FABBRICA INTELLIGENTE

Rivoluzione della costruzione di case, gestita da Siemens

Di: Mikael Hedberg, Fondatore e CEO, ADMARES

Nota redazionale: Questo post ospite di Mikael Hedberg—basato sulla sua recente apparizione su Podcast Optimistic Outlook—evidenzia come le tecnologie Siemens stiano trasformando le capacità dei nostri clienti per guidare l'innovazione e cambiare completamente i loro settori.

L'umanità affronta un problema abitativo globale: Secondo l'ONU, 1,6 miliardi di persone nel mondo non hanno accesso a un alloggio a prezzi accessibili, e questo numero potrebbe salire a 3 miliardi entro il 2030. Nulla sta davvero colmando il divario.

In definitiva, tempo, costo e qualità della costruzione di una casa possono essere molto difficili da controllare. Inoltre, i progetti sono altamente esposti a rischi esterni, come il meteo, che non possono essere gestiti.

Il mio background è nella costruzione navale, risalente ai primi anni '90. Una cosa che la costruzione navale mi ha insegnato è come massimizzare la produzione fuori sede con soluzioni modulari che possono essere consegnate a un cantiere navale per l'assemblaggio. Le navi sono come città galleggianti, e l'industria ha imparato presto come industrializzare la complessità a un costo competitivo.

Dieci anni fa, quando ho fondato una nuova azienda chiamata ADMARES, entrando nel settore globale dei progetti di costruzione terrestre, ho rapidamente notato un grande contrasto con la costruzione navale: la costruzione è frammentata, con innumerevoli attori coinvolti in ogni progetto. La maggior parte del lavoro viene svolta a mano, facendo affidamento su manodopera edile qualificata che può essere difficile da controllare per qualità e disponibilità. Inoltre, il costo della costruzione continua a salire.

Questi fattori hanno plasmato la missione di ADMARES: eliminare completamente il cantiere costruendo case attraverso la produzione in fabbrica e il nostro impegno per la digitalizzazione. Il nostro obiettivo è migliorare la disponibilità di alloggi e l'esperienza abitativa, non solo cambiare il modo in cui le case vengono costruite. La mia azienda ha investito nello sviluppo di una tecnologia che rende questo possibile, in modo che l'unica cosa costruita in loco siano le fondamenta dell'edificio.

La scoperta: tempo di attesa di 22,5 minuti per unità immobiliare

Quando ho iniziato a concepire ADMARES, ho capito che il grande problema nell'edilizia è che è l'ultima industria a costruire le cose a mano. Costruire a mano richiede manodopera edile competente, eppure il settore affronta una continua diminuzione di quella manodopera competente. I giovani non entrano nel settore delle costruzioni mentre tutte le persone con competenza vanno in pensione. Questa enorme carenza di manodopera nel settore delle costruzioni, proprio nel momento in cui abbiamo bisogno di case più accessibili, continua a far aumentare il costo delle costruzioni.

Il primo grande passo per ADMARES è stato progettare una fabbrica per produrre case modulari, ma al momento in cui stavo organizzando l'azienda, l'expertise per tale produzione non esisteva nell'industria delle costruzioni. L'automazione e la robotizzazione non facevano parte del DNA di quell'industria. Nel 2018 ADMARES si è rivolta a Porsche Consulting, progettisti del cantiere navale più avanzato al mondo in Germania, che produce navi da crociera interamente al coperto su una linea di assemblaggio, per aiutarci a progettare il primo concetto di fabbrica intelligente per la costruzione di case.

Nel 2019, MHP–A Porsche Company ci ha aiutato a costruire l'architettura di digitalizzazione nella nostra fabbrica, e successivamente abbiamo introdotto varie tecnologie Siemens. Entro il 2022, ADMARES aveva firmato una partnership strategica con Siemens e, entro il 2023, ADMARES aveva allestito tutte e 26 le linee di produzione e i sistemi logistici all'interno della fabbrica: una fabbrica intelligente greenfield, automatizzata e digitale.

The breakthrough: Take time of 22.5 minutes per building unit

As I began to conceive of ADMARES, I realized that the big problem in construction is that it's the last industry building things by hand. Building by hand requires skilled construction labor, and yet the industry faces a continuous decrease in that skilled labor. Young people are not going into construction while all the skilled people are retiring. This massive shortage of construction labor at the same time we need more affordable homes continually drives up the cost of construction.

The first big step for ADMARES was to design a factory to produce modular homes, but at the time I was first organizing the company, the expertise for such production did not exist in the construction industry. Automation and robotization were not part of that industry’s DNA. In 2018 ADMARES turned to Porsche Consulting, designers of the world’s most advanced shipyard in Germany, producing cruise ships entirely indoors on an assembly line, to help us design the first smart-factory concept for home building.

