Managing Customization Strategies to Reduce Workflow Variations in House Building Projects

Abstract

Ensuring that all resources required to complete a task (materials, equipment, etc.) are available is essential to create a reliable workflow. Yet, in customized house building, clients’ design information (e.g., design drawings containing clients’ desired changes) is a key input that is often missing. This can affect the performance of the task in which such input is first needed and all subsequent ones. In spite of that, this theme has received limited attention by the literature. It is not yet clear how to manage customization strategies to minimize disruptions in production or how to quantify the workflow variations created by distinct strategies. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a set of guidelines to manage customization strategies (i.e., clients’ information flow and scope of customization) to support a reliable workflow. A visual indicator is also proposed and applied in two projects (completed in 2011 and 2014) with distinct customization strategies. The results suggest that workflow variations (due to customization) were lower in the latter project. The changes in the strategy that led to the improvements measured are discussed. This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge by (1) presenting guidelines to manage clients’ information flow in customized projects; (2) proposing a visual indicator to measure and compare workflow variations created by different customization strategies; (3) suggesting tactics that can be incorporated in full-customization strategies to reduce workflow variations; and (4) critically examining the mass customization theoretical background and its role in addressing construction problems.