DfMA Rules and Rails for Building Construction

SCOT LAUWASSER: All right, welcome to DfMA Rules and Rails for Building Construction. My name is Scot Lauwasser. I'm a senior regional VDC manager with The Boldt Company.

Before we get going, just a little bit of background. I've been with Boldt for 11 years, starting first in project management before, for the past couple of years, moving into VDC, supporting many of our projects from the early conception all the way through the execution of the work, putting a lot of those PM mindsets that I've developed into the work that we're doing in VDC.

So Boldt-- we're a construction manager and a general contractor across the country. One of the unique aspects that we have with respect to modular and prefabrication is that we're both managing the work that's going on of our trade partners and finding a way to integrate everyone working together, and we're also creating our own products. So we've got our own fabrication shop, where we're doing full volumetric structural modular products, a lot of our prefabrication with our trades, multi-trade racks, exam room pods, prefabricated head walls, exterior wall panels, a lot of cool things.

We've got fabrication facilities in Wisconsin and Illinois. I'm based out of the Midwest, so working on dozens of projects that have prefab and modular, and excited to share all the rules and rails that we've collected across those projects with you today. So Boldt-- we've been in business 134 years, fourth-generation employee-owned, and over $1 billion in revenue and growing.

So DfMA, or Design for Manufacturing and Assembly-- just what is it? So DfMA, it's really-- it's an integrated approach to building construction focusing on, how do we optimize both the manufacturing side of things and optimizing, then, the assembly that's happening? So that process involves a lot of different components, ideally creating standards that can be brought together that are quicker, less labor intensive, more precise. It requires a lot of collaboration across the industry, from your architects, engineers, construction professionals, everyone working together at the start of the project to optimize the whole-- the entire project that we're building.

A lot of advanced tools that get used. We're using Revit, Navisworks, ACC, collaborating in the cloud with everyone with that end goal-- how do we minimize the waste, reducing the labor, improving the speed? Just really incorporating a lot of these principles gives that holistic approach to the building construction to get rid of these inefficiencies that we see.

So you can think about prefabrication and modular across a spectrum. We start with advanced products, where we have wall panel that's prefabricated that's got the holes already cut out for where all the devices might be. You have things like-- there's some top-of-wall studs that have fire caulking already built into them.

Single-trade assembly is getting into the things like prefabricated wall panels on the exterior of your building. And then you get into multi-trade assemblies. You've got your multi-trade racks that have got your mechanical, electrical, plumbing. Maybe it's a head wall. Then at the far end of the spectrum, full volumetric module. We're doing exam room pods that you can slide into a building, whether it's new or renovation.

Or there's the-- taking it to the next level, full volumetric structural modules, where the entire building structure is built into that chassis with tube steel that's in there. And the floor, the roof structure, vapor barrier, enclosure, everything's all in one. So you set it, forget it, walk away. It's-- the prefabrication and modular, and DfMA for that matter, exist as that spectrum of all these products that come together for the entire building.

So why are we doing it? Doing it to address the challenges that exist in the industry. Productivity is deadlocked. Everyone's seen this graphic of McKinsey of productivity and construction essentially being flat.

We've got shortage of skilled workers. We've got a couple of projects we're working on that are in remote environments that just the workforce isn't there. The speed, how long it would take to build that building with the workforce that's available would be multiple times longer than how we're doing it with DfMA.

Quality control, sustainability, risk management-- there's a lot of innovation that can go into this. It's that speed to market, the predictable timelines. There's so many reasons. Honestly, it's just an inevitability of where the industry is leading.

We've seen our trades doing prefabrication for many years. Think about everyone's pushing to get everything fully coordinated and modeled so we can prefabricate all the ductwork offsite and bring it in. So this is just continuing that evolution of the push of, how do we find and fix as many of the problems before we're building, so we can just have that smooth, continuous flow through the construction and get us into that factory mindset, that environment where there's that kit of parts? We ideally want to have this as that IKEA instruction book of how to go build a building.

