Prefabrication for healthcare construction is booming. On recent hospital projects 25% of the critical components including the vast majority of the exterior walls were prefabricated. The reliance on prefabrication in healthcare construction has allowed builders to drastically reduce construction timelines and costs with some projects seeing an 81% improvement in manpower utilization once full production of prefabricated building components begins at the factory. This has led many specialty contractors and builders to aggressively increase their investment in prefabrication and offsite construction methods on healthcare projects. 

Offsight customer Easley & Rivers, is a specialty contractor leading this trend. They’re utilizing the method of on-site prefabrication on a major healthcare project and they’ve paired this innovative approach with Offsight’s technology to set themselves up for success. Like traditional prefabrication, on-site prefabrication leverages a factory and manufacturing based approach to assembling crucial building components. Unlike traditional prefabrication however the factory is usually a temporary structure or warehouse built in close proximity to the jobsite to reduce shipment and logistics costs.

The on-site prefabrication method is a strong fit for healthcare projects of a large scale.

In this Live From the Floor case study we review how Easley & Rivers leverages Offsight for all phases of their prefab project lifecycle and workflow from early prototyping, to full on-site factory production, shipment, delivery and finally jobsite installation. 

For managing the prototyping process Easley & Rivers turned to Offsight’s Production & Quality Tracking feature set. This feature set allows Easley & Rivers to build and edit their potential assembly and production workflow for their prefabricated bathpods. When the first prototype pods progress through an assembly process Easley & Rivers can identify the initial stages of production, these stages and work areas are subject to change and can easily be modified in Offsight’s Management Tool. 

Through this tool an entirely new workflow can easily be edited and launched with new work areas, defined assembly tasks, quality checks and more. As each workflow is built and launched through the prototyping process, it can be visualized in Offsight’s Live Dashboard. 

Once Easley & Rivers final manufacturing workflow is finalized. They will begin production on hundreds of bathpods. In order to maintain, track and manage a rigorous assembly process in their on-site factory, Easley & Rivers will utilize both Offsight’s Production & Quality Tracking and Reporting & Auditing functionality. 

All aspects of production, including specific processes or stations can be tracked in real time in Offsight’s Live Dashboard. Takt times or times to complete processes, for example drywall installation or floor assembly can be tracked and reviewed in Offsight as well. Furthermore Easley & Rivers will also be able export a full record of production progress and delivery across all bathpods through Offsight’s Reporting Dashboard. This report can be shared with project stakeholders.   

Before bathpods leave the on-site factory for job-site installation, Easley & Rivers would complete final quality review, shipment sign offs and track delivery through Offsight. In Offsight’s mobile app operators can scan a QR code to immediately select the appropriate bathpod for quality review. Operators can then access robust and customized quality checklists to complete assembly checks and code conformance. Any issues that are discovered during review can immediately be flagged and tracked Offsight’s Alerts Dashboard. When these issues are resolved before shipment the operator can mark the issue as completed and they will be removed from the dashboard. 

In this manner Easley & Rivers can confirm that all bathpods completed thorough quality review, shipment certification and delivery inspection both from the factory and on receipt at the jobsite, all through Offsight. 

Finally Easley & Rivers will leverage Offsight for tracking bathpods through the jobsite installation process. With the simple scan of an Offsight QR code, jobsite personnel can immediately pull a full traceable record of each bathpod. They can navigate to the installation checklist and work process in Offsight. This checklist and process will be defined ahead and the checklist can be completed in real time through Offsight’s mobile app at the jobsite. Jobsite personnel can also all previous data regarding assembly, shop drawings, diagrams and verification/sign offs before shipment. 

The full end-to-end traceable record, from the factory to the jobsite for every bathpod Easley & Rivers assembles and installs can then be accessed, securely shared and exported through Offsight’s History Dashboard.

James Majernik, Sr. Project Manager
Easley & Rivers