Wood & Panel is thrilled to have an insightful conversation with Dr. Stefan Bockel, responsible for Product Management at Weinmann Holzbausystemtechnik GmbH in Germany. He shared his view on prefabrication and automation in the global timber construction industry. WEINMANN – Solutions for timber construction (homag.com). Excerpts.
WPE: What do you perceive as the main advantages of using Weinmann technology and services?
Dr. Stefan Bockel: The main advantage of WEINMANN is that we can provide holistic solutions for craft customers up to large and highly industrialised manufactures in the timber construction industry.
Another great advantage is that our solutions are very flexible and modular. In particular this means that our customers can choose a solution according to their own product portfolio and growth planning. Each solution can be equipped with further automation steps in the future to ensure that our customers can grow equally with our solutions.
Next to our wide solution portfolio in technology, we also provide our customers with excellent services. Beside our classic LifeCycleServices, a strong focus lays on our WEINMANN Academy, where we make sure that our customers obtain the best qualification level of their production planners, machine operators and maintenance staff to work efficient with our technology.
WPE: Have you witnessed any cost savings or time efficiencies as a result of prefarbrication in wood construction projects?
Dr. Stefan Bockel: Our technology leads to a significant increase in production output, cost savings in material, and an increase in product quality. Our customers regularly report that they were able to increase production output by e.g., 30% with the same team that they employed before entering the next technology level with WEINMANN. Besides cost savings due to higher productivity, the compensation of the lack of skilled workforce plays a large argument when considering our technology.
WPE: How does the quality of prefabricated wood products compare to traditional on-site construction methods?
Dr. Stefan Bockel: Manufacturing on-site has a long tradition in many markets. Within the growing lack of workforce, more and more companies shift their production towards prefabrication and automation inside production halls. This helps companies to be more productive as well as to fabricate in a pleasant work environment independent of the weather. Furthermore, companies can control and improve their own processes as well as the product quality and compensate for the lack of workforce by implementing modern CNC-technology, robots as well as digital assistance.
Finally, precisely planned and produced elements for timber construction also help traditional timber framing to further develop in more complex constructions and architecture.
WPE: In your opinion, what environmental benefits does prefabrication offer in the wood industry?
Dr. Stefan Bockel: The construction industry emits a large part of global CO2-Emissions. On the other hand, a growing population is demanding affordable and sustainable living. Both targets can mainly be met with timber constructions.
To enable timber construction on such a large scale, it is important to further roll out prefabrication and automation. Only by the implementation of technology, this amount of timber constructions can be realised in a great quantity & quality as well as for an affordable price. In addition, prefabrication and an early planning process bring cost-security even to large projects.
WPE: Where do you see the future of prefabrication in the wood industry heading?
Dr. Stefan Bockel: Prefabrication and automation in the timber construction industry are strongly on the rise and will gain further market shares in comparison with conventional building methods.
We see changing market segments in comparison with the last years and develop our technology accordingly. For these developments we try to stay close to the markets and our customers’ requirements. Next to typical single-family homes, more multi-family houses as well as modular constructions and projects in serial refurbishment are characterising the market at the moment.
As mentioned above, prefabrication and automation are the goals to achieve both sustainable as well as social targets. I’m confident that we can significantly contribute with a large share to current and future measurements in climate protection. We at WEINMANN have been leading this development since 1993 and are ready to further shape the construction industry of the future!