A New Era for Modular Design and Construction
While offsite construction—including prefabrication, modularization, preassembly or offsite multitrade fabrication—has been around for decades, it is emerging as a critical method for delivering projects faster, safer and cheaper in today’s labor-constrained E&C environment. In fact, according to one of FMI’s recent industry studies, two-thirds of E&C owner organizations acknowledge that today’s offsite construction environment is much different than it was just three years ago—a shift that’s due mainly to labor shortages and increasing cost and schedule pressures.
And while change is happening in pockets across the country—in different market sectors and across a range of project types and sizes—there is no doubt that an underlying transformation is happening and gaining momentum each day. Despite these business conditions, there is still a widespread reluctance among many North American owner organizations to fully embrace the manufacturing-like project delivery approach.
