'ERP thinking hinders precast builder'

Prefabrication of building elements is increasingly done in factories using machinery. A producer of building elements aims to maximize the use of production processes and machinery; downtime costs money. Creating flow in the production of precast building elements requires smart management software.

'Prefabrication is industrial building and requires thinking about industrial production processes,' says Maarten van der Boon, manager of Marketing & Sales at BIM4Production. 'Especially in the preparation and start, the process execution is substantially different from the traditional construction process.'

He explains with a few examples: 'If it happens on the construction site that a certain part is not there, no big deal, work will continue on something else. In a production process with machines, for example, that doesn't work. Then you have to move on. With industrial construction in a factory you always steer the progress of the production process, on flow. So what you produce must be very clearly defined. With traditional construction, do you possibly have some leeway? For example, that something has to move up a few centimeters, or you can shorten something or take a different size of something? With prefab construction, that's impossible. Everything is designed down to the millimeter. As a prefab manufacturer, you deliver what the client ordered. In the right design and dimensions and under the right quality standard. Your production flow is set to that.'

Innovative platform software

In precast building production, it comes down all the more to having a good building model. According to Van der Boon, that's where the BIM model comes in. 'The BIM model is the connecting factor between engineering and production,' he states. 'In itself, this is nothing new, but in industrial building production there does appear to be a gap there. Smart software is needed to optimize flow in precast production. Existing software often does not suffice and is perceived as complicated and complex in production environments. We are changing that with BIM4Production®.'

Van der Boon and his colleagues won the Prefab Efficiency Award 2024 with their platform software. He says, "It is software via an open SAAS platform. That provides a number of advantages for the precast element builder. On the platform, we connect 3D BIM models with the automated precast production of building elements. So it is not that we 'BIM' or engineer ourselves, we are engineer package independent; we take the information from a BIM model as a starting point and read that into our platform. Briefly, we reduce this BIM model to element and sub-element level. We make all these elements separately recognizable, insightful and approachable. These separate elements can then be cleverly handled. For example, in planning, production, and logistics, but also in quality control. The platform now proves that by automating in this way, you optimize production. In other words, you start adding values that improve flow.'

Open platform

BIM4Production approaches precast manufacturing from the production process and control. The company changes the traditional way of looking at industrial building, which thinks much more from the project and its (trans)actions. This mostly driven from an ERP environment. Van der Boon: "We turn it as it were ERP to PRE. Not the project model drives your production, but your production model. In our vision the BIM model is the key. The BIM model tells you what you have to make and, linked to the production environment and capacity, how you have to make it. Connect that to your delivery moments and you know when you need to make it and in what order. The latter is important for your logistics. As icing on the cake: link the BIM model to your production standards and quality requirements and you can do (integral) quality assurance during the entire production process. Each unique element thus gets its own quality file at the push of a button. Using smart platform software helps the precast manufacturer to optimize the production process and get flow in it. This is why we offer our software as an open platform. Independent of the drawing or engineering software or ERP environment used by the manufacturer. Smart functionality - for the engineers, think APIs and service hooks - makes integration possible.'

Still strongly ERP-driven set up

Many construction and installation companies are strongly ERP-driven from the past, says Van der Boon. 'Not wrong in itself, but in prefab or industrial production environments this is often where the challenge lies. We see ERP systems - irreverently put - as decorated Christmas trees. Once started as an inventory management environment, they have increasingly been attached to manage business and project processes. It also gave a place to corporate financial accounting. It grew and grew, and that can start to pinch. Be aware that because of that financial carpet pad, ERP is a transactional system. That hinders the precast builder, because precast is all about flow. That's a different approach. We see daily that many installation companies and builders entering the world of precast run into that. The P of planning from an ERP stands for project-based planning, and is actually not useful for production planning. You see that in practice: we just put in Excel to cover that production side. Complex when you have to keep track of up to five or more schedules. Oh well, it works. But Excel is a calculation program, not meant for such complex processes, and certainly not a database. Does something change in the schedule? Just get to it in the Excel schedule.'

Connecting software

Van der Boon: "Connecting production software is needed between engineering and production to move the precast industry forward. By looking at precast production in a different way, we tilted ERP thinking with our platform towards PRE-working (quite coincidentally also the first three letters of precast). Winning the Prefab Efficiency Award 2024 is both a recognition of our innovative product and our vision. We are proud of it!