Hickory managing director George Abraham and SYNC managing director Chris Ong say traditional building alone can’t close the housing gap. Their answer starts with the people who will install what the factory makes.

The bathroom has always been the most crowded room on a build.

Plumber, electrician, waterproofer, tiler, carpenter and plasterer, all working the same few square metres, usually in sequence and often waiting on each other.

SYNC builds that room in a factory. Now SYNC and Hickory are using it to teach.

The two businesses have partnered with Melbourne Polytechnic’s Future of Housing Construction Centre of Excellence to give the next generation of tradespeople hands on experience with modern methods of construction, using the SYNC bathroom pod as a real world learning tool.

Traditional building alone cannot close the housing gap, Abraham says

Abraham starts with supply. He says Australia needs more homes than traditional construction can deliver on its own, and it needs them while the industry is short of skilled workers and dealing with rising costs.

“The gains from building the way we traditionally have are now too small and marginal to deliver the improvements we’re looking for,” he says.

He believes the technology, equipment and automation available today can deliver far bigger productivity gains than incremental change on site.

The national numbers back the scale of the problem. The Productivity Commission found in February 2025 that Australia is completing half as many homes per hour worked as it did in 1995.

Factory manufacturing is about precision, not replacing trades

Abraham says modern methods of construction allow builders to work with greater precision, speed and consistency, and at scale. Manufacturing components in a controlled environment improves quality and safety, reduces waste and shortens time on site.

He is clear about where the line sits. “It’s not about replacing traditional construction. It’s about using smarter processes to deliver more homes, more efficiently.”

Hickory says it has been working in modern methods of construction for at least 15 years, chasing better outcomes on safety, time, cost and quality. Abraham describes the group’s vision as leading a shift towards precision manufacturing, which means investing in technology, capability and people.

What is a bathroom pod?

A bathroom pod is a complete bathroom manufactured offsite as a single volumetric unit. Walls, floor, ceiling, waterproofing, fixtures and finishes are completed and checked in the factory. On site, the pod is lifted or rolled into position and connected to the building’s plumbing, drainage, electrical and ventilation services.

A bathroom pod shows how a systems approach works on site

Ong says SYNC is part of a shift from building onsite to manufacturing key components in a factory. Fully finished bathroom pods arrive ready to install, which he says simplifies coordination and reduces delays.

He describes the pod as a systems approach. It ties design, manufacturing, quality assurance and product consistency together, with a clear understanding of how the bathroom and its components interface with the building site.

For builders and developers, Ong says that brings greater certainty around programme, cost and quality. For trades, it means less time working in confined spaces and more time on coordinated, carefully sequenced installation.

“It’s a more predictable way to build,” he says.

The skills the industry needs are changing with the methods

This is where the training partnership comes in.

“The future of construction depends on its people,” Abraham says. As the industry evolves, he says, the skills it needs are evolving too.

The partnership gives students hands on experience with modern methods of construction before they enter the workforce. “If we want these methods to become standard practice, we need to train the people who will deliver them,” Abraham says.

The Centre they have partnered with is a $50 million training hub at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Heidelberg campus, jointly funded by the Australian and Victorian governments. Its courses include a Certificate III in Prefabrication Installation for existing construction workers looking to upskill.

The workforce gap it is trying to close is large. BuildSkills Australia’s Housing Workforce Capacity Study estimates a further 116,700 workers are needed beyond business as usual to reach 1.2 million new homes by mid 2029.

SYNC has spent 13 years building its own hybrid workforce

Ong says the problem is speed. “Technology is moving faster than traditional training models.”

In SYNC’s 13 years, he says, the business has developed people with little or no experience into roles across manufacturing, project management and design. “We’ve essentially been building a hybrid workforce, but industry can’t do it alone.”

Technology is moving faster than traditional training models.

Working with education providers changes that, he says, because students learn on the systems they will actually use, with skills that are relevant from day one.

For builders, that matters at the interface. Factory built components move work off site, but they create new work where the product meets the building. Set out and tolerances have to be right before a pod arrives. Service connections have to match the factory’s drawings. Someone on site has to know how to land it, connect it and sign it off.

Mainstream adoption needs demand, early design and confidence

Asked what it will take for modern methods of construction to become mainstream in Australia, Abraham points to collaboration across developers, builders, manufacturers, designers, educators and government.

“The technology is ready. What we need now is the skilled workforce, the confidence and the investment to scale it,” he says.

Ong looks at it from the factory floor. “From a manufacturing perspective, consistent demand is key. When there’s a steady pipeline of work, manufacturers can invest in capacity and technology, which improves quality.”

He also says timing on a project matters. “Modern methods of construction deliver the most value when they’re considered from the design stage, not retrofitted later in a project.”

Both points will be familiar to builders. Pods have proven themselves on large, repeatable projects where many bathrooms share a design. On a one off detached home, cost is still the sticking point, as we found when we looked at the real cost of modular.

Confidence is also tied to regulation. The Australian Building Codes Board expects a national voluntary certification scheme for prefabricated construction to be available by mid 2028, and flags that timing as indicative.

The Good Builder Take

Abraham and Ong are not arguing that factories replace builders. They are arguing that the industry needs people who can design for, install and manage what factories make. That is a fair read. The factory can make the room, but the workforce on site decides whether it lands well. Training that starts in the classroom is where that workforce begins.

The open question is whether demand follows the training

The partnership puts a real product in front of the people who will one day install it. That is a practical step, and it is the one Abraham and Ong keep coming back to.

What it cannot do on its own is create the steady pipeline Ong says manufacturers need. Until that arrives, training like this builds readiness rather than volume. For an industry this short of workers, readiness is not nothing.

We’ll keep following how modern methods of construction play out on real jobs, and you can find more in our Building Better guide. If you are using prefabricated components on site, we want to hear how it is going. Get in touch, or catch The Good Builder Podcast for more conversations with the people building this industry.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Last updated: 5 November 2026

General Information Only: The information in this article is general in nature and does not take into account your personal circumstances. It is not legal, financial or professional advice. Before acting on any information, you should consider its appropriateness to your situation and seek independent professional advice.

Author: TGB Editorial