Synergizing VDC and Engineering: A Blueprint for Success in Industrial Construction

COREY SMITH: Hello My name is Corey Smith. I am the director of BIM|KLH Engineers. And today, we're going to go over integrating VDC and BIM and how that can be a success in industrialized construction.

So I'm Corey Smith. I work for KLH engineers in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. I've been working there for 14 years. The first 10, I worked as a lead mechanical designer. And the last four, I have been the director of BIM. Some of the projects that we're going to see and cover today are projects that I was involved in. So that's where we're going to cover today.

So our learning objectives are learning what the critical benefits of integrating VDC and the engineering team early in the project and what kind of benefits there are with that; exploring how that integration helps to reduce rework, save costs and increase efficiency and then how this integration is very important within the modular construction industry.

So this is the challenge that we really face. Early in the planning and the design phase, we really have a high influence, where we can make a lot of decisions. And the cost impact of that is very low. The further that we get into the design and closer to the construction and operations phase, our influence to make those key decisions, it actually goes down. In any change that we make after the fact, the cost impact of that is very high.

So we want to make sure that we're eliminating most of that rework at the end, making good decisions at the beginning. So how can we move most of the decisions that are going to increase the cost and increase the rework, earlier to design, so that we can have more successful projects at the end?

So when we look at the construction value stream, this is normally how we see it. Us, as an MEP engineering firm, work in a silo sometimes, just feeding the upstream clients, which is the architect and the owner. We're not really looking at how the workflow actually goes by feeding information to the trades, the installing contractor and any asset management companies that may be involved as well.

So we're really not feeding the needs of the entire team. We're really just feeding the needs of the individuals that need the work at that specific time. So how can we really improve this process, make sure that we're getting the trades and the installation and the asset management teams integrated early on into our design, so that they can get the information that they need to do their jobs more successfully?

So what is industrialized construction? Industrialized construction is really using manufacturing techniques in the construction process. It's using things like automation, robotics, prefabrication, mass production to perform better on all of our projects. We're reducing labor-intensive tasks that can be done onsite. This really does help to increase the project quality and the speeds of our project and helps to lower energy consumption, material waste, and overall, drive the costs of the projects way down.

So I really like this chart. It really shows what industrialized construction is all about. It's all about process, innovation and product innovation to help to decrease time and cost. So process innovation is anything within the construction workflow that we can innovate to increase efficiency, whether that's creating some BIM software to help us get to our designs faster, prefabrication, modular construction, increasing all those processes to come to a better conclusion at the end.

But also, involving the product side, becoming more energy efficient, getting buildings to net zero, having an overall healthier building really does help to optimize the process and does decrease the project timeline and the project costs. So at the end, you really do have a better product which is affordable. It's healthier. But the process is better throughout the whole thing.

You're really improving productivity, quality and affordability and, overall, just having a project that you really want to work on. Because you are working on it as a team, you're coming up with decisions quicker. You don't feel like you're working in that silo together. You feel like you're working as a team, as one, to get the project done.

So looking at some statistics on industrialized construction, the modular construction market was valued at $82.3 billion in 2020, and it's expected to grow to $130 billion by 2030. So that's a great increase. There's going to be more modular construction projects in the future, according to Autodesk.

In North America alone, the prefabrication and modular construction market is projected to grow at a 5.75% rate from 2022 to 2027. So again, a lot more prefabrication and modular construction is going to be happening over the next several years, which helps to make our projects a lot better in the end.

So how did KLH really get here? The case study that we had was an orthopedic surgery center that's about 60,000 square feet. We were working with a construction partner of ours to develop the HVAC and the plumbing scope. And it was a design-build project. The engineering tasks include doing the calculations and the design, all the modeling, converting the Revit families to the fabrication parts that was given to us by the contracting team, doing any external BIM coordination.

I'm sitting through weekly meetings with other trades to make sure that the project was coordinated and constructible and helping to assist in quantity takeoffs and spool drawings. Now, the contractor tasks were really to help with constructability and install. They were really guiding us along the way. Because we don't do installation and fabrication drawings very much. So they really gave us a packet of what they call The Art of Design, which is their standards on how they install and make sure that the project can be constructible.

