanner and a total station in order to quantify critical sources of dimensional variability. The results of the case study show that during different project stages (i.e., fabrication, assembly, transportation, handling and erection) that often one of the distinct impact
categories governs in terms of the management of dimensional variability. As such, this paper demonstrates how critical sources of dimensional variability can be identified so that they can be properly managed
Oscillation Reduction Method for Fast Crane Operation
Get PDFCrane-related fatalities continue to occur in the construction industry according to recent surveys. This research provides a simple and safe oscillation reduction method for fast crane operation. We used two related acceleration and deceleration in piecewise fashion to control the crane. Our method is to reduce the sway angle and to reach high speed operation. We studied the method analytically, numerically and experimentally. We found analytically the operational time was approximately proportional to the square root of the operation distance; a fourfold increase in distance required only twofold increase in operational time. In comparing to a common method in 100 m operation distance, the numerical simulations suggest that the operation time is 25% faster when the maximum sway angle is the same, or the sway angle is 44% smaller when the operation time is the same
A Study on Freeform Optimization using BIM Technology
Get PDFFreeform buildings are now designed and constructed globally because of digital design trend, advance construction technology, and landmark value. However, due to the lack of freeform building engineering and construction management experience, it has become a high risk project for construction companies. During construction stage; many design changes, fabrication defects and construction quality issues are being raise, which results project cost increase and schedule delays. This study proposes freeform optimization process to mitigate the risk from happening at construction stage. Using BIM, visualization, parametric model and automation functions, various design alternatives are made to apply curvature analysis, panelization, panelization evaluation, and panel optimization for most efficient solution
Development of Conceptual Modular Building Unit Design Framework for Inexperienced Designers at the Pre-Design Stage
Get PDFModular building construction has been increasing interest in adopting and utilizing off-site production technologies in house building in many countries and regions. Despite increasing interest of the modular building method, most of researchers were less interested in to support inexperienced designer who never experience in modular building design process. The objective of this paper is development of modular building construction design process framework, focusing on to provide for start-up modular company’s inexperienced designers’ improvement of modular building design understanding and reduce design errors at the enforcement design stage. To achieve this purpose, this paper adopts Building Systems Integration (BSI) concepts into framework and describes each step following proposed framework. This paper provides more easy to understand for inexperienced designer understanding the modular building design process than current textual guidelines. Subsequently, proposed framework can be translating for training materials to inexperienced modular building design process designer