So what are you going to learn today? Rules and rails for DfMA, primarily. And we're going to sprinkle in throughout that, what are the best practices that we've learned? How are we using advanced tools, using Revit, Navisworks, ACC?

And then just the successes and failures that we've seen-- so I love kind of ripping off the Band-Aid and sharing with you what hasn't gone well because, honestly, that's how we developed this list of rules and rails. It is similar to how code, whether it's aviation or building code, a lot of that's written in blood, unfortunately, what went wrong. These rules and rails-- not written in blood but written in our failures of what hasn't worked. What do we need to remember for the next time so that we don't have that rework?

So these are the list of those rules and the rails. We're going to take time today, stepping through these one by one, categorizing these by design, manufacturing, and assembly. But ultimately, a lot of these live in the gray area between each other.

So these are all circle feedback cycles of each other. We're sequencing from one affects the other, the way that the standards work flow throughout them. So really, it doesn't exist locked in with that bucket. But it's really what makes the most sense for just being able to distill these and talk about them.

The overarching message is, really, that communication is key. We have to make sure there's a feedback cycle. We have to make sure all stakeholders are early involved with the project and talking with each other. Otherwise, there's so many opportunities for failure. There's a lot of these that are just hard no-goes if we don't have them figured out early on, and if we didn't have the right stakeholder at the table, where it's just going to trickle down and become a major problem.

So kicking it off, starting with design, getting everyone together, from the design team, the owner, all of our trade partners, everyone working early as a team. We need to first figure out, what adds value? So who is the customer first, in order to define what is adding value?

Maybe that's the owner, the construction manager, the trade partners, or the workers that are actually building it. Maybe it's the end users, the community. How do they define value?

So, like, early in pre-construction, maybe it's cost, the labor pool, the site accessibility, the regulatory compliance. Then getting into construction, maybe it's the speed at which you're building, the safety aspect, the quality of the construction, the resources, how efficient they are. Then after the building's built, maybe it's the longevity of the building, the functionality, the sustainability, the aesthetics.

There's so many different possibilities. But really, it's just, don't prefab just to prefab. Prefab what adds value. We don't want to be just doing this because we can. Where's the value? Why are we actually doing this?

So getting deeper into the design, we have to figure out the data management strategy. This could be titled so many different things. It could be the BIM Execution Plan. It could be the Common Modeling Environment, the Common Data Platform.

Really, it's all saying the same thing, that data is king. We have to make sure we have a way that we're communicating as a team. So this is nine of our models that we had on a recent project that had a couple dozen.

And I think six or seven of these-- six of them are in Revit. One's in ICE. One of them is in Tekla. One of them is just SprinkCAD.

But not the same thing, but how do they talk to each other? How do they communicate with each other? How are they live-linking with each other?

And then all these files that are generated from them-- where are they stored? Where are all the different drawings? Where's the issues? Where's the product data? How do we all find it as a team and democratize all that data?

So data is king. We need to find that way to set up this efficient data management strategy during design so that we can set the stage for that smooth transition into the manufacturing and the assembly because we're going to keep relying on that model as that source of truth when we're building and when we're going to assemble it.

Then we need to get into our modular principles. So what can be standardized? Toilet rooms, exam rooms, head walls, exterior wall assemblies, the module sizes, casework assemblies, the products that we're putting in, basically everything. That gets into, how do we have conversations early on to make decisions?

But I don't want to have projects where-- I've lived it-- we have 20 different sizes of bathrooms. We weren't doing modular on that one. But if we were, it would just be impossible because you can't-- you don't have the time to draw 20 different individual ones. So how do we, from the early onset, know, OK, we're going to do prefab. Let's figure out one standard to rule them all.

So here's an example of exam rooms. We're doing this in a program right now where we've got options of a one-room, a two-room, and a three-room exam room pod. And then we build in variation if needed into one of them because we're doing it on a renovation project.

