Making Offsite Construction platforms work!

‘A disconnect in the UK modular construction sector’ - In his recent editorial in PBC Today & BIM Today , David Johnson at Volumetric Building Companies describes many of the global trends seen in offsite construction (OSC), and particularly, how they contrast with the recent headline-grabbing challenges in the UK modular market.

What’s certain is that embracing off-site construction is increasingly being looked at as our best chance to tackle some of the biggest challenges we’re dealing with in construction. Here’s 3 reasons why:

1. ? OSC drastically cuts construction time - a no-brainer, especially when interest rates are high!
2. ?? OSC can reduce a project’s environmental footprint - this is a crucial benefit and we’re glad it’s finally moving to the top of the agenda as regulatory pressure increases.
3. ?? OSC addresses ever-increasing labour shortages - another recent addition to what’s keeping folks up at night.

David gives some great food for thought on the road ahead, and how we can take offsite’s impact from paper to practice! In it, he also points out 2 of the core hypotheses that Modulize is built on:

• Diversification & hybrid construction:?At Modulize we believe that, for every project, there is an optimal distribution between on-site and off-site work. Sometimes that means going 100% offsite, and other times 0%. Most often, the balance is somewhere in the middle. Finding the sweet-spot can be incredibly difficult, and we see that many projects end up opting for suboptimal degrees of offsite and lose out on major benefits. So how do we find that sweet spot? In a perfect world, OSC is considered from the very start. By ensuring that projects are designed and specified with OSC in mind, every stakeholder will reap the benefits of OSC! When this doesn’t happen, as is most often the case, we need to empower contractors to figure out how they can maximise the benefits from using off-site within the constraints of the design. This is a major challenge in a fragmented market with highly specialised products!
• Platform approach:?This leads us to the second hypothesis. The Off-site construction industry is fragmented and characterised by thousands of smaller and mid-sized manufacturers. Counting 1,700+ manufacturers, we have already built the largest database of manufacturers globally, and still, we are only scratching the surface! This fragmentation creates significant challenges for general contractors and manufacturers alike. It complicates identifying the best approach to using off-site in a project because the menu of what is possible is opaque and can’t be assessed in a data-driven or structured way. Even once we get past this challenge and capture requirements systematically, it can be incredibly difficult to find the perfect supplier. On the manufacturer side, getting access to the right kinds of projects can be equally challenging. Outside of building on existing relationships, it is often difficult to get a foot in the door or even know whether a project is going to use OSC. This leads manufacturers to depend on an unreliable pipeline, while scouring project databases for leads that rarely provide information on a project’s intention to use off-site. It’s easy to see how we need to support both contractors and manufacturers to streamline the procurement process. With a platform approach, we develop the correct channels and tools for construction companies to quickly and efficiently identify qualified suppliers, and for suppliers to gain access to the relevant projects. At Modulize, we achieve this by building a marketplace where we connect stakeholders and match project specifications with manufacturing abilities.

It’s no small task to make a diversified platform approach work and ensure we create a win-win dynamic that provides value for both general contractors and manufacturers. However, this is exactly what we will need to do if we’re going to unlock the true potential of off-site construction!