Abstract
In South Africa, the performance-based regulatory framework for buildings and house construction industry is founded on key design dimensions (DDs), including structural strength and stability, fire resistance and thermal performance, water resistance and condensation control, durability and maintenance, and acoustic performance. However, a challenge remains: there is currently no platform for integrating customer attributes (CAs) into the design, manufacturing, or construction of innovative building technology (IBT) systems, nor is there a defined method for measuring innovation in house construction. While the design dimensions (DDs) form the foundation for designs, the engineering characteristics (ECs) reflect the perspectives of engineers and system developers. As a result, IBT development is largely driven by these technical stakeholders, leaving a significant gap for incorporating the customer’s voice.
This thesis presents the development of a customer-based framework that is used to measure innovation in house construction. The aim of this research was to develop a customer-based framework that can measure innovation in house construction, to address the gap in the implementation of non-standardised/conventional products/systems (also referred to as innovative building technologies, IBTs) or modern methods of construction. To achieve the aim mentioned above, the followed objectives were set: i) to investigate the weights of customer attributes/need for innovation in house construction, ii) to identify the design dimensions in house construction that lead to customer satisfaction and measurement of innovation, iii) to estimate the extent of eco-efficiency of innovative building technology systems/products in house construction. The research design and methodology involved mixed methods, whereby a quantitative study through a questionnaire survey was conducted to fulfil all of the three objectives (i, ii, iii) and the qualitative study through case study was conducted to validate the developed framework.
The measurement of innovation framework was developed and was based on the techniques, which include house of quality, measurement frameworks, cleaner construction frameworks and dimensional analysis. The house of quality was adopted for its structure and layout, as well as the inclusion of quality as a design dimension. The i2i measurement framework was adopted for its logical structure, while the cleaner construction frameworks were referenced for their content, and dimensional analysis was used to convert nine variables into a...