Imagine a home that is energy efficient, constructed with quality materials that are installed to exacting standards with a focus on long-term durability and low maintenance, and more competitively priced than traditional housing. Imagine this home built to your specifications and ready for occupancy in three weeks.
Industrialization, the science of building to meticulous tolerances using highly developed processes in a controlled environment, will produce homes like these in communities in Colorado within the next year.
The homebuilding industry has been slow to adopt the manufacturing processes that have modernized other industries, like airplane, ship, and car assembly. Partial utilization of factory fabrication economies has resulted in widespread use of components, like open wall panels and roof trusses. Modular builders have taken the factory built home a step further, using a crane to hoist completed pre-built sections into the air to be set beside and atop one another, then connected and field finished at intersections or "marriage walls". But, comprehensive employment of industrialization in the homebuilding industry has been hindered by conveyance restrictions on public roads - generally limiting the size of the freight to a maximum of 14 feet by 70 feet by 13 feet. Unfortunately, the width of a road lane, length of a maneuverable trailer, and height of a bridge overpass, do not conform to the dimensions of a comfortable American home.
A solution to transportation constraints lies in locating the production facility within the boundaries of the subdivision that will receive the new home. Factory and home site proximity will allow transport to take place on private roads (not yet dedicated by the developer) eliminating size restrictions posed by public travel. The home transport vehicle is similarly relieved from traditional size and licensing requirements. This presents the opportunity for the entire home, as a single unit, to be factory assembled.
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Because the houses are manufactured in a factory setting, quality can be better controlled and can be built continuously. Such measures will reduce labor, manufacture, and transportation costs, ultimately reducing costs to the homeowner and increasing profits.
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The home construction plant can be either a movable manufacturing facility, or can be planned into the subdivision's development mix, and re-commissioned as a community or day care center, office, loft, apartment, or condominium suites. Facility re-use minimizes the expense that is amortized to the units produced which keeps the output more affordable.
Comprehensive whole house building systems are typically patented, so availability is either through contract or license agreement with the builder.
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Homes are built to meet local building code requirements. Inspection/quality assurance is accomplished in the plant. Utility connections may require on site inspections in some states.
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Three months in advance of anticipated initial home settlements, a factory is built in the area planned as the final phase of the subdivision. The home assembly plant is typically sized for volume of output, recognizing that some capacity increase is achievable by added labor shifts. The plant layout consists of converging production lines, each process specific.
In this process-specific factory production paths can operate non-sequentially. For example, mechanical systems can be installed in the home before the roof is on, and drywall can be finished before the electrical wiring has been run. Safety is enhanced because the assembly and/or workers are not subjected to the elements, weather extremes, dangerous working conditions, or poorly lit work areas. Clear span bridge cranes and hydraulic dollies perform the heavy work, while computer programs streamline material ordering, cutting, layout, and usage within the facility. Continuous training and a quality assurance program result in product uniformity, and optimization of inputs. The elimination of the numerous specialized trades occupied by site construction result in a cohesive systemic approach to the durability of the product.
The foundation, sidewalks, driveway, and landscaping activities at the home site can be executed concurrently with the activity in the factory. Placing the home on its foundation and completing the utility connections requires one day. Occupancy can follow immediately.
Completed homes as large as 50' x 45' are conveyed on a custom made, patented, running gear that includes hydraulics for platform height adjustment. Homes are elevated to foundation level and moved across steel beams that straddle the distance between the conveyance gear and the foundation. The framework of the home is then secured to the foundation.
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Industrializing the residential product in an on-site manufacturing facility has been projected to improve hard costs in a 5% to 15% range. Also, diminished product variation and systemic applications in the controlled environment of the factory will minimize the need for warranty contingencies because of the improved quality of the output.
Large gains are expected from improvement in soft costs. The accelerated pace of home delivery suggests that inventory turns could reach three times those of traditional site builders.
This homebuilding process requires a minimum annual volume of production in the range of 400 units. Similar capacity in sales and peripheral trades, like foundation installers, would be necessary to assure assets were not idle.
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