ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 511

Finally, dwellings are delivered in blocks and a monitoring phase starts. Besides maintenance services, the company also gets feedback from costumers in the point of delivery and with post-occupancy evaluation carried out at least after one year of produc t’s use. Collected data is then analysed by the company’s quality management staff, but it is not usually processed and analysed in
time to feedback the next cycle of product development. Improvements are made based mainly
on costumers’ complaints and lessons learned through the direct contact with final users.
In the analysis of costumers’ profile, the strongest variable distinguishing them was the income.
Customers from housing schemes 1 and 2 have a similar income, while costumers from the third
scheme have a higher income. Thus, five different household groups were identified (figure 3). In
schemes 1 and 2 three main groups were: a large group of households with an average income,
mostly young couples (43%), families with children (23%) and single parents (16%); households
of mature couples with a higher income (8%); and young couples with lower income (9%). In
scheme 3, three groups were found: a large group of young couples and single parents with higher income (61%) and another group of young couples with an average income (39%).

Figure 3: Cluster analysis of CCA households
Regarding requests for change, a high percentage of households opted to modify dwellings, besides the restricted flexibility offered (figure 4). The majority of changes are requested to change
ceramic tiles. Also, changing the layout of electrical and plumbing systems is also quite requested,
since it cannot be modified after it has been built. Some small modifications are also requested
on brick walls, such as separating the kitchen space from the living room, and the least requested
change is to modify direction of doors openings.
Regarding costumers’ satisfaction, high levels of satisfaction were found. Issues that cause less
satisfaction are the laundry room and kitchen space, as well as the quality of finishing materials
(including the materials of doors and windows) (Table 1).

Percentage (%)

Percentage of modified dwelling plans
84%

61%

74%

0%
SL

SC

SJ

Figure 4: Modified dwelling plans on the CCA case

Opportunities and challenges to mass customize low-income housing in Brazil

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