UK construction industry should trust more in offsite manufacturing
NorDan CEO, Alex Brown, recently wrote an article for Project Scotland about off-site manufacturing, you can see the article in the magazine here on page 40 or continue below.
Brown, believes the UK construction industry should take a leap of faith in increasing the use of offsite manufacturing and follow the lead from their Scandinavian counterparts.
The timber windows and doors manufacturer are engaged with more than 20 leading European off-site clients delivering full modular solutions across markets in Sweden, Norway, Eastern Europe and here in the UK.
The perceived barriers to using the offsite model are often cited as ‘high cost of entry’, lack of confidence in the product quality and uncertainty about certification. However, Brown comments that for NorDan, the benefits of offsite manufacturing significantly outweigh these barriers.
Brown goes on to say:
“In Scandinavia and other European countries, as a supplier, NorDan has witnessed its client base increase productivity, improve delivery performance, as well as tackle the onsite skill shortage and ultimately increase profits over the long-term.”
As a major supplier to the offsite industry in Europe, NorDan is delivering some significant projects in partnership with offsite factories with great results.
Brown comments that: “The key to success for NorDan together with our partners is to have early contact with our clients, contractors and the whole supply chain to ensure first class delivery and customer performance.
“More businesses should trust in offsite construction methods if we are to help tackle the housing shortage and meet the Government target to build 1 million new homes over the next 3 years. Coupled with this, manufacturing off site is a solution to the real shortage of skilled onsite labour in the UK.”
“Offsite manufacturing allows for better coordination and logistics of a project. Products can arrive “just-on-time” for that element of the structure to begin, resulting in less down-time and less risk of product being damaged or stolen while in storage.”
NorDan are in full support of the research being carried out by Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) with Stewart Milne Group and Glasgow Caledonian University to better understand how offsite manufacturing can improve productivity and efficiency as they have seen clear benefits from using this method in recent years.
