Manufacturing Innovation

Dallas manufacturing Foremen Randy Mox and Chris Noel.

Prefab Pump Skids Save Time, On-Site Labor for Data Center Project

With a tight deadline on a high-priority data center, the Arizona Special Projects team planned early with the customer and owner to design and prefabricate key cooling system pieces. The successful endeavor is a sizable step for TD to serve its customers by advancing its productization and design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) goals.

Customer benefits of advancements in construction technology include cost and schedule certainty, product quality and reduced on-site duration. In this example, four pump skids that combine mechanical equipment and piping into a single system were prefabricated in TD’s state-of-the-art manufacturing shop.

Arizona Project Manager Beau Wright listed the customer benefits for this project:

* The prefabricated skids reduce crane and installation time needed in the project schedule

*The steel skid structure saves time and potential material shortage delays on building supports in the field to mount the pipe

*On-site labor and material savings

*Quality assurance with building in prefab shop space

Arizona VDC Manager Bob Wright started the design process with a Stratus drawing to clarify the scope. Manufacturing Product Manager Dan Walker’s team engaged a local steel fabricator for the skid design, which the VDC team incorporated into the final digital design. Pipe Shop Foreman Randy Mox’s team built the four skids directly from the digital 3D model with three simple tie-ins for the on-site team to complete.

Walker says that the collaboration is an important step for TD toward Design for Manufacture (DfM) and productization. “This is how we would like to package modules going forward,” he says. “We’re incorporating more equipment in an integrated structure that allows for easy transport and a simple connection for the on-site team. This project demonstrates that it can be done here.”

Advancing construction technology for mechanical contracting requires vital changes in the design and manufacturing mindset, including:

1. Shifting the planning, design and decision-making on mechanical scope closer to the owner and the start of the project.

2. Developing the right product solutions that are useful and compatible for many projects and then locking down or freezing that scope.

“Our general contractor customers and the owner on this site have always been impressed with TD’s innovation, quality and ability to meet deadlines,” says Arizona Special Projects Vice President Chris Brown. “Our shop and Partners (TD employees) in the field have done some amazing things on this site, completing many technically complex projects with very aggressive schedules. The success of this effort across TD is a testament to planning, communication, innovative digital prefabrication processes and teamwork.”