19 Jan 2011

The concept of 'getting it right first time, every time' has always been a major challenge in the construction industry. Sadly, whether we are talking about the domestic market, commercial building or heavy civils, history is littered with disappointed clients and projects that don't quite meet expectations.

But prefabrication and off-site construction is actually starting to turn this all around. We are now seeing previously unheard levels of quality and consistency in finished products and with it, huge gains in efficiency, cost and client satisfaction, akin to the way the motor industry works.

By shifting more of the tricky and complex processes away from the mud, rain, snow and wind of the construction site and into the warm and controlled environment of a factory, we have seen big gains in industry performance.

And by breaking down our designs into smaller manageable isolated processes we are able to identify where savings can be made and decide more easily where the risks and critical path lies.

So whether it is pre-fabricated and rolled reinforcement mats instead of hand-fixed rebar, precast concrete units instead of in-situ pours, modular structures instead of bespoke or factory constructed bathroom pods instead of on-site plumbers, the future of consistent, efficient and quality construction will increasingly be driven by these modern methods of construction.