Improving Premanufacturing Phases in Off-Site Construction Through a Digitalization Approach
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Date
2023
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Abstract
The integration of digitalization and building information modelling (BIM) has been lauded as a cornerstone to improve processes and enhance communication across the construction industry. Nevertheless, the implementation of digitalization approaches has suffered due to the lack of methods and processes uncertainties, particularly in the case of off-site construction (OSC) companies where its premanufacturing phases (design, planning, and procurement) differ significantly from traditional construction. This research presents a case study of a digitalization-based workflow to reduce the duration and increase accuracy of premanufacturing phases. To that end, a digitalization plan is developed using value stream maps, supported by Monte Carlo simulation, to identify the waste of current practices and propose suitable improvement measures. Afterwards, a digitalization-based workflow is developed and implemented to exchange data between BIM models and other systems. After one year and a half of implementation, the proposed workflow reduced the duration of tasks in 92.31% while providing an average of 12.24% more accurate bill of materials compared to the previous approach. As such, the contribution of this study is twofold: first, a lean-based method to implement digitalization in OSC companies considering its particularities and inherited process uncertainties; and second, an improved process for OSC premanufacturing phases