FABRICĂ INTELIGENTĂ

Revoluționarea construcției de locuințe, powered by Siemens

By: Mikael Hedberg, Fondator si CEO, ADMARES

Acest articol invitat, semnat de Mikael Hedberg—bazat pe apariția sa recentă în podcastul „Optimistic Outlook”— evidențiază modul în care tehnologiile Siemens transformă capacitățile clienților noștri de a stimula inovația și de a-și schimba complet industriile.

Omenirea se confruntă cu o problemă globală a locuințelor: Potrivit ONU, 1,6 miliarde de oameni din întreaga lume nu au locuințe accesibile, iar acest lucru ar putea crește la 3 miliarde până în 2030. Nimic nu reduce cu adevărat decalajul.

În cele din urmă, timpul, costul și calitatea construcției casei pot fi foarte dificil de controlat. În plus, proiectele sunt foarte expuse riscurilor externe, cum ar fi vremea, care nu pot fi gestionate.

Experiența mea este în construcția navală, datând de la începutul anilor 1990. Un lucru pe care m-a învățat construcția navală este cum să maximizez producția off-site cu soluții modulare care pot fi livrate la un șantier naval pentru asamblare. Navele sunt ca orașele plutitoare, iar industria a învățat devreme cum să industrializeze complexitatea la un cost competitiv.

Acum zece ani, când am fondat o nouă companie numită ADMARES, într-o mutare către proiecte globale de construcții terestre, am observat rapid un contrast major cu construcția navală: Construcția este fragmentată, cu nenumărați jucători în fiecare proiect. Majoritatea lucrărilor se fac manual, bazându-se pe forță de muncă calificată în construcții, care poate fi greu de controlat pentru calitate și disponibilitate. În plus, costul construcției continuă să crească.

Acești factori au modelat misiunea ADMARES: eliminarea completă a șantierului prin producerea locuințelor prin producția din fabrică și angajamentul nostru față de digitalizare. Scopul nostru este să îmbunătățim disponibilitatea locuințelor și experiența de viață, nu doar să schimbăm modul în care sunt construite casele. Compania mea a investit în dezvoltarea tehnologiei care face acest lucru posibil, astfel încât singurul lucru care este construit la fața locului este fundația clădirii.

Descoperire: Timp de 22,5 minute per unitate de construcție.

Pe măsură ce am început să concep ADMARES, mi-am dat seama că marea problemă în construcții este că este ultima industrie care construiește lucrurile manual. Construcția manuală necesită forță de muncă calificată în construcții și totuși industria se confruntă cu o scădere continuă a forței de muncă calificate. Tinerii nu intră în construcții în timp ce toți oamenii calificați se pensionează. Această lipsă masivă de forță de muncă în construcții, în același timp, avem nevoie de case mai accesibile, crește continuu costul construcției.

Primul pas important pentru ADMARES a fost proiectarea unei fabrici care să producă case modulare, dar la momentul în care organizam prima dată compania, expertiza pentru o astfel de producție nu exista în industria construcțiilor. Automatizarea și robotizarea nu au făcut parte din ADN-ul acelei industrii. În 2018, ADMARES a apelat la Porsche Consulting, proiectanții celui mai avansat șantier naval din lume din Germania, producând nave de croazieră în întregime în interior pe o linie de asamblare, pentru a ne ajuta să proiectăm primul concept de fabrică inteligentă pentru construcția de locuințe.

În 2019, MHP — O companie Porsche ne-a ajutat să construim arhitectura de digitalizare în fabrica noastră și apoi am introdus diverse tehnologii Siemens. Până în 2022, ADMARES a semnat un parteneriat strategic cu Siemens, iar până în 2023, ADMARES avea toate cele 26 de linii de producție și sisteme logistice instalate în cadrul fabricii - o fabrică inteligentă digitală, automatizată, pe teren verde.

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.