Raj Goel sums up the general mood about Circle’s Reading facility.

We can do things like automate routing of certain utilities, based on the properties of the Chips.And that enables us to try lots of different options in a short amount of time.

As mentioned, this is a key element of our Design to Value approach, as it enables us to get closer to an optimum solution..Unfortunately, we sometimes find ourselves in the conventional engineering situation of having to limit the number of options that we look at because we haven't got the time or the resources to look at too many.Clearly, it is fine to narrow down a set of options on a rational basis.

But if it's simply that we don't have time, we are at risk of staying away from the optimum solution.That means more cost and more time which, ultimately, is going to affect the patient who is at the end of that supply chain.

As a result, these are particularly important factors to consider in the design and construction of pharmaceutical facilities..

In summary, Chips allow us many different perspectives on parts of a project.But, with modular construction, it’s often the case that prefabricating comparatively simple parts of a building as 3D modules adds cost and complexity, especially if the required trades need to be present on-site anyway..

The problems found in modular construction are only compounded by inefficient factory working.The cost of any prefabricated component (indeed, any component of any building) can be divided into materials and labour.

If we ignore the cost of the labour that has gone into making the component, we only have material costs left, resulting in limited opportunities to add value.Manufacturers have understood this for decades and spent a great deal of effort developing highly productive assembly routines that enabled the mass production, automation and commoditisation that fuelled the consumer age.. Too often factories are treated as ‘construction sites in a shed' producing bespoke, custom components with overlapping trades and poor works sequencing, causing reduced value and the same inefficiencies that are often found on construction sites.