<a href="https://www.wiesdrywall.com/">Wies Drywall and Construction</a>, provides a broad array of services from light guage panelization to traditional drywall framing and install. The company believes in treating people well and providing customers with an exceptionally high quality product and service that helps keep customer’s competitive.&nbsp;



They have a strong ethos: “Honor The Past, Change With The Times”.



Hence, it’s no surprise that Wies Drywall and Construction has launched a completely separate Offsite Construction focused business, Wies Offsite. In this Spotlight we sit down with<a href="http://www.offsight.com/">&nbsp;Offsight</a>&nbsp;customer,<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-wies/">&nbsp;Dan Wies</a>, President of Wies Offsite and Wies Drywall and Construction to discuss his company’s push to Offsite Construction and how they’re preparing for the future of construction.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



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Q: Dan: What prompted the leadership team at Wies to invest in Offsite Construction now? What are the competitive advantages of doing so?&nbsp;



We decided to launch a separate business Wies Offsite, with a primary focus on prefabrication and modular construction. Our goal is to produce high quality prefabricated steel panels and components for our projects and scale our product offerings from there, potentially adding steel volumetric at a later point. We know that investing in offsite construction now will pay huge dividends in the future. The industry is moving in this direction and at Wies our goal is to be ahead of the curve.&nbsp;



This will become especially crucial as more owners and contractors continue to move construction work offsite for long term cost savings and faster project delivery.



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Q: Dan: We’ve heard about how many owners and general contractors are<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/how-construction-can-emerge-stronger-after-coronavirus">&nbsp;turning to offsite construction</a>&nbsp;on their new projects, especially as we emerge from the pandemic. What do you see as some of the major drivers that are convincing owners and general contractors that this is the future of construction?&nbsp;&nbsp;



I think one major factor is the limited supply of onsite labor compared to project schedules. Today, we see the cost of traditional construction growing exponentially. Sometimes to the point where owners are left recouping costs on commercial and residential projects for several years. The materials costs have also risen substantially due to the pandemic and this compounded with the labor shortages has resulted in enormous pressure on owners to seek more efficient methods of construction. As a result, we’re seeing a pretty rapid rise in interest in offsite construction. We see owners exploring offsite and prefab options on many new projects and factories being built to cater to their needs in the coming years. At Wies, we view the transition to offsite as a far more efficient and essentially the long term solution to a lot of construction’s woes. We see our production needs and capacity growing rapidly over the coming years.&nbsp;



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Q: Dan: What role do you feel technology plays in helping set up Wies Offsite for success and long term growth/scale? How have you used technology to drive your transition to Offsite?



Technology like<a href="http://www.offsight.com/">&nbsp;Offsight</a>&nbsp;plays a crucial role in setting ourselves up for success. As work moves to the factory, we realize that we’re building and scaling a new business process around factory production. This is operationally new for construction companies and having a technology solution in place that can manage some key elements of this new process (e.g. quality reporting, conformance and assembly checks, production tracking) is huge. Also, the ability to share the production progress and status on new offsite projects with our stakeholders adds a tremendous amount of confidence when it comes to moving projects offsite. In fact, we view this as an added sales advantage when it comes to bidding on future projects.&nbsp;



Also, one key benefit<a href="https://www.offsight.com/how-it-works">&nbsp;Offsight</a>&nbsp;offers in particular is their ability to scale with our business. Over the coming years we expect our factory output to grow substantially and we will need to manage multiple projects over many production lines with various product types. Offsight’s internal tools allow us to easily adapt and continue to build out our production workflow as we scale. This is very important in our decision to adopt technology early on.

Wies Drywall Sees Offsite Construction as the Future

Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are rapidly growing in popularity. These miniature homes can be installed in a homeowners backyard to provide additional housing or substantial supplemental income from rent. They also provide a viable solution to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/accessory-dwellings-offer-one-solution-to-the-affordable-housing-problem/2021/01/07/b7e48918-0417-11eb-897d-3a6201d6643f_story.html">U.S.’s growing affordable housing crisis</a>. In the State of California, permits for ADUs and backyard homes have grown 11 fold in only 3 years.&nbsp;



Cities all over the country have begun easing regulations to allow for the rapid development and construction of backyard homes.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.offsight.com/">Offsight</a>&nbsp;customer,&nbsp;<a href="https://rentthebackyard.com/">Rent the Backyard</a>&nbsp;aims to tackle the rapidly growing backyard home market by offering high quality, sustainably built backyard homes that are constructed Offsite in their Bay Area factory. They leverage the efficiencies of Offsite Construction to deliver units faster and economically.&nbsp;



We sat down with Rent the Backyard, CEO,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianbakerman/">Brian Bakerman</a>, to get his take on backyard homes, Offsite Construction and the role technology plays in driving efficiencies.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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Q: Brian: What are some of the long term benefits of owning a backyard home? Do you envision homeowners potentially building their own personal business (e.g. a hospitality business) through rental income?&nbsp;



There are just so many long-term benefits &#8212; what it really comes down to is the ability to make up to $15,000 in extra income per year, while also simultaneously gaining ownership in a valuable home in your backyard. We know our units are a great way to supplement retirement income, save up for major expenses, or fund side-businesses or other entrepreneurial ventures.&nbsp;



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Q: Brian: If a homeowner is considering purchasing an ADU or backyard home, what would you say are the major benefits of considering a factory/offsite built home as opposed to one constructed onsite, through traditional methods?&nbsp;



It really comes down to speed and certainty. For us, our units are built in the factory in the fraction of the time that a traditional building is built given the processes we’ve implemented and streamlined. Simultaneously, we are able to permit the unit, which is a faster process because of our state approval. We also give homeowners certainty when it comes to unit costs and in final design, since our homeowners can come see our show unit before making a purchase decision. Cost for offsite built units can also be advantageous (ours are especially good because we sell direct to consumer), but really ranges based on the supplier.



