ARDEX focuses on finishing to improve prefab productivity

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Schäfer was in Melbourne recently for the prefabAUS Offsite 2026 Conference, where he spoke with Built Offsite alongside ARDEX Australia’s Alan Gower about factory productivity, material development, automation and the pace of Australia’s prefab expansion. (main image: ARDEX’s Tobias Schäfer (left) and Alan Gower discuss materials and manufacturing processes for offsite construction at the prefabAUS Offsite 2026 conference in Melbourne.)

Schäfer has worked across construction for 16 years and joined ARDEX three years ago. He said the sector’s productivity problem, housing demand and labour shortages had drawn him towards offsite construction.

“We are still building the same ways and the same methods as we did decades ago,” he said. “And while other industries like manufacturing, agriculture, everything has moved on.”

For Schäfer, transferring construction into a factory is only the beginning.

“I’ve seen a lot of modular builders actually doing the same thing in a factory environment as you would do on site,” he said. “But this isn’t increasing productivity. This is just cutting out the weather.”

Schäfer said businesses with a manufacturing mindset identify bottlenecks, measure cycle times and consider labour and process efficiency alongside material cost.

“The ones that will win on the long run will be the ones pushing the boundaries,” he said. “Construction methods need to be understood and compliant with building codes, but it needs to be aligned with modern manufacturing methods as well.”

Finishing remains a productivity bottleneck
According to Schäfer, manufacturers commonly automate structural stages first because equipment for wall panels, floor cassettes and assembly is readily available. He estimated those operations account for about 40 per cent of construction time, with outfitting and finishing taking the remaining 60 per cent.

“That’s where the productivity gains are to be found, and that’s where you really need to do things differently,” he said.

Drywall finishing is one example. Traditional gypsum-based systems can require repeated applications, paper tape and drying periods between coats.

“In the best case, you might get it done in three days,” Schäfer said. “We developed a solution that is already commercially available now that can cut down this to one day.”

He also pointed to a machine-assisted tiling installation where labour was halved and output doubled.

“It’s a productivity increase of four,” he said. “This is something you can measure.”

Gower said waterproofing provides another example. In one comparison, a sheet membrane reduced the waterproofing process before tiling from 13 hours to three hours. Although the material itself cost more than the liquid-applied alternative, the shorter installation and drying time lowered the overall cost.

He stressed that the right answer depends on each factory’s capacity, labour and production sequence.

“We have liquid options. We have sheet options. We have wall board options that are waterproof already,” Gower said. “What works within what you’re doing?”

From manual application to robotics
ARDEX’s approach begins with a factory inspection rather than a predetermined product recommendation.

“The first thing I’m asking for is, ‘Can you give us a tour of your factory?’” Schäfer said.
“We need to understand where the factory’s bottlenecks are.”

He described automation as a staged process: first improve the material and manual method, then introduce machine-assisted application, and automate once a repeatable standard has been established.

“If you automate too early and you have a bad process, and you automate a bad process, then you have still a bad process,” he said.

ARDEX has worked with industrial robotics manufacturer KUKA on fully automated drywall finishing. ARDEX developed the material, while KUKA developed the robot and station.

“If a company is now interested in automation of drywall finishing, we are ready to go,” Schäfer said, while recommending that manufacturers first test the process manually.

Australia gathers pace
Schäfer said the most advanced offsite production methods were still generally found in Europe and the United States, but Australia was closing the gap quickly.

“Over the last two years, we’ve seen rapid development here,” he said. He attributed the shift to growing recognition that offsite construction and manufacturing would be important to addressing the housing shortage.

Gower linked growing government interest in modular construction to housing shortages and constraints on skilled labour.

“There’s definitely more government engagement,” he said, adding that modular construction could increase housing delivery without requiring a corresponding expansion of the traditional workforce.

Schäfer expects greater use of hybrid systems combining panels for simpler spaces with volumetric modules for more complex and highly serviced areas.

“We need to shift as much as possible to offsite manufacturing processes,” he said. “This is where we can change processes and gain efficiency.”

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