Designed for manufacture
Interview
Technology is driving significant – some would say revolutionary – change in the way today’s buildings are constructed, and the prefabrication of mechanical services is a key part of that change.
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Daniel Waack Integrated Prefabrication Leader A.G. Coombs Projects
As a leader in the Australian building services industry, A.G. Coombs has a long standing reputation as an innovator. Nowhere is this more evident than in the development of the Group’s offsite prefabrication capability. A.G. Coombs has pioneered the application of large-scale prefabricated services methods in the Australian construction sector for over 15 years – from vertical and horizontal services modules to external plant rooms. Constructed offsite in integrated prefabrication facilities before being transported to site for installation, all system components including mechanical, electrical, controls and fire protection elements can be installed, pre-tested and pre-commissioned. This strategy leads to improved quality, program, safety and performance outcomes, as well as reducing site construction time by transferring
Building Efficiency
thousands of hours of complicated site installation into a controlled environment with the need to work at height virtually eliminated. Now with growing economies of scale, the hyper-standardisation of repeatable components is allowing the creation of a “catalogue of parts” allowing for deeper integration of prefabrication strategies into design.
Building Efficiency (BE) spoke with Daniel Waack, Integrated Prefabrication Leader with A.G. Coombs Projects, about the evolution of construction and how prefabrication is changing the Australian construction landscape.
BE: What are A.G. Coombs’ capabilities in prefabrication?
BE: How is the evolution of prefabrication changing construction?
Daniel Waack: I like to say that if you can imagine it, we can prefabricate it. Likewise if you identify a problem, prefab can be a solution. Some of our best prefabrication outcomes have come from our team identifying a particular challenge on site, leading to an offsite manufactured answer that can be leveraged in other projects moving forward.
Daniel Waack: Traditional construction has always been about building from raw materials and individual components on site, that began to change with the use of pre-cast concrete panels and prefabricated steel structural items. Similarly, mechanical services were always “stick-built” too, but in recent years the adoption of prefabricated, modular building techniques began to change that, and now as clients come on board with the concept we are moving to a “kit of parts” approach that standardises common sub-assemblies to achieve efficiencies and economies of scale.
Continuous improvement is one of A.G. Coombs’ core values, and prefabrication is one area where this is realised on a day-to-day basis. We are constantly looking to refine and standardise our prefabricated components to be easier to integrate into building construction, be more costeffective, and more straightforward to manufacture. Standardisation is leading to more and more prefabrication being incorporated into building services design.
What we are now seeing is prefabrication being driven by the services contractor, with the barriers that once existed gradually breaking down as clients and constructors experience the benefits.
Consequently, our capability at A.G. Coombs has progressed from what is now relatively ‘straightforward’ pipe module manufacture to modular assembly on a significantly larger and more sophisticated scale. We now have a strong focus on the assembly component in DfMA (design for manufacture and assembly). BE: How is the integration of prefabrication strategies from Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) impacting design? Daniel Waack: Front end designers and ECI processes are now beginning to incorporate and leverage offsite opportunities at the early stages of design rather than later shoehorning prefabrication solutions in. This is bringing demonstrable benefits to construction projects. For example, we were able to incorporate our prefabricated riser frame >
2023-2024
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