Industrializing the Residential Construction Site (July 2000, 87 p.)

Authors: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University     Michael O’Brien     Wakefield, Ron     Beliveau, Yvan    

Despite dramatic increases in housing production and homeownership in recent years, the homebuilding industry still lags behind others in widespread technological innovation and adoption. Other manufacturing industries have adopted broad organizational strategies to reduce production costs and to improve productivity and product quality. The homebuilding industry needs a directed change in its housing delivery system to reap similar benefits and to share those benefits with the homeowner.

Industrializing the Residential Construction Site, released by HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R), examines the means and methods available for integrating and industrializing the housing construction site and the housing industry. It describes the history of and possibilities for industrialization in the industry and includes strategies for all scales of builders: small volume, medium volume, high volume, and production builders.

Industrializing discusses means and methods of industrialization that have been useful to other industries, including:

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems—database with broad data format translation capabilities.

• Object-oriented computer—aided design (CAD).

• Just-in-time supply—manufacturing approach that seeks to eliminate waste by providing the right part at the right place and time.

• Design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA)—method of designing based on how parts will be assembled or manufactured.

• Prototyping and analysis tools.

These strategies represent a first step in the process to move the residential construction industry forward using integrated industrialized systems to deliver an affordable product with improved performance and operation.

SECTIONS: Intro, Ch.1 and Ch. 2 (*.pdf, 834 KB) Ch. 2, p. 27 (*.pdf, 3939 KB) Ch. 2, p. 28-34 (*.pdf, 1898 KB) Ch. 2, p. 35 (*.pdf, 6907 KB) Ch. 2, p. 36-38 (*.pdf, 6256 KB) Ch. 3, p. 38-41 (*.pdf, 1236 KB) Ch. 3, p. 42-46 (*.pdf, 1290 KB) Ch. 3, p. 47-53 (*.pdf, 1295 KB) Ch. 3, p. 54-57 (*.pdf, 2738 KB) Ch. 4, 5, and appendix (*.pdf, 1303 KB) Figure 4.4 from Ch. 4 (*.pdf, 7100 KB)

Publication Categories: Publications     Housing Production and Technology     Building Methods     PATH