So working very closely with them, we were able to convert all of our Revit families to fab parts. And from there, they were able to do the spool drawings, fabricate the ductwork, off of the drawings that we delivered. They installed all the products and then did any field coordination that was necessary.

So that workflow really started with the design team creating the initial permit design. The contractor was the engineer of record on the design. And then once it got to permit, we really took off. We started to take our Revit families and convert them to the contractor fabrication parts, all while setting up weekly meetings with the field foreman to understand what the design intent was, to work through any issues and come to resolutions on anything that may be a problem.

We were also doing weekly coordination meetings with the other trades, utilizing Navisworks to do clash detection to make sure that we were coordinated with all the other trades on the project and everything could be installed without any issues in the field. So then once the construction started, we started getting all of our documents done. Everything was installed. The project was complete. It actually ended up being quite a very successful project for us.

But at the end, we really wanted to do a post mortem on the project. We wanted to understand where we failed and where we succeeded, so if we did projects like this, moving forward, we know what we needed to be better at. So this was an opportunity for both teams to come together, with a high level of trust, and just speak freely and openly and honestly to understand, really, where the struggles were.

There were times, during this project, that the construction team or the contracting team had some hesitancy on working with an engineering team that had really never done this before. So they had to develop this level of trust with us over the weeks that we worked together. And there was some heartaches at the beginning. But by the end of that, we really had a trust. We learned from each other, and the project was a success at the end.

But there were a lot of lessons learned throughout this entire project, a lot of rework, as you can see in these snippets shown on the slide. So the image on the right is actually the duct work drawings from the permit set to the as-built drawings that were completed at the end. So the red is the permit design that was done all with Revit, Revit design elements. And the green is the installation that was done with the fabrication parts. So you can see this is quite a bit of rework in the end.

Some of this was out of our control. Some of the shafts did move after the permit set. And a little bit of the layout of the building shifted as well. But a lot of it was just coordination items that we didn't get to in the permit set. We were just trying to get to a permit as fast as possible, just designing, getting the elements in there, so that we could get the permit. And we weren't doing a very good job of making sure that it was coordinated. And we really paid for that at the end because we had to basically redo the whole thing, as you can see.

The left side, which was the piping for the drawing, we had VAV boxes stubbed everywhere. So again, a lot of rework on that side, as we had to make sure that it was constructible and coordinated. So again, a lot of changes from the permit set to what was actually installed at the end, but a very good learning opportunity for us.

I learned, for the first time in my career, that I didn't know how to draw ductwork. So I had been at KLH for nine years. I've been drawing ductwork the entirety of my career, and I have been doing it wrong quite a bit. So working with that team, understanding what their needs were, what their challenges were and how to actually install this ductwork was very valuable.

Simple rules, like you need to keep the ductwork so far away from a wall, so you can get your hand around it to strap it up and install it or put insulation in, was things that I had never really thought through before. Because I had never been taught. So this was a very valuable learning experience for me.

We took those design guides and handed it to the rest of our company. We did some training sessions on how to accurately design ductwork. Because we do get newer employees who don't really go through this as well. But we want to hand that information down. So a lot of lessons learned on this project, but a lot of lessons that we will remember and can utilize in our projects, moving forward.

So we knew, from that experience, that we really wanted to integrate the VDC team earlier in our project, so we can avoid all that rework at the end. And what that looks like, from a traditional design-bid-build project set, is the architect is doing most of the planning. They're developing the building and the model and then handing that to the engineers and the design phase, who's working very closely with the architect to make sure that the systems that are brought into the building actually fit the need of the building.

You're getting to a constructions document set. And once that set goes out to bid and it's been awarded, sometimes that is just thrown away. Those drawings really can't be used because they haven't been coordinated very well. They could be in AutoCAD, and the contractor is using fabrication parts or another software. So they can't really convert that. So they're doing a lot of rework on their end to redraw a lot of that.

So it seems like the drawings are just getting deleted and thrown away and started over, which leads to a lot of RFIs, as we know, change orders, some finger-pointing at times, to understand who's supposed to be developing what. And that can lead to a very unhealthy and not a very happy project at the end. You could have an owner that's very upset because there's delays in the project timeline, just because there is a lot of rework done, from the design phase to the construction phase.

