No abstract

Swedish house building companies currently face many challenges in terms of fluctuating market demand, need for flexible product offering, non-uniform governmental regulations, high costs, and long lead times. These challenges affect both internal and external efficiency of companies. Product platforms have been used for more than a decade in this industry to improve both internal and external efficiency. However, the industry is still criticized for its inefficient and costly process. Smart manufacturing has emerged as means to improve the efficiency of internal processes and the question is if and how smart manufacturing can complement and support product platforms in industrialized house building. The aim of this study is to explore the potential of smart manufacturing to complement and support product platforms in theory and practice in the context of industrialized house building. A literature review and a multiple case study were chosen to fulfill the study objective. In total fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted in two timber house building companies. The data was analyzed within and across cases using four platform assets for categorization: components, processes, knowledge and relationships. The results show that the smart manufacturing technologies are in both theory and practice mainly supporting the process platform asset through developing vertical and horizontal IT systems integration, definition and digitalization of flexible building systems, and transferring explicit drafting and engineering knowledge into parametric modelling tools.

Purpose The meaning of Industry 4.0 has started to be outlined for the construction industry, but there is still limited knowledge on the implications for the single-family wooden house building industry. The purpose of this paper is to expand the understanding of what the fourth industrial revolution implies for the single-family wooden house industry. The paper contributes with practitioners’ view of the content and meaning of a smart single-family wooden house factory. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory multiple case study was carried out at two Swedish single-family wooden house builders, combined with a traditional literature review. Findings As a result of a multiple case studies, the content and meaning of a smart single-family wooden house factory was elaborated on. In total, 15 components of a smart single-family wooden house factory were identified, of which 8 corresponded to the components of Industry 4.0 as described in other sectors. Research limitations/implications The study can be expanded to also include multi-family wooden house builders and other branches of the offsite wooden building industry. Practical implications Managers in the house-building industry who want to improve and strive for a smart single-family wooden house factory can learn from this study, get an insight of what other companies consider as important and how it relates to Industry 4.0. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is a first attempt to understand what Industry 4.0 mean and how it can be accomplished for the single-family wooden house offsite manufacturing industry.

-In a competitive market, organizations expand their supply chain on a global scale. Pressure from customers, stakeholders, legislation and environmental organizations have pushed companies to be more considerate of the environmental impacts of their supply chain. This development has put focus on sustainability within supply chains, leading to the rise of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM). The purpose of this research is to create a conceptual model to present the vastly varied literature within the area of GSCM in a structured way, in order to promote environmental and in turn, overall supply chain performance. The research methodology includes a literature review using 125 peer-reviewed journal articles from 2013 to 2016 published in 19 journals. Out of the 125, 10 journal articles were selected based on their focus in regard to the subject. The articles were chosen to attain a vantage point in view of critical factors within environmentally sustainable supply chains with a focus on optimizing performance. This paper contributes to theory by presenting a conceptual model for optimizing performance in green supply chains. Drivers, which promote Green Supply Chain (GSC) are classified as re-active and pro-active, and the main methods used for optimizing performance are concluded to be collaboration, metrics to monitor performance and practices such as green purchasing, ecodesign, reverse logistics and legislation. The review may be of use to both academics and companies as it outlines proven ways to implement green supply chain with high performance.

In this paper, focus is on information management in the wooden single-family house industry i.e., one segment of the construction industry. So far, there is lack of research that investigates possible paths for information management in the wooden single-family house industry. The purpose of this paper is to overcome this limitation, and to increase the knowledge on how to mitigate the challenges of information management in the wooden single-family house industry. Two research questions were formulated: RQ1 What are the challenges with information management in the wooden single-family house industry? RQ2 What are the potentials of traditional BIM, BIM for OFC, and PLM to respectively mitigate the information management challenges? The results presented in this paper are based on a case study at a wooden single-family house company and a literature review on information management. In total, eight empirical information management challenges were identified at the case company, categorized into technology-related, process-related, or people-related challenges. Based on the analysis, it was concluded that a PLM-system has larger potential to mitigate the information management challenges in the wooden single-family house industry than traditional BIM and BIM for OFC. This paper contributes with insights on challenges of information management in the wooden single-family house industry and the potentials of traditional BIM, BIM for OFC, and PLM to mitigate these challenges. The results from this paper can support managers in the house building industry with understanding the potentials of traditional BIM, BIM for OFC and PLM for specific information challenges and facilitate decision making on what actions to take to improve their information management.