Work structuring and product design for customized repetitive projects

Ballard’s concept of work structuring for production planning in construction can be applied to improve production flow in construction projects formed by repetitive units with extensive customization. Customization can increase the value of repetitive units (apartments in a building, houses in an allotment, or stores in a shopping mall) forming a project, by meeting clients’ specific requirements. However, in traditional construction production systems, it commonly causes delays, stoppages, rework, increased amounts of work in progress, and excessive movement of crews and materials. The problem has been thoroughly documented and various production systems have been designed to address the trade-off between flow and value. We identify five such systems, which were originally developed following exploratory design science principles. In this work, we analyse and compare them using nine metrics to assess their performance in terms of flow and value, and to explore the role of work structuring in customized projects. The systems with the most effective flow are the Fit-Out Company and the Ecosystem Platform systems. The analysis led to the theoretical proposition of a hybrid production system called Product/Process Modularization, which may be applied and tested in the future.