Ontario Electrical Contractor 23 is an example of delineation between high- and low-performing contractors. In closing, I offer this statistic: only 26 per cent of contractors I surveyed did not use prefabrication, and only four per cent of those did not plan to adopt some kind of prefabrication work. It is this four per cent that this article is truly directed at. The industry, as shown here, is rapidly moving to adopt prefabrication. Eighty per cent of respondent contractors believe prefab offers a competitive advantage, 97 per cent of projects which used prefabrication experienced reduced total cost, 94 per cent of projects experienced reduced project duration and 95 per cent were more efficient. Time studies I have performed have found, in fact, that one hour in the prefab shop is equivalent to 2.1 hours in the field. In short, those contractors who choose not to accept prefab are accepting lower quality, slower pace and more expensive projects. While there are some barriers and upfront costs to bear to bring prefabrication into the operational fold, this author urges decision- makers to consider the consequences of not doing so. If you are now wondering what it is you should be doing to adopt and improve prefab practices, I make the following recommendations to you: 1)  If you don’t have any prefabrication in place, simply start. Start small, maybe pre-assembling light fixtures with their brackets. 2)  Learn from others – seek out leaders with more established prefabrication workflows and identify skills and practices you can adopt. 3)  Measure the percentage of man-hours you use on prefabrication each year, and attempt to increase this percentage year-over-year until you fall in the “high- performing” range of 10-20 per cent. 4)  When identifying components of a design that are suitable for prefab, think 100-down, not 0-up. By this I mean: ask not “what can be prefab’d” and ask instead “what cannot be prefab’d.” Thinking like this you will be surprised how innovative you can become with prefabrication. I have seen companies drive whole electrical rooms in on skids using this thinking! 5)  Identify your best foreman in the field based on productivity, worker feedback, and any other criteria you choose. That’s the guy you want running your prefab shop. By tapping the best foreman you have, you accomplish two goals. One, you send a message to your company that prefab is a priority. Two, you maximize the number of projects that your best people can service simultaneously, as multiple projects will benefit from that foreman’s work in prefab while only one could benefit from him in the field. 6)  Communicate the benefits of prefab to your workforce. A common thread I notice is that workers with no experience in prefab are skeptical or fearful. They think that prefab components are sub-par, or that they may not work, and they fear that prefab will lead to lost jobs in the field. Explain that prefab actually improves quality, and allows for more work to be won for the firm, and thus more work for them both in the prefab shop and in the field. In conclusion, it is my opinion that prefab represents a lens into the future of construction. Adopting it now is key to growing and winning future work. Failing to do so is setting yourself up to be outbid and outworked in 10 years. If you have more questions about prefabrication, or want help devising a prefabrication plan for your company, please contact Hanna Consulting Group, which offers expert analysis and planning. Dr. Awad Hanna is a professor and chair of the Construction Engineering and Management program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Hanna is also a provider of management education and longtime associate to ECAO. He can be reached at ashanna@wisc.edu. Time studies I have performed have found, in fact, that one hour in the prefab shop is equivalent to 2.1 hours in the field. In short, those contractors who choose not to accept prefab are accepting lower quality, slower pace and more expensive projects.