Need for innovation in supplying engineer‐to‐order joinery products to construction: A case study in Sweden

Purpose - The construction industry has been criticized for not keeping up with other production industries in terms of cost efficiency, innovation, and production methods. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge about what hampers efficiency in supplying engineer-to-order (ETO)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Construction innovation 2012, Vol.12 (4), p.464-491
Main Authors: Forsman, Samuel, Björngrim, Niclas, Bystedt, Anders, Laitila, Lars, Bomark, Peter, Öhman, Micael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assembly
Bespoke production
Construction costs
Construction industry
Engineer-to-order
Information modelling
Innovation
Joinery production
Lean production
Modelling
Prefabrication
Structural timber
Supply chain management
Supply chains
Supplying
Sweden
Träproduktutveckling
Träteknik
Wood Products Engineering
Wood Technology
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Summary:Purpose - The construction industry has been criticized for not keeping up with other production industries in terms of cost efficiency, innovation, and production methods. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge about what hampers efficiency in supplying engineer-to-order (ETO) joinery-products to the construction process. The objective is to identify the main contributors to inefficiency and to define areas for innovation in improving this industry. Design/methodology/approach - Case studies of the supply chain of a Swedish ETO joinery-products supplier are carried out, and observations, semi-structured interviews, and documents from these cases are analysed from an efficiency improvement perspective. Findings - From a lean thinking and information modelling perspective, longer-term procurement relations and efficient communication of information are the main areas of innovation for enhancing the efficiency of supplying ETO joinery-products. It seems to be possible to make improvements in planning and coordination, assembly information, and spatial measuring through information modelling and spatial scanning technology. This is likely to result in an increased level of prefabrication, decreased assembly time, and increased predictability of on-site work. Originality/value - The role of supplying ETO joinery-products is a novel research area in construction. There is a need to develop each segment of the manufacturing industry supplying construction and this paper contributes to the collective knowledge in this area. The focus is on the possibilities for innovation in the ETO joinery-products industry and on its improved integration in the construction industry value chain in general.
ISSN:1471-4175
1477-0857
DOI:10.1108/14714171211272225