IT Tools and standards supporting Mass Customization in the Building Industry

Research demonstrate that productivity in the Danish building and construction industry has only doubled over the last fifty years, whereas the manufacturing industry has increased six times. Utilisation of mass customization as a strategy has achieved results in the manufacturing industry in terms of increasing productivity and competitiveness, so the strategy might have potentials in the building and construction industry as well. However, mass customization as a strategy for improving the productivity of the building and construction industry has not been explored as much as in the manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the assumptions and possibilities for applying the principles of mass customisation related to establishing an adaptable integrated system of entities in the value chain of the building and construction industry. The outset of the paper is a literature review concerning the utilisation of mass customization as a strategy in terms of increasing productivity within the building and construction industry. An essential part of the paper is a case study of 11 building and construction companies and an analysis of the conditions for cooperation between the entities in the value chain of the building and construction industry. The paper induces to which extent it makes sense to talk about utilisation of mass customisation by applying the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and standardisation initiatives of the construction industry provided by buildingSMART, and at the same time harvesting the benefits of the mass customization.