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Q: Brian: Is there a role technology can play in helping manage factory assembly, product quality or driving production efficiencies? Is there a way technology implemented in your supply chain or production process can ultimately benefit your customers too? Absolutely. Tracking is something that is pretty rare for projects onsite and is often very manual. Having a central factory enables standardization and tracking and allows for the implementation of technology. We use&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/how-it-works">Offsight</a>&nbsp;to help us track where we have issues, when they are corrected, and where bottlenecks exist. This allows us to plan farther in advance. On the supply chain side, being able to keep track of material orders can help reduce delays and keep down costs, which have a direct benefit to the customer.

Rent the Backyard Leverages Offsite Construction to Tackle the Rapidly Growing ADU Market

The White House has announced a $2 Trillion American Jobs Plan which would allocate financing towards affordable housing, electric vehicles and repairing roads and bridges, among other investments in American infrastructure. As part of the plan, The White House plans to spend&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/all-carrot-no-stick-biden-s-affordable-housing-plan-n1262907">$213 Billion on affordable housing</a>&nbsp;over the coming years. This would inject more than 3 times the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) current $60B annual budget and immediately accelerate construction of affordable housing.&nbsp;



In this Customer Spotlight, we sit down with Offsight customers,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kazibwe-b0630412b/">David Kazibwe</a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ritz-craft.com/">Ritz Craft Corporation&nbsp;</a>and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/spidermarkets/">Jag Singh</a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.angellandings.com/">Angel Landings</a>, to discuss how more affordable housing funding could benefit HUD single family and multifamily construction and how successful modular manufacturers are preparing to capitalize on this opportunity.&nbsp;



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Q: David: This infrastructure plan will provide significant funding for affordable housing, but milestones and goals will be put in place. How will established modular manufacturers position themselves to deliver in this market? How can technology help manufacturers reach their goals?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The recent infrastructure bill will surely lead to an increase in demand for affordable housing given the lack of housing and increasing homelessness in many cities across the country. Modular construction has the added advantage of building homes at faster rates and significantly lower costs at scale than traditional construction methods.&nbsp;



Many established modular manufacturers with a track record like Ritz-Craft will have extended backlogs and Offsight’s software will definitely help us manage projects to effectively prevent backlog build up. Offsight’s production management capabilities provide crucial visibility to executives and our vendors to help us manage our delivery and output.&nbsp; We can make sure that before any product goes off the line we’ve completed full quality verification.&nbsp;



This verification is even more crucial when dealing with third party inspectors, State regulators and HUD requirements. These would all be required as part of undertaking affordable housing projects so having a solution in place like Offsight ahead of time is a huge advantage.&nbsp;



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Q: Jag: Many owners eager to capitalize on the surge in affordable modular multifamily housing will need to find offsite manufacturers who have a deep understanding of&nbsp;<a href="https://partnernetwork.s3.amazonaws.com/HUD+52580-Inspections+Checklist.pdf">stringent HUD building codes and quality requirements</a>. What established processes have you built to address this need and provide confidence to owners that these criteria and quality requirements will be met during production?



We have, for one, finely engineered our product to be acceptable in 92% of States by HUD and local State building departments. Our homes &amp; commercial buildings are also built to the new carbon net-zero standards expected for premium developers. In order to execute on our build strategy, we require a robust project management and quality inspection system to track our modules and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/">Offsight</a>’s solution will give our customers the confidence that we are building to the latest HUD and sustainable design standards.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.angellandings.com/partner-network/">Our partnership with Offsight</a>&nbsp;gives Angel Landing the ability to easily scale up our business to address the surge of demand and coordinate growth plans with our partner factories and fabricators. We see Offsight’s management system as an effective tool to manage customized finishes for each client. This would also provide us with an edge as such a process would not be easily possible if this was done in a manual system, such as email trails or in excel spreadsheets.&nbsp;

The New Infrastructure Plan can be a Game Changer for Modular Construction

In this post, we discuss how panelized offsite construction can provide developers with design flexibility in addition to the well-known benefits of productivity, speed and cost advantages. This versatility allows builders to assemble exterior walls, interior wall panels, columns and closures in record time without sacrificing quality or design.&nbsp;



We sat down with our customer&nbsp;<a href="http://www.kaptureprefab.com/">Kapture Prefab</a>&nbsp;to discuss how the team successfully leveraged offsite panelized technology on major commercial projects, including the Hilton Canopy, Banner Ocotillo Hospital, Great Wolf Lodge, and Scottsdale Fashion Square.&nbsp;



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Q: When developers and general contractors decide to panelize a project rather than traditional methods, what major advantages are they expecting the factory to deliver?