How to reduce the cost of housing construction?

Disruptive Technology - Produce the Model T of Housing



The inefficiencies of moulding a brick or block in a mould then tasking an artisan to lay them. Then chase the walls for water and electrical services. Then relying on another artisan to plaster the walls. Depending on the skills and ability of artisans to produce a house vs. casting a house in a mould employing unskilled workers – eliminating the need to chase and plaster, in a day, at a known cost.

How to reduce the cost of housing construction

This we refer to as the moladi "injection moulding construction process". Future of Construction - World Economic Forum

Molding or Moulding Process:

moladi Construction Process - Video Link

Molding or moulding is the process of manufacturing by shaping liquid or pliable raw material using a rigid frame called a mold or matrix. This itself may have been made using a pattern, a model or formwork of the final object.

A mold or mould is a hollowed-out block (cavity) that is filled with a liquid or pliable material such as plastic, glass, metal, ceramic raw material or mortar (sand and cement). The liquid hardens or sets inside the mold, adopting its shape. A mold is the counterpart to a cast.



Reduce the cost of housing construction

Hennie Botes CEO of moladi highlights the smooth of shutter finish of the classroom wall. The reusable modular lightweight plastic formwork (mold or mould) is removed the day after casting. 

No skilled labour
No need to plaster
No need to chase
 No beam filling
No waste

moladi - Reduce the cost of housing construction

Disruptive Innovation:

A disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology



Reduce the cost of housing construction

Modern building methods using modern building materials:

moladi Construction System aims to address the challenge by providing a scalable, low-tech and low-skilled affordable building solution using in-situ casting.

Founded in 1986 by South African social entrepreneur Hennie Botes, the company aims to replace the classic brick-and-mortar construction with an easier method: using a patented lightweight, removable and re-usable plastic injection moulded formwork system that is filled with fast setting aerated mortar to cast entire houses on-site. The process is deliberately designed to be labour intensive to boost local employment and local production without requiring prior construction experience or skills. The moladi construction process mostly uses local supplies apart from the reusable formwork and a special additive to aerate  the mortar (concrete without stone) to reduce the density, thereby enhancing the thermal properties of the structure. The other function of the additive is to water proof the wall and enhance the flow ability of the mortar within the formwork eliminating the need to vibrate.

Through creative engineering and sophisticated manufacturing, moladi aims to advance living standards and spaces affordably. moladi is an advanced building technology that utilises an innovative re-usable plastic formwork system to reduce the required skills to produce quality affordable homes and other structures that are socially acceptable by speeding up delivery and thus
reducing cost. By emulating the methodology of the automotive assembly line, moladi implements the principles applied by Henry Ford; reducing cost by increasing production output by de-skilling the production operation, making homes affordable.

The advantage that moladi brings to the “production process” is that the process can measured and maintained, ensuring consistent speed and quality within budget.

Conventional brick and mortar construction:

• How many bricks or blocks are laid per day?
• Are the quantity of bricks or blocks laid per day the same for every day of the week?
• What happens when the bricklayer does not come to work?
• Is the dagha (mortar) mix to lay the bricks or blocks consistent?
• How many bricks or blocks are wasted or broken or stolen?
• Are walls straight plumb and square?
• How long to chase for electricity piping?
• How long to chase for water piping?
• How long does it take to do beam filling?
• How long does it take to plaster window reveals?
• Is plaster thickness consistent or does it vary?
• Is the plaster mix consistent?
• Any rework?
• Rubble to clear?

This leads to the question: Are the inefficiencies of the brick and mortar construction process making homes unaffordable for most?

“If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.” - Peter Drucker

By applying moladi the above variables are excluded from the equation.

moladi Construction Process:

• Erecting the formwork is constant.
• No stays
• No propping
• No consumables
• Formwork holds a constant precise volume.
• Mortar a known cost.
• Mortar is a known consistent compressive strength.
• Reinforcing a known weight/cost.
• Time to position and bind reinforcing constant.
• Filling the formwork is consistent.
• Removing the formwork is constant.
• Labour is not skilled.

The above description is exactly the same cycle as the plastic injection moulding process. Therefore we refer to this process as the moladi Injection Moulded Construction System - Disrupting the mould - Disrupting the mould

Injection Moulding Process:

Mould closes – Material injected – Cools – Ejects the finished component. A known cycle time at a known cost.

Speed reduces cost - A
“lean construction” principal.

