Business View Oceania | February 2021

25 26 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA FEBRUARY 2021 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA FEBRUARY 2021 PrefabNZ and buildings around, may not be suitable. But we advocate that where offsite is the best solution then it should be used.” BVO: What are the major challenges for offsite manufacturers? Fisher: Challenges exist for offsite manufacturing not only in New Zealand but globally in the U.K., Europe, Asia and the U.S. where it’s becoming well established. In the New Zealand section, a key friction point is our regulatory framework, particularly around the consenting process. That process is designed for a building to be built within one jurisdiction. But with offsite manufacturing, you may well find that a house is built in one part of the country, then delivered to a different part of the country. Currently those offsite manufacturers will need to deal with two jurisdictions that may have slightly different interpretations. There is a proposal for our building act to be changed to improve and streamline that consenting process. So if a consent is issued by one jurisdiction, the other one needs to accept it unimpeded. That change is currently making its way through our parliament, so we’re hoping that will be positive this year. “Scale is another big issue for offsite manufacturing. Because in a factory environment you need to keep providing volume through that facility to make sure you benefit from all the gains and efficiencies that are there. But if the work is very much in a stop/start process or ad hoc projects, it’s really hard for that offsite manufacturer to get all the efficiencies that are available. “A broad issue for the whole construction sector is the shortage of skilled trades and also the development of new skills. Particularly within the offsite industry, which requires a skill set that is traditionally not in the construction sector. It’s around design, logistics, haulage, lifting, assembly… and there’s a term called DFMA (Design For Manufacture and Assembly), customer in town; the Housing Ministry, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense and they can underpin and kickstart an industry to raise awareness.” BVO: How would you describe the current state of the industry? Fisher: “There is a lot of traction within the industry, and it’s important to highlight that in many ways offsite manufacturing and prefabrication is nothing new. It’s been around for decades. We have some strong, well established businesses that have been building offsite since the 1950s. Probably about two- thirds of the construction in New Zealand is residential, so the prefab sector leans heavily towards residential. But we’re seeing, both domestically and globally, that commercial high- rise and even infrastructure are increasingly adopting offsite manufacturing as part of the strategic direction. “It doesn’t have to be technology driven, in many ways it can be manufacturing process driven. We have a lot of businesses that are building offsite and using traditional build techniques, but using a manufacturing process inside a controlled factory environment. And then if you want to progress and increase your productivity, you can introduce production line technology, CNC and computer design technology, and automation. “Offsite manufacturing is a much more sustainable, efficient way of building and we often find that the green part of the construction industry and ourselves are tightly aligned in our objectives. We sit very closely to the Green Building Council, which is a global movement, and also the passive house movement. So for us in the offsite sector, it’s about making sure that the principle of building offsite becomes mainstream. That those elements are adopted by everyone within the construction sector – where it suits. And offsite construction does not suit every project. There can be certain projects where topology access, ability to move elements Scott Fisher, CEO of PrefabNZ