Produktutveckling av industrialiserade byggnadskoncept : En undersökning av möjligheten att utnyttja metoder från tillverkningsindustrin

Industrialisation in the manufacturing industry has developed further than in the building industry. This includes product development processes where the manufacturing industry provides well documented methods for controlling the work process. This kind of documentation is not present for the methods used when developing building concepts. The aim of this master thesis is therefore to examine how product development is carried out in the building industry when developing building concepts and their product platforms. The development methods used in the building industry are looked at through the lens of product development in the manufacturing industry in order to examine how knowledge in the manufacturing industry can be beneficial for developing building concepts. The research is executed by performing a case study of two building concepts. The first building concept is NCC Folkboende, a concept for apartment buildings which has a high level of pre-engineering. This concept contains a technical, architectural and process platform. The second building concept is a concept for apartment buildings that is used at NCC Housing in Germany. This building concept has a low level of pre-engineering, containing a technical and a process platform. Information about the two concepts was gathered by doing interviews, studying documents and doing observations. The research shows that both building concepts were developed based on a well-tested foundation of experiences, and with concurrent engineering. The Folkboende development group used an iterative approach to develop the suggested solutions. No systematic methods were used in neither one of the two development processes. In both cases one solution was chosen early in the process and was then further developed and refined in an intuitive way. The analysis of the results shows that methods from the manufacturing industry can be used to describe the development process of a building concept with a high level of pre-engineering. A building concept with a low level of pre-engineering facilitates a more continuous development process already from the start and the focus is more on the product platform than on the building as a product. Implementation of concurrent engineering, a solid foundation of experiences, and an active approach towards continuous improvement provide potential for well-designed and functional results. Optimisation has however not been guaranteed through the use of structured methods. The building industry seem to implement intuition and personal experiences as a basis for product development and continuous improvement. One key learning point that can be derived from the manufacturing industry is the use of structured methods to design and develop products in a controlled manner. Implementation of this approach could be beneficial for the success of building concepts, decreasing the level of which the success is dependent on the talents of individual members in the development group.Validerat; 20150225 (global_studentproject_submitter