Industrialised construction
Industrialised Construction is defined by the Construction Leadership Council as 'an approach that aims to improve productivity, predictability, and performance by reducing unnecessary variation in what we deliver, and how we deliver it'.
Industrialised construction represents a shift from the current way of project based working towards a model that is characterised by common / standardised processes, mechanised production, and advanced technology. Whilst, much of the industry views MMC as synonymous with offsite, prefabricated solutions, particularly volumetric modular, the term industrialised construction seeks to realise more fundamental and far-reaching transformation.
The benefits of industrialised construction include:
- Enhanced productivity and cost-efficiency through standardised processes and economies of repetition
- Greater predictability and certainty in project outcomes, reducing risks and variability
- Seamless data exchange and integration of digital tools and techniques throughout the development lifecycle
- Improved quality and safety due to controlled manufacturing environments and consistent procedures, resulting in higher-quality buildings with fewer defects
- Increased sustainability with reduced waste, better resource management, and promotion of circular economy principles
- Adaptability to meet specific project needs while maintaining efficiency
- Transformed supply chains featuring long-term relationships and collaborative innovation
- Broader and more diverse workforce opportunities with stable employment, skills development, and training programs for new technologies and processes
- Continuous improvement across multiple programmes and projects, fostering sector-wide learning
- Improved industry resilience through reduced uncertainty and volatility, encouraging investment in innovation
In leveraging the use of common, repeatable data, systems / components, processes and relationships, product platforms are a way of embedding the principles of industrialised construction across what and how we build.
Industrialised construction is different to MMC in that MMC typically refers to the adoption of offsite or prefabricated solutions within existing project-by-project delivery models, whereas industrialised construction seeks transformation of the entire delivery model—emphasising system-wide standardisation, programmatic approaches, and continuous improvement across portfolios rather than individual projects.
See also: Platform approach to construction.
See also: Industrialized construction.
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