Prefabricated houses (industrial process)

Revision as of 13:19, 15 February 2019

Summary

The article focuses on the production of ^[1]prefabricated houses, and on the innovation that this process can produce into the real estate market. In the past years, the most common method of building housing was the on-site method. The construction process starts with a project, which is developed by professionals and requires a certain amount of time to be completed. Once the final project is obtained and approved, is it possible to start with the actual building phase. The process required the set up of a construction site, which costs time and a large amount of money. In the next phase, the construction operated on site, is subject to various risks that can be generated by the site in which it operates, or from unpredictable events. The manpower cost is higher, because it must be highly specialized, and it has to adapt its knowledge depending on the site and the project to be implemented. Another significant economic impact on the buildings cost is generated by the transport of materials and the mechanical vehicles, needed in the construction process. With the advance of technology and the expansion of knowledge, many companies have finalized to the conclusion that the process of houses prefabrication is more efficient than the on-site construction. The various experiences developed over the years show that this increase in efficiency (both in economic and temporal terms) is moving the building business to new frontiers.

Portfolio Management of prefabricated houses

The idea is based on the Lecture which explain the meanings of: ^[2]Project, program and Portfolio of BMW's car models. Starting from this concept and this article explains how to apply the it, to the industry of prefabricated houses using the same market managing system of BMW models. This is a hard concept, both to understand and to improve, because is not common in the building industry. Despite the various complications that can arise, producing prefabricated houses with the same industrial process used in the automotive industry, this idea is an example of innovative vision.There are already numerous prefabricated projects on the market, carried out by important industries in the sector. These companies are responsible for providing the customer with a complete home, built according to needs and requests. Therefore, for each individual project, the company will have to adapt its production each time according to the guidelines received. This article explains the idea based on allowing companies to mass-produce their own prefabricated houses. Once completed a comprehensive and exhaustive portfolio, customers will have to adapt their requests, depending on the products provided by the company.

Advantages and Applications

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Using prefabrication, companies can save large amounts of money by applying a mass production process avoiding changing the production methods for every single project. This methodology is atypical in the construction industry, but it could rise various improvements. Modular homes have many advantages including:

• Strong structure: modules that make up a building are more durable than those built traditionally. Prefabricated houses not only have to meet design requirements, but also withstand transport loads.
• Shorter construction time: a small modular house can be built in less than two months at the factory. The reason is automation, greater repeat-ability, greater teamwork. Assembly on the construction site is usually a few days.
• Higher quality of the building: very detailed projects can be designed. The increase in design time and costs, are amortized by the fact that with a single project can be replicated many modular homes in series. At the same time, is it possible to obtain modular houses which have every detail elaborated. Also, a definitely higher health and safety level in the factory will increase quality of work.
• Implementation increase: shorter investment time means lower costs for any investor. There is no need to rent social rooms for employees who work on site.
• Contractor’s benefits: modular homes also benefit contractor, stakeholder and their employees. Employees who build a house in a factory do not have to waste time on long travels to construction area. They do not have to work in cold or in rain conditions. They have more comfortable working conditions in factory. They can also spend more time with family and friends. As a result, companies obtain satisfied employees which means more productive employees.
• Price: modular homes are cheaper than traditional ones. The low cost is because industrial processes, reduce significantly the costs of management related with the building site and all the other additional costs, correlated with on-site construction.

ScandiByg

^[3]"ScandiByg" is the danish market leader in the field of industrially manufactured construction, and we are specialists in the development, production and construction of modular buildings. Over 40 years of product development has ensured us an expertise that enables us to always advise and prepare solutions that match the individual customer's wishes and requirements for a building project. Our primary business areas are construction of housing, offices, institutions and research health facilities for professional private and public customers.

Limitations

The difficulties are related mainly with the production process. because it causes problems related to logistics and transport of the final product. Furthermore, prefabricated houses are affected by some disadvantage, including:

• Lifespan: the most common modular homes are timber frame constructed. Analyzing the lifespan of building materials is it possible to understand that brick houses are more durable the the wooden frame ones. However brand-new modular houses have the identical lifespan as in brick houses.
• Heat accumulation: timber houses are much lighter than masonry houses, so they do not keep warm and cool down quickly. This is a big drawback. Most central heating installations operate during the day and are switched off at night. In the event of any interruption in the heating operation, the house will get really cold. Prefabricated houses with timber frame technology does not accumulate heat gains from the day. This means that modular homes require very thick insulation to avoid high heat losses.
• Fire resistance: the walls and ceilings of timber made modular houses have only one hour fire resistance. In brick houses, usually two hours. In addition, wood is a combustible material. Concrete and brick are non-flammable.
• Construction limitations: this is not a big drawback, because it is possible to combine several modules together to form one large space. Sometimes when it is necessary to have bigger rooms, it may be more cost-effective to make prefabricated walls only.
• living: people exchange such advantages as delivery time, quality, reasonable price, less risk of theft. Many people, however, are still reluctant to live in a prefabricated house. This happens because there are still many doubts about this type of housing, which often arise only because of the prejudices.

Annotated bibliography

Provide key references (3-10), where a reader can find additional information on the subject. The article MUST make appropriate references to the and reference material provided in class – either incorporating it as a source, or critically discussing aspects that are missing from it but covered by this article. Summarize and outline the relevance of each reference to the topic (around 100 words per reference). The bibliography is not counted in the suggested 3000 word target length of the article.

References

1. ↑ prefabricated houses
2. ↑ Project, program and Portfolio of BMW's car models
3. ↑ ScandiByg