Take a few minutes to read the ENR article about Skanska pre-fabbing hospital rooms. It’s fascinating how repetitive projects (like hospital rooms or dorm rooms) can be done so efficiently off site. The article goes on to say:

In the slow recovery from the construction slowdown, Skanska, owned by a Swedish company, has been adapting European prefab models to commercial projects, including both Nemours and an 800-unit, six-story dorm project at the nearby University of Delaware, among others.

“This is a radical departure,” Corrado said. Instead of building every tray, curving every pipe, fitting every duct, and walking them up ladders to bang together into a suite of rooms, everything goes in what Corrado called “one big box.” Then it is linked by headwalls studded with gas, water, electric, air and dentist-office-style folding booms, and approved, pre-installation, by inspectors from Underwriters Laboratories, as if each room was a giant appliance.

So, as you consider project that have a repetitive component, think about the possibility of pre-fabrication. We’ve got to keep changing our methods to increase efficiency.