Panelized Homebuilding

Wood Frame Panels

• Improved America’s 1st automated wood frame panelizing line – increased line production capacity by 7-10% with no increase in labor.
• Benchmarked innovative homebuilding technologies used to construct exterior structural walls – findings suggested that innovative technologies did not significantly reduce overall costs and in some cases cost significantly more.
• Improved scheduling for truss manufacturing – developed scheduling algorithm to increase truss production capacity and tested using simulation model.
• Benchmarked constructability of innovative MIT Roof System – Found that the new roof system had the potential to reduce construction cycle time and increase labor productivity by 20%, but early prototype suffered from quality problems and poorly trained installation crew.

Steel Frame Panels

• Lean improvements for steel frame panelizing - used lean principles to increase capacity by over 100%.

Pre-cast Concrete Panels

• Lean improvements for pre-cast concrete panelizing - used lean principles to increase productivity by 50%.

Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS)

• Benchmarked the construction of Habitat for Humanity homes using SIPs - found that SIPs could reduce construction cycle time and labor costs by approximately 50%.
• Benchmarked innovative homebuilding technologies used to construct exterior structural walls – Findings suggested that innovative technologies did not significantly reduce overall costs and in some cases cost significantly more.
• Modeled the manufacturing process for Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS)