In this blog series Are Prefabrication and Modular Construction Providing Improvements?, you will find out why the various players in the Construction Industry agree that both Prefabrication and Modular Construction can improve safety and quality, reduce costs and schedules, and enhance sustainability performances despite the workforce shortages, supply chain uncertainties, and other challenges.

The forecast right now is to increase the use of both Prefabrication and Modular construction over the coming years, this implies that:

• Real estates developers become more comfortable with the process and understand better the positive results those approaches will bring them,
• the benefits are better documented and measured,
• the industry develops and supports innovation in these fields.

Dodge Data & Analytics published annually since 2011 a smart market report on these approaches and since then the same benefits have always been consistent, they are:

• Improved productivity and quality,
• positive impacts on budgets and schedule performance, and
• less waste is generated making construction sites safer and greener, as modules are produced and assembled offsite.

The 2020 Dodge Data and Analytics' Report Findings

The study highlights:

Major obstacles to the development of these two methods of construction, as follows:

• The contractors blame architects and engineers for not allowing enough, in their designs, prefabrication, or modularisation.
• The main reasons the designers do not promote enough those methodologies, are that:
  • prefabrication facilities are not available close to their projects, and
  • real estate developers have little understanding of the values modular construction could bring them.

Commonalities and differences between the two approaches

Both approaches have in common several benefits, but they are rated higher by the modular construction users than the prefabrication users.

The seven benefits are :

• Improved cost predictability
• Improved Productivity
• Improved Quality
• Improved Safety performance
• Increased Client satisfaction
• Increased schedule certainty
• Reduce waste generated by Construction

BIM Impact.

The study also shows that using BIM in these approaches has a positive impact on the results:

• 61% of companies using BIM, with prefabrication, in more than 50% of their projects claim that they experienced improved schedule performance vs only 22% for those not using BIM
• 46% of those using BIM, with modular construction, report cost reduction, when the percentage of those not using BIM is only 21%

In Conclusion

January 2022 Driving Vision blogs aim at demystifying Prefabrication and Modular Construction for all stakeholders.

Knowing where to focus your innovation is paramount to combatting the rapid pace of disruption your organization is bound to experience in an increasingly fast-moving and uncertain world.

Dodge Data and Analytics' in-depth study leverages datasets to uncover a more nuanced perspective on the prefabrication and Modular Construction landscape, examining whether investing in new technologies does in fact translate to better company performance.

Driving Vision sees a bright future for those approaches and forecasts significant growth in the next three years on a variety of building types.

The respondents to the Dodge Data and analytics' survey reported using prefabrication or modular construction in at least 10% of their projects over the last 3 years and forecasted that over the next three years the percentage will stay flat or increase.

Implementing BIM can be daunting, but Driving Vision is here to help you at the pace you are comfortable with. Get started by getting in touch now