News
New Book: Factory Design for Modular Homebuilding
Utilizing modern industrial technology, modular homebuilding offers the promise of building a higher quality home, faster and at a lower cost. Dr. Mullens uses his 20 years of experience in the industry to examine the theory and practice of modular homebuilding, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and introducing a structured engineering design approach for configuring a high performance modular factory.
Mullens, M. Factory Design for Modular Homebuilding, Constructability Press, Winter Park, FL, March 2011.
Impact of Product Choice on Lean Homebuilding
We often think that lean production is more difficult to implement as we provide more product choice to our customers. This paper explores the impact of product choice on lean homebuilding, based on results observed when implementing lean in several factories. The paper is a summary of Ms. Nahmens' doctoral dissertation.
Nahmens, I. and M. Mullens, “The Impact of Product Choice on Lean Homebuilding,” Construction Innovation: Information, Process and Management, 9(1)84-100, March 2009. [download paper]
Applying Lean Production in Factory Homebuilding
This article serves as a resource to factory home builders seeking to use lean thinking to slash waste from their production operations. This research follows a case study approach to document the application and benefits of lean production in the factory homebuilding industry. The target for these case studies was a group of nine manufactured and modular homebuilding plants that initiated lean production efforts in 2006. The results were dramatic. Labor efficiencies were increased by 10 percent to more than 100 percent. Defects in finished drywall were reduced by 85 percent. Taken as a whole, lean production activities were shown to increase the efficiency and quality of building operations, boost worker morale, and improve communication between management and workers.
Dentz, J., I. Nahmens, and M. Mullens, “Applying Lean Production in Factory Homebuilding”, Cityscape. 11(1)81-104, March 2009. [download paper]
Worldwide Keynote Addresses
Dr. Mullens recently delivered keynote presentations at two international housing conferences. Both presentations focused on the challenges faced by U.S. housing manufacturers as they seek to remain competitive and deliver the highest quality housing at affordable cost.
Mullens, M., " Innovation in the U.S. Industrialized Housing Industry: A Tale of Two Strategies," Keynote presented to the XXXV IAHS World Congress on Housing Science 2007, Melbourne, Australia, September, 2007.
Mullens, M., “Factory Produced Housing in America,” Keynote presentation at 1st International ManuBuild Conference, Rotterdam, April 2007.
The two addresses led to the following journal paper that explores two strategies for productivity improvement in modular homebuilding. The first strategy is extensive automation and the second is lean production. The paper concludes that extensive automation is a risky strategy for an industry subject to wild market swings and that lean production can provide many of the same benefits
Mullens, M., " Innovation in the U.S. Industrialized Housing Industry: A Tale of Two Strategies," International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications. 32(3)163-178, May 2008. [download paper]
