How does factory construction help with the trades shortage?
The trades shortage is a question of where and how skilled people work. A factory changes both, and it serves regional projects from the same place.
How does factory construction help with the skilled trades shortage?
It changes where and how skilled people work. A centrally located, climate-controlled factory is a steadier place to work than a series of exposed sites, which helps attract and keep skilled people. Tasks are sequenced and repeated so less time is lost waiting, and modules built centrally can serve metropolitan and regional projects alike.
Labour shortages and limited skilled trades slow conventional delivery, and the problem is most acute in regional Australia, where there are fewer trades to begin with and every one of them is in demand.
Factory construction does not create more tradespeople. It changes where they work and how their time is used, and both of those matter.
The shortage on site
On a conventional site, each trade has to travel to the job, wait for the trade before it to finish, and stop when the weather turns. A plumber booked for a week can lose days to rain and more to a frame that was not ready.
Multiply that across every trade on every site and a large share of skilled time is spent waiting rather than working. The wider effect of weather on a programme is covered in [weather and programme risk](/blog/weather-and-programme-risk).
A different place to work
A centrally located, climate-controlled factory is a steadier place to build a career. The work is in the same place each day, under cover, in a controlled environment that is not decided by the weather.
That steadiness helps attract and keep skilled people, and keeping them matters as much as finding them. A team that stays together gets better at the work, and the knowledge stays in the business.
More time on the tools
In a factory, the order of work is planned and repeated. Each module moves through the same steps, so a trade is not waiting on another trade's site or on a delivery that has not arrived.
The same task done under the same conditions also gets measured and improved, which is the continuous improvement described in [what is Kaizen in construction](/blog/what-is-kaizen-in-construction). Over a project, that turns into more of each person's day spent on skilled work.
Serving regional projects
A centrally located factory can serve metropolitan and regional projects from one place. The skilled work happens where the people are, and the finished modules travel to where the housing is needed.
That is the logic behind much of our regional delivery, set out in [does modular construction suit regional and remote projects](/blog/modular-for-regional-and-remote-sites). The need for compliant special-use housing does not stop where the trades run out.
What still happens on site
The site still needs skilled people. The base structure, the connections between modules, the joints, the services connections and the external works are all done in place.
Those site trades also work to a fixed plan. The base structure is built to receive modules on a known date, so each trade knows when it is needed and for how long.
The difference is the size of that site team and how long it is needed. A smaller crew for a shorter period is far easier to secure, especially in a regional town, than a full sequence of trades for the length of a conventional build.
Why it matters for delivery
Moving skilled work into a factory makes the programme less dependent on who happens to be available near the site. That is one of the reasons concurrent site preparation and module fabrication can reduce programmes by up to 60 percent.
For a provider waiting on accommodation, the result is a building delivered where it is needed, on a programme that does not rest on finding trades in a tight market.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.