We believe there is a better way to build — one where the barriers aren’t just overcome, they’re eliminated completely.
The traditional AEC construction model – its cost structure and resource management – are not built to deliver the streamlined, seamless process that we strive to. So, we looked outside the traditional. We became advocates for and experts in the untraditional.
Our partners at Blox, an innovative construction company, are revolutionizing our industry from the ground up. Blox CEO and founder, Chris Giattina, is the author and advocate of the Design Manufacture Construct (DMC) method. It is a completely new way to build. And we believe it’s the right way to build.
In the DMC method, each step of the process (design, manufacturing, and construction) is completely integrated with the others, ensuring maximum speed, quality, and value in each project we complete. Here’s how it works.
One of the products that Blox designs and manufactures is the “volumetric uber module.” These prefabricated chunks of a building are completely finished and ready for delivery – down to the lighting and fixtures – by the time they leave Blox’s million-square-foot facility.
While that’s happening, our design team prepares the plans to ensure compliance with local codes in a process called “site adapt.” Our field team prepares the site to receive the modules. Once delivered, the next and last step to having a fully functioning building is putting those modules together. We call this “stitching.”
Stitching includes completing all of the structural steel, drywall, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing connections between each of the modules. The number of modules varies per project and depends on the size of the project. The result? A completely finished, pre-manufactured, functioning facility.
Each stitch takes a team of extremely skilled, hardworking tradespeople to complete. But it also takes a group of dedicated problem-solvers to ensure that every moment leading up to the stitch moves seamlessly from concept to completion, culminating in state-of-the-art medical facilities.
Since 2019, we have stitched approximately 30 of these projects with Blox across 4 different states and are currently capable of delivering 2 stitch projects per month.
Currently, the projects are industrialized to the point that we are creating codified work packages, which will allow us to utilize the principles of operations science to increase efficiency and speed. This will allow us to take major leaps toward improving the production rate of the enterprise.
Along with the brilliant team at Blox and trade partners, including Henry Schein, Trane, Herman Miller, GE, Cat, and more, we have completed projects for world-class healthcare clients, like Walmart Health, Encompass Health, and HCA. Those include free-standing emergency departments (FEDs), primary care facilities, and acute care hospitals.
And we’re just getting started.