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Delivering MMC in the health sector

K2 Consultancy’s Director Rob Ewen presented a CPD session at the recent IHEEM Conference focused on delivering the potential of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in the health sector.  

This is based on the strategic role which K2 is playing in the £28 billion New Hospital Programme, delivering 48 new hospitals.

Whilst MMC has regularly been interpreted as meaning “offsite”, typically volumetric modular solutions, Rob emphasised that what this is really about is the welcome industrialisation of construction.

To be precise, for the significant potential performance improvements to be achieved – in cost, time, carbon, health, safety and wellbeing – this means deployment of the full range of digitally empowered platform-based, componentised, volumetric modular and modern on-site solutions.

Platform-based solutions are common in manufacturing. Comparisons are often made with car design and assembly based on a common chassis and sets of components across different models from the same manufacturer – creating multiple different products.

In the context of the built environment, the platform approach defines a ‘kit of parts’ of components and processes that we can use to deliver a wide variety of built assets. With this approach, on-site assembly is standardised and simple.

Rob also stressed that for the application of the full range of MMC solutions to be most effective in the health sector, it requires the standardisation of optimised clinical and operational practices so that common, standardised spaces can then be designed for MMC and high productivity, productionised delivery.

Rob emphasised the potential of the New Hospitals Programme, as highlighted in the Transforming Infrastructure Programme: Roadmap to 2030, to provide the opportunity to standardise and deliver programmatic benefits across the 48 hospital projects within the programme – thereby realising the full potential for MMC approaches.

Related

Project: New Hospital Programme