CSEI visit BCA in Singapore

CSEI visit BCA in Singapore

Team from Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation (CSEI) comprising Professor Jennifer Whyte and PhD researchers Alexander Zhou and Ranjith Soman visited the Building Construction Authority (BCA) in Singapore on 22^nd October,2019. The visit aimed at understanding the Singapore’s efforts on enabling modular construction.

Integrated Construction and Prefabrication Hub (ICPH) of Soilbuild construction group was visited first to see the manufacturing and information management processes. Soilbuild’s ICPH is a compact building that consists of 3 levels – 2 production floors and one office floor level, with an adjacent 6 level dormitory block. Starting from a BIM model which contains all of each element’s key information needed for production and tracking purposes, Soilbuild uses the data from the model throughout the entire process cycle; from sales orders, engineering, planning, production and inventory to delivery.

Next, the team visited a building construction site of a 36 storey tin block residential site which uses Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC). The research team was briefed of the construction process by the project engineers, who were previously trained as part of the BCA senior executive development programme offered by CSEI to support the development of leadership capability in Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD). The research team observed the lifting of a module and placing of the module at the installation location. Following the site visit, research team visited a completed PPVC project Clement Canopy which was then the tallest PPVC structure in the world.

Then, the team visited the BCA head quarters where Professor Jennifer Whyte shared the CSEI research in modular construction. This was followed by a reception with alumni of the CSEI -BCA senior executive development programme on Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD).

The visit to the BCA in Singapore gave the team a perspective on how modular construction is carried out in Singapore. This visit would also inform shape the future sessions on executive development programme on Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD).