With skilled jobsite labor becoming more and more difficult to find and keep, you would think that every mechanical contractor would prefab and pre-assemble as much as possible on every project. Consider these advantages:
1. Depending on specific jobsite location and conditions, my clients are saving 50 to 70 percent over jobsite fabrication installation labor costs.
2. You can maintain a larger workforce by having available billable work in your shop or prefabbing on site.
3. You can bid and perform much larger projects with the ability to beat critical path schedules.
4. Your on-time reputation enhances your image for negotiated projects in your market area.
5. Assembly-line production provides effective training opportunities for new hires and seasoned employees.
6. Flextime options are unlimited.
7. You can utilize moonlighters to meet schedules.
8. Errors and omissions arise with ample lead time for RFI’s and feasible solutions.
9. More of your experienced workforce can get involved with value engineering for short cuts and that “better way.”
10. Quality control is much easier and more effective under assembly-line conditions.
Prefab is not a new innovation in the mechanical industry. Fire sprinkler contractors were prefabbing their installations when I started in this business more than fifty years ago. Naturally the HVAC contractors prefab all of their duct work at the shop, yet for some unknown reason, most of the piping for HVAC is still being done at the jobsite.
In the late ’60s and early ’70s we started seeing a small percentage of the plumbing contractors prefabbing. This was especially effective on multihousing, motel and hotel projects. Some of the more aggressive contractors prefabbed their installations on large industrial and commercial projects.
The dollar savings are phenomenal and those critical-path deadlines become routine. It is so feasible and economical, you must wonder why every contractor doesn’t pursue it!
During all my years as a jobsite superintendent I encouraged on-site prefab for every possible installation. Each job has different conditions that can be analyzed and resolved with unlimited feasible options. In addition to major dollar savings on labor, you can also utilize all of those short pieces that traditionally would have ended up in the dumpster.
No one could argue with the prefab concept. All of the resistance we encountered came from those “measure-and-cut-each-piece-to-fit-in-a-specific-space” mechanics who had been doing it that way for years. Each and every one of them had been on a job where the company shipped the material to them precut, prefabbed or pre-assembled.
“We spent more time and money cutting it apart and redoing it than it would have cost to put it in our old-fashioned way,” they said. How many times have you heard that worn out excuse?
You can easily resolve that resistance by sending one of your jobsite employees into your shop to supervise or assist with the prefabbing, or by sending one of your shop employees out to assist with the installation. We have always known how easy it is to prove something won’t work when we are against it. Likewise with proving it will work when you want it to work.