Or maybe it's a structural volumetric chassis, completely different type of modular project. But we're starting with that chassis. We know what we have to fit everything inside of. How do we use that to lay out our floor plan with the design team early on so that everything's working with that?

So we don't want to be slapping modular on top of a plan that's already locked in. We want to build that design plan with modular from the onset of the project. So it-- really, we want to simplify and standardize, focus on those modular principles with the early decision-making, so we can set that project up for that smooth transition, getting into the manufacturing and the assembly.

Speaking straight from that is the decision-making. So a lot of times, you've got the No Parking sign. We've got the No Figure It Out in the Field sign.

We don't want to be trying to figure out, oh, that outlet's 4 inches off and needs to move. Here's a head wall that we're prefabricating right now. And if that outlet comes out onto the site and someone doing a job walks in a says, oh, no, that actually needs to be 6 inches over, well, suddenly there's 40 of these head walls that all need to be adjusted.

So we just don't have that time. That speaks to how all of our stakeholders need to be involved early on in the project. We need to have a way that decisions are created, whether it's the product itself, the final placement. All of that needs to be understood early on.

We really need to know how decisions are made. Who, ultimately, is the decision-maker? How do we make sure that decision sticks? Who all needs to be involved to create that decision?

One of the best quotes from our recent projects-- I think it was the project manager that said this. We're procuring rebar and coat hooks at the same time. Just to let that sink in, usually, you've got months and months between those two different decision points. But in order to go fast and have these projects be successful, you have this huge amount of decisions that have to be made early on that can be overwhelming. So you have to figure out how to navigate those waters of, how are we deciding and-- you know, final rebar shop drawings at the exact same time if you have to final selection of that coat hook?

Then with those decisions, how do you have handoffs of your information? How do you have a flow to it? So this is a view from Touchplan of one of our recent modular projects of all the different activities during design, leading up to the fabrication starting in our shop. So we need to have those defined handoffs, and really leaning on our lean tool set of methods for how we control the project. You have to do it in a fashion of a pull plan.

So what is creating the pull? In order to prefab that wall, as an example, we've got to have our shop drawings finalized. In order to do that, we have to have our power and data plan locked in. And with that, there's all these different decisions with users and meetings. Each one of these tasks has all of these different points of information.

Maybe we have to have our product data finalized in order to allow that to happen in order to then-- backing up even further, your finishes need to be picked out. What's that wall going to look like? What's the material it's made out of? Where are the walls going to get laid out?

So just continuing to back ourselves up and go upstream of all the decisions that have to be made, so we know, here's the handoffs. If they don't happen by here, we can't do this. We can't do that. So how do we make sure that's clear from day one of, here's everything that has to go into making this a reality? So that defined handoff of information for the stakeholders can really just make or break the project.

Then we get into code and performance requirements. So breaking this down into three different buckets, first, the life safety and structural integrity of the project, doing that life safety plan review as soon as you can. Where are your fire-rated walls? Where are your smoke barriers?

What's your building type, floor separations? Everyone wants to do the holy rail of just structural that's going, you know, volume modules that are going multiple different stories. Well, do you have a rated floor separation? How are you going to fireproof it? How are you going to create those connections?

Do you have seismic? Where is your building? We've got an upgraded form of our modules we're working on right now because it happens to be in a seismic zone, which makes the tube steel bigger, which makes it now not the same as some of the other standards that we already have.

Where are the egress pathways through it? You know, that life safety approach-- those fire-rated walls, those are full height. That can really make or break what's even possible to do, whether it's a prefab head wall or a slide-in module. If that's a full-height wall, suddenly, that's almost like a no-go. Same for functionality and usability.

