Mr. Pat Kirwan:

I am a director of C+W O'Brien Architects, an architectural practice specialising in modern methods of construction. We are also based in Dublin. I am a co-founder and current board member of MMC Ireland, an independent organisation representing those who operate within the MMC sector in Ireland.

Traditional construction has been employed for centuries to build homes and other buildings. Typically, traditional construction methods take place mainly or entirely on site, and invariably these are sequential processes where one process cannot begin until the preceding task is complete.

The Irish construction sector is largely characterised by a culture of seeing construction as a one-off bespoke process from one project to the next where traditional construction methods have predominated.

Construction projects, by their nature, are based on assembling constituent components. The smaller the number of components that must be assembled on site, the more productive and predictable the project will be. Using preassembled components to improve productivity has long been used in manufacturing industries. MMC creates a shift away from traditional on-site construction and assembly to off-site manufacturing-style processes like those used in the automotive sector.

The concept of aligning construction with manufacturing-style processes is not new to the construction industry. Prefabrication and industrialisation of construction have been used for decades. The use of industrialised construction methods in Irish housing dates back to the 1960s when large structural precast concrete wall exterior prefabricated cladding panels were used to build seven -storey towers in Dublin. What makes MMC different to the previous attempts to rationalise construction through prefabrication and industrialisation are the wide reaching and holistic impacts, not only on design, procurement, and construction but on societal and environmental concerns.

We also need to articulate the benefits of MMC and remind ourselves why we their use is a good idea. MMC offers many benefits over traditional methods of construction and these are key to addressing the demands of high output levels in the housing market. While MMC alone will not fix the low productivity issues of construction industry overall, they are a driver for a systematic change in culture and process that will also improve on the environmental impacts of traditional methods of construction.

The main benefits of MMC being reported today are increased productivity and innovation. In most cases, MMC can be carried out independently of ongoing site works, insulating it from issues with on-site construction programmes and project management. Greater programme certainty and increased levels of productivity can be achieved through factory-based production.

The second benefit is a higher quality product. Standardisation of components in a controlled factory environment can drive higher construction quality and produce significant reductions in defect rates.

Site safety and health and well-being are also improved. There are many benefits to those working in a factory-based, controlled environment. Safer working environments can be achieved, and on-site safety is improved.

Using MMC also means a reduced environmental impact. Optimising component production not only increases productivity but also reduces material waste. Carbon emissions can be reduced by lowering material transport cycles and increasing rates of material recycling.

The current barriers to a wider adoption of MMC have been well characterised at international level and these barriers equally apply to the Irish construction industry. A UK cross-industry group was established in 2004 to examine the barriers to the greater use of MMC in the context of housing. The barriers identified in the report were reinforced by a follow-on survey of the top 100 house builders in the UK in 2005. More recently, in an Irish context, a 2021 Ernst & Young report commissioned by Enterprise Ireland, found similar barriers to adoption as those identified in the UK back in 2004. These barriers can be characterised in a number of ways. The first is cultural change. MMC moves traditional construction methods from site to factory-based settings. Design methodologies need to adopt a forward-looking approach where the manufacturing, logistics, planning and assembly phases of projects are considered at an early stage. Transition from traditional to MMC requires a major change in the way we design, procure and construct buildings.

Procurement strategies are another barrier. The cyclical nature of the construction industry in terms of demand, investment and skills poses a challenge for factory-led manufacturing processes. Supply chain capacity and security is the Achilles heel of MMC adoption. The fragmented nature of procurement in the industry restricts its ability to build economies of scale, which benefit the factory-line type production processes that many forms of MMC employ. Developing procurement at scale, either at project or central government level with newer funding models, and possibly mandates for use of MMC, could help build supply chain capacity, resulting in increased competition within the market and help reduce capital costs and as such the cost of construction.