Exploring Construction Innovations to Address the Labor Shortage

Exploring Construction Innovations to Address the Labor Shortage

With factory-built housing, developers can optimize how labor is deployed and how materials are sourced and applied, allowing perfectly synchronized production. Photo credit: iStock.com/benedek

The Ivory Prize is an annual award given by the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business that recognizes "ambitious, feasible, and scalable" solutions to affordable housing across multiple categories. Villa, a California-based producer of manufactured housing, was one of four recipients honored at the 2024 Ivory Prize Housing Innovation Summit hosted on October 25, 2024, by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. During the symposium, Villa's chief executive officer (CEO), Sean Roberts, joined three other industry leaders to discuss how modular construction techniques, robotic automation, and new onsite training platforms can reduce the cost of housing production while creating new job opportunities for a large segment of the workforce. The panel, "Construction Innovations to Address the Labor Shortage," featured Roberts; Kevin Albert, the cofounder and CEO of Canvas, a robotic drywall finishing company; Chad Bowker, the founder and CEO of Capsule, which manufactures and installs prefabricated products; and Paul Cardis, the cofounder and CEO of the artificial intelligence (AI)-generated mobile learning platform On3. Tanaya Srini, former senior advisor for innovation, policy development, and research at HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research, moderated the panel.

Making Housing Production More Efficient

The housing affordability crisis is fueled in part by high production costs and a labor shortage in the construction industry. In addition, productivity in this sector has flatlined. Srini pointed out that, although manufacturing productivity has increased 90 percent since 2000, construction productivity has increased by only 10 percent during that time. "We're in a situation where labor can't compensate for low productivity growth because we can't hire enough people to meet this need," she said. The panel discussed strategies that can lower the cost of housing production and increase its efficiency.

Using Villa's model as an example, Roberts focused on the benefits of factory-built housing. He explained that factory production is more efficient, controllable, and predictable than traditional site-built construction. Rather than coordinating material shipments and worker schedules, developers can optimize how labor is deployed and how materials are sourced and applied, allowing perfectly synchronized production. A climate-controlled factory also reduces the uncertainties that can arise from site-specific issues such as inclement weather. Observing that offsite housing production used to be a more common practice in the United States and that the country currently trails many peer nations in this sector, Roberts sees considerable potential to expand offsite production capacity in the U.S. housing sector.

Robotic data and AI also can play a larger role in site-built construction. Albert explained that Canvas developed a robotic arm that sprays and sands joint compound to flatten walls after drywall boards are hung. This machinery allows construction teams to complete drywall finishing in 2 days rather than the typical 5 days. According to Albert, this technology also allows companies to draw from a larger labor pool. He said that rather than requiring employees to undergo 4-year apprenticeships, Canvas trains its workers to use its robotic technology in just 3 to 6 months. Likewise, Bowker explained that Capsule employees can work on anything from framing to plumbing without being licensed in a trade. 

In addition to completing physical tasks, technology can serve as a training platform and reference guide for workers. Cardis illustrated how On3 users can record routine tasks with their phones and receive AI-generated, tailored tutorials. Whether it is looking up the number of anchor bolts needed in a foundation or asking what nail pattern can be used for sheathing, workers can use platforms such as On3 as reference tools. "Our system is really going after what we call the 3 percent of loss in the housing market, which is basically [that] 3 percent of the total project cost is lost in what we call rework," Cardis said. In addition, he noted that using On3 as a training platform can significantly accelerate the onboarding process.  

Changing Labor Dynamics

The speakers insisted that these advancements will simplify construction tasks without displacing jobs. According to Roberts, increasing factory production is necessary to meet the demand for housing. "It's just math; we need more housing, and we don't have enough people to build the housing," Roberts said. "There's going to be plenty of jobs to go around, and the quality of those jobs likely [will be] better and [they will be] physically better for those workers." Albert agreed that using machinery for the most physically demanding elements of construction work can benefit workers, noting that Canvas' drywall robots reduce the stress their workers put on their bodies, which in turn reduces fatigue and the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. These technologies also can make jobs accessible to more people because physical strength is not a limiting factor. "It makes [the work] much more about the skills that you have — the knowledge that you have — and also the creative thinking you have to do to plan and optimize how your work gets done; that creates opportunity across the board for people who haven't been as well represented in the industry," Albert said. Bowker and Cardis concurred that new technology that assists workers in daily tasks and helps with employee training will attract laborers from other trades, increasing the diversity of the workforce. The panelists suggested that these industry shifts could be especially beneficial for those who historically have been underrepresented in the field, such as women and people with disabilities. 

Moving Forward

Regulatory reforms, new partnerships, and outreach efforts will be needed to make these advancements scalable, the speakers emphasized. Roberts suggested that the federal government enact a standard building code for volumetric modular construction akin to HUD's existing code for manufactured homes. A uniform code would enable companies such as Villa to easily create prefabricated homes for any locality. In addition, the speakers stressed the importance of increasing outreach efforts to actually recruit a more diverse workforce. For example, Capsule has a targeted effort to recruit female workers, who make up approximately 10 percent of the construction workforce. "A focus for our production floor is speaking to women about what the industry is, the training that we provide, and the stability that the production floor would give someone that would be different than traditional construction," Bowker said. Partnerships with entities such as trade schools can also benefit developers in their workforce development strategies. Overall, the panelists were optimistic that these innovations can lower the cost of housing construction while making construction jobs less strenuous and more accessible.