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How delays before and after production continue to shape modular delivery outcomes.
Built Offsite visited JMB Modular’s facility in Shepparton, regional Victoria, where a manufacturing-led approach to housing is already in place — and where the constraints sit largely outside the factory. (main image: At JMB Modular’s Shepparton base, James and Rachel Briggs represent a transition from traditional building pressures to a more controlled and repeatable manufacturing approach.)
For Managing Director James Briggs, the shift to modular was not driven by technology, but by necessity.
“I realised I’d created something that wasn’t sellable, scalable or sustainable,” he said. “Everything relied on me and my registration. I needed to get everything inside four walls.”
From burnout to a controlled system
JMB began in 2008 as a conventional builder, delivering projects across multiple locations. As the business expanded, so did the complexity.
“I had about 23 guys in two states and got my helicopter pilot’s licence to fly around to jobs,” Briggs said. “It worked for a while, but ultimately it was a fast track to burnout.”
The issue was structural. Delivery relied on constant movement, fragmented teams, and site-based variability. Modular construction offered a way to stabilise that.
“For us, the only way forward was modular,” he said.
That decision was reinforced through international exposure and early offsite experimentation. “In 2014 we started exporting materials to Africa and Papua New Guinea,” Briggs said. “In 2018 I went to China looking at container factories and modular opportunities.”
What followed was not simply a change in construction method, but a shift towards repeatable production.
JMB Modular’s Shepparton facility in regional Victoria, where production is structured and repeatable. Interior and factory walkthrough to follow next week.
Building for repeatability, not one-offs
At JMB Modular, the focus is on volume and consistency rather than bespoke design.
“Anything with purchase orders of 10 or more is what we’re chasing,” Briggs said. “That’s worker accommodation, student housing, and multi-level projects.”
The reasoning is direct. Without repeatability, the efficiencies of a production line cannot be realised.
Briggs is equally direct about how this contrasts with broader market behaviour.
“Everyone’s calling it modular now, but much of it is just conventional building off-site,” he said.
Rachel Briggs, Director at JMB Modular, sees the impact at the project interface.
“A lot of them have already spent thousands on designs,” she said. “Then they come to us and it has to be redesigned to suit modular. It’s too far along by then.”
The shift to modular, in that sense, is not only technical. It requires a different starting point.
Station zero and station nine
Inside the Shepparton facility, production is structured, sequenced, and measurable. Each module moves through a defined series of workstations, with a consistent build timeframe.
The constraint is not the factory.
“We’ve solved everything around building the building,” Briggs said. “Station zero and station nine are where all the problems are.”
Station zero refers to everything that happens before a module enters production. Planning approvals, engineering documentation, authority sign-offs, and client decisions all sit within this phase.
“Station zero takes nine months,” Briggs said.
By contrast, the factory build itself is measured in weeks.
Station nine sits at the opposite end of the process, beginning once the module leaves the factory. Delivery, craning, service connections, inspections, and occupancy approvals all fall within this stage.
This is where external risks re-emerge.
Projects can be delayed by infrastructure requirements, planning conditions being revisited, or disputes unrelated to the building itself. In some cases, completed modules remain idle on site while issues are resolved.
The contrast is clear: a controlled production system operating within an uncontrolled delivery environment.
Tour JMB Modular’s award-winning display home at their Shepparton facility.
Regulation, fragmentation, and delivery friction
The challenges associated with station zero and nine are amplified by differences between state-based systems.
“It’s complicated, it’s way too complicated,” Briggs said.
Engineering certification, inspection regimes and compliance requirements vary across jurisdictions, introducing delays that sit outside the production process.
Rachel Briggs points to the disconnect between policy intent and delivery reality.
“It just shows they don’t understand on the ground what’s actually happening,” she said. “Some of the rules and regulations are stopping it.”
Planning processes add further uncertainty, extending timelines before production begins and, in some cases, after modules are delivered.
A system ready to scale, if the conditions allow
The Shepparton facility forms part of a five-stage master plan designed to increase output and capability.
“We’ll need 64 employees to push out 200 modules a year,” Briggs said. “Those modules can be complex, particularly in multi-level builds.”
The immediate focus remains on delivery and refining the production system under live project conditions.
For JMB Modular, the constraint is not how buildings are made.
It sits in everything that happens before production begins and after it leaves the factory.
Part two will examine JMB Modular’s factory and production process.
Find JMB Modular HERE
