As the construction of "good houses" accelerates, the construction industry is undergoing a transformation from traditional construction methods to industrialization, digitalization, and intelligence.
This means that the current logic of building houses is changing.
In the past, construction workers had to be at the construction site, starting from laying the foundation and building the house layer by layer.
Nowadays, with the accelerated application of industrialized construction methods, part of the process of building a house is moving from the construction site to the factory. After the building modules are standardized and produced, they are then transported to the site to be assembled like building blocks.
Zhong Caiwen recently wrote that some construction companies are currently using industrial standards, digital precision, and automation efficiency to gradually transform "good houses" from "construction sites" to "factory manufacturing."
Changes such as this have greatly expanded the company's business areas, broken through geographical restrictions, and demonstrated strong vitality.
From ‘construction site construction’ to ‘factory manufacturing’, not only the construction location has changed, but also the production methods and organizational logic of the construction industry that has long relied on on-site construction.
Production method changed from series to parallel
Traditional building construction has an obvious feature: a large number of processes occur at the project site, while today's modular buildings advance factory production and construction site simultaneously.
According to Zhan He, executive director of China Construction Hailong Design Institute, traditional building construction is more like a series process: 'First lay the foundation, then build the basement, and then build up layer by layer. ’
Traditional construction has to wait for one link to be completed before entering the next link.
Modular construction turns this "series connection" into "parallel connection": while the foundation construction is going on at the construction site, the factory has begun to produce the main building modules and complete the interior decoration; when the on-site foundation construction is completed, the modules can be shipped to the site for installation.
In China Construction Hailong's intelligent manufacturing production line, building modules are no longer construction units that rely on manual work on site, but have entered a set of digital production processes with coding, workstations, and equipment collaboration.
According to Zhanhe, the relevant flexible production lines integrate more than 1,000 sensing points, more than 190 work stations, and more than 80 intelligent equipment and robots, and more than 70% of the operations can be completed in the factory.
Starting from the design end, each building module is given a corresponding digital code, and runs through the design, production, transportation, installation and other links through the independently developed digital design management platform. Multiple processes that used to be scattered on the construction site have been incorporated into a set of digital and standardized production processes.
In other words, in the past, people and materials went to the construction site together, but now more than 70% of the processes such as the structure, decoration, water and electricity of the house modules are completed in smart factories, and then transported to the destination for efficient assembly.
Houses are built faster and more precisely
When a building moves from a construction site to a factory, one of the most intuitive changes is time.
According to Zhanhe, on the production line, an all-factor module can be rolled off the production line every 20 minutes on average.
Take the Huazhang Xinzhu affordable housing project under China Construction Hailong as an example. It only took about 365 days from the start of construction to delivery of a residential project of nearly 170,000 square meters.
The Beijing Huabichang Hutong Building 8 project originally required a construction period of 15 months, but with the help of "intelligent construction-MiC technology", it can be completely demolished and rebuilt in just 3 months.
In addition to the construction period, another impact brought by changes in production methods is changes in construction costs and quality control methods.
To measure the cost of modular construction, we cannot just look at a certain module or a certain process, but should look at the entire building life cycle.
In traditional construction, on-site cutting, secondary processing and other links are prone to material loss. After entering the factory, the building modules are produced according to digital designs, and the production process can be controlled more precisely.
According to Zhanhe, in the practice of relevant projects, modular construction can save more than 60% of the construction period, reduce construction waste emissions by more than 75%, reduce material loss by more than 25%, reduce electricity consumption on the construction site by more than 60%, and reduce water consumption by more than 66%.
At the same time, the factory production environment is relatively more controllable. Some quality problems that are difficult to completely avoid in traditional construction can also be controlled at the source of production to reduce the costs of later repairs and rework.
In addition, the shortened construction period will also help reduce the management and resource investment caused by long-term on-site construction.
Therefore, the changes brought about by smart construction are not just to make houses ‘build faster’, but also to make construction production, which was originally highly dependent on on-site experience and manual collaboration, gradually become more standardized and traceable.
The people who ‘build houses’ are also changing
Changes in construction production methods are also changing the role of construction workers.
In the past, construction workers were mostly responsible for heavy physical labor such as transportation and pouring. After entering the factory, some workers' work gradually shifted to equipment operation, drawing reading and production line management, from heavy physical labor to technical operations.
In an interview with China News Service, a construction worker said bluntly that when he first came into contact with this construction method, he thought it was a bit incredible that the house could be built in the factory.
The previous work status of following projects and being exposed to wind and rain began to change. Now in the factory, he faces more equipment and production lines, and learns new skills such as equipment operation through regular training, and his job is relatively more stable.
At the same time, robots have also begun to become the ‘new workers’ on the construction production line.
On the production line, grasping robots, welding robots and logistics transportation robots have been put into use, and AI has also begun to be explored in building module splitting, data analysis and other aspects. Some processes that used to rely on manual labor are gradually being completed by machines.
In the future, modular buildings may further develop towards higher integration, greater versatility, lighter weight and durability.
Zhanhe imagines that future modular buildings may be able to be replaced and combined through standardized parts like cars to meet different needs.
At present, a reconstruction of the production methods of the construction industry is taking place.
