Industrializing the Residential Construction Site

FULL TEXT: Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf, 40 MB)

SECTIONS:
Intro, Ch.1 and Ch. 2 (*.pdf, 1 MB)
Ch. 2, p. 27 (*.pdf, 4 MB)
Ch. 2, p. 28-34 (*.pdf, 2 MB)
Ch. 2, p. 35 (*.pdf, 7 MB)
Ch. 2, p. 36-38 (*.pdf, 6.3 MB)
Ch. 3, p. 38-41(*.pdf, 1 MB)
Ch. 3, p. 42-46 (*.pdf, 1 MB)
Ch. 3, p. 47-53 (*.pdf, 1 MB)
Ch. 3, p. 54-57 (*.pdf, 2.7 MB)
Ch. 4, 5, and Appendix (*.pdf, 1 MB)
Figure 4.4 from Ch. 4 (*.pdf, 7 MB)

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July 2000, 87 pages

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.

Content updated on 3/24/2006