The solution
Prefabricated construction still has a coordination trap: design, component production, transport and site assembly can each be digitized while the project as a whole remains a pile of handoffs. Broad Homes tried to solve the whole flow rather than only automate one factory line.
36Kr reported that Broad Homes launched PC Maker in 2018 as BIM-based forward-design software and used PC-CPS as a digital-twin manufacturing management system. Project data passes through nine modules from market entry and design to manufacturing, finance and construction.
The clever piece is the link back from field to factory. Every precast component has a unique QR code; when the jobsite scans it, construction progress flows to the production module so the system can arrange the next manufacturing step. Sina Finance described this as shifting from supply-side planned production to demand-side data-driven production, raising turnover and reducing inventory.
What it achieved
Make the building part the data carrier
Why it worked
The QR code made the construction site part of the production-control loop.
PC Maker connected design choices to molds, materials, cost and manufacturing before work reached the factory.
The nine-module data flow let Broad Homes manage a network of factories without relying only on dispatched managers.
What can be applied
When work crosses design, factory and field, give every physical unit a digital identity that can carry status between organizations.
Aftermath
By 2022, 36Kr said Broad Homes had more than 200 million square meters of market practice and nearly 100 factories. The same report linked PC-CPS to managing that factory network, while Sina Finance said PC-CPS improved PC factory productivity and helped move the business toward demand-pulled production.
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