A Proposed Design System Model for the Delivery of Mass Custom Homes:

Learning from Japan's Prefabricated Housing Industry

Abstract

Buying a new home is a significant investment usually undertaken only once or twice in a lifetime. Therefore, today's consumers are cautious and selective when buying a house, because it must satisfy their personal requirements in terms of customisation, product quality and affordability. Housing manufacturers in North America claim that they can customise a home to the same extent as conventional homebuilders. Their design process for the creation of customised homes, however, does not reflect the advantages of industrialisation of housing, in which mass-production of housing components helps reduce the design and production costs, while in-factory production ensures a steady supply of quality products. ‘Mass Customisation' is a seemingly contradictory term, for how can one combine mass production and customisation? In 1987, this revolutionary concept was first introduced in North America, recognised as a means to produce customised products on a mass basis. In many industries, the concept of mass customisation is applied to product design in order to satisfy the unique demands of each consumer. The housing industry is no exception. Today, Japanese housing manufacturers have already succeeded in mass customising housing, and their high-quality, reasonably priced homes have a good reputation. This paper examines how Japanese housing manufacturers apply the mass customising approach to improve their products, and the public's perception of industrialised housing. The authors surveyed five manufacturers on their mass customising techniques by visiting their manufacturing plants in order to analyse their production capability. The authors found that the manufacturers have developed a ‘mass custom design system' in order to totally coodinate their design, production and marketing approaches. This paper describes the principles of the design system and its effect on the delivery of industrialised housing.