So when we think about integrating VDC early in a project, I really think about this quote from Henry Ford, which I love, is "If everyone is moving forward together, then success really takes care of itself." Working as a team, making sure that everybody is involved earlier in the project, everybody can get their input in and understands the challenges of the project is just going to make for a more successful project at the end.

So we really want to be working as a team to accomplish the goal that everybody on the project is trying to accomplish. And that's a successful building that you can hand over to the owner in a timely fashion, hopefully, at budget or under budget.

So what does that really look like from an industrial construction standpoint? You're getting everybody involved at the planning stage. Everybody knows the timeline. Everyone knows the budget, and everybody is aware of the challenges that may occur early on in the design. And you can start making decisions a lot sooner. You're utilizing the strengths of each team to come up with a decision that's going to affect the project as a whole. And you're doing that earlier on. You're not doing that in the construction phase, when that is a lot more costly.

So the architect, the engineer, the VDC and the contractor are working side by side throughout the entirety of the project. And then when it's handed over to the owner, you have a building that's been built on time, hopefully, under budget. And the process, as a whole, goes a lot more smooth. And it's more enjoyable. You don't feel like you're working in a silo, doing things on your own. You're working as a team, understanding the concepts and trying to solve problems together.

Because when you're really working in a silo, you feel like you can be making decisions at times and not really be thinking about the others. So getting everybody together at the start of the project, all the way through the end, is a much more enjoyable experience as a whole.

So the first thing you really need to do to integrate that VDC and the BIM teams together is to identify the strengths. What do each team do really well? What is their role on the project? And how can we be successful? So from a KLH perspective, as an engineering team, we feel like we're great at modeling. We're really good at Revit. KLH has gone 100% Revit since 2017. We only teach one process. We do it the exact same way every single time. So our skills in Revit are very high. We feel like we have some of the best models in the country because we're doing it over and over again all the time.

We're only training it on one way, so everybody has a standard way of doing things. And every project is done the exact same way. Design calculations can be done a lot faster, since it's all in a common platform like Revit. We're able to extract information from the models, get square footages, get counts a lot faster. We can get names and numbers of rooms, to be able to identify occupancy and to do load counts. So we can do our calculations very quickly, since we're all in the same platform and doing it the exact same way.

And for us at KLH, we have an in-house software team. So we have a team of developers at our disposal that can help us to create tools to improve our efficiency. So when we see that there's a lack in something that we're doing in our workflow, we can get with that design team and come up with some solutions to create some tools to help identify what that is and how can we attack it to have a better process in the end. So having that team to rely on to be able to create tools, to enhance that workflow, is key for us. And we've had that since 2017 as well.

From a contractor perspective, they're installing, doing prefab. Doing any pre-construction planning is really their niche. That's what they're doing every single day. The engineering team is not getting on the site and installing anything. They're just modeling in a software. But the contracting team is really getting their hands dirty, getting onsite and installing all this. So we should really utilize the strengths that they have because they've been doing this day in and day out.

And the goal of this whole identifying strength is to just get alignment. What is each team doing? What is each team member doing? So we're not doing repetitive tasks over again. And we're not duplicating any efforts. Everybody understands their roles and what they need to do to make this project successful. And they're sticking to that. And the other teams are just holding them accountable to make sure that this whole project is a success at the end.

So there is a difference between just collaborating and effective collaboration, in my mind. Sometimes individuals think that collaboration is just putting your model up on the cloud, so that anybody can get the information that they want at any time. But they're not really answering questions or working as a team or sitting in design meetings to answer questions. They're just putting the model up there for anybody to use, without getting input from anybody else.

But to really be effective, you really need to have all parties present at the beginning of the project. Make sure that all the team members have a representative, if there's any kind of meeting set up, to be able to answer questions and to hold each other accountable, to make sure that you're working at the same speed. So everybody needs to be involved at the beginning of the project, all the way through, just to make sure those lines of communication are open.

From an engineering side, you really need to determine how you're going to design at the beginning. Do you want it to be what the final output is, which is the contractor's Revit families or fab parts? Or do you want to use your own families and convert them over? But there is some manipulation that needs to be done to your Revit families. From our experience on the orthopedic surgery center project, we were trying to take our Revit families and convert them to the fabrication parts that we received, but we were having issues with that.

