How does Laing O’Rourke’s precast concrete manufacturing facility rise to one of the main MMC challenges, namely storing and locating bespoke sections? A new video reveals all.
Laing O’Rourke’s Explore Manufacturing facility produces bespoke precast concrete sections as fast as it can, but not as fast as construction sites can install them. Thus, for any order, Explore needs to build up a stock of sections ahead of the first delivery to site.
In the video, Explore digital lead James Turner notes: “At the moment, we’ve got over 4,000 units of concrete out in the yard. One thing that’s unique about Explore is pretty much every unit is specific. You can’t just say, ‘we can’t find that unit, we’ll use a different one’, because the geometry of those units and the structural requirements of those are very specific for the element they’re designed for. We absolutely have to find that individual unit.”
And thus Explore is using Converge FieldAtlas sensors to track the location of the sections it produces. The sensors allow the yard team to locate a section within a 5m-10m radius. The Converge sensors are not only used in the Explore yard, but also at the yeard’s exit and at the entrance of the projects the sections are delivered to.
Watch the video below to see the technology and process in action.
