Home > Inno@Chun Wo > Knowledge Hub >

Intelligent Engineering Solution

 

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA)

 

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) is an indispensable part of MiC. It is a design approach which focuses on greater ease of manufacturing and efficiency in assembly. In recent years, the construction industry of Hong Kong has begun to adopt DfMA for off-site pre-fabrication of MiC modular flats and components, such as kitchen and toilet modules. By simplifying the design, it is possible to manufacture and assemble various modules and components more efficiently.

There are two major elements to make DfMA a success – Design for Manufacture and Design for Assembly.

Design for Manufacture – this is performed off-site. Products are designed in such a way that they can be manufactured off-site with ease in a factory environment. Design thoughts were given to maximising the potentials of standardization and modularization of components.

Design for Assembly – this is performed on-site. Products are designed to ensure that their components can be assembled and installed on-site easily. Design thoughts on this should include easy handling and assembly on site.

The Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is constantly enhancing its capacity to cater for growing demand, the Airport Authority has ordered to carry out revamp of public toilets. To diminish nuisance to the airport application and minimize duration of construction activities on site, a DfMA construction approach was adopted.

The Works include design and build the toilets and nursing rooms include interior design revamp, capacity and ventilation enhancement of over hundreds of public toilets and related facilities in Terminal 1, Limousine Lounge and the North Satellite Concourse.

In this project, Building Information Modeling (BIM) was used to facilitate the collaborations among all parties throughout the design, construction and handover for operation. All existing elements such as structures, builder’s works, and building services systems are incorporated into the BIM models for fine-tuning the dimension or position of the toilet fit-out works and the associated building services systems to avoid conflict between new and old elements.

By using DfMA, most of the products are manufactured off-site in a factory and delivered to the site for assembly, which significantly improves the quality and efficiency of works.

 


Full Precast Concrete Construction

 

The Greenhill Villa is the first precast concrete building in Hong Kong comprising three tower blocks of 36, 34 and 32-storeys, a podium and two lower ground floors. With early implementation of BIM technology the team identified and avoided clashes to reduce wastage of materials and mitigate the risk of external wall tiles spalling. Prefabricated components included structural and non-structural external walls, stairs, refuse chutes, partition walls, parapet walls, semi-prefabricated floor slabs and balconies.