There was VAV boxes on the project that had a duct connection size. And our Revit family was actually taking an 1/8 inch shorter, smaller, of that duct connection size than it should be. So for instance, a 14-inch box was actually a 13 and 7/8-inch box for us. So every time that we converted that to fabrication parts, it actually deleted the duct work going into that VAV box. For every single one that we did, with hundreds of VAV boxes, that's hundreds of pieces of duct work that was actually getting deleted and needed to be redrawn.

So we figured out what the issue was. We went in and we changed that 1/8 inch, just made it into a round number. So when we converted, it converted all that duct work easily and accurately. So you do have to make sure that your Revit families are set up in a way that can be converted easily. So is it worth to go through that effort to do that? Or do you just use the contractor families that have been set up?

And then you need to really have weekly calls to collaborate as a team. We set up these weekly calls. Everybody is present on these calls. We really run through the issues and make sure that everybody is at a spot and holding each other accountable to where they should be in the project. Depending on where the project is at, these collaboration calls could be a lot longer. The longer that the project goes out, these calls may be shorter.

But you're making sure that you're using this time to collaborate together to solve issues and really to work together as a team. So this is how you really get to effective collaboration, is just making sure that everybody is involved and present and able to answer any questions that come up.

And there's a realized benefit from all this. For us, it was a single source of truth, which was Revit. We're all working in the same platform. We're all doing it the exact same way. Nobody is using a software outside of Revit. Nobody's doing it in AutoCAD and having to link that in. We're all doing it within Revit. We're all working under the same parameters. So having that single source of truth is critical to get the information, when it's needed, for all the different parties of the project.

And migrating that to the cloud, utilizing BIM 360 and ACC is critical to make sure that you're getting the most up-to-date information when it's necessary. Again, you may want to set up some ground rules on when you're sharing and publishing the model. Because sometimes too much information is too hard on a project. It may cause you to do some rework.

So you really need to set up when you want to publish these models, when you want to share them, when they're going to be consumed by everybody, to make sure that there's no rework on the side. But again, making sure that everybody is working under the same parameters, doing it the exact same way is critical to make sure that you get the information needed, at the exact time that it actually is needed.

And then for us, some existing tools were improved with this combined experience. We have over 100 tools in-house that we use, but we've never gotten feedback from a contractor before, on some of these. So we have a clash detection software in-house that we use to run our clash detection, to make sure that the projects are coordinated correctly. But when we switched over to the fab parts, we had never used fab parts before. So we actually had to update our tools to be able to do clash detection with fabrication parts.

If we didn't do that, we would have had to send it off to Navisworks and do it in another program that we're not familiar with. So we wanted to keep it consistent for us. So we did end up changing that tool to work with fabrication parts. And that made it a much more smooth experience for us and helped the contractor out. Because we were able to do coordination in that same model when it came up.

And new tools can be created, once you're working together and you're learning the pain points of each partner on the project. And sometimes those are the exact same pain points. Can new tools be created to help solve some of those issues? So another one that comes up from that orthopedic surgery center was we wanted to be able to tell, in the model, what the status of each element was, whether it was being installed, it's still in design, it's being shipped. What was the status of where that ductwork is at the current moment?

So we created a tool that allows us to set those statuses, so that anybody could see it. You can color code it and see how the building is being built at the present time. One of the cool things was, if something gets installed, it pinned it down, so nobody could delete it or remove it or change it. Because that's what it is in the field. It's already been installed. We didn't want to change it in the model. So it was a new tool that we created collaboratively and had a huge benefit for us.

And the results of that really speak for itself. The images here are a project that we just wrapped up here recently, where we did end up just drawing in fabrication parts. We didn't want to have those errors that may come with converting. So we did it all the same way. We just did it with fabrication parts. We got buy-in from the contractor. They helped to review our drawings. And then the images that you see are what is actually built out on the site. So we were able to do that efficiently, very seamlessly.

