Revolutionizing Construction Through the RNGD Delivery Model

Will Cotten, Innovation Leader, RNGD

Nick Moldaner, Chief Operations Officer, RNGD

Will: The RNGD Delivery Model takes principles of design for manufacturing and assembly and applies it early in preconstruction. We look at a job early on in schematics or design development and say, ‘What of this job can be standardized so that we can get the most value out of manufacturing and offsite construction without compromising the architectural intent?’

As an industry, we have to evolve the way we deliver projects. The old model is not sustainable for the direction the industry is going, the direction civilization is going. Our delivery model enables us to buy materials at a very competitive, direct-to-manufacturer pricing. It helps get our labor costs down and the install speeds up. It’s construction at a higher quality, faster schedule and better price point. Ultimately, the answer to the evolution of our industry is to address the challenges that we face head-on.

Will: Rather than adopt prefabrication as a GC risk manager, we wanted to adopt it as a true builder and be the manufacturer of those components because it would allow us to directly affect the labor challenge, the material supply challenge and to design buildings that utilize components more efficiently. 

We subscribe to the “kits of parts” approach to manufacturing. We’re breaking things down into panelized components to where it is more efficient for shipping and arrives onsite ready to get installed with zero defects. At the moment, we’re focused on exterior panelization. Our facility has structural steel capability, as well as cold-rolled steel, so we’re able to construct an entire superstructure ourselves. We manufacture it, bring it to the jobsite and install ourselves. 

Will: And we’re still evolving and innovating how we manufacture components. Recently, we added MEP capability, as well.

So now, in addition to being able to get out of the ground, stand a structure up and dry it in, we can also systemize it. Our theory is, the way you shift the paradigm in construction is to make the jobsite more like a factory. If you can dry a building in, turn the lights on, turn AC on quickly, all of a sudden, your finished trades are working just as efficiently as they would in a shop.

Will: We put reports in front of frontline workers with our prefab production and quality reports. We put that on a screen in the shop and every morning we huddle up the workers. We look at, 'How are we doing relative to production goals? How are we doing on our quality control goals?'

Since that data is visualized and updated with a construction analytics platform, we can give people access to real, timely information to inform things like, 'Do we have a bottleneck? How do we fix that?' Data means we can make real-time decisions that really drive efficiencies in the way we deliver projects.

Will: Data of all kinds, too. We track all of our observations, inspections, JSAs and daily logs, and we’re able to put together a weekly report so we know our projects are in compliance, doing the appropriate paperwork and documented correctly. Then, we’re doing more advanced analytics to determine what observations are most common on which project types and how do we start better in preconstruction to mitigate those hazards early on. 

We have over a couple dozen analytics reports across the different verticals and services we have. We have financial reports for our accounting team. We have risk and safety reports for our legal team. We have project management reports for our building team, our infrastructure team and our steel team. We have equipment utilization reports for our heavy civil and equipment fleet to look at purchasing decisions and rental decisions.

Will: Our RNGD Delivery Model is fueled by designing for manufacturing — and when you’re designing for offsite manufacturing, you have to be precise. When you’re delivering components to the jobsite, there are no modifications that you want to be doing. You want it to fit perfectly. What that means is we have to use cutting-edge technology and design at a level of detail that is atypical for the current state of the industry. 

We’re designing components down to the screw, rather than just some general massing that gets worked out in shop drawings later and gets a modification in the field. BIM and 4D scheduling are tools to coordinate with trades and help them visualize the way a building is going to come together, while CNC technology converts design files into information that machines can produce components off of with little to no waste.

Will: We are seeing across projects we’ve done to date and analyses we’re continuing to do for future build product types that there’s a 30% schedule impact capability from when we break ground. 

A project in Huntsville was a five-story, 75,000 square foot office building that was over 450 tons of steel. We dried-in the building in a matter of two and a half months. That process would normally take six months. So we saved four months off the critical path by taking the design-for-manufacturer approach in preconstruction, getting shop drawings done when construction documents are ready, starting fabrication, delivering it faster and installing it faster.

Will: Precision manufacturing means very little to no waste, and there’s nothing more sustainable than that model. You’re not having metal and sheathing and waterproofing and foam drops all over a jobsite that end up in 30-yard containers that go to landfills. It’s all being contained in the shop. 

We’re cutting material to length, so we’re keeping it all very precise. The material we’re using is steel, so it’s recyclable. We’re looking out for ways in which we can make the material economy of construction more sustainable, and we believe that advanced manufacturing is a solution to that as well.

Will: I think that’s how our industry needs to be thinking. Gone are the days of having a problem in construction and just throwing more bodies at it to figure it out. The projects are becoming larger, not smaller. The labor is becoming less available, not more available. The schedules are becoming tighter, not longer. Budgets are tighter, not bigger. 

What that means is we have to evolve the way we solve problems and the way that we address building structures. We need to be able to deliver in a more productive and more efficient, more advanced manner. This offsite manufacturing approach is what’s enabling that sort of delivery. It’s not just wall panels. It’s not just steel. It’s not just MEP. It’s all of that coming together to deliver a building faster, cheaper and with higher quality.