ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to present the emerging trends and concepts of mass customisation observed in the building delivery process in Taiwan’s housing industry, and identify the supply chain strategies underlying these mass customisation concepts and systems. It has been found that during the planning and design phase of housing projects, there is a trend of applying ‘open building’ concepts to supply ‘support-only’ apartment products to the market, which is considered a ‘segmented standardisation’ supply chain strategy. During the construction phase, the unique ‘pre-sale’ and housing customisation system allows homebuyers to start real estate transactions earlier in the construction phase and gain an early opportunity to customise the ‘basic infill parts’ of their units, which is also regarded as a ‘segmented standardisation’ supply chain strategy. During the sale and occupancy phase, householders turn to the housing remodeling sub-industry, where modular and integrated infill systems (cabinet, floor, partition) are emerging, for interior furnishing services, which is considered a ‘tailored customisation’ supply chain strategy. In conclusion, we found that the two housing sub-industries in Taiwan are moving towards mass customisation strategies: the new apartment building sub-industry is moving from ‘pure standardisation’ towards ‘segmented standardisation’; and the housing remodeling sub-industry is moving from ‘pure customisation’ towards ‘tailored customisation’. Both sub-industries subscribe to the ‘support’ and ‘infill’ open building framework, which manifests an emerging industry evolution of adopting the ‘open building’ principle towards mass customisation.