In 2019, MHP–A Porsche Company helped us build the digitalization architecture in our factory, and we then introduced various Siemens technologies. By 2022, ADMARES had signed a strategic partnership with Siemens, and by 2023, ADMARES had all 26 production lines and logistics systems set up within the factory—a digital-first, automated, greenfield smart factory, making ADMARES a Digital Enterprise.

Siemens enables detailed Digital Twin visualizations of homes, including HVAC systems, so that ADMARES can design and validate modular house parts before any production occurs.

A quantum leap: How a small company can scale through digitalization and Industrial AI

The standard software used in today’s construction industry is not detailed enough to generate the data and designs required for automated, robotized production. In deploying all three Siemens technologies at once—automation solutions, Digital Twins, and industrial AI—ADMARES has achieved what I call a “quantum leap,” because in essence we have moved through both the Industrial Revolution and the AI revolution at the same time.

These three technologies have enabled ADMARES to turn affordable homes into products instead of construction projects. By moving from project-based construction to product-based manufacturing and combining our product technology with Siemens solutions we can now industrialize, productize, and digitize home production, achieving new levels of efficiency, precision, and innovation.

This automation brings a major advantage: our production can be deployed anywhere in the world, immediately delivering cost and scalability advantages. In our smart factory, all skilled tasks—welding, cutting, clamping, tiling, carpentry, and more—are performed by 141 robots across the 26 production lines. The modular homes are created using assembly line operators who can be trained in a matter of days, an approach requiring 95-percent fewer workers than traditional construction sites. The result: faster, safer, more efficient homebuilding resulting in high-quality, low-cost homes at scale using local raw materials and local labor, without the need for skilled construction workers or the traditional construction site that is typically full of uncontrollable variables and noise pollution.

From a compact 65m² starter home to a spacious 450m² multi-bedroom family residence, Admares offers fully finished, modular homes built with premium materials and delivered at scale.

By moving from project-based construction to product-based manufacturing and combining our product technology with Siemens solutions we can now industrialize, productize, and digitize home production, achieving new levels of efficiency, precision, and innovation.

Mikael Hedberg, Founder and CEO, ADMARES

And we’re bringing these technologies to the next level. This is a very powerful tool if we need to change the product or the production. For example, if we change the home to have four windows instead of three windows, we know in a fraction of second what the cost implication is. We also know if the change will affect productivity; i.e., do we have enough capacity in the window factory to produce a fourth window without causing a bottleneck? It’s mind-blowing what we can do with the tech.

As Eryn Devola, Head of Sustainability, Siemens Digital Industries, has said, “The work that ADMARES is doing is a compelling example of how Siemens technology enables entirely new business models to emerge. . .This is the kind of industry reinvention Siemens Xcelerator was designed to make possible.”

The future is now: Digitally connected, sustainable smart homes

And Siemens tech doesn’t stop there: Because we produce homes just like products in a factory, we can integrate our smart-home software and sensors directly during manufacturing. This represents another major leap forward, as today’s homes are typically not digitally connected, so we lack complete data on how they operate, what they consume, or if there are operational problems.

The ADMARES Smart Home platform is powered by Industrial Edge from Siemens that is installed in each home. Through this system, we monitor energy and water consumption, detect leaks, track air quality, and connect all appliances, HVAC systems, and lighting to a single, user-friendly platform that can be controlled via smartphone or in-home touchscreens.

One of the biggest remaining opportunities for digitization is our homes. Given that we spend more than 50 percent of our time inside them, this is a critical space to understand and optimize. Because we produce homes as manufactured products, we can finally realize this potential. Massive amounts of operational data can now be collected, providing unprecedented insights that enable continuous improvements in home quality, efficiency, and performance worldwide.

Shifting the entire home building process to the factory relies on industrial automation, digital planning and modular series production.

The construction industry, which consumes around 40 percent of the world’s raw materials along with significant amounts of water and energy, is also one of the largest producers of CO₂ emissions. But our approach at ADMARES can transform it into an advanced manufacturing process with a dramatically lower environmental footprint. Our factory is using solar energy for production, reducing CO₂ emissions by 75 percent compared to traditional construction. Producing components to exact specifications in the factory also generates 80-percent less waste compared to traditional construction methods, because with simulations by Digital Twin there is little-to-no waste of materials.

In addition, traditional transportation needs are cut by more than 95 percent, as fully assembled homes are delivered directly on site rather than requiring numerous small daily deliveries. The necessary raw materials for production are consolidated and optimized before reaching the factory, further minimizing environmental impact and inefficiencies.

Sometimes we need to think outside the box: take an old-fashioned industry and bring it up to the digital level and the tools available through AI. We’re soon going to be doing this in Australia, as ADMARES is creating our first Australian smart factory in South-East Queensland, where we’re investing hundreds of millions and generating potentially 3,200 new jobs. We’ll put all our digital-twin and automation technology in motion here, as we continue to search for ways to innovate with productized home building for greater impact on affordable housing.

Published: January 29, 2026

Simulation plays a key role for Admares, especially in balancing cycle times, logistics and layout decisions.