Acoustics actually happens to be one of the largest drivers we've found on what's even possible to prefabricate. So if we have to have a full-height wall with gyp on both sides of that wall, suddenly, that wall is not very easy to prefabricate because you're doing maybe a head wall with a bulkhead above it, or there's some stick-built work on site. You're touching this thing multiple different times, just leading to waste. Maybe you can look at countermeasures with your design team and your owner, things like do a partial height wall with a sound-masking system. We're doing that on a lot of our ambulatory projects right now.

What are the ceiling heights that are required? If you want this spacious, 12-foot-tall room, well, you're not going to be prefabricating that and shipping it. Where's your accessibility, your lighting standards? What are the MEP codes that you have that are local to that market?

And we're doing a lot of modular in the Chicagoland region and Chicago itself. Every municipality and Chicago each have their own little variation. Even though we have a prefabrication shop that's local to that market, we're constantly having to tweak, what are the materials we can use?

What's the pipe types? How are they assembled based on the municipality? And then sustainability and environmental compliance, energy-efficiency standards, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, the environmental impacts, water efficiency, material requirements, facade and cladding requirements that your locality might require-- all of that really needs to be understood because those are still more go and no-go decisions for what's even going to be possible to prefabricate.

Finally, with design, we've got matelines everywhere. So what we call a mateline, it's that line to demarcate, like, this is the joint between different elements that you're prefabricating. In this example, that's modules that we have, full volumetric modules.

But it could be the joint between where are your multi-trade racks? Where is the joint between your exterior wall panels-- just understanding, where is that joint, so we don't have things crossing it. So the left side of the screen would be a traditional stick-built observation room in health care. That room is too large to actually ship in one module.

So we're doing many of these projects right now. But we have that mateline that actually runs through the room. But that would-- in a traditional layout, that would conflict with the sink and the casework that would be there.

So we worked to develop a plan of let's slide that over. And we have this room for some loose equipment to be mounted there. I think that's a trash can or maybe a hamper that would be rolled into that area. And then we can conceal that mateline with a prefabricated wall panel that just snaps into place once we get to the job site and just finish out the ceiling.

So that's the end condition. But that simple adjustment, because we understood early on where that mateline would be, now, all of that casework was able to be prefabricated in the shop environment. So these matelines then transfer through all of the drawings that we create. You'll see them again in the manufacturing as we look at it and in the assembly, just needing to understand where those are located from the start of the project.

So that-- we don't want some piece of equipment-- we just had to correct this on a recent one. We caught it in design. But we can't have the equipment riding over the mateline because suddenly that becomes something that has to be deferred to be installed on site.

So getting into manufacturing, could be in our manufacturing shop on the assembly line. Could be in your mechanical contractor or electrical. Could be that single-trade prefab. Can be a vendor shop. Really, the location can be anywhere, but there's all these similar rules and rails that we've collected that are really important to understand for DfMA for buildings.

So first things first, what's the sequence? How are we building? It's a really cool photo. I love it.

You're looking down the assembly line in our prefab shop. And as you look down the line, there's less and less done because there's station by station by station as more and more work gets put in place. So the station behind the wall tiles are off. Further down, it's just turning into just the tube steel chassis on its own.

And we plan, similar to manufacturing, that concept of TAT, so understanding, what's one day's worth of work or one unit of time's worth of work? And where is it taking place within that sequence on the assembly line? And how is it going to transfer, so we can get all that done?

Why is this important? It's so that we can understand, how are we breaking down the work, the model itself? How do we inform design so that we have a consistent layering? And we'll cover layering later. But how do we have that consistent layering so that maybe the electrical and the med gas are always, whether it's in the wall or above ceiling, always in the same alignment so that the trades can then come through and put them in place at the same time?

How are we breaking down the model into sub-components? So we understand all of X amount of work has to be put in place in one duration of time, whether that's a half a day or a day so that we have that flow. So we have to have that well-thought-out manufacturing sequence so that we're ensuring the efficiency of our build and reducing that waste.

