Abstract:
Through the late Twentieth Century, leading vehicle manufacturers increasingly eschewed the drive from mass production and instead focused upon lean production, where output has been determined according to demand. Automotive manufacturers no longer stockpile parts, but vehicles are now made to order, and in doing so the automotive industry has attained flexibility within production; a factor that has historically been unattainable with the simplistic rationalities of mass-production. Automotive manufacturers are now guided with digital design tools, and have further addressed the complexities of flexible production and the modular composition of the 21st Century automobile. Through the utilisation of digital design tools, digital collaboration, organisational capabilities and product technologies the 21st century automobile has successfully shown the world that highly complex products can be produced both efficiently and effectively, with versatility and high craft.
The building industry has not been so swift to exploit the opportunities offered by digital lean production; often still constructing in the same laborious manner it has done so for hundreds of years. Digital lean production offers strategies for exerting efficient, sustainable design within contemporary architecture. Through the design of a flexible dwelling, this thesis establishes how the principles of digital, lean production can be utilised within Building Information Modeling to address the issues of speed and precision within the design and manufacture of contemporary architecture.
