As the housing crisis deepens, shortages are accumulating, construction costs are rising and offsite approaches are being encouraged at policy levels to increase productivity in construction. For prefabrication and industrialized building systems more specifically to be adopted and work on all cylinders, demand must be systematized as a streamlined pipeline of similar types to enable manufacturers’ existing methodologies to be deployed successfully.
Innovative application of technologies within the industrialized construction space, panelized or modular is difficult as current project demand, which is required to plan a company's viability are simply not at predictability levels conducive to adopting or investing in production strategies that bolster capacity. Government programs in certain countries are directing initiatives to frame both current and future demand guaranteeing long-term commitments giving manufacturers confirmation that any investments will not be in vain; stability encourages both growth and technological reform.
For the manufactured housing sector this type of secure demand is critical as profitable fabrication of homes in a factory is based on continuous supply chains and normalized requirements. Promoting specific building systems like modular volumetric building with stacked standardized units has proven challenging as in the single-family dwelling market - the sector's bread and butter at least in America - pipelines are articulated to simpler conditions when compared to the collective housing blocks.
Collaboration with professionals, code requirements, energy metrics along with performance criteria, logistics and project management in dense urban areas are just a few conditions that showcase collective blocks’ complexities in relation to business models derived from single-family dwellings. Without predictable orders that provide the capacity to study, implement and deploy integrated manufacturing processes, most companies lack the financial robustness and resilience to support fragmented project orders. Automation in particular has been difficult to implement, at scale, in housing manufacturing where demand doesn’t justify substantial upfront investments.
Pipelines for conventional construction are developed on a project-by-project basis and are not conceived for scale. They are geared toward an imagined / perceived bespoke quality. Successful application of industrialized construction points to a reformed model of mass production where stability in demand supports a customizable uniqueness through scalable systems.
Toyota Homes factory production - capacity of 5000 units per year
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