The building system as a strategic asset in industrialised construction

The growing industry segment within construction focusing on industrialisation, meet new challenges traditional construction firms never have encountered. The choice of a building system (technical and process platform) defines not only what resources and technology are needed, but also the organisation within the company, its market position, and possible growth. Using a resource-based view, the building system can be seen as a strategic asset for an industrialised construction company. In this paper, the characteristics of a strategic asset is identified and used to analyse two building systems as being a strategic asset at two industrialised construction companies in Sweden. Two companies participated in the case study, one specialised contractor and one more general contractor, both active in the housing segment. The building system is clearly a strategic asset in all aspects for the specialised contractor, while the asset for the general contractor lies more in the organisational power of the company than in the technical solutions. The company strategy should therefore differ. The specialised contractor should strive to clarify and strengthen their total offer to the client, while the more general contractor should continue to exploit its human resources, moving towards a more unique offer to their client.Godkänd; 2011; 20110504 (heljoh)Lean Wood Engineerin