We can't stop. If one station stops, suddenly, the entire project is stopped because these things are just moving station to station. And it's the same thing if it's a head wall or if it's exam-room pods or if it's that single trade-- that single, you know, head wall, or sorry, the wall tile with the pre-cut holes in it. We have to make sure that's done before the next thing can happen.

Your documentation standards then-- standard naming convention is huge. What's funny is that what sounds and as simple as that is, huge to define up front so that we actually have language to communicate. So what are all the modules and the names that we're using? Or maybe it's the multi-trade racks or the wall panels.

What are the room numbers within those? Maybe it's the naming convention of the, like, in our fabrication shop, we've got different stations. What station is representing what?

Where does the material need to be shipped to? What's the location on the job site itself, where all this is getting assembled? So there's so many different names-- how to make sure they're clear with each other and don't conflict, and they're just easy to communicate with them. Again, those matelines-- making sure they're present on every drawing we have so that we understand where the joints are between them.

And getting into the concept of datums-- so that is-- that reference line of, how are we pulling our dimensions from something? So the horizontal datum, there's no grid line to go to and put your tape measure to, depending on what you're building. If it's a prefab head wall, are you always pulling a dimension from the left to stud?

Is it the outside of the stud? Is it center of the stud? Is it a center line of the wall panel? Each trade could be doing it differently. Ask us how we know, and we learned this lesson, making sure that everyone does it the exact same way from the start so that we're all installing in that consistent manner.

And then that data might change, too. Depending, like, how we're dimensioning the head wall for the shop is going to be different from how we dimension of how it goes in place on the job site. That-- our tube steel chassis turning into those volumetric mods-- are we grabbing from the edge of that tube steel? Maybe it's the edge of the Megaboard before it gets put down.

And then the same thing for the vertical datum. We could be installing devices before there's even a floor in place. So are you pulling off of a height of the subfloor, decking, a stud?

Are you snapping a line out in the steel shop? Making sure the conversation's had-- it can be anything, but it needs to be consistent. So it's really important that these standards are in place across all the different drawings that are communicated to everyone. It's, really, again, the churn of making sure there's communication, and we've got a feedback loop for it.

How it looks in place-- this is a great view from Navisworks, a active coordination project. We've got all of our matelines as clearance zones between the modules with a 1-inch thickness because that's the actual thickness of our gap that we're building in that tolerance for. We can do clearance tests on those or clash tests so that we know, OK, if that duct hits it, that section of duct, that's going to have to be built on site. So we've got couplings between all of those. We're making sure that equipment's slid so it's not on that mateline.

We've got our labels that are just visible as 3D objects. So anytime we're communicating on this, we understand, is it module P6? Or are we talking about med observation room 14? Or are we talking about a particular wall elevation that also has its own unique name?

So there's so many different sub-names within each of these that got to make sure it's visual. Got to make sure it's present that everyone can communicate about them at the same time. Otherwise, it's just this churn of, like, oh, look on this drawing sheet. Look on the-- you all know how that works. It doesn't work out in the end.

Getting into system layerings, we already kind of touched on this with the manufacturing flow, but making sure we standardize, what are the layers? How do we document what that is? How do we make sure they're-- it's understood as we're designing?

So a more traditional layering diagram, stratification diagram, as we like to call it. On the left side are the things that it could be used to help start develop a multi-trade rack and understanding where access needs to be for things. One of our volumetric modules, where our ceiling height is really constrained, so it's really getting into every little quarter of an inch matters of, where is the med gas on top of the duct?

And the ducts are on top of some other pipes and on top of lighting clearance zones, and just making sure we understand where the access needs are, whether that's a valve, a damper, junction box, cable tray. Getting those clearances defined then, but then also for, is there room to get that connection made? Maybe there's welding that has to be done.

Is there anything near it that's going to require hot work, brazing? We've got med gas in here. We don't want to be brazing right next to a duct that's fully insulated already.

