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.

För att möta efterfrågan på framtida byggkrav och för att förbättra produktiviteten och konkurrenskraften finns det ett behov av att modernisera och revidera nuvarande tillvägagångssätt inom träsmåhusindustrin. I flera andra sektorer arbetas det intensivt med att anpassa sig till den förväntade fjärde industriella revolutionen. Tillverkningsindustrin har redan påbörjat sin omvandling med koncept som smart manufacturing och Industry 4.0. Hittills har smart manufacturing inte diskuterats i någon större utsträckning för träsmåhusindustrin, även om det kan vara ett sätt för denna industri att förbättra produktiviteten och konkurrenskraften.

Forskningen som presenteras i denna avhandling syftar till ökad kunskap om vad smart manufacturing innebär för träsmåhusindustrin. Detta kräver undersökning av vad smart trähustillverkning är, vilka utmaningar som kan vara förknippade med det och hur smart trähustillverkning kan realiseras. Kärnan i denna uppsats är begreppsframställningen av smart trähustillverkning—när det realiserats förväntas det bidra till att förbättra konkurrenskraften för träsmåhusindustrin.

Resultaten som presenteras här är baserat på tre forskningsstudier. Två studier var fallstudier inom träsmåhusindustrin. Den tredje studien var en traditionell litteraturstudie.

Resultaten avslöjade två definitioner och 26 komponenter av smart träshustillverkning. Sammanfattningsvis betonar smart trähustillverkning digital transformation med fokus på digitalt informationsflöde, hur man lägger till information, sammanställning av information och informationsfördelning mellan system / program och avdelningar. Några av utmaningarna associerade med smart trähustillverkning är t.ex. kultur, kompetens och manuell överföring av information mellan system.

Resultaten indikerar likheter mellan smart träshustillverkning inom vissa komponenter av industriellt husbyggande och Industry 4.0, dessa komponenter skulle kunna möjliggöra realiseringen av smart trähustillverkning.

Industrialized house building (IHB) needs to improve efficiency and reduce costs to be able to meet the demand of future building requirements. The discrete manufacturing industry has already begun its transformation with concepts such as Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing. The focus of these concepts is on systems integration and utilizing different design principles and technologies to improve productivity and competitiveness. So far, smart manufacturing has not been discussed to any significant extent in the context of the IHB industry, even though it might be a way for this industry to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

The purpose of this thesis is to support smart manufacturing realization in the IHB industry through improved systems integration capability. The objective is to develop a support system that helps to mitigate current product data management challenges in the IHB industry. The research presented here followed the design research methodology (DRM), and three research studies were conducted within the IHB industry, specifically within the context of the wooden single-family house industry.

The findings emphasized that integrated information and communication technology (ICT) tools are a precondition for realizing smart manufacturing in IHB. A pilot product lifecycle management (PLM) system was developed as a support system to mitigate the challenges encountered in product data management. The support system was developed based on five requirements (integrate product data between ICT tools, extract product data to purchasing items, adaptable to the product realization process, organize product data in different views, and trace revisions on building information modeling (BIM) projects and BIM families) and six functions (extract and interpret product data from the BIM project, property mapping, revision management, different types of document structures, from document structure to item structure, and complete bill of materials). The pilot PLM system was perceived to have value and could, for the case company, mitigate their challenges with product data management and facilitate improved systems integration. Furthermore, 18 enablers for PLM implementation in IHB were identified and categorized into implementing organization, PLM implementation process, PLM system selection and development, and development of product data for PLM.