This is the fourth installment of a nine-part series on getting builders to address--to deal with--the skilled labor shortage in residential building, by getting them to change the way they do business.
Our intro looked at building the internal understanding, desire, and resolve to deal with what is essentially an external problem; Part I looked at Open-Book Management and Team-Based Performance Compensation, and how to build a savvy, motivated, mutually-accountable home building team.
Part II looked at restoring elegance and allusion to architectural design, in order to make homes faster, easier, and less expensive to build, while making them more livable, more distinctive, more storied, and more desirable; Part II looked at what happens to productivity when builders waste time, energy, and money building senseless, overdone, exaggerated illusions of architectural style.
Part III looked at cost behavior, specifically, how costs behave in relationship to the event that caused them to be incurred; Part III looks at how to manage those costs in a way that diminishes the conflict that exacerbates the shortage of skilled construction labor.
This segment of the series (Part IV) looks at how “off-site manufacturing” (the planning, designing, fabricating, and assembling of components at a factory or location other than their final assembly-installation point), from components to processes, is part of the answer to dealing with the shortage of skilled construction labor.
Part IV pulls the expert voices of this still-emerging, still-evolving, ever longer-legged aspect of the home building industry into one place. We asked these experts for direct, declarative, and to-the-point insight. Without further commentary--and in their own words--Zephan McMinn (Blu Homes), Brian Gaudio (Module), Joe Wheeler (VPI), Gerard McCaughey (Entekra), Tedd Benson (Bensonwood/Unity Homes), and Jay Small and Mike Orr (Precision Building Systems).
Zephan McMinn | Chief Executive Officer | Blu Homes | Mare Island, Vallejo CA
“Imagine if Ford Motor Company said, ‘For this new F-150, we’re going to ship all the parts to an open field and assemble them using a local company we just met for the first time last month.’ Sounds like madness? Well that’s how the majority of building happens across the nation every day.
“Off-site construction in controlled environments allows customers, clients, and builders access to a labor pool that is much less impacted by prevailing market conditions. With less skilled workers in the market, builders & developers are forced to try and maximize their productivity and efficiency; a question that off-site construction facilities have been addressing for years.
“If you’re a construction company that takes itself seriously and isn’t actively evaluating how you can use off-site construction to enhance your business, you’re going to be left behind. The shortage in skilled labor is only now forcing builders and developers to consider options that other companies have already mastered.”
Brian Gaudio | co-founder and CEO of Module, a Pittsburg PA-based design and technology company | co-director of “Within Formal Cities” a feature length documentary about the global housing crisis, screened in over 20 cities across the globe.
“I was in Washington DC recently for a roundtable hosted by MIT, about how modular construction can be leveraged for disaster recovery housing. One question the MIT facilitator asked was, ‘Does modular building help with our country’s labor shortage?’ The short answer is, not entirely. A number of modular builders in the room mentioned they were feeling the pinch of finding and keeping skilled labor in their factories.
“I see offsite’s role in addressing the labor shortage as being to serve as the leading edge for exploring how automated manufacturing capabilities can be integrated into our home building supply chain. Should every home builder go buy a KUKA arm robot tomorrow and figure out how to operate it? No. But, we do need to identify which tasks in the home building industry lend themselves to automated or semi-automated construction, and begin integrating those processes into the supply chain.
“Automation is coming to many industries in the US; homebuilding is no different. Our company, Module, is not a component manufacturer (we handle design, construction management and sales), but we work with offsite companies. When we source offsite construction partners, we look for companies who understand where the industry is headed, and a semi-automated supply chain is part of that.”
Joe Wheeler, AIA | Co-Director; Center for Design Research, Professor of Architecture School of Architecture + Design, College of Architecture and Urban Studies | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
“The Center for Design Research at Virginia Tech is employing industrialized methods to off-site fabricate components of homes, to allow for faster on-site construction times and simpler on-site assembly.
“The process not only greatly reduces the need for on-site skilled labor, it utilizes trades more efficiently in an ideal production environment.
“The benefits of ‘industrializing’ the fabrication of homes include:
- better integration of smart home technologies and advanced hardware, and a better environment for installation of these complex systems;
- improved quality control;
- production in a climate controlled environment;
- increasing labor productivity with multiple shifts;
- a more sustainable, more efficient building process, utilizing sustainable materials, with reduced waste, using lean construction processes;
- (trades that are consolidated in a production facility;
- Computer Numerical Control (CNC) processes to improve production speed and precision;
- simple, on-site assembly, using the ‘plug and play’ afforded by modular prefab components;
- faster construction times; and
- cost certainty.
“Our research team has been prototyping multiple smart home components utilizing the above industrialized methods. The most recent prototype, FutureHAUS Dubai, is an energy positive smart home which will debut in the 2018 Solar Decathlon Middle East, an event that will be a great opportunity for Virginia Tech to demonstrate the results of 10+ years of smart home research.”