Access for the actual installation is huge. We had a project a couple of years ago, one of our first big modular jobs. And we're taking down electrical conduit racks in order to get access to make the duct connection. I hate to admit it, but it happened because we didn't think through, hey, there's no clash. But how are we physically going to make the connection?

And then think through all the tasks that have to happen then beyond that of, all right, once that duct is connected, it has to get insulated. And then we've got all the other subsequent tasks that have to be installed after the fact. So we don't ever want to be-- it sounds corny, but, you know, defab and refab to prefab because we didn't plan in what the access would be.

Next up, level of precision, tolerance, built-in flexibility. We want to make sure we're understanding we're working with imperfect materials. Anyone that's ever built a stud wall, you understand all those screws at the corner of the connectors, they start bowing out the wall a little bit. You know, drywall itself is never perfectly flat. You can't build a Swiss watch with these imperfect materials, so you have to build in tolerances.

So a good example in this photo. We've got modular exam room pods with a 5/8 of an inch gap between them that allows some tolerance. If something happened on the site, if the pod grew or shrank, it can be eaten up by that tolerance between those pods.

Same thing on the multi-trade racks above. We've got a 2-foot gap that were-- have couplings between the ductwork. So thinking about what has to be precise. For a level of precision, where does it matter?

Your structural steel, usually, you want to be 1/16 of an inch or less. If you're talking your electrical conduit rack, don't really care if that conduit wavers on that rack a little bit. Things like that can be less precise.

How are we building in that flexibility then? So the gaps I mentioned, maybe it's a slip track at the head of your wall. Maybe it's a break metal detail that helps to conceal a little bit of a gap in the ceiling. Maybe it's flexible connections.

We're sliding things to existing facilities that the floor is not level. It never is. So are we going to be doing floor leveling and grinding and make this thing perfect? Or do we want to build in some adjustable feet at the base of the wall so that we can level this out without having to spend a lot of money?

We've actually realized that sometimes we're trying to prefabricate exam room pods too long when we're going into an existing facility. And suddenly, the floor's not level, and it's teeter-tottering. So understanding, what is that tolerance of the place that we're even going to?

Are we building something that's too perfect and won't work for what the existing conditions are? So it really goes backwards and goes full circle. So it's really key to understand just how it looks, the project's overall goals for how we're building, and the requirements that we have where that precision matters.

First thing, too, when you're getting into a new location, and you might not have done this before-- getting that alignment with your AHJ, so your Authority Having Jurisdiction. If you're not familiar, you need to get familiar with who governs the work that you're doing, whether it's prefabricating just multi-trade racks or it's the full volumetric. What are you doing?

Are you shipping something out that needs an inspection? You know, are you insulating your piping? You've got to make sure you're doing the pressure test or getting that inspection. Otherwise, they might make you rip that off so they can see it again on site. So really, understanding, what are the requirements of the local jurisdiction you're in?

There's a lot of jurisdictions we go to that have advanced programs because they've seen things like this before. So they have their own defined requirements. But then there's a lot where we're actually educating the AHJ because they've never seen anything like this.

So it can be taking their forms and helping them to red line them. Is this at the factory? Is this at the site? Is this at both locations?

There's some locations that have awesome requirements of-- that you can have a third-party inspection service that can fully satisfy it. We've done that where we're shipping states away. And there's a third-party inspector, versus some where it's, you know you need to be building in our location, which is one of the reasons we've got shops in the locality.

We can have the same workers from that local union that are working in our shop. And then the same inspectors from the local region can come to your shop. But that's understanding the requirements of both the local inspectors and a lot of those union requirements as well.

Can the inspectors travel? Just what needs to be inspected when it's set, too? So depending on what they can and can't inspect, are we leaving an access zone of drywall that's not installed so that we can visually see that final pipe connection when something gets set on site? That might have to be built into the design based on what are the requirements of your inspector and what they can and can't see.

Along with inspection, everyone wants to see, what is your QC plan? This is a product that we're developing and building in this factory. We have to make sure there is quality control.

