augsburg There are only a few industries with such great deficits in automation as the construction industry. Gerald Mies, head of the Systems automation division of the robot manufacturer Kuka, says: “In terms of automation, the construction industry is now roughly where the car manufacturers were 100 years ago.” Apartments and houses have long been able to be built much faster and cheaper in series. Because in principle there is hardly any difference between the modular construction of cars and buildings, says Mies.
The construction industry expects a boost in speed from modular construction and is considering how it can use this construction method more extensively. The federal government is also relying on building with prefabricated parts when it comes to its difficult-to-achieve goal of building 400,000 affordable apartments a year. “Serial and modular construction” is a key to the project, said Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
But there are still no real housing construction factories in Germany. “Although we have all the necessary technologies, they are only used outside of Germany so far,” says Kuka Systems CEO Mies. The German construction industry must be careful that others do not secure the market.
It’s a billion-dollar business worldwide. Kuka is so far the only provider that offers the necessary robots and automation solutions for a housing factory from a single source, and wants to secure its share in it.
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Modular house construction: standardized parts save time and money
According to the world association IFR, only a four-digit number of robots are currently in use in the construction industry. Market penetration was much slower than experts had expected in previous decades. However, this is changing precisely because the level of suffering in the industry has increased and the technical possibilities have improved through digital networking.
It has long been possible to mass-produce apartments and houses much more quickly and cheaply.
(Photo: James Newton)
One of the construction companies that is already working hard on modularization is Max Bögl. With Maxmodul, the family group has developed its own approach to modular residential construction. In particular, the company relies on a “digital twin” with the help of which planned buildings are simulated and the construction progress is continuously documented and monitored.
>> Also read: Shortage of skilled workers and energy crisis – medium-sized companies are showing increasing interest in robotic solutions
The digital image helps with the use and development of standardized assemblies. In the future, bridges, wind power towers and residential buildings will have to be assembled from more standardized parts and only later individualized for specific projects, says CEO Stefan Bögl. This saves time and money.
Kuka has already received orders from abroad to equip construction factories and is involved in a project in the Arab world. The modules, for example based on wood or steel, are largely erected by robots and can already be delivered with carpets and kitchen equipment.
They then only have to be assembled on site and water, energy and telecommunications have to be connected. One day can do that. “The construction time is reduced from 16 to six months, with 25 percent lower costs,” says Mies.
No optical differences in the houses
Visually, the houses and apartments do not differ from classic buildings. For historical reasons, there are still reservations in this country, says CEO Mies: “A lot of people think of prefabricated buildings.” But there is plenty of scope for design. The buildings would have the advantage of high accuracy. “That’s where the chipboard sits with millimeter precision.” Since there is a digital image, it’s also easier to make subsequent changes.
Kuka manager Gerald Mies says: “In terms of automation, the construction industry is now roughly where the car manufacturers were 100 years ago.”
(Photo: dpa)
So far there is no one in Germany who wants to run a construction factory. There has been comparatively little pressure to change in the construction industry in recent decades.
While many other sectors have become significantly more productive thanks to digital technologies, the construction industry has lagged behind with annual productivity growth of only around one percent over the past two decades, said Jan Mischke, partner at McKinsey.
But that is changing for a number of reasons: construction costs have risen sharply, forcing companies to be more efficient. The situation is exacerbated by rising interest rates.
In addition, the shortage of skilled workers has affected the construction. According to a study by 3Gem Global Market Research on behalf of the robot manufacturer ABB, 91 percent of construction companies in Europe, the USA and China expect a shortage of skilled workers in the next ten years. 81 percent of the 1,900 companies surveyed therefore want to focus more on robotics and automation.
>> Also read: Robots build robots – ABB opens state-of-the-art factory in China
Accordingly, a number of corporations have discovered the topic for themselves. There are solutions that go in the direction of modularization and robots that are to be used on construction sites.
ABB robots are used, for example, in the automated production of wooden roof supports in Canada and in the robot-assisted installation of elevators by the Swiss manufacturer Schindler.
Construction costs have risen sharply, which is forcing companies to be more efficient.
(Photo: Vonovia/ Juergen Maennel)
The dowel specialist Fischer, together with the Viennese start-up Baubot, has developed a robot that can place as many dowels as five construction workers in the same time. Future models should also be able to produce concrete parts on site using 3D printing.
Additive manufacturing with 3D printing is a big topic in the industry. The Bavarian construction supplier Peri has acquired a stake in the Danish 3D printer start-up Cobod. The machine that resulted from the cooperation has already built houses in Germany with a kind of concrete 3D printing.
In the process, a large print head buzzes up row by row and piles up the shell. According to a study by the TU Dresden, 3D printing could reduce the prices for the shell by 35 percent.
The processes on the construction site are also being increasingly optimized with the help of digitization. Corrux has developed a software platform with which people, machines and processes on construction sites can be networked via a central interface. Last year, the Munich start-up was taken over by the Austrian proptech company Gropyus.
The construction supplier Peri has acquired a stake in the Danish 3D printer start-up Cobod. The machine that resulted from the cooperation has built houses in Germany with a kind of concrete 3D printing.
(Photo: Peri)
The construction segment could become more than just a niche for the automation industry. Kuka Systems, for example, has so far mainly equipped car manufacturers with automation solutions – and is now looking for other pillars. “We want to expand our core competencies to the entire market,” says Mies. One focus is the new battery factories, the construction industry could become an even larger segment.
After the takeover by the Chinese Midea, Kuka went through difficult years – also because the Augsburg group lost its innovative strength. In the meantime, however, the company has brought a number of new models onto the market and gained a foothold again. In the first nine months of this year, sales increased by 17 percent to 2.8 billion euros. The operating result improved slightly to 81 million euros.
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