S E C TO R F O C U S
Mercury’s “Live Environment” innovators in Modern Methods of Construction Justin Keane, Director of Engineering Support, Offsite Manufacturing & Digital Transformation at Mercury, speaks with BARRY MCCALL about how Mercury is pioneering advances in Modern Methods of Construction.
Justin Keane, Director of Engineering Support, Offsite Manufacturing & Digital Transformation, Mercury.
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ercury has long been a leader in innovation and has been at the forefront of the adoption of offsite manufacturing (OSM) and modern methods of construction (MMC). These methodologies and processes have enabled the company to realise incredible growth, efficiency and quality gains while reducing cost and risk for clients and significantly improving working conditions for employees. Justin Keane, Director for Engineering Support, Offsite Manufacturing & Digital Transformation, explains how Mercury is adapting its own structures to maximise the
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benefits of new technologies and techniques. “We have eight business divisions, each possessing its own engineering and design disciplines for their own projects,” he says. “We have now added a centralised engineering support function. Based at Mercury’s head office in Dublin, this dedicated resource will support the delivery of projects across all our divisions. This is linked to offsite construction and our digital transformation journey.” The company’s approach to digital transformation is both internal and external, Keane adds. “We are transforming internally and bringing our supply chain partners along with us on that journey. We are digitally transforming how we deliver projects and how we manage the overall business.”
OSM CAPABILITIES ACROSS EUROPE
One aspect of the business, in particular, that is reaping the benefits of Mercury’s approach to OSM and digital transformation is Mercury’s Live Environment division. The Live Environment covers a wide range of areas, namely pharmaceutical, healthcare, fire protection, data centres, telecommunications and facilities management. As this division is diverse, its range of OSM capabilities extends from central utility buildings (CUB) to 420-tonne pipe racks in pharmaceutical to full-scale modular IT
rooms and main distribution frames (MDFs) in the telecommunications sector. Mercury’s Fire Prevention business is level 4 selfcertified, completing design right through to handover and maintenance. Fire Prevention is pushing the boundaries in design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) with fully modularised sprinkler pump houses and systems. While Mercury has multiple flying factories across Europe and beyond supporting its modular construction approach, it also operates a manufacturing facility in Newbridge in Co Kildare. This facility is unique in that it also houses classes 10, 1000 and 10,000 cleanroom manufacturing facilities. These cleanroom facilities enable off-site modules to be built in these environments, fully wrapped and preserved, ready for their onward location. Clients in the life sciences and advanced manufacturing sectors visit these facilities regularly prior to and during projects, in a collaborative effort with Mercury to ensure only the highest levels of quality in manufacturing are achieved.
FLYING FACTORIES
Justin Keane explains that flying factories are sometimes referred to as field factories. “Generally speaking, they are temporary facilities used to manufacture prefabricated components close to the job site. They are different from conventional off-site factories