Big data for Design Options Repository: Towards a DFMA approach for offsite construction

Interior design and construction (IDC) is a sophisticated and often prolonged process that delivers a building to occupation. Traditional practice is rather unproductive, involving the work of several different trades crowded in situ and delivered sequentially one after another. To enhance productivity in IDC, offsite practice is receiving increasing attention as a process innovation along with Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA), an emerging concept in the industry. This paper aims to investigate offsite IDC practice and develop a set of DfMA enablers for better achieving this building process. It undertakes a literature review, case study, and 18 semi-structured interviews. To support the offsite IDC and its production line, standardized procedure, automated machinery, and supply chain, 10 DfMA enablers are adopted, such as early collaboration, design standardization and simplification, and light material selection. These findings indicate a paradigm shift not only in interior design methodology but also in IDC professional practice process. This research enriches the literature on DfMA and IDC, in particular their synergy, and offers a new model for interior designers and offsite IDC practitioners.

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) enablers for offsite interior design and construction

Recently, researchers have reported that by the amalgamation of concepts of design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA), construction practices and technologies can be further improved. As DfMA is...

Design for manufacturing and assembly for sustainable, quick and cost-effective prefabricated construction – a review

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) is an important part of the future of the construction industry due to the promise of speed of project delivery, quality control, worker safety, and waste minimization onsite via the purposeful design for manufacture and assembly offsite. However, the adoption of DfMA in Australia has been slow. This paper investigates the barriers prohibiting widespread uptake and how digital construction will be a catalyst for improving use on commercial-scale projects. A total of six leading experts were interviewed to elicit their opinions, and seven recent case studies of high-rise modular apartment and hotel buildings constructed by Hickory were cross-referenced as evidence of DfMA capability. The experts suggested that the reasons for slow adoption in Australia were community mindset, government regulations and incentives, planning and building codes, unionization and business politics, finance, and supply chain management. The case studies suggest that compatible building type and transportation distance are also factors. These barriers can be addressed by the clever integration of building information modelling tools with lean construction processes as part of a proposed strategy leading to smarter (more productive) and better (more sustainable) outcomes predicated on growth in digital construction practices. The paper concludes with a proposed framework for change that conceptualizes the ‘ecosystem’ needed to support widespread DfMA in the Australian context, including the paradigm shift from building to manufacturing/assembly, the displacement of workers from onsite to offsite activity, and the expansion of interdisciplinary design and construct collaboration.

DfMA: Towards an integrated strategy for a more productive and sustainable construction industry in Australia

Rapid deployment of modular hospital facilities has become an essential action in the COVID-19 response. Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) has played a significant role, with gover...

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Integrated Approaches to Design for Manufacture and Assembly: A Case Study of Huoshenshan Hospital to Combat COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

The pursuit of modern product sophistication and production efficiency has bolstered design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) around the world. Being both a design philosophy and a method...

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Gangyi Tan

Papers

Construction-Oriented Design for Manufacture and Assembly Guidelines

Implementation of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) Principles in Construction: A Case Study