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The development of construction Platforms is the culmination of our work in Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) for multiple clients, in numerous sectors, over 25 years. The P-DfMA approach brings together everything we have learned, and continue to learn, about a manufacturing-led approach to construction and makes it widely available for the benefit of not just the construction industry, but society as a whole.
The platform approach to design for manufacture and assembly (P-DfMA) brings a solution to the challenge of a growing world population and the need for high-quality and sustainably designed infrastructure for vast numbers of people, such as housing, education, healthcare and transport.
In Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030, published in September 2021, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority announced that the Government will mandate a platforms approach within two years for social infrastructure.
An important development in industrialized construction, the term ‘Platforms,’ commonly used in manufacturing, refers to sets of components or assemblies that can be put together in a multitude of different ways to create multiple different products.
In the context of the built environment, the platforms approach to design for manufacture and assembly (P-DfMA) identifies commonality across sectors – schools, apartments, and healthcare facilities all have similar structural spans and ceiling heights, for example – to define the ‘kit of parts’ of components and processes that we can use to deliver a wide variety of built assets.
Like the manufacturing sector, we have focused as much on the ‘process’ as the ‘product’. On-site assembly processes are standardized and simple, using QR-coded components.
All parts are readily available from existing suppliers and can be assembled easily and intuitively, in countless ways, to sustainably create a huge range of spaces. All of these factors support our broader focus on process engineering and Design to Value.
The power of P-DfMA is in its ability to create standardization at component level while retaining flexibility of design at asset level. In other words, platform construction supports highly site-specific designs, and the widest range of architectural ambition and creativity, while still bringing the benefits of a manufactured approach.
The platform design method also drives greater value within the construction industry. Using repeatable, cross-sector components creates the economies of scale that, as in the manufacturing sector, will allow us continually to drive down time and cost while increasing safety, productivity and quality. All core principles of Design to Value.
Straightforward assembly means we can use upskilled or even non-construction operatives, working under safe and controlled conditions. This facilitates new jobs and opportunities to help tackle the challenge presented by an aging and under-resourced construction workforce.
Platform design brings automation to construction - both in the manufacture of individual components, and in the assembly processes that create whole assets on site. It is this automation in the construction process that will transform the safety and productivity of the construction sector, as we have seen across many other industries.
P-DfMA unlocks the true power of digital design and simulation. Components that work within defined parameters and rules allow us to use automated, computational design processes, creating digital models in minutes. This speed allows us to test many more ideas, drawing from a much wider, richer range of potential solutions than is possible using traditional methods. These iterative designs, generated using leading digital construction technologies, can be tested and refined through simulation of energy balance, pedestrian movement, air flow and ventilation, etc. The result is highly optimized designs in which consistent performance through the whole life of the asset has been considered and ‘baked in’.
Finally, platform design offers the most sustainable way to build; which is hugely important, when we consider the role the construction industry must play in moving the built environment forward sustainably. Repeatable components can be highly optimized to minimize material use and facilitate the reduction of embodied carbon. A manufacturing approach means less waste and rework, efficient logistics, and ‘just in time’ delivery. Sustainable, lean design with high-quality components and digital simulation facilitates efficient assets that minimize in-use carbon.
In summary: a platform approach to Design for Manufacture and Assembly (P-DfMA) will allow us to create a construction industry that is fit for the future.
We have published the following books on Platforms, widely regarded as the reference publications on the subject, authored by Jaime Johnston MBE, Board Director and Head of Global Systems at Bryden Wood.
Delivery Platforms for Government assets: creating a marketplace for manufactured spaces (2021 edition - first published 2017), and
Platforms: Bridging the gap between construction + manufacturing (2018)
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