Gerard McCaughey | Chairman and CEO, Entekra | Ripon, CA
“A typical 2,500-square-foot two-story home typically requires 12 days on-site to stick- frame the structural shell. A crew of five will take 10 days to frame the house to plate level and perform pick-up, and then a crew of three will need two additional days for the roof.
“Compare that with the same house is manufactured with a Fully Integrated Off-Site SolutionTM (FIOSSTM), where the on-site erection of the structural shell takes just four days.
On Day 1 of a FIOSSTM assembly, a crew of four erects wall and floor panels to plate level, with Day 2 dedicated to pick-up. On Days 3 and 4, a crew of three assembles the roof. “It takes 56 man-days to stick-frame a house, while the off-site manufactured house only requires 14 man-days; that’s a 400% increase in on-site productivity. In addition, in the same number of days that one house is stick-framed, a builder using FIOSSTM could have five completed homes and seven homes at plate level. Now, that’s a productivity gain the construction industry sorely needs.
“So, when I am asked about the labor crisis facing home builders, I question whether the real problem is not a labor shortage, but an antiquated process--and the failure to adopt modern methods of construction that have been successfully used around the world for more than a half-century.”
Tedd Benson | Founder and CEO, Bensonwood and Unity Homes | Walpole NH
“At Bensonwood and Unity Homes, we believe we have a golden opportunity to use the benefits of off-site construction to radically improve American home building. Since we have controlled facilities with best-possible work conditions, we can constantly improve the process, the product, and most importantly, the quality of jobs.
“We have extremely efficient and precise manufacturing equipment linked to highly advanced software, while also using Lean practices to eliminate waste, perfect the products, and empower people at all levels. The equipment and technology augment and complement human skills and capabilities, making jobs safer, less brawn-reliant, and more sustainable.
“But, perhaps the most under-appreciated attribute of having dedicated off-site facilities where all associates come to work is the opportunity it gives us to provide continuous education, training, new skills development, and to constantly seek to engender a sense of pride about being a part of a team doing high quality, noble work that improves lives.
“When everyone feels valued and the work culture is strong, retaining and gaining associates isn’t such a challenge.”
Jay Small (with Mike Orr) | President (and General Manager) | Precision Building Systems | Denver CO
“The shortage of skilled construction labor available to the home building industry is an issue, but off-site manufacturing addresses more than that issue.
“First of all, it takes less skilled labor to assemble components, versus stick framing on- site. In a component manufacturing facility, we provide the cut pieces and the layout of all of the products to build a wall section in a controlled environment, so the factory workers just have to assemble the parts; they do not have to be as skilled, although they will become so over time. We hire workers that have no prior construction experience; within two weeks, they are contributors on the line.
“The completed panels delivered to the site are erected by a component frame crew that is following a panel layout provided by us. Assembling the components, in essence, is manufacturing in the field; stick framing on-site requires a more skilled worker to cut and layout the pieces to assemble, all the while dealing with the elements, daylight limitations, weather, and inconsistent site conditions.
“In the face of a shortage of skilled framing labor, it takes a third fewer skilled workers half the time to frame a home, compared with stick framing on-site; 33% fewer workers, completing the same amount of work in 50% less time.
“Panels can be assembled in a factory 24 hours a day, with no delays due to daylight or weather. With panelization, crew sizes are four or less, compared with five or more with stick framing. In a tight labor market, it makes a big difference if you can build faster with fewer people.
“Another advantage of panelization is that it reduces cycle time. The duration from frame start to frame complete averages five to six days, whereas stick framing averages eight to ten days; that calculates to a 50% time saving on this phase of construction, or an average of 30 hours per crew. Moreover, on-site cycle time is affected negatively by inclement weather and seasonality; while off-site wall panels and components can be built 24 hours a day in a controlled environment, on-site stick framing doesn’t enjoy that benefit.
“Finally, there is the growing issue of losses due to waste and theft, the combination of which is now 12% to 15% of framing material cost with on-site stick framing.
“Waste with panelization is less than 5%, because
- the saws in the factory optimize the lumber prior to assembly,
- there is almost no cutting on-site, and
- there is very little loose lumber that needs to be cut in the field. The combination of very limited cutting on-site and optimizing saws in the plant results in a higher yield from every piece of lumber; technology at work, managing it for you.
“In contrast, stick-framing takes delivered lumber and builds the walls in the field, with the framing crew responsible for optimizing the use of material.
“Theft in the field is rising rapidly. As loose lumber material sits waiting to frame a home, there is loss every day, from other trades taking the material for their own use, to outright theft. With off-site panelization, the panels are rarely stolen, and loose materials are delivered on a just-in-time basis, so that the material does not sit idle on the jobsites.
Next: Part V: Building Information Modeling: Integrating, Consolidating, Linking information. Making Data Accurate, Useful, and Manageable.