So we've got all these checklists that ride along with the modules, with the prefab elements throughout the life of that build. We have all these checklists. We've got ways that any sort of issue can be flagged and brought up immediately.

Sometimes with these remote inspections, too, we've leaned on tools like OpenSpace, where we're doing 360 photos daily. And they're logging in for the first couple of them and realizing, all right, you know what you're doing. You've got it all documented. I can check anything I need to. I don't need to be there every day now. So just understanding just, how are we validating that what we're building is conforming to all the different design requirements and your locality's requirements?

All right, we've manufactured it. Now, it's time to assemble it. Assembly is interesting in that it's-- usually, we're talking about on the job site. But a lot of the examples I was just sharing in that manufacturing shop, that is also examples of assembly of components that were all pre-manufactured in other shops.

So again, this is that giant circle of feedback loops of how things are done because we've got sub-components built in trades and vendors that are coming for maybe an initial assembly in a manufacturing environment before then that turns into now a larger component and is assembled elsewhere. So similar to manufacturing, one of the first things we needed to find, what's our sequence? How are we building this thing? What is the planning that goes into just how this is going to be done so that we can understand and reduce these-- improve the efficiency, reduce the waste of what the install is?

But in defining this, it's those same things of, where do the connections need to be made? How are we actually physically able to make that connection between the ducts? So this is a full volumetric ambulatory facility as an example on the screen that we prefabricated all of this.

And how do we make those connections between the roof elements and the room elements? Is it safe to do it? There's a lot of work that has to happen on the roof. Is there fall protection that's in place? Are there tie-off points?

How are we getting all of our rotting-- excuse me, our roofing and our vapor barrier to tie in right away and temporarily? Water management is huge when it comes to volumetric modular because the rain will find a way. How does this tie in to the overall project schedule? What can't happen until these modules are set versus what also has to be done before these modules are set?

A lot of that then speaks to the next topic, which is transportation. Getting into the logistics, the logistics is just more than the transport. It's just the overall careful planning of, how are we moving these things to avoid delays and added costs and potential for rework?

So what's your shipping size limitation? Are we-- do we have to fit on a standard highway truck and transport size? How is it getting into the building?

How-- are we shipping on a lowboy trailer? Or is it a standard? Is it special flagging?

Are we too tall? We've learned our lesson. I can show you photos of a roof curb that hit a highway overpass at speed because it was just a smidge too tall. It's very careful planning from that perspective.

How is the element moving? Are we lifting it from an overhead crane? Are we lifting it from below with a forklift? Are there temporary skates?

The biggest structural load any of these modules ever see is during the transportation, not while it's sitting on the site. So there's a lot of stiffening members that might have to be added, special lifting points. Maybe there's-- it's a smaller module, and there's legs for wheels.

Maybe it's a prefab headwall that's going fourth floor in a renovation project. It's sliding in through a window. Well, don't make that thing too heavy with drywall already on it because you're not going to be able to lift it and slide it in there. It's just going to weigh too much. So understanding ultimately, how are you getting in there? Or is the window opening going to be big enough to allow you to get it in there?

Getting into our model environment, we're actually coordinating clearance zones. We're sliding all these exam room pods in through one location into the building and figuring out, OK, here's the clearance we need when these things have wheels on them. We've got to make sure we don't install MEP systems too low that now we can't slide these modules in place. Again, we don't want to defab the prefab. We've got prefab racks that are already hung in the air here.

And maybe it's just in the sequencing of, OK, once these are slid into the building, now we can go and continue installing things lower in height and get them in there. So how do we carefully plan, what's this movement of materials to avoid those added issues? We don't want to have rework when we get out to the job site.

Then we're integrating things efficiently on the site itself. We're trying to figure out, what are the connections? How do you make them? We kind of already hit that a little bit earlier, but here's an example of an initial view in the model of a fire protection system on one of our modular projects.

