CASE STUDY

CATEGORY: Residential Construction

LOCATION: Sydney, New South Wales

PRODUCT: TRUECORE® steel

BlueScope assists MBS to build for the futureModular Building Systems (MBS) is an Australian owned company specialising in the manufacture of prefabricated modular buildings that operates from a 9000 square metre factory in Smithfield in western Sydney.

Manufactured in an integrated and controlled environment with frames engineered with superior quality Australian-made TRUECORE® steel from BlueScope, these prefabricated modular buildings are designed to offer flexibility, and a lower cost alternative to traditional construction methods.

According to MBS CEO David Wright, while BlueScope’s TRUECORE® steel is always of a superior and constant quality, for its part, the mining industry has seen its fair share of ups and downs in recent years.

“Over the past few years, we’ve completed major works for the mining industry supplying accommodation, known as ‘dongers’, for Fly-in-Fly-out (FiFo) miners,” said Wright.

Modular Building Systems

Phone: 1800 010 247 www.sheetmetalsupplies.com.auThis case study has been prepared for information purposes only. BlueScope makes no representation or warranty as to the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in this document. You must make your own assessment of the information contained in this document and rely on it wholly at your own risk. Published by BlueScope Steel Limited. ® are registered trade marks of BlueScope Steel Limited. ™ are trade marks of BlueScope Steel Limited. © 2015 BlueScope Steel Limited ABN 16 000 011 058.

“These ‘dongers’ are 15m x 3.5m portable buildings that are divided into four separate accommodation units.”

Now, as mining industry demand has started to wind down, MBS is increasingly looking at supplying other sectors with its modular building technology.

Since MBS has internal design and manufacturing capabilities enabling it to deliver whichever shape or configuration customers require, the company is expanding its business model and delivering modular buildings to the education, healthcare, government, domestic and sports sectors.

In terms of the actual material specifications, BlueScope supplies 550 Grade High Tensile 0.75mm TRUECORE® steel in widths ranging from 170mm to 200mm.

“We buy the slit TRUECORE® steel and then roll form it into stud sections here in the factory. We have a 3-Frame CAD machine to fabricate the TRUECORE® steel into walls, floors and ceiling frames for all of our modular buildings,” said Wright.

“The TRUECORE® steel is perfect for this application – it is high quality, high grade and easy to work with, and allows us to manufacture just about any configuration of building required, with one of our recent buildings reaching 90m in length.”

“BlueScope also assists us with flexible business terms; the introduction of consignment stock enables us to have stock on hand, yet lowers our expenditure so we only pay for what we have used for the month,” said Wright.

“When you are talking about our current volumes of TRUECORE® steel, that allows us to find real cost savings that we can put straight back into our business.”

Along with that, Wright said BlueScope is also assisting in expanding his business into the area of frames and trusses for the residential housing sector.

With advanced in-house training and technical advice from BlueScope, gaining extra market share is now possible.

According to Bluescope Account Manager Vilash Reddy, the Australian steel supplier has helped MBS in a variety of ways.

“We recently completed a Steel Efficiency Review™ (SER) and found we could be of assistance to MBS in both their current usage of TRUECORE® steel, as well as for their future growth.”

“Firstly, we have synchronised our deliveries with their production schedules even though they can’t always predict exactly what they will be doing months down the track, we have ensured that our deliveries to them are always spot on-time.”

“We have also helped MBS with their cash flow by putting them onto a consignment stock system, whereby they only pay for material as they use it, which they greatly appreciate since the mining downturn has cut down on some of their traditional markets.”

“Lastly, with the help of our Customer Service Manager, – Walter Suber, who is also a trained metallurgist, we have been able to assist MBS with any technical enquiries and future developments in-house,” said Vilash.

“BlueScope’s expertise in helping us identify new opportunities has been invaluable for our growth after the downturn in the mining sector,” said Wright.

“With an increasingly competitive market environment due to modular building imports from China, working with BlueScope helps us minimise our manufacturing costs, and allows us to deliver to our customers, on time and on budget.”

“I’m very impressed with BlueScope; they are a great company to partner with. They supply us with a superior steel product and in a way that is helping an Australian manufacturer such as ourselves prosper.”

“This type of close partnership is invaluable to MBS and its continued success,” concluded Wright.

More information at www.modularbuilding.com.au

I’m very impressed with BlueScope; they are a great company to partner with. They supply us with a superior steel product and in a way that is helping an Australian manufacturer such as ourselves prosper.