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Many hands (and minds) make light work. When representatives from the modern methods of construction (MMC) construction industry come together with client representatives – the industry is positioned to innovate and grow.
With Sensum advising, and facilitating, the Queensland Department of Energy and Public Works, brought together 11 representative organisations (the MMC Supplier Panel) from across the offsite construction industry in a series of face-to-face workshops to contribute to the immediate and future concept of government employee housing and social housing. (main pic: Design Sprint Workshop – engaging around design concepts to enhance housing outcomes.)
By bringing together representatives from across Government and Industry over the past few months, Sensum has encouraged open and candid dialogue and facilitated consensus on key areas that need to be addressed for MMC to continue to grow and flourish in Queensland (and the rest of Australia) whilst contributing to addressing the housing crisis.
While the report is still being drafted, outcomes being complied and recommended, some key themes are consistently emerging from the outputs of the dialogue.
In order to continue and increase the growth trajectory of MMC in Australia, we need clients, manufacturers, contractors, architects, compliance and quality to work together on:
Compliance – Enabling the industry to deliver housing that complies with all relevant guidelines and providing Good Homes by ensuring that relevant guidelines are captured, understood and then aligned to expectations and deliverable outcomes.
Standardisation – By developing alignment of performance requirements and minimum standard specifications for dwellings, coupled with agreed maximum module dimensions and common module typologies will achieve economies of scale, compatibility with other housing typologies, and the opportunity to enhance the impact of MMC in housing delivery.
Pipeline – we often are said, but possibly don’t appreciate the need to not only see, but realise a sustainable pipeline of works. A pipeline enables investment in research, people, and processes, to deliver better products which in this case will enable the realization of many benefits of MMC.
Design Conceptualisation – having built from compliance and standardization, conceptualization is where individual organisations (in this case form the MMC SP) are able to apply their own design and manufacture smarts to the common and agreed objectives.
Procurement – a key enabler is the procurement process(es) and contract forms which are designed to suit MMC and the different contract risks and suitable allocation. Understanding the options for procurement and contract which can maximise the realisation of the MMC benefits to housing whilst also considering the key requirements of government procurement and risk.
So, how does the village move forward? Together. It took a village, a group of representatives to uncover these insights, now the best way forward is address them together. 2023, an exciting year to continue to grow and evolve the MMC industry.
In early 2023 the Queensland Department of Energy and Public Works will issue tenders to the MMC Supplier Panel (11 Manufacturers) for a suite of projects to enable the Prototyping of solutions developed during the Design Sprints. The Prototyping is part of the overall strategy to innovate and deliver good homes to Queenslanders.
Sensum would like to thank all the participants in the MMC Design Sprint Process.
Queensland Department of Energy and Public Works
Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy
ModularPlus Australia
Find previous Sensum village MMC article HERE at builtoffsite.com
