Resilient Architectures for Design and Manufacture

Overview

The programme is funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and administered by the Birmingham Finance, as part of its Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI). DIAL co-operates closely with the Engineering Design Centre (EDC).

Aims

The programme is aimed at addressing the gap in housing supply by creating a new Laing O’Rourke off-site manufacturing facility for 10,000 new homes each year and helping deliver the UK Industrial Strategy for Construction, targeting 33% lower costs, 50% faster deliver, 50% lower emissions and 50% improvement in the import export trade gap.

The University of Cambridge team will address the overarching question of ‘how the resilience of novel construction elements and their associated design and manufacturing processes can be improved?’

Central to achieving this aim is the inherent importance of project management decision making, and the cross-team and cross-company information flow, design approaches and tools necessary to support effective decisions.

Approach

The project will address the fragmented delivery approach of the construction industry by adopting the proven engineering tools and processes of the highly efficient automotive and aerospace industries. The project will deliver the understanding, tools and approaches required to support early design decision making in the manufacture of novel construction components in an advanced, highly automated, yet reconfigurable manufacturing plant. It will also assist the management of a stable supply chain for mechanical and electrical modules and integrated building and infrastructure assemblies.

Industry Partners include:

Laing O'Rourke, Airedale, Apex Cables, Armstrong, Arup, Beckhoff Automation, British Gypsum/Saint Gobain, BRE, Crane, Crown House Technologies, Expanded, Explore Manufacturing, Fulcro, Grundfos, Hamworthy Heating, Hoare Lea, Select, SIG, Thorn Lighting, University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and WSP.