You are about to hand your project to a factory you cannot assess.
Choosing a modular manufacturer is the highest-consequence decision on a modular project, and a plant tour, a reference call and a price will not tell you whether that plant can hold your schedule. We assess manufacturers the way we assess plants for the people who own them — capacity against your programme, quality systems against your specification, financial position, and whether the production slot quoted is real. Selection takes about six weeks; oversight runs through production.
Is this you?
- You have three manufacturer quotes and no way to compare them beyond price and a delivery date.
- The plant tour was impressive, but you have no idea what you were actually looking at.
- Your programme depends on a production slot the factory has committed to but not evidenced.
- You are being asked to pay deposits against modules that do not exist yet, in a building you do not control.
- The last modular project did not go the way the brochure suggested, and nobody can quite say why.
- Your lender is asking questions about the manufacturer that you cannot answer.
We assess manufacturers the way we assess plants for the people who own them.
That is the other half of our practice. We spend our weeks inside modular factories — modeling production lines, rebalancing stations, designing quality gates and rebuilding scheduling logic for the manufacturers themselves. When we walk a plant on your behalf, we are not taking a tour. We are reading the same things we would read if you had hired us to fix it.
Before you commit
Production capacity tested against your programme, not against their brochure. Quality systems reviewed against your specification. Financial stability. Certification and code compliance for your jurisdiction. Schedule credibility — whether the slot they have quoted is real, and what happens to it if the project ahead of yours runs late.
After you commit
We stay. Regular factory visits monitoring build quality, progress against the production schedule and conformance to the approved drawings. Shop drawing and submittal review. Pre-shipment inspection and release.
The point is simple: the first time you see a problem should not be the day the modules arrive on site.
Deliverables — selection phase
- Manufacturer long list with assessed capability, not marketing claims
- Plant assessment report for each shortlisted candidate — capacity, quality systems, certification, financial position
- Capacity and schedule verification against your programme
- Comparative evaluation matrix with a recommendation and the reasoning behind it
- Input to contract terms — production milestones, inspection rights, remedies
Deliverables — oversight phase
- Shop drawing and submittal review
- Scheduled factory visit reports covering quality, progress and conformance
- Production progress reporting against the agreed programme
- Non-conformance identification and resolution tracking
- Pre-shipment inspection and release sign-off
- Delivery sequencing and site readiness coordination
Typical engagement
Define the requirement — 1 week
What the project actually needs from a manufacturer.
Long list and screen — 1 week
Most fall out here, for reasons we will show you.
Assess the shortlist — 3 weeks
Plant visits, production data, quality systems, financial position, reference checks.
Recommend — 1 week
A comparative matrix and the terms worth negotiating before you sign.
Oversee — duration of production
Factory visits, progress reporting, submittal review, pre-shipment release.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I just assess the manufacturer myself?
You can assess what is visible — the building, the people, the finished product. What is hard without production experience is judging whether the line can hold the rate quoted, whether the quality system catches defects before they are built into your modules, and whether the capacity promised is already committed elsewhere. Those determine whether your schedule holds.
Isn't this the general contractor's job?
Sometimes, and a contractor with genuine modular experience often handles it well. But in many projects the manufacturer is contracted directly by the developer, the contractor's scope starts at the site, and nobody owns the factory. That gap is where schedule and quality problems originate.
What if I have already chosen a manufacturer?
Then the oversight scope is the relevant one. It can start at any point before or during production, though earlier is better — shop drawing review is considerably cheaper than discovering an issue at pre-shipment inspection.
Do you have relationships with particular manufacturers?
We work with manufacturers across North America, and we advise some of them directly. Where that creates a conflict on your project, we disclose it before the engagement starts and you decide how to proceed. We are not paid by manufacturers for referrals.
How often do you visit the factory?
It depends on production duration and module complexity, and it is agreed in the scope. A typical programme has visits at first article, at defined production milestones, and at pre-shipment — with additional visits if non-conformances need resolving.
What does this cost relative to the project?
A small fraction of the manufacturing contract, and materially less than one month of schedule slip on a project of any scale. You get a fixed scope and fee before committing.
Choosing a manufacturer this quarter?
Thirty minutes. Tell us about the project and we will tell you what we would check first, and what we would want in the contract.