Business Design Modeling for Industrialization in Construction: Cooperative Approach

Abstract

Currently, atomization and fragmented processes are strong constraints to industrializing the construction industry in Switzerland. Therefore, building construction in Switzerland is still characterized by manual production techniques and small-scaled companies. New strategies and concepts are necessary to empower the players to benefit from industrialization concepts in the client’s value creating process. This paper presents a cooperative business model for grasping the opportunity offered by industrialization in construction. This paper also gives readers an interesting insight into the system theory-based structure of the model and shows how to meet challenges such as the complexity of solution-oriented building processes, the uncontrollability of complex systems and the opportunistic behavior of players. This paper helps researchers and practitioners understand how a complex system of cooperating players may behave and what corridors for (inter)action should be established. Even if a complex system cannot be fully controlled, the model gives enough structure to prevent it from going out of control. The cooperative approach leads to a business model that is mostly free of opportunistic behavior. The cooperative business model enables the Swiss construction industry to increase the prefabrication level of the construction process, to implement mass customization in the prefabrication industry, and to introduce system services in the clients’ solution finding process.