The Forge.. Its lean design, using a standardised ’kit-of-parts’ and the better control on the specification and procurement of materials has shown the following benefits:.
Johnston warns of the knock-on effects of these types of scenarios, where a lack of advanced planning results in a total loss of the intended value.. Marks agrees and says the solution lies in bringing the construction site build portion of projects up to the same accuracy as the modules.. Modular construction.Bringing up the B2 Atlantic Yards project, Amy Marks explains that the problems caused by the module frames not being reset when needed is an easily fixable issue to learn from, not a reason to write off prefab altogether.. For example, lessons learned from the earlier Victoria Hall project in Wolverhampton (which saw tolerance issues between the modules and core structure of the building), did inspire a shift from concrete to structural steel frames on Atlantic Yards.. Further, while she believes it’s possible to achieve tolerances, she says that not every process (ie.
every contract, every scope, every specification) is currently set up for accurate tolerances.This needs to change, she says, or what we’re aiming to do will be nearly impossible.. “You can't have the same behaviour and think you're going to have some dramatically different result (that's going to be great) all of a sudden.’.The reality is that making these changes offers a solution to many of the problems we’re facing as an industry at the moment, including poor productivity, low value, excessive amounts of waste, and carbon emissions.
We need to find a way to facilitate this shift to industrialised construction because almost nothing is coming out in the way we intended it, Marks says, particularly in terms of cost, certainty, and schedule..Still, switching the whole ecosystem to support industrialised construction represents a very difficult challenge..
Starting with DfMA.
Marks feels one beneficial change would come from the construction industry committing more broadly to seeking guidance from manufacturing professionals.This may become critical as the sustainability spotlight increasingly shines on these energy consumers..
Some companies are exploring an industrial synergy with food production using low grade heat and heat pumps, but this is in early development..The feeling in the room was that, due to the regulations, Europe is pricing itself out of the general market – although due to data sovereignty a market will be retained.. Generally, green energy is more expensive, which also distorts the market.
But programmes like the Bernwick bank 4-GigaWatt wind farm may ease the UK situation in the longer term..Although self-generated power looks like a silver bullet, bought utilities are significantly cheaper than those self-generated.
(Editor: Advanced Bins)