The New York Times Article | Why Wait for a Sink When You Can Install an Entire Bathroom?

When Deryl McKissack, the chief executive of the design and construction firm McKissack & McKissack in Washington, heard that electrical switch gear needed for the new Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport terminal was delayed because of supply chain issues, she knew the project would not come to a halt.

Thanks to a plan to build components requiring the gear off site for installation at the terminal later, a concept known as prefabrication, construction would proceed on schedule.

Working in parallel rather than sequentially “saved the project about six months’ time,” Ms. McKissack said.

Under conventional methods, basic materials are transported to a construction site, where they are assembled in a specific order. The prefabrication of parts like walls and staircases had been gaining momentum before the pandemic as a way to save money and time.

Now, shortages caused by global supply chain delays are accelerating the trend because building off site can prevent problems in one area from cascading through the whole project.

Factory prefabrication offers a more controlled environment, the opportunity to order parts more cheaply in bulk and the ability to gather workers with specific skills in one place with a consistent schedule. The specialist-made approach makes production faster and more precise, and technological advances have made it possible to create a variety of building elements like entire bathrooms with toilets and sinks and million-dollar HVAC and plumbing modules.

You can read the full article HERE.