Over-hyped? Under-Delivered? There’s no question that factory-built, road-transported modules delivered to the construction field provide a significant challenge. Conventional builders struggle with the new pressures of just-in-time mega-parts delivery. Not much you can do on site but wait if a complex lower floor module arrives after one that sits upon it.
Modularity doesn’t favour a small work force tackling a construction job here, one there. An entire factory must be kept busy to churn out a succession of modules. Bankruptcies have been a result of pioneer modular factories unable to manage both more complex design and planning as well a successful throughput1.
Thankfully, a deep-pocketed government prepared to modularize a continuous succession of similar social housing construction projects may fit the bill for the development of workable and profitable modular factories. Watch on Youtube how New South Wales hopes to make modularity a long overdue solution for that Australian state’s social housing crisis: New look into social housing future | 7 News Australia
Footnotes
- A recent story in the UK’s Construction News explains, “(b)ut switching to factory-based Design for Manufacture and Assembly … is poorly understood in construction – it needs 10 times the design content compared with traditional prototype design approach.” You can read the whole article here: Industry Fragmentation – The Barrier To Innovation And Change
