Visualising the Impact of Early Design Decisions on a Modular Housing Supply Network

Increasingly, modular housing manufacturers choose to compete by becoming system integrators. The transition to this new business model requires companies to develop system-level knowledge that `they know more than they produce' in managing supply networks. Engineering system design tools, through visualizing supply network design and make processes, can help companies to overcome many uncertainties when they choose to become system integrators within the supply network. This paper illustrates how simulation models can be derived from design characteristics, experiential data, and a pragmatic system engineering design `vee' framework. This helps modular housing managers to observe and compare the risks of different products and supply network configurations, and see how behavior changes of individual organizations impact system-level performance. A modular housing case study illustrates the implementation and benefits of our approach.