Stories

While the world was caught in a pandemic standstill, one KBR employee, Michael Kluck, decided to put his time to good use and tried his hand at writing a book. That volume, a postgrad textbook and industry primer on modularization, has now been published by JW Wiley, one of the largest and most well-known publishing houses specializing in research and education.

Michael is one of KBR’s module subject matter experts and develops feasibility studies for our clients as well as follow-up efforts on subsequent module planning and project execution modeling. Over his 27 years with KBR, Michael has been involved in engineering design supervision and project management of major upstream and downstream projects worldwide.

Read more about Michael and his book from our recent chat.

Congratulations on your first published book, Michael. What made you want to write a book on modulization?

MK: A few years ago, I was thinking about some method of consolidating all my learnings and experiences developed over my career. Having been asked many times about how this knowledge might be passed on, I thought, “Well, what about writing a book?” Not knowing exactly where to start, discussions began with Dr. Jin Ouk Choi, my co-author, who coincidentally had been in discussions with an editor from JW Wiley on publication of some recent UNLV articles he had written.

Jin Ouk asked me if I had ever thought about writing a book. I said I had many times but did not know how to get started. A couple of conversations later, and some discussions with JW Wiley to agree the development of the concept and outline, and we were off!

I can imagine that writing a technical book must be very complicated and a long process, what was your experience like?

MK: Actually, I could write a book on just the efforts and quirks of writing this book. Of particular interest are the requirements for getting permissions on any photos or graphs from the different companies represented in the illustrations. In one illustration, I worked back and forth with the company’s sales director for over three months getting the necessary approvals he required to sign over rights to JW Wiley and myself and Jin. Then, there is the entire ordeal of working with the JW Wiley editing folks – very knowledgeable in the way of editing, but in many cases had to give them short lessons on the technical aspects of what they were editing.

Overall, it was a very positive experience and one I would recommend to anyone to try. One other question I get often is, “How did you actually write it?” I quickly realized I was not someone that could sit down and just write. So, I approached the effort based on when I felt like I had something to write and wrote until I finished that thought. Unfortunately for my wife, this sometimes meant I was up between 2AM and 4AM trying to capture that set of thoughts before I went to bed and lost them. What was interesting about such an approach is when I came back to some of these ramblings a couple of weeks later, I was impressed with the result.

Do you have any plans to write another book in the future?

MK: Yes, we have another book planned – obviously, a follow up to this “industry primer” – a sort of set of next steps to challenge even the more pro-modular folks in industry.

When you are not writing your next book or at work, what do you enjoy spending your time doing?

MK: What keeps me busy are some family properties — big enough for hunting, cultivating crops, hay, and getting away from it all, but also big enough to be a challenge to my plumbing, electrical and carpentry skills when cold snaps and high winds push the limits of the old buildings.

My pride and joy, after my beautiful wife and grandkids, is my Harley. It’s still going strong after 110,000 miles and a few minor upgrades.

I also love to travel and explore new places and will often point to a random place on the map and go. I also enjoy dancing to my two favorite types of music, county and western.

Thanks, Michael, and congratulations on your first book!

Thank you for the opportunity to tell my story and talk about the book!

About Michael’s book

This combination post-grad textbook and industry primer, first published in January 2023, is a must-read for anyone thinking about modularization. If you would like to check out Michael Kluck and Dr Jin Ouk Choi’s book, “Modularization: The Fine Art of Offsite Preassembly for Capital Projects,” you can find it on Amazon and other book retailers: Available at major bookstores (Amazon, Wiley, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, etc.) in hardcover and e-book.

Modularization: The Fine Art of Offsite Preassembly for Capital Projects

What is in a title? It is the first thing you see when you pick up a book. We wanted something catchy but, more importantly, descriptive and indicative of what the book is about. Modularization is not new, and it is not revolutionary. It has been applied to industrial plants both onshore and offshore for over 50 years and incorporated into many major construction efforts. However, the problem has been that, in many cases, it was not correctly incorporated or implemented with a less than desirable project solution and a subsequent conclusion by the project team that “modularization was a bad idea.” This is where the “Art” in the title comes in. We both recognize a great work of art but cannot tell you what makes it “great”. The inputs are the same––oils, brushes, and canvas. Obviously, it is the way the tools and materials are combined and used. A successful module project is quite similar. The modular project uses the same inputs as the stick-built project, but they must be “mixed up” in a complex combination of slightly different approaches and then implemented in a certain sequence to be successful. Unfortunately, this sequence is different in many aspects than that of the traditional stick-built construction project. We believe this book provides a better understanding of what it takes to make a module job “great”. “Modularization: The Fine Art of Offsite Preassembly for Capital Projects” (ISBN: 978-1-119-82471-8; Authors: Michael Kluck and Jin Ouk Choi) and published by Wiley. It is a postgraduate textbook and industry primer. While written in terms of the large-scale industrial modularization project, the steps and process are equally applicable to small-scale projects as well as projects outside the industrial construction realm.