Smart manufacturing for the wooden single-family house industry

Abstract: To meet the demand of future building requirements, and to improve productivity and competitiveness, there is a need to modernize and revise the current practices in the wooden single-family house industry. In several other sectors, intensive work is being done to adapt to the anticipated fourth industrial revolution. The manufacturing industry has already begun its transformation with concepts such as smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0. So far, smart manufacturing has not been discussed to any significant extent for the wooden single-family house industry, even though it might be a way for this industry to improve productivity and competitiveness.The research presented in this thesis aims at increased knowledge about what smart manufacturing means for the wooden single-family house industry. This requires investigating what smart wooden house manufacturingis, what challenges that might be associated with it, and how smart wooden house manufacturing can be realized. At the core of this thesis is the conceptualization of smart wooden house manufacturing—when realized, it is expected to contribute to improve the competitiveness of the wooden single family house industry.The findings presented here are based on three Research Studies. Two studies were case studies within the wooden single-family house industry. The third study was a traditional literature review.The findings revealed two definitions and 26 components of smart wooden house manufacturing. At large, smart wooden house manufacturing emphasizes digital transformation with a focus on digital information flow, how to add information, information compilation, and information distribution between systems/programs and departments. Some of the challenges associated with smart wooden house manufacturing are, e.g. culture, competence and manual transfer of information between systems.The findings indicate similarities of smart wooden house manufacturing within certain components of industrialized house building and Industry 4.0, these components could enable the realization of smart wooden house manufacturing.