And the connections, we identified right away, hey, these are all buried above hard-lid ceilings. There is no way, unless we start putting in access panels. So great example of just, hey, let's find this different layout process or a little bit of a different hub-and-spoke type method. A little bit of extra fittings, but we've reduced the amount of connections. And we made sure all the connections are accessible.

So we can make this less prone to errors in the field or make it more accessible. How do we minimize those connections? Because we don't want people up on ladders doing that work overhead with all the finishes around them.

Same thing for understanding, what are the site connections themselves? So as we're landing these modules, we've got, in this example, a sump crock that's already on site. How did we plan out to make sure that crock was at the exact location of x and y?

And then the height of it, the z-- how are we planning in, going back to tolerances and precision. How do we have a tolerance for the room around it? How are we filling in that room once the module gets set on site, so we've got that buffer space in there.

How do we make sure that connection is accessible so that we can patch it once it does get landed? So all those kinds of questions-- same for the underfloor. You're stubbing up all these pipes early that have to connect to your modules. What kind of tolerance do you have built in there? So really understanding those.

At the same time, everything has to be done safely. We've kind of already hit that before. Roofing tie-off locations, hot work needs-- are you welding? Are you brazing? You don't want to be brazing right next to some insulation that's already on there.

It's maybe resequencing your work. We've got a lot of Unistrut that goes in for all the supports that we have in some of these modules. Can we get that Unistrut in the scope of our structural fabricator, so it's done in their shop and already pre-welded before it comes to our shop?

So now, we don't have any hot work in our shop. We don't have to have a fire watch. It's reducing the labor of having that done as well.

How are we accessing the work? Is it lifts? Is it ladders? Is there safe access?

We don't want to be standing on top of ductwork in order to connect a conduit. That's just not safe. Safety has to be built into everything that we're doing.

And as you're building the installation, how are you mistake-proofing it? We don't want to have errors. We don't want to have things that accidentally got installed in the wrong direction or set in the wrong location or shuffled around. Go look at the eight wastes. We don't want all this excessive movement and rework and having to move things around 20 times.

So I love this picture from a recent job site. We've got the labeling of the multi-trade rack. It's rack 11. At the orientation, this is the B side of it.

We've got the QR code that you can go look up exactly what it is, if you need to. As they fabricated, we've got all the center lines marked out. So you can't mistake where the pipe needs to be.

They've used their datum as that reference to go from the left to the right on the exact dimensions. And they've got-- each conduit has a unique number to it. So we know-- make sure we understand how things are tying to each other.

Even the couplings being zip-tied right to the end of the pipe so that when it ships and it's time to install, you're not going to have to find that material and the right size coupling. It's right there. We have unique checklists that go along with these things as they're going down through the assembly line before they ship out there.

So we're reducing potential for errors because they could be substantial if it hits the job site and something comes out wrong. Or maybe it's the wrong orientation. We're, again, defabbing a lot of that prefab.

We love visuals, too. So one of the huge tenets we have is just the visual planning, visual communication. So we've got our drawing sets that the design team makes. And we've got shop drawings that a lot of our trades-- you know, everyone's producing. Everything's tied to Revit, a lot of views that are coming out of there.

But how do we make just quick supplemental drawings, quick markups? So, hey, we've got a couple of different types of headwalls. Here's where they're all located. Here's how we use it for our planning.

Here's where the zone valve box headwalls happen to go. Here's the full-height walls that you can build early before the headwalls get set, or have to be built early. So it's tying in some of the sequencing, so that was a cool experience.

Here's a quick Revit filter, just highlight the clips between our mods and then our walls. So we can understand, where are the walls that have to be left open to allow for the clips to be connected when we get to the job site? So just filtering the data that we already have and creating different types of drawings, just quick little markups of, like, a sequencing of each trade with a different color. What has to happen to allow this fire-rated wall to be connected on the job site and make sure everything is tied together? Just reducing that risk of mistakes, get that quick visual.