Prefabrication + the New Frontier

Yesterday, today and the future of mitigating jobsite challenges

By Kyle Davis

The construction industry has a problem: skilled labor is at an all-time low. However, the part of the story that’s particularly alarming, but rarely surfaces, is it’s also not in a position to recover.

In 2004, the Brookings Institute published a white paper titled “Toward a New Metropolis.” The conclusion 15 years ago was that half of what will exist in the built environment by 2030 didn’t exist yet. The construction industry uses 29% of the craft apprentices enrolled in apprenticeship programs, equating to just 144,000 apprentices and approximately 2% of the industry workforce, as of 2016. According to the white paper, by 2020, the industry will need over 2 million additional craftworkers. Simply put, skilled labor in the construction industry is on a declining trajectory, all the while the need for building is continuously growing.

Although a complicated equation, one piece of the workforce challenge can be solved through modularization and prefabrication. In fact, because the workforce shortage is so great, modularization could be the quickest, best solution due to the massive amounts of onsite labor it saves. There is another benefit to mitigating the shortages, as well. In a thriving economy, labor is a commodity. It is difficult to keep the skilled labor on a project due to the pull of higher wages from another project. By requiring fewer onsite workers due to prefabricated solutions, this will lessen the pull. Also, the labor installing the prefab solutions does not need to be as high of a skill level as it does for stick-built solutions.

Work in progress

Despite prefabrication’s emergence in the 90s, it’s an approach the design and construction industry is still working to perfect. Like Apple, construction and design practitioners realize they are capable of the same versioning capacity —prefabrication version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and so forth — each time, reaching a new level of sophistication with preassembly and modularization efforts.

Additionally, it seems the pinnacle of innovation as we know it has already been reached when it comes to the physical prefabrication and preassembly of the elements themselves. We have found ways to modularize entire rooms, penthouses, chiller plants and exterior wall systems. On a smaller scale, we’ve been able to preassemble fixtures, in-wall switches, risers, casework, underground systems, ductwork and much more.

When thinking of ways to incorporate prefabrication more prominently on a project, that next version may not be, “What else can I prefabricate?” Instead, the question is, “How can I prefabricate more efficiently?”

This requires the industry to reset everything they know about the decision-making process in relation to prefabrication. Instead of designing a facility and then asking how prefabrication fits into that design, the next level of achieving true efficiency lies in a collaborative design process. This means discussing prefabrication during development and drawing elements because they can be prefabricated on a large scale. As these elements progress, any decisions that must be made, must be finalized earlier. As expected, this urgency increases with the size of the solution. The more modular a building becomes, the more disrupted the typical design process will become in order to ensure efficiency from a budget, planning and impact perspective.

While this idea in itself may seem radical, it brings another important requirement to light. To ensure constructability of prefabricated and modular elements, a general contractor – along with key specialty trades – needs to be onboarded early during the design phase, again, resetting the typical project team selection process. By utilizing a collaborative project team approach, all can truly benefit from prefabrication with the ability to integrate it into planned quality, production and logistics efforts throughout the duration of the project.

Looking ahead

Traditional prefabrication methods will continue to gain popularity on projects of varying size, but one trade has been particularly affected by recent trends: HVAC. On a sliding scale from large to small, HVAC is experiencing an innovative renaissance in prefabrication and modularization. This includes:

Tech integration. From a process standpoint, HVAC’s inevitable marriage to BIM and other technology like laser scanners meant to capture as-built conditions may seem like a given in today’s tech-centric environment. However, with the continuous sophistication of its application, tech is allowing for the placement of more complex prefabricated elements into the building. In an existing building, laser scanners can capture site conditions with accuracy up to 1/64 inch. When creating a model, this level of accuracy not only ensures that prefabricated elements will not clash with existing elements, it also allows for creative solutions to be utilized in immoveable, as-built conditions.

Offsite, cross-discipline warehouse assembly. The need for more space on projects is a growing issue with larger developments adding onto existing buildings with postage-stamp-sized sites. Having an offsite warehouse provides that storage space, with an added bonus.

Although many trade contractors traditionally prefabricate in their own warehouses, having a collaborative warehouse assembly space allows various trades to assemble predetermined items together. Then, before sending to the jobsite, it can be quality reviewed from the perspective of multiple trade contractors, further reducing the risk of rework in the field.

Third-party logistics. Third-party logistics, or the utilization of logistical services both physical and technological to orchestrate just-in-time deliveries from an offsite location, is another highly important trend for prefabrication. As elements become larger and more complex, just-in-time deliveries are a crucial piece to the ever-evolving puzzle.

When a large modular unit ships, it is cost prohibitive to double handle these elements, creating the potential for a logistical nightmare with shipping uncertainties. In addition to the aforementioned challenge of less laydown space available, as prefabricated elements grow in intricacy, it is less likely they can withstand extreme temperatures, weather and common impacts, among other things. Tightly coordinated deliveries increase the likelihood that prefabricated elements coming to the site will not be affected by these, sometimes unavoidable, incidences that occur when material is left outside.

Modularized central utility plants. Elementally, many manufacturers are utilizing modularization techniques for central utility plants. Although this doesn’t affect the onsite construction, as CUPs have typically been delivered as a singular unit, this indicates a continued shift of thinking in the HVAC space toward prefabrication and modularization and how it can be applied. These vendor-purchased solutions will continue to influence conversations in choosing the best fit for projects.

In all, the industry is on the precipice of an entirely new frontier as it relates to prefabrication. If we take the lessons learned and push ourselves to change time-honored traditions to better align with the needs of today’s projects, we will be well-suited to radically impact the quality, value and efficiency of the next 10 years of construction. Tracking these areas of improvement is certain to provide the answers we seek in better understanding how to holistically mitigate the continued challenges the industry faces.

Kyle Davis is senior mechanical preconstruction manager at Robins & Morton.