INDUSTRY COMMENT
DOES THE OFFSITE INDUSTRY NEED AN ‘ELON MUSK’?
Some would say the offsite industry is currently in mild turmoil – an exaggeration or fair comment? Darren Richards, Managing Director of offsite experts Cogent Consulting, has a pragmatic view on what makes the market tick.
1 The recent House of Lords Built Environment Committee criticised the Government for lacking a clear strategy on MMC investment, saying it ‘too easily accepted that the way to encourage MMC was through undirected and non-strategic investment of public money’. I should declare an interest here – I am not head of some remote business that parachutes in and corrects things when they go wrong. To coin a crude phrase: I have skin in the game. I love this dynamic industry – it has been my life for 30 years. I am not some ‘textbook’ consultant or media commentator with little or no actual experience. I have run major offsite facilities, developed new and groundbreaking offsite technology and have invested heavily in the offsite industry. Big brains with deep pockets Comparisons are often drawn between the offsite manufacturing and the automotive industry. But we must ask if the electrification of vehicles would have been as fast without the
36
2 intervention of Elon Musk. Love him or loathe him, no one can deny his genius. His transformative impact on the automotive industry through Tesla cannot be overstated. He has done this by popularising electric vehicles, advancing battery technology, building charging infrastructure and pushing autonomous driving capabilities. Something we are trying to replicate here in the UK with little success. Hype cycle For those not familiar with the Gartner Hype Cycle, it is a graphical presentation of specific emerging technologies through five distinct phases – technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment and plateau of productivity. Whether it be the electrification of vehicles or the development of an iPhone – the graph pretty well remains the same across all emerging technologies. What I am trying to say here is that it is a natural progression – the way of things. With offsite construction
we have been through the inflated expectation phase and are now in the trough of disillusionment. But it will not last, with the right government intervention – we can soon start climbing the slope of enlightenment before we reach our equilibrium and plateau of productivity. There is no turning back, what is the alternative – we do not have a Plan B! We know we need offsite construction – what we need now is a plan from Government. Natural selection There are many theories I could quote here but I will refrain and focus on just one – evolution. With offices in Shrewsbury – the birthplace of Charles Darwin – I understand that extinction is part of evolution. Some adapt and survive by developing coping and collaboration strategies, others do not. Anyone who has tried to get a product tested will know testing facilities are struggling to keep up with demand. The Government has invested public money in established and new entrants to the market. These companies have developed and tested a vast array of panelised and volumetric systems in
WWW.OFFSITEMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024