INDUSTRIALISED CONSTRUCTION

By Atkinsrealis, Social Rent Housing playbook series

If we are to truly transform housing delivery, we must look beyond technical solutions and
embrace the broader industrialisation of the sector. Here, Ron Lang, Regional Director of AtkinsRéalis, unpacks what industrialisation means for housebuilding, the opportunities and benefits it offers and the critical role of local authorities and housing associations in helping unlock transformation of the sector.

While a move from on-site construction to off-site production is playing an increasing role in the transformation of housing delivery, it forms part of a wider agenda which will see us break with our long- dominant obsession with project delivery in favour of a more product-focused future.

What is industrialisation?

Industrialisation is the process of transforming a sector from one primarily based on manual labour and craftsmanship to one characterised by mechanised production, advanced technology, standardised processes, and increased efficiency.

“At its heart, industrialisation seeks to reduce variability and uncertainty - ensuring that we can deliver the quality and variety of housing we need and want without perpetually reinventing the processes we employ to deliver them.”

The shift from projects to products will require housing commissioners and developers to look across their housing portfolios to understand where flexibility and customisation is truly valuable, and where it adds unnecessary variability and unpredictability to their delivery processes.

But crucially, the pursuit of commonality need not come at the expense of product variety and architectural flexibility.

But Why? What are the Benefits?

The industrialisation of housing delivery offers an opportunity to address many of the sector’s long-term challenges. Variability and unpredictability create the conditions for poor safety practices, inefficient use of resources, high levels of rework and more - all of which add cost and erode quality. By contrast, a meaningful shift towards the maximisation of repeatable systems, processes and relationships will drive continuous improvement in both housing quality and project performance.

Variability and uncertainty also underpin the sector’s continued reliance on a shrinking pool of highly flexible, highly skilled workers. Greater industrialisation and a meaningful shift from on-site construction to off-site production will provide the sector with access to a far more diverse labour pool, creating sustainable jobs where they are most needed in the process. Of particular note is the potential for industrialisation to forge the construction sector’s path to Net Zero: If the sector continues to allow itself to continually reinvent its products, processes, and relationships from one project to the next, its ability to identify and drive out carbon will remain severely limited.

How will we get there?

The current housing delivery model is a logical response to the way demand is presented to the supply chain. Where requirements and specifications continue to vary from client to client or project to project, it will remain necessary to employ highly variable, highly unpredictable production models.

Forward thinking housing commissioners are working to harmonise, digitise and rationalise their requirements across delivery programmes and portfolios - a process outlined in the Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s latest Transforming Infrastructure Performance Roadmap to 2030. Furthermore, local authorities and housing associations are beginning to work together to rationalise their requirements and to generate a clearer picture of the aggregated pipeline to which they apply.

Housing commissioners can then work with the market to explore the development or adoption of new delivery platforms. These platforms will host the core repeatable technical systems, production processes, and supply chain relationships required to drive commonality and certainty across the identified pipeline, gathering feedback from every project deployment to drive continuous improvement. Collaboration is likely to be required to maximise demand aggregation and offset platform development costs, except with very large or highly integrated clients.

Finally, housing commissioners must develop the commercial models to support an industrialised approach to delivery. For example, while there may be opportunities to drive economies of scale through centralised procurement of repeatable components, their deployment into specific projects may require alternative approaches to the management of design liabilities.

“Public sector commissioning of social housing is a pivotal opportunity to twin- track the delivery of needed homes and for the UK to develop world-class industrialised construction capabilities.” Ron Lang Regional Director, PPS AtkinsRéalis

New to the playbook series? Start here with A playbook approach to accelerating housing delivery.

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As you engage with the Playbook, we encourage you to reach out to the contributing organisations to inform your learning. No single organisation’s product, process or passion can fix the problem. Change will come through creativity, collective wisdom and the will to roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to do things differently!