Opening Speech at DfMA Alliance Launching Ceremony and CITAC Technical Conference on Industrialisation

Event: DfMA Alliance Launching Ceremony and CITAC Technical Conference on Industrialisation
Date: 18 March 2019

Permanent Secretary for Development (Works), Ir LAM Sai-hung, Chairperson of the CIC Committee on Productivity, Ir Ringo YU, Chairman of the CITAC Board, Mr. Donald CHOI, Honourable Speakers, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon and welcome to the DfMA Alliance Launching Ceremony and the CITAC Technical Conference on Industrialisation.

The mission of CIC is very simple. We just want to make the Hong Kong construction industry better.

As the Chairman of the CIC, I hate to say that we are organising this event, too late and too little.

On 2 March, a tragic accident happened at an URA site in Kwun Tong.  A plasterer, father of 3, whilst working on a bamboo scaffolding platform on the 8th floor of a building, was hit by a piece of timber plank falling from nowhere above him. He lost his balance, fell to the 6th floor and became the 3rd victim this year. 189 people lost their lives in construction accidents since January 2009.

Quality is another issue which has caused casualty to many of the prominent members of our industry.

I can go on and on with all the problems that you know so well. The root cause of all the problems is, we have allowed too many construction activities happening on site, there are too many workers working on site. It is the nature of construction that working stations are widely dispersed, making it difficult to be managed and supervised.

The best cure is to minimise on-site activities as much as possible, especially working at height, and minimise the number of on-site workers, as much as possible.

Industrialisation and DfMA is the obvious choice. Moving on-site operations, as much as possible to factories, where the working condition is much more manageable, more amenable to modern technologies, e.g. robots, automation and surveillance, etc.

The benefits of DfMA are very obvious. The major issue is how to implement it. We are changing a culture, a system, a practice that has been going on for ages. We collectively are reforming the industry.

The CIC is much encouraged by the strong response to our appeal for the setting up of the DfMA Alliance to unite interested parties, to share knowledge, share experience and share information on adopting DfMA in construction. It is a very good start of a long but meaningful journey.

The CIC, particularly the Committee on Productivity, led by Engineer Ringo YU, and the CITAC, led by Architect Donald CHOI are very willing to work together with the industry to develop a system that is conducive to a safer, more productive and more sustainable construction industry with better quality production.

We have today, assembled a very strong team of experts from Singapore, United Kingdom and Hong Kong on DfMA.  Dr. John KEUNG, Ir Conrad WONG, Mr WALLER, Mr. BRYDEN, Mr. CLUCAS and Mr. HALL, thank you very much for joining us, to allow us to share your valuable experience.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish you all a very productive conference and technical workshop, and look forward to seeing you again in future DfMA activities.

Thank you.

Mr. CHAN Ka-kui
Chairman, Construction Industry Council