The North American premier thought leadership conference, Advancing Prefabrication took place in Phoenix from April 26-29th. Experts dedicated to revolutionizing the AEC industry with industrialized construction (IC) came from all over to discuss prefabrication, modular, and IC approaches.
(Watch the full pre-conference interview here.)
We had a lot of traffic at our booth. We spoke with a lot of people with a wide range of prefabrication journeys, including:
End-users, contractors, and vendors want to have the most efficient assembly options available, ranging from in-wall assemblies to standardized modular electrical rooms and everything in between.
Our conclusion from all these great conversations is that everyone seems to point in the right direction, but the industry, as a whole, has not fully cracked the code of prefabrication yet. There are a lot of forward-thinkers and productization work in motion. It was truly amazing to see how our messaging resonated with everyone we spoke with, whether they were trying to start or scale their prefabrication journey.
First, AECInspire’s Senior Director of Industrialized Construction Lonnie Cumpton, delivered a workshop on “Expanding Your VDC Department to Enable More Ambitious Productization,” joined by Senior Innovation Specialist Mike Quella. The team shared strategies designed to help kick off and advance the prefabrication-to-productization journey of any company. Some of the key topics they covered include:
(Watch the full pre-conference interview here.)
Later, Lonnie carried the workshop content further in his next presentation on “Utilizing Data & Insights From Projects to Inform Future Design.” Here, he covered key topics on how data can ramp up the productization process like:
Then, there was an active discussion when he asked the audience,, “Do Design Teams Want Your Productized Assemblies?” Afterward, the audience from both the design and trade contractor sides actively participated in the discussion,, and there were multiple opinions on the table. Some designers were very vocal about absolutely loving the standardized assemblies contractors provide for them. However, some of the trade contractors had a different point of view. For instance, some mentioned they were not aware that designers would work with them on standardized components that can be used in a project’s design phase.
On the whole, the conversations were eye-opening. In fact, there should be more round-table discussions on prefabrication and standardized assemblies between the stakeholders in order to achieve efficient productization. Above all, it was a testimony to how important it is to get together with like-minded professionals. Namely, to share ideas and have such enlightening conversations at venues like the Advancing Prefabrication Conference.
(Watch the full pre-conference interview here.)
Overall, Advancing Prefabrication was a blast. Attendees left the Phoenix Convention Center with actionable, cutting-edge strategies and techniques to build faster, better, and safer. Of course, we are already looking forward to Advancing Prefabrication 2023!
(Watch the full pre-conference interview here.)