KEF Holding plans to boost its operations with its expertise in offsite construction technology. The company is offering design, engineering, manufacturing, and assembling as one holistic service. Chairman of KEF holding, Faizal E. Kottikollon, tells Lorraine Bangera why offsite construction is the future
Could you tell us more about the KEF Industrial Park?
Last year, KEF Holding launched the KEF Industrial Park, which is India’s only offsite construction facility. The 42-acre park will manufacture building components such as columns, beams, hollow core slabs, wall panels, staircases, windows, doors, bathroom units and façades. The facility will help cut construction tenure and costs by almost 50% and 30% respectively.
How is offsite construction different from traditional construction methods?
In a normal construction project everything is done on the ground, in offsite construction most of the work (around 90%) is done in the factory. It is quite simple, we call it ‘design, manufacture and assemble.’
Is offsite construction popular in the Middle East?
The UAE needs to increase its use of offsite construction, it is used here but only partly. The real value comes in when the entire project is completely planned, designed, manufactured and assembled offsite. The whole concept has yet to take shape in Dubai, even though there are some projects where we are enabling full integration. Full integration includes spaces such as kitchen and bathrooms being constructed in the factory and then transported to the construction site. Currently we are designing a 100 bed hospital in Dubai which is completely offsite, and it will be commissioned in July next year. Since we started this method of construction, we have noticed a positive response in the market. Our current backlog is up to US$300 million.
What are some of the benefits of offsite construction?
Firstly, it takes half the time a regular construction takes. For example, we can do a 200 bed hospital which usually takes three to four years in just 12 months. We pre-design it and all the major construction is done precisely in the factory. Otherwise on the site there would be too much work and way too many corrections which could slow down the process. In a normal project there are way too many subcontractors and other parties that a construction is reliant on. Here, everything falls in place in the factory under one roof and is assembled at the site. In this region particularly, with the exorbitant rate of construction and tight deadlines to deliver, this would be an optimal solution.
Even the challenge of managing a large number of unskilled labour is cut out, as offsite construction is done in factories by robotics.
Taking the first two advantages i.e. less time and manpower, we could derive to the third advantage that is reduced costs. If you can finish a project in a year, which would usually take three years to complete, you’re cutting down cost considerably. Also the faster the project is complete the sooner you can generate revenue. So instead of waiting for three years, you could get the revenue from the second year onwards making the business more viable.
What are some of the key challenges faced during offsite construction?
One of the main challenges at the moment is finding skilled labour. At KEF, we have people from Ireland and Scotland training people in India and though we have less people, they are very highly skilled. I think the lack of knowledge and training employees are the key challenges.
Do you use building information modelling (BIM) systems?
We can only work with BIM. All our work, even with mechanical, plumbing and electrical is always created on BIM. Once created it is transferred to the factory. We have over 150 people trained to use BIM that are all based in Bangalore.
What are your plans for the Middle East?
Our next factory is going to be in the UAE, and we are planning to launch it next year. From the UAE, we plan to spread to the rest of the Middle East countries and North Africa, we are especially looking into Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The advantage of doing business in Dubai particularly is the supportive government and how easy it is to attract talent from across the globe to come here.