By now, we all know prefab or offsite is a step-change in thinking about construction. It is about moving towards larger chunks made in controlled conditions – so that the process at site is one of assembly, and clients can receive known quality, time, cost and sustainability benefits. Sounds good – how about some numbers to back it up.

Let’s look first to the US, where the latest McGraw-Hill survey has found 82% of respondents and 92% of contractors see prefab as a way to increase productivity and make them more competitive in the marketplace. This report identifies the links between the rise in Building Information Modelling (BIM) and green design with prefab and modularisation.

Survey respondents comment on prefabrication benefits:
• 66% report time savings (35% by 4 weeks or more)
• 65% report budget savings (41% by 6% or more)
• 77% report construction waste is decreased (44% by 5% or more)

By 2013, nearly all players (98%) expect to be using prefab on some projects.

Let’s also look at the UK and Europe, where Skanska (the Swedish construction behemoth) has just won an award as the greenest company in the UK, not just the greenest construction company, but the greenest company – not bad for an industry that has a reputation for pouring 40% of its materials back into landfill. Skanska cites truly collaborative working methods with employees and its supply chain as the reason for its success.

Buildoffsite UK is the umbrella marketing organisation that aims for a 100% increase in offsite market share by 2010 and a ten fold increase by 2020. They report that the way forward in the UK is clearly indicated by Laing O’Rourke’s announcement that at least 70% of their upcoming project activities will involve offsite solutions.

In the UK, CIRIA has recently released Build Lean, a new lean construction publication written as a novel where the central character leads you by the hand, step-by-step through small incremental changes that you can make in the workplace. It couldn’t sound easier.

The RICs report on The Future of UK House-building calls for more offsite construction of houses to cope with their housing supply shortfall. The UK’s current construction levels leave a staggering annual deficit of around 80,000 houses. This report urges the government and industry to consider more innovative solutions to deal with overcrowding, undersupply and unaffordable housing problems.

So how about some NZ numbers… Industry members voted for a body to lead change in the uptake of prefab in February 2010. PrefabNZ was established and has developed an industry portal website, held 7 events in last 16 months, has over 900 contacts on the database receiving monthly newsletters, and more than 100 financial members. PrefabNZ is providing a voice and visibility to innovative (non-traditional) building. Become part of the prefab / offsite movement at Prefab NZ.