FIRST-RATE PRECAST PLANT IN THAILAND In 2004, Pruksa was one of the biggest real estate developers in Bangkok and new entrant into the production of precast concrete elements. Pruksa wanted a partner for the overall planning, development of the building system and for the know-how transfer and started the co-operation with Prilhofer Consulting Germany. The beginn of a most successful story in the industrial production of precast concrete buildings. In autumn 2003, initial contacts of German companies to Preuksa Real Estate in Bangkok were established. Preuksa clearly defined its objective: the establishment of a new precast plant for the production of wall elements as early as possible, a plant that would not only top production in Thailand itself, but on a worldwide basis to make the company second to none as a producer of top-quality prefabricated concrete elements. The challenge of planning and implementing these high expectations on the part of Preuksa was taken up by Christian Prilhofer Consulting, Unitechnik, Vollert, and Weckenmann, who had already successfully collaborated on several projects. The existing concrete plant was producing in open space. The result of this production method was a quality that often turned out to be unsatisfactory. The surfaces of the produced elements did very often not fulfill the required standards. It happened too often that elements were damaged either during tilting processes or their intermediate transportation, and even when the elements were fixed on the construction site, several other types of damage would occur. These problems defined Preuksa’s new quality requirements on the system to be projected: on a daily basis, 12 to 16 two-story detached houses were to be built. This type of buildings was supposed to be designed in a way to ensure that they could be built depending on the requirements of the market and the sales chances in a given situation. Apart from ensuring lower costs, the quality of the buildings had to be substantially improved. To ensure this, a plant that matched the degree of automation and the current conditions prevailing in Thailand had to be set up. Also, the plant design had to ensure that at a later stage this automation level could be increased and optimized so that deficiencies occurring in the course of production could be minimized and finally even totally remedied. The factory was opened and the first elements were produced on 4th December 2004.