Continuing Professional Development Offsite M&E manufacture

• Why offsite manufacture is becoming more important • What the benefi ts are • How it works in practice

Factory outlet

3D CAD and BIM are making offsite manufacture of M&E modules a compelling alternative for many projects. Steve Tovey, director of Balfour Beatty’s Modular Systems +, outlines how it is taking hold at its projects.

THE APPLICATION of offsite manufacture and assembly of M&E products is gathering pace in the construction of all building types. Of course, this is nothing new: the building services industry was using prefabrication, particularly of pipework services, 30 years ago. But what has changed now, with the increasing need to improve safety standards, quality and compress construction programmes, is the capability and technical skills to convert and break down conventional building services designs into individual products. The development and use of 3D CAD

and recent implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) enable projects to be designed with offsite manufacture in mind from the outset. While these processes now give greater

fl exibility and mean that changes in design can be easily accommodated, an early design freeze is essential as any modifi cations during the manufacturing timeline will reduce the signifi cant cost, programme and sustainable benefi ts that offsite manufacture provides. A number of M&E services contractors

now have manufacturing facilities allowing services to be supplied in a modular format. Modular Systems + is the brand under which Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (BBES) develops and manufactures modular mechanical and electrical products ranging from small electrical modular wiring components to multi-service modules and complex, fully operational packaged plant rooms. Utilising purpose built offsite manufacturing facilities such as BBES’s facility in Wednesbury in the west midlands, M&E products can be manufactured and assembled in conditions which greatly improve the ability to deliver innovative and value engineered solutions across all types of

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Complex, fully operational components can be manufactured offsite

CPD