One plant, one batch: how we build large orders without subcontracting

When a programme needs 2,000 units, the question that decides the award is not who has the lowest price. It is who can deliver unit 1,900 identical to unit 10. Uniformity is a factory capability, not a commercial promise.

Why subcontracting breaks uniformity

In this sector it is common for a sales office to close the order and spread production across several workshops. It works while volumes are small. Once an order passes a few dozen units, three predictable problems appear:

• Different thicknesses. Each workshop buys coil and profile based on what it has that week.
• Different colours. The same RAL can come out differently from two powder lines.
• Diffuse responsibility. When unit 340 arrives with a swollen floor, nobody owns the batch.

In relief housing that is not cosmetic: spare parts stop being interchangeable and maintenance becomes an inventory problem.

How we hold a uniform batch

Frame, panel, joinery and assembly all happen in our own plant. That allows the material configuration to be fixed in the contract and left alone mid-batch: same profile thickness, same zinc grammage, same pre-painted coil, same fasteners, same floor board. Units from one order come off one line, with the same reference inspector in quality control.

Assembly in the hall: frame, panels, joinery and wiring on one line.

What “capacity” means in practice

We do not publish catalogue figures we cannot back with a schedule. What we do is commit a phased delivery plan before signature: how many units per week, in what type order, with which inspection milestones. The buyer sees a production plan, not just a departure date for the first container.

For large orders production is organised in closed batches with seals and a photographic checklist per unit: each unit leaves with its number, its configuration and its inspection record. That is what lets an agency receive 500 units across three ports and find them all the same.

Audit: the argument that cannot be disputed

We invite buyers to audit the factory before signing. In a two-day visit an inspector can check the production line, the weighbridge, profile and zinc thickness measurement, coil certificates, panel stock and the quality record of previous orders. They can also speak to the production manager without intermediaries.

A subcontracting supplier cannot offer that visit, because there is no single plant to show. For an institutional buyer it is the most useful practical difference.

Design support included

A large order is almost never one model. Resettlement programmes combine bedroom, sanitary, communal kitchen, site office and school module. Our team adapts internal layout, opening positions and electrical layout on the same standard frame, so the logistics package does not change between types. That design work happens before the production order and lives in approved drawings — the only way unit 1,900 still matches unit 1.