Trade labor shortages. Thinner margins. Tighter schedules. Quality control issues. Weather events. Increased complexity. Safety concerns. There is a laundry list of reasons why general contractors, construction managers, and subcontractors should be jumping in with both feet to adopt prefabrication on projects.
Many of the nation’s largest contractors, including Gilbane, Mortensen, Skanska, and Turner, have been utilizing prefab techniques on select projects for a decade or more. Mortensen, in a 2014 study, even quantified the cost and schedule savings from select prefab approaches—exterior panel walls, bathroom pods, multi-trade racks, patient room headwalls—implemented on a Denver hospital project. The company’s conclusion: For every dollar it spent on prefab, 13% of the investment was returned as a “quantifiable benefit to the project”—through schedule and cost certainty, improved productivity, fewer safety incidents, and manpower consistency. That’s a 1.13 benefit-to-cost ratio. Not too shabby.
Yet the prefab movement—while growing—has been relatively slow to take hold in a big way in the U.S. construction market, especially among GCs and CMs, according to a newly released joint study by FMI and BIM Forum.
Of the 156 firms surveyed for the report, nearly three-quarters (74%) indicated that they use some level of prefab on select projects. Solid adoption rate, right?
Now look at the numbers based on the volume of project work. Just 23% of respondents use prefab assemblies on more than half of their projects, and less than a third (32%) utilize the process on 21-50% of their firm’s projects.
Shockingly, among the firms that have adopted prefab construction, the overwhelming majority (86%) admit that the process is either “not effective” or “needs improvement.”
Even the most ardent users of prefab concede that the movement, for most firms, is still in the R&D phase. Construction teams don’t have the luxury of repetition. Each project comes with a different set of circumstances—location, client, project team, building program requirements, cost restraints, and schedule demands.
Trial and error testing requires multiple projects spanning several years to see what works and what doesn’t. Early prefab adopters like Birmingham, Ala.-based Golden Construction are just coming out of that cycle. “Ten years ago, we were just trying to prove that prefabrication worked,” the firm’s President Geoffrey Golden told FMI. “Today, the conversations have shifted to, ‘Just how much can we impact projects’ bottom line and schedule?’”
Mastering prefab, say the authors of the FMI/BIM Forum report, requires a top-down commitment to the process, a willingness to fail and try again, and an “all or nothing” mindset. Dabbling in prefab often turns into an expensive mistake.
Related Stories
Building Technology | Jan 31, 2020
The bidding war for Thyssenkrupp’s elevator technology business just got hotter
Engineering firm Kone Oyj raises the ante and joins three other suitor groups that have made multibillion dollar offers.
AEC Tech | Jan 16, 2020
EC firms with a clear ‘digital roadmap’ should excel in 2020
Deloitte, in new report, lays out a risk mitigation strategy that relies on tech.
Building Technology | Jan 7, 2020
Tariff whiplash for bifacial solar modules
Bifacial solar systems offer many advantages over traditional systems.
Sponsored | HVAC | Jan 6, 2020
Four Ways Building Systems Create Long-term Profitability
When accounting for the total cost of ownership and the potential return on investment, owners and developers should consider total energy usage, the lifespan of building systems equipment, the recruitment and retention of occupants, and lease rates.
Sponsored | HVAC | Jan 6, 2020
Maximize Energy Efficiency in Class A Office Buildings With Modern Building Systems
Energy-efficient building design starts with the building envelope, but the building systems have a tremendous impact on energy use as well.
| Dec 18, 2019
Reconsidering construction robotics
After decades when experts predicted that robots would become more prevalent on construction sites, it would appear that the industry has finally reached that point where necessity, aspiration, and investment are colliding.
75 Top Building Products | Dec 16, 2019
Top Building Systems Products for 2019
FabricAir’s ceiling-hung fabric duct and Ellumi Lighting’s bacteria-killing lights are among the 13 new building systems products to make Building Design+Construction's 2019 101 Top Products report.
Building Technology | Nov 15, 2019
Tools for measuring embedded carbon in building materials are on their launching pads
The Carbon Leadership Forum and Thornton Tomasetti are taking the lead to drive the industry toward zero-carbon buildings by 2050.
Multifamily Housing | Sep 12, 2019
Meet the masters of offsite construction
Prescient combines 5D software, clever engineering, and advanced robotics to create prefabricated assemblies for apartment buildings and student housing.
Multifamily Housing | Jul 23, 2019
Is prefab in your future?
The most important benefit of offsite construction, when done right, is reliability.