A multilevel analysis of collaboration in offsite manufacturing supply chains using actor network theory

The Australian housing industry is failing to meet demand. The current housing construction model is characterized by craft-based on site construction techniques resulting in fragmentation. This has created inefficiencies in the construction process, with average construction time increasing 40 per cent over the last fifteen years. Construction supply chain integration has been proposed as an overarching industry solution, but there is little evidence that practices have changed. An example of a supply chain integration solution is off-site manufacturing. Past research indicates that manufacture in a factory using production engineering techniques will ensure a level of efficiency, innovation, quality and accuracy that onsite construction cannot match. However, it is suspected that the adoption of innovative offsite manufacturing is constrained by the lack of collaboration at all levels in the industry and across many of the organisations involved. Understanding how to achieve this is a complex and difficult problem, in part because of the range of organisations involved; resistance to adoption of new techniques; the adversarial culture of the industry; and dispersed power across various organisations. This paper presents a new theoretical framework for collaboration developed from a critique of offsite manufacturing literature and collaboration theory. We frame our multilevel analysis using actor network theory, which will enable an analysis of interactions between, and influence of, housing developers, designers, unions, industry organisations and government agencies. We use qualitative case study techniques based on elected exemplars which utilise novel construction methodology requiring a significant collaborative effort involving a mix of offsite and onsite manufacturing. This is a three study and we are currently in phase one of the first year focussed on theory development.