Automation reducing costs and enhancing quality

In the last two decades, large sectors of the economy in the developed world have been radically transformed by automation processes. However, the construction industry has remained relatively unchallenged since the 1950s. In this paper, we argue that ‘offsite’ construction, or ‘the manufacturing of construction’, has gained significant traction in the past three years, and is destined to challenge traditional ‘on-site’ building processes. In particular, we focus on case studies in offsite construction in the healthcare sector. 

‘Offsite’ construction moves significant amounts of building operations to manufacturing warehouses away from the job site. Companies such as NBBJ, Broad Group, Katerra, Prescient, BLOX, Randek, and Lindbäcks Bygg, are moving into prefabricating from flat elements to entire buildings in manufacturing plants. We compare this emerging trend in construction to the developments of ‘car platforms’ in the automotive industry, and strategies such as ‘chunking’ in the aviation industry, to look at the future of design and construction of healthcare facilities.  

‘Manufactured construction’ in industrial warehouses