Innovation and prefabs

By - , Build 128

As the construction industry faces the challenges and opportunities in Canterbury and beyond, the prefab sector has been thinking long and hard about innovation’s role in productivity, cost-effectiveness and sustainability.

Designs for the Hive – Home Innovation Expo – project. Top: Keith Hay Homes working with Architex architects. Bottom: Laing Homes working with Wilson & Hill architects produced this smart home.

Innovation is an overused term, yet a hopeful one as it indicates all that is shiny, new and different to the way we do things today. It was recently put that research equates to money turned into knowledge, whereas innovation is knowledge turned into money. This is where innovation gets really interesting and becomes relevant to today’s challenges in the Canterbury region and beyond.

Why innovate?

New knowledge throws up new reasons for improving and innovating. Often all that is needed is a renewed look at an existing technology.

In the case of prefabrication or off-site construction, it offers a window to a wide array of non-traditional construction technologies, from small components to panels, modules and complete buildings. The benefits of prefab are well documented and include high-quality built outcomes, less material waste, reduced project schedules and increased value to customers who like their buildings delivered on time and on budget.

Challenging times can bring innovation

In boom periods, ‘business as usual’ rules the day in the rush to fulfil an urgent backlog of orders, but in periods of economic tightening, the lull between orders can provide time for research, development and the testing of alternatives.

US architect and business owner James Guthrie of the Miletus Group uses the example of the Empire State Building’s construction during the Great Depression. In 1931, large-scale structural and cladding components were delivered to site using ‘just in time’ principles that enabled the building to be completed below budget and in only 1 year and 45 days. ‘Perhaps we need the stimulus of a major economic challenge to get people to step up a gear in terms of their willingness to look beyond the status quo for construction solutions that contribute a step-change in value for clients and customers,’ Guthrie said.

Change can be painful, not changing even worse

The status quo, inertia and our comfort levels are all inhibitors to change. Without doubt, change can be painful and will involve some resetting of patterns that takes time and energy. As author Malcolm Gladwell wrote in What the dog sees, Innovation is disruptive.’ We need to engage change if we are willing to risk actually improving. A longer-term outlook must be taken in order to validate the time, energy and costs involved.

If we keep on doing the same thing, we will keep on getting the same results. We see clients continuing to embark on construction products optimistically, only to be spat out the other end ravaged by cost and time over-runs and pledging never to do that again. Worse, businesses keep on doing the same thing, only working longer and harder and still getting the same results. Worst, there is undercutting among fellow industry members, driving prices and profits down until someone has to drop out of the game. What is the cost of this lost productivity and lack of delivering client value?

Collaborating around opportunities

How about working smarter and more efficiently? We’ve all heard of lean construction, prefabrication and modern methods of construction. How do we deconstruct these terms and put action plans into place? There is a real need for education, collaboration and cooperation – for businesses across the supply and material spectrum to work together. We all need to work cleverly together to create opportunities for innovation.

Designs for the Hive – Home Innovation Expo – project. Top: Keith Hay Homes working with Architex architects. Bottom: Laing Homes working with Wilson & Hill architects produced this smart home.

Ways to understand what’s needed and to implement strategies were discussed at the June 2011 James Hardie PrefabNZ Innovation event, held as part of the buildnz exhibition. Topics covered included:

  • the national economic need for high-value manufacturing – New Zealand’s target is to transition from domestic production of commodity goods to the export of differentiated goods
  • the construction industry’s need for productivity improvements as outlined by the Productivity Partnership’s aim for a 20% improvement by 2020
  • the use of technology such as off-site construction to tackle the skills shortage
  • developing products for export markets through funding grants available through the Ministry for Science and Innovation (MSI), TechNZ and regional economic development agencies, such as Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development (ATEED)
  • how collaborating with universities in research and development makes economic sense
  • how the new interactive PrefabNZ Toolkit, developed in conjunction with BRANZ and Victoria University of Wellington, enables builders to appraise the cost-benefits of prefab with clients early in the design project. A second stage in 2012 will measure sustainability and quality benefits.

Nurturing innovation

The New Zealand Institute, a privately funded thinktank, advises that innovation can be nurtured in three ways:

  • Sharing costs, facilities, information and connections to help firms overcome the disadvantages of size and distance.
  • Nominating sectors New Zealand will invest in, and specialise and build scale in these target sectors.
  • Establish specialised at-scale research and commercialisation institutions, clusters and colonies in each sector.

The New Zealand Institute also suggests that opportunities exist at firm level to relook at innovation and export opportunities, develop talent and establish a learning culture, improve marketing and operations, access high-quality strategy expertise, collaborate and build connections and learn how to make the most of government help through TechNZ, NZTE, IRL and universities.

What’s happening in Christchurch?

The Hive – Home Innovation Expo – is due to open in late March 2012 at the Canterbury Agricultural Park. A PrefabNZ initiative to showcase prefabricated and off-site housing solutions that are well-designed, built from permanent materials and powered by sustainable energy, the park is being developed in conjunction with the Christchurch City Council, the NZ Green Building Council’s Homestar residential rating tool, the Lifemark™ certification for lifetime design and various sponsors, including Meridian, Resene and Winstone Wallboards.

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Designs for the Hive – Home Innovation Expo – project. Top: Keith Hay Homes working with Architex architects. Bottom: Laing Homes working with Wilson & Hill architects produced this smart home.

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