Advanced manufacturing is accelerating as producers seek productivity gains from new technologies and bring operations closer to home to mitigate geopolitical risk.

That shift is creating construction challenges, with tight programmes, major capital investment and large-scale technology to integrate. Against this backdrop, McLaughlin & Harvey outlined how collaboration across the supply chain helped deliver a complex installation for Etex.

Earlier this year, Etex expanded its Bristol facility in a €200 million (£170 million) project, the company's largest production investment to date, doubling capacity. The site has rapidly become Etex's most efficient plasterboard production line in Europe, enabling its Siniat brand to manufacture more than 98% of its board portfolio in one location.

Building an advanced manufacturing plant of this type brings complexity far beyond a conventional factory scheme. There is no single template. Before construction began, McLaughlin & Harvey participated in a series of workshops to shape the approach for the site's calcination plant and its associated technologies.

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The calcination plant, where gypsum slurry is processed into plasterboard, sits at the core of production. In line with Etex's Road to Sustainability 2030, the facility incorporates systems for rainwater harvesting and supports post-consumer gypsum recycling. Delivering this required close coordination with Etex, its technology and engineering partners, and other contractors, with the scale and intricacy of the equipment built into the design and programme from the outset. Lessons were also drawn from a smaller, comparable project at Ferrybridge completed in 2021.

Unlike a traditional sequence of frame, façade and fit-out, advanced equipment at Bristol had to be introduced at multiple stages because much of it was too large or complex to install after the envelope was complete. Starting in pre-construction in 2021, McLaughlin & Harvey worked with Etex's supply chain on 4D digital planning to model the build in phases.

This approach reduced hold points from 12 to 3, allowing engineering systems and machinery to be integrated at critical junctures rather than piecemeal, and trimmed the construction programme by 12 weeks. The savings relied on early and sustained collaboration.

A key differentiator was a willingness among all parties to set aside conventional assumptions and evaluate the calcination works from first principles. Adopting a one-team mindset, stakeholders challenged established methods and identified alternatives to improve efficiency. The strengthened teamwork delivered benefits across the wider project.

With demand for advanced manufacturing continuing to rise, early engagement between contractors, designers, engineers and the supply chain is vital to embed new technologies without delay. McLaughlin & Harvey encouraged manufacturers seeking support on advanced manufacturing construction to contact its specialist teams.