And since Revit is a database, we're able to extract that information. So the schedule on the right is just a ductwork schedule that we can pull out of Revit which lists the type of ductwork that it is, the gauge of sheet metal that it is, the size. And then we can get a weight. So we can get very accurate quantity takeoffs to help with cost estimation or to do any ordering of materials that's necessary. Since we are drafting everything in there, we can get those adequate quantities really, really quickly.

And just looking at it a little bit closer, from a traditional design-build project to one of our industrial construction projects, the fees and the square footages are different. But the main thing that we took away from this was the modeled elements per square foot. It's almost eight times higher in the industrialized construction projects than it is in a traditional bid-build. So you have this model that has a higher value density of elements that's being placed within it.

Sometimes traditional design-bid-build projects, utilize details to show some of the elements that need to be placed. And that can be commits from contractors. But with these projects that we were doing, we were actually modeling all those elements. So we're getting accurate quantity takeoffs of every single thing that's in the model. So it is a very accurate representation of what the final model and design looks like. And we're really modeling everything that needs to be in that building, that needs to be taken into account.

So how can we help to reduce rework, save costs and increase efficiency? We've all been on projects before that have a lot of rework. When I was a lead mechanical designer, that was the one thing that I really struggled with a lot of times, is it felt like I was drafting to delete to redraft and delete again. We're doing all this work up front. Everybody wants to understand what the design intent is. But the building is not even set. The layout is not even set.

So we're told to design faster to get to a certain spot. But the design is changing. So we just end up deleting and reworking most of what we've done, which could be a headache and really take your mental state down. Because you are just redoing and redrafting a lot of the work that's already been done.

So I'm looking at some of the stats. 70% of total rework in the construction and engineering industry is a result of design-induced rework. So that is a huge number, whether it's the building layout changes which changes the layout of the systems or if it's the construction documents aren't usable and the contractor has to redraw everything in. 70% is just really a large number of rework that is done. So we really feel like we can get that number down, with some increased efficiency in our projects.

14% of all rework globally is caused by bad data. You're not getting the information that you need or it's incorrect, which is causing rework as well. So how can we transfer that information over seamlessly and accurately, so we don't have to do some rework based off the data that's been given to us?

And then 52% of all rework is caused by poor project data and miscommunication. Maybe you're not getting the information that is needed at the time to be able to do your work. Or the information is wrong or just not communicated to you, in general. But again, 52% seems a very high number of rework that is being done, just by miscommunication. So setting up those weekly coordination calls, getting the team involved early helps to reduce these numbers dramatically.

And we all know that the cost and construction is rising rapidly. Everything seems to be getting more expensive. And then looking at some of the numbers, 50% of owners have canceled, postponed or scaled back projects due to increasing costs. So that's a significant number of projects that actually have to scale down or just have been removed, just because of the cost of what it cost, takes to do the design, or the material costs.

So we really want to be able to get that number down, get the projects into budgets, so that they can actually be constructible. Owners are doing these projects for a reason. They want to have these buildings or these different renovations within their projects. So how can we get that number down, get the cost down for everything?

82.5% of construction materials have experienced a significant cost increase since 2020. Again, a huge number, it's almost all of the materials that's needed on a construction site have experienced some kind of cost increase. So how can we reuse some of the materials that we have or not order as many materials, to really get that cost down? Because that is a significant number of material that has had a cost increase over the last couple of years.

85.7% of equipment costs have saw an increase greater than 5%. Just the increase of the equipment alone, to be able to build some of these buildings, is rising very rapidly. So again, how can we improve the process, so we don't have as much equipment onsite, to be able to reduce this number, try to get the number down into the budget a little bit more easily?

And then the one that really sticks out to me the most is $31.3 billion in rework was caused by poor project data and miscommunication in the US in 2018. That is a staggering number, $31.3 billion. Just, when I think about that, it just drives me a little bit crazy. It's just a lot of rework that seems to be not intentional, but it's done alone. And that is a lot of rework, $31.3 billion. I keep repeating that over in my head, just because that number is so significant.

And again, that goes back to the 52% of rework is caused by a poor project data and miscommunication. So how can we get that number down? How can we increase our communication amongst the team, so that we're not doing as much rework? How can we get the information more seamlessly, so that our designs are correct and we're not having to redo something that's already been done? So getting this number down is critical, to be able to make sure that our projects are a success in the end.

