Loughborough University
Browse
Factors Influencing the Market for Branded Customised Buildings.pdf (90.26 kB)

Factors influencing the market for branded mass customized buildings

Download (90.26 kB)
conference contribution
posted on 2009-08-27, 15:42 authored by Nigel Davison, Chris GoodierChris Goodier, Alistair Gibb, Simon Austin, James M. Saker, C. Gregory
The concept of mass customisation is not new yet the UK construction industry has yet to grasp this opportunity to deliver greater value to its customers. The government report Rethinking Construction [Egan 1998] clearly identifies this issue: ‘ We have repeatedly heard the claim that construction is different from manufacturing because every product is unique. We do not agree. Not only are many buildings such as houses, essentially repeat products which can be continually improved but, more importantly, the process of construction is itself repeated in its essentials from project to project.’ Egan delivered this report in 1998 but CLASP, for example, highlighted the advantages of standardisation in 1959 in the conclusions to their Annual Report [CLASP 1959]:’The consortium is now an established and powerful force in building, responsible for a significant number of the country’s new schools as well as for a growing number of other public buildings. The second year of operations has confirmed that the consortium with its big orders and its design resources, is the kind of organization most capable of realizing the full economic advantage of factory production methods. It leads therefore towards the more enlightened building industry for which we all strive.’ A review of government funded construction reports between 1944-98 [Murray 2003] emphasises the continued presence of these recurring themes in appraisal of the construction process. The opportunity is seemingly clear. Designing and constructing from scratch, each time a client requires building infrastructure, is wasteful and inefficient. A radical market change is needed where built environment customers experience much greater certainty and value whilst retaining choice, and at the same time enabling constructors to improve their profit margins by sharing the rewards of jointly maximising value. This vision requires the replacement of a significant portion of the current bespoke market for the design, delivery and procurement of non-residential buildings with a combination of standardised and customised product offerings. This paper details information obtained to date from an ongoing IMCRC funded study entitled ‘Building the Brand’ at Loughborough University.

History

School

  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Citation

DAVIDSON, N. ... et al, 2006. Factors influencing the market for branded mass customized buildings. IN: Proceedings 22nd ARCOM Conference, Birmingham, UK, 2006, pp 489-497

Publisher

© ARCOM / N. Davidson, C. Goodier, A. Gibb, S. Austin, J. Saker, C. Gregory

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2006

Notes

This is a conference paper. It is also available at: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC