Design for Manufacturing and Assembly als Entwurfsprinzip für den modularen Betonfertigteilbau

Design for Manufacturing and Assembly as a design principle for modular precast concrete construction: Application examples from the DFG Priority Programme 2187

While the German construction industry has been struggling with stagnating productivity growth for several decades, other manufacturing industries have been able to significantly increase their productivity through digitalisation, automation and rationalisation of manufacturing processes. The Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) principle, which considers the planning of manufacturing and assembly as an integral part of the design process and systematically quantifies and evaluates their impact on time and cost at an early stage, has been a major contributor to this productivity growth. The construction industry can also benefit from the principles of DfMA and apply them, for example, in the design of industrially prefabricated structures made of modular precast concrete elements. In the Priority Programme 2187 “Adaptive modularised constructions made in a flux” by the German Research Foundation, such modular construction methods are being investigated in a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, from design and production processes to automated quality control and digital representation. This article shows how DfMA is applied as a design principle in this context and which design solutions have been derived from it in the individual subprojects of SPP 2187.