Erect Formwork (Clamp) - Fill Formwork (Inject)  - Mortar Sets (Cools) - Remove Formwork (Eject)

Lean Construction - Lean Production:

One of the important principles under a lean production paradigm is termed ‘lean assembly’. This refers to simplifying the process of assembly through industrialisation, modularisations, standardisation, and continuous flow processes. The reduction of operations required for a production process means less chance of the occurrence of errors, waste and rework.

This follows from the same logic that the fewer the number of operations, the higher the quality of the product and a predictive timeline, resulting in cost savings. moladi formwork system provides and assists with the full range of requirements involved in the transfer and use of a proven low-cost construction technology. 

It all comes down to efficiency of producing a cost effective, socially acceptable wall for people (knock test), then fixing all the other components, like door, windows, roof, ceiling, bathroom fixtures etc., onto the "chassis" (the wall). So in reality, who can produce a wall on a stand the quickest, and millions of them? We simply use a cost per square meter of a wall (chassis) on a foundation (in position), ready for "assembly" as a yardstick of efficiency. This is method compares "Apples to Apples"?

Jobs Food through Shelter:

moladi supplies technology and supports transfer of know-how to empower individuals to achieve self-worth, by meaningful action to raise those at the “bottom of the pyramid” to a higher level, supplying a proven technology with an impressive track record (Est. 1986). This is how moladi can address the delivery of quality homes in less time, creating jobs by employing unskilled local labour - developing skills and entrepreneurs. 

moladi designed to create - Jobs for the unemployed - Food for the hungry - Shelter for the homeless

moladi - A Technology Supplier:

We skill entrepreneurs, contractors, business owners and construction companies how to “produce” using moladi construction technologies - “What if we told you the solution to the 25% national unemployment statistic (36 youth unemployment) and the million-plus housing backlog was already in our back yard? And what if we told you jobless, unskilled South Africans could become entrepreneurs in the house building sector and be able to build homes in their communities at a fraction of the cost and in less than a week? What would you say if we told you there is a company that is not only prepared to certify you, but to empower you too and give you a market, technology and the opportunity to grow personally and professionally?" - Link


moladi-jobs-food-shelter

References:

World Economic Forum - Future on Construction – World Bank

How Elon Musk and other pioneers (moladi) are shaking up the construction industry | World Economic Forum #WEF #Tesla #moladi

Reduce cost of construction

The $300 House Blog - Affordable Housing: Moladi's Hennie Botes on Innovation and Perseverance

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

"Injection molded Houses" implementing lightweight injection molded modular plastic formwork as a re-usable  "mould" to cast homes in-situ

Prevent shack fires from occurring and destroying people’s lives

The only structures, built as a show unit after the earthquake that struck in 2010, standing in the show village after Hurricane Matthew in 2017

Certification:
SABS | Agrément Certification |  NHBRC | Bank Approved (1993)

Awards:

2017 –World Economic Forum - Boston Consulting Group – Future of Construction – World Bank Project

2016 – Best of African Design - moladi showcased for a year at the Cube Museum in the Netherlands

2014 – Africa is Now - moladi displayed at Design Indaba Cape Town

2012 – moladi selected as a finalist of the international Frost & Sullivan Green Excellence Award for Sustainable Development.

2012 – International Case Study conducted by FSG and the Rockefeller Foundation - Shared Value in Emerging Markets.

2012 – Nominated by the Europe Business Assembly for the International Socrates Prize in economy and business category.

2012 – Co-operative Finalist with Kingston University in the international Hult Global Case Challenge in association with
the Clinton Global Initiative.

2011 – moladi selected by the Smithsonian Institute to exhibit technology in association with its Cooper Hewitt Museum at the UN Headquarters in New York.

2010 – International Case Study on moladi conducted by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) - Growing Inclusive Markets.

2010 – Hennie Botes, CEO of moladi, is awarded South Africa’s Science and Technologies best man by Men’s Health magazine.

2009 – moladi named winner of the Affordable Housing Competition held by Data Bank in Accra, Ghana.

2006 – Housing Innovation Award Winner of the ABSA Bank and NHBRC (National Home Builders Council) national competition in South
Africa.

2005 – Finalists in the TT100 (Top 100 Technology

Awards), South Africa.

1997 – Winner of the prestigious SABS - South African Bureau of Standards - Design for Development Award, South Africa.

1991 – Winner of the International PRW Award for Excellence – United Kingdom

For more information visit www.moladi.co.za or www.moladi.com or www.moladi.net

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