Last Chance to Access the Latest on Offsite Construction

Offsite Construction Week, held Sept. 20-22, featured a series of webinars and shop talks for builders, manufacturers and suppliers to learn more about the offsite construction industry.

Topics included:

• 2021 Log Home Production & Construction Report — a biennial snapshot of the log and timber industry, including growth in this segment of the industry and shifts in product demand.
• Offsite Construction Housing Forecast — an analysis by NAHB’s Economics team on the current status of the economy and housing industry, challenges facing the housing industry, and data and trends from the building systems segment.
• Solving Framing Labor Constraints Through Systems Built Integration — a showcase of how three companies have adopted different business models using prefabricated structural framing components to solve local framing labor issues and build more homes.

Given the challenges of the past year, including supply-chain disruptions and rising materials costs, builders explored a number of solutions to help navigate these issues, including lumber alternatives and offsite construction methods to help minimize the impact of these challenges on their businesses. Offsite Construction Week highlighted the benefits offsite construction can provide, including addressing labor shortages and material waste.

“Another component for systems-built housing is reduced construction time, and it can be easily demonstrated that it’s one of the biggest advantages of systems-built housing. And the 2020 [Survey of Construction (SOC)] data demonstrates it once again,” shared Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington, NAHB assistant vice president for forecasting and analysis, noting almost a full month difference between the average construction time for a site-built home (6.8 months) versus a modular (5.9 months) or panelized/pre-cut home (5.8 months).

Companies in the offsite construction industry also had to pivot in the wake of recent challenges by continuing to diversify their portfolios, as many log and timber companies have done, and working hand in hand with their trade partners to make sure they were able to deliver as expected.

“A key component is managing risk. There’s just so much of it inherent in this entire process,” stated Sean Shields of Structural Building Components Association (SBCA). “Traditionally, in the siloed approach, that risk is sometimes born by entities that can’t bear the risk or they’re not even aware of the risk that they’re taking on. And really what [the panelists] are talking about, because you’ve integrated so many of those silos together and made it more of a comprehensive process, not only are you more aware of all the risk points, but you’re able to spread that risk out sort of over your entire process.”

Replays of the webinars are available to Offsite Construction Week registrants. Today is the last day to register for access.

Visit the Offsite Construction Week website for more information.