So how can we really increase the efficiency, utilizing BIM and VDC, in the industrialized construction process? One way is with prefabrication and modular construction. It reduces onsite labor. It helps to accelerate the timelines. You're building these elements in a controlled warehouse, so you don't have to deal with weather-related issues. Quality control is a lot better because you can manage everything that's coming out of the warehouse and making sure that it's constructible and correct, based off the designs.

You can also do processes simultaneously, so you don't have to wait for somebody in the field to get done with a certain job before you come in and do yours. You can do all these at the exact same time. If It's modular construction, the HVAC team is building their skids while the electric is building theirs, plumbing and so on. They're sending that over to be installed within the mods. And then those mods are just sent off to the site to be installed as one. So you're really reducing that onsite labor by doing everything offsite, in a controlled warehouse.

And then you're really standardizing on your components, trying to use the same components over and over again. It reduces the need for customization. But it also helps to improve production speed and lower the costs, since you're doing the same thing over again. You can buy things in bulk, as necessary, to lower the cost.

If your teams are installing and doing the same design over again, you're gradually going to get better at that process each time that you do it. So you're going to get faster and faster every time there's a different iteration. So standardizing on your components, making sure that your systems are the same across the project really help to shorten that project timeline, just because you can do things a lot faster in the end.

And using a collaborative platform like Revit, getting BIM and the VDC team involved early on just helps to enhance that coordination across the whole team. So you're not having that miscommunication number that caused that $31.3 billion in rework. You're handling all this stuff at the beginning of the project, where that cost is really low, from that slide that we first initially saw.

You're hoping to reduce errors. Everybody's working together as a team. Everybody's giving their input and understanding what the challenges are. You're just working in the same platform. You're not doing things different ways, and you're really looking at the model holistically, making sure that everybody understands the process. It just makes for a more seamless and smooth project overall.

So for us, we talked about this a little bit before, but doing clash detection really does help to eliminate that rework and drive down costs. It seems like something we should be doing on all of our projects. But a lot of times, our projects are moving so fast. The clash detection is the last thing that you're really thinking about. You really got to get everybody involved, again, utilizing that same common platform, like Revit, that all the teams are inputting their information in. You can really collaborate and coordinate earlier on in your project to make sure that you're not doing this expensive rework when it's actually in the field.

Again, if you're working together as a team, the VDC team can lend their input, based off their past experience, to the BIM team to understand how these systems can be designed, so that they are constructible. They're easy to install. Everything is done correctly. And really just spreading that knowledge, to prevent that rework that's done at the end that is so costly.

So for us, this is a screenshot of the in-house clash detection software that we have created. There's a bunch of different clash detection software out there. Revit has their own built in as well. But we wanted to take it a step further to help make sure that we're eliminating the high-cost options or clashes that occur on our projects. For us, we still had the two main categories that are clashing. So for us, the top one is ducts and ducts, but the second one is electrical equipment with mechanical equipment.

But we're really looking at the volume of these clashes. How big is this clash, actually, based off the elements that's been drawn? We can sort and filter by this volume to make sure that we're picking up the high-dollar items. But we wanted to take it a step further and assign a priority factor to some of these to say, these are the items that you really should be looking at. So for us, we really can't control the structure further, later on in design. So we make that a higher-priority factor. Because usually, those are things that are out of our control, we can't change.

We also use things like storm piping that has a very specific route that it needs to take. Sometimes that can't move, so that has a higher-priority factor. So you take that volume, times it by that priority factor. And those are really the items that we want to start looking at first. How can we hit these high-dollar items earlier in the design, so that when we get to the field installation, we're not seeing that then and then maybe having to do a bunch of rework that's going to be very costly?

So being able to see these high-dollar items earlier in the project really helps to speed that up and make sure that we can get everybody involved to be able to make decisions before that cost impact becomes very high.

And then it just helps to streamline the decision-making, getting everybody involved earlier. You're using everybody's collective knowledge and their strengths. And if everybody understands the design, the timeline, the budget, you can make those decisions a lot faster. If you are looking at a couple of different system types that you may be wanting to use, being able to do those calculations to come up with what the requirements are, then you can work together as a team to understand does this system fit in this budget. Can we get this equipment ordered in time?

We can look at it as a whole and make those decisions a lot sooner to be able to pre-purchase equipment sooner, to make sure that it's on the jobsite, so that we can fit it in the timeline that it needs to be at. And making those decisions faster just leads to fewer project delays with equipment that may not be able to be onsite soon enough. You're not making those last-minute changes. And overall, you're just having a better workflow, a more seamless workflow that is more enjoyable just to work on within your project.

Prefabrication really helps to reduce the cost and a lot of rework. You're doing it all at a controlled factory that is out of the elements. You're doing everything at the ground level. You're not having to get up on ladders to do a lot of work. So in this image, you can see that there's some duct work and piping that is being routed right down a corridor. That's all being put on a skid and assembled together, which will be shipped offsite, either installed in a modular section that, again, may get delivered to the site, or this may go right into the field, that they can stack up and install.

So incorporating some of these processes helps to make sure that things are installable, constructible. And then any issues that you may see, you can handle them within the warehouse. And you're not having to do that in the field, after everything else has already been installed. You're really reducing the rework and not using that onsite labor to do a lot of this expensive changes that may occur at the end.

So VDC and BIM really are the key drivers in modular construction. Modular construction has a lot of benefits, some of those, which we're going to go into. But integrating that team early really helps to drive home everything that modular construction is all about.

And some of those benefits are repeatability. Your standardizing on your designs. You're making sure that one project feeds into another one. And the lessons that are learned from your projects are incorporated early on. And you don't make those same mistakes, moving forward, leading to more consistent quality, drawings at the end.

Going back to several projects that we had earlier on, we were learning a lot during our first couple of modular construction projects. Our first one, we actually had a rooftop unit system that we decided to go with because of the time that we needed to get the project done. But going through the project, we realized that it wasn't the most efficient system. It wasn't the easiest system to install and use in that project. So we ended up utilizing a split system instead. That was much more efficient, easier for us to install, easier for us to design.

And we've incorporated those lessons learned. So now we've done two or three of those projects now. And we're really just using that same project, copying and pasting it, and then just shifting it, based off the different layouts of the building. So you can really standardize on your designs, on your components. And it makes it for very repeatable projects, moving forward. But there is the consistency and the quality because you are picking up any of those changes and making sure that you're not incorporating design flaws into future projects.

These projects are scalable. With modular construction, you can create multiple units at the same time and really deploy them out to the job site very quickly. For large-scale developments, housing and hospitals, things like that, that can really shorten the time frame, the project timeline, to make sure that you're getting your project done on time.

So you can assemble these buildings very quickly offsite, get them onsite and put them in the correct sequence that they need to be. So you're just assembling, almost like LEGOs, out on the job site. So it makes for very easy onsite assembly. And your units will be able to be built offsite very quickly.

Reusing the design elements that's already been created. If you've created them once, you really don't want to create a bunch of rework after that. You want to make sure that you're using the same components over again that have common parameters, everything that's filled out. So you're not having to input information in again.

Again, if you're using fabrication parts or something like that, it's very standardized. You set that up once. From there, you can just copy and paste it and, again, just shift it, based off the layout of the building changing. So reusing those elements is huge, in speeding up the timeline that it takes to actually design these projects, which does lower the cost.

And successful projects can be replicated very easily. Again, if you're learning your lessons and you're incorporating those lessons learned into your designs-- you have a retail client that wants to do their projects the exact same way every single time. You're just taking those steps that were successful, copy and paste them and just moving on and making sure that everything is there. It gets reviewed for constructability, but most of that has been done up front. So you can do these projects very quickly, very successfully and ensure that the design at the end is going to be what the owner actually wants.

Modular construction really does help to reduce the risk, right. so getting everybody, the VDC and the BIM team, involved earlier in the project really does help just to communicate better. You're getting everybody's input at the beginning. You're not having to worry about making decisions in the field. You're making them in the model, where it's easier to make those decisions. And the cost impact is a lot less.

Since we're all working within the same common platform, we can make those decisions in real time. Just open up the model. Look at it, and come up with a decision right there. So you're communication is a lot better. Again, going back to that $31.3 billion in rework because of miscommunication, you really don't have that if you integrate everybody early on into the project.