Information structures for requirements management of environmental performance in industrialised house building

Abstract Product realisation process in industrialised house building is often characterized with Engineer-to-order production strategy (ETO). In ETO the design phase is a part of every house building project, and it relies on the combination of process predefinitions and product predefinitions. A challenge with the process part, is to identify, allocate, verify and secure requirements throughout the design process. One set of requirements can be traced to Miljöbyggnad, a climate certification system in Sweden, judged from a third-part evaluation of performance for energy, climate, inner and outer environment. Based on indicators the certification has the purpose for house-building companies to reach the goals for a green transition with climate neutral construction processes before 2050. Requirement management becomes a crucial part of the multi-storey housebuilding design phase, where unique layout and other client choices are present in each project. A prerequisite for the systematic requirement management is the definition of underlying information structures. The aim of this study is therefore to identify and describe how information can be structured for systematic management of Miljöbyggnad requirements in an industrialized house building context. In a qualitative study, with two industrialised house building companies, three representative house-building projects where followed, mapped, analysed and identified for analyses. One interesting analysis result from the study was how requirements were broken down along the design phase and how domains could support the work for each house-building project. Practical contribution, in how information standards could support Miljöbyggnad requirements, was identified align with multi-disciplinary roles in the design phase.