There are many underutilised factories that have the elements necessary for the delivery of off-site manufactured systems or components, but not the throughput to keep the facility operating at maximum capacity.
Factoryshare.org is an initiative that seeks to make use of the ‘down time’ and / or unused space (the cost of which is otherwise paid for as part of the factory overhead) through a number of possible scenarios:
- By providing manufacturing space for start up companies wishing to enter the offsite market. These underutilised areas could be sectioned off and rented to people thus saving them the cost of buying, building and developing a new location. It could test the viability of the product without high capital cost;
- By enabling existing products to be delivered from a range of participating facilities, allowing small operations to upscale their offer or products to be manufactured closer to their point of deployment (with reduce transport time and cost);
- By enabling participating facilities to combine and trade capacity to drive down the cost of off-site solutions and move this further into the mainstream of construction delivery
- Reduced cost of both new and existing systems by offsetting some of the overhead cost;
- A central point of contact for clients or contractors who might otherwise not consider an off-site solution or not know where to procure one;
- Subject to issues relating to IP, a potential means of improving collaboration within the off-site sector, with benefits for all (manufacturers, clients and end users);
- By lowering the barriers to participation in the off–site market, a number of systems might be developed which would otherwise be seen as too marginal
For more details please contact anna.whiting@buildoffsite.com
A Buildoffsite initiative.