Off-Site/on-Site Composite Construction Method: An Unconscious Lean Construction Practice

Abstract

This paper provides a contemporary outlook on the concept, features, and achievements of the composite construction methods (fukugōka kōhō) developed in Japan between the 1970s and 1990s. The topic has not been widely publicised abroad, contrasting with prefabricated housing and construction robotics research conducted in the same period. However, the "compounding" approach can play a pivotal role in overcoming the present-day challenge of making digital construction technically possible and economically feasible. This research has employed two research methods. The first was a bibliographic survey of historical construction records and academic articles to grasp how fukugōka kōhō helped construction firms to deal with the pressing business and technological needs of that time. The second was focus group interviews with experienced engineers who came across the yielding effects of the compounding strategy and are now developing and implementing new elemental technologies integral to "smart construction systems" as part of R&D initiatives and productivity improvement management policies, which are tacitly lean. The awareness that try-out implementations of digital construction methods reassemble those past experiences put light on the possibility of resurging lean-ish hybrid production models to ensure competitiveness and reliability advantages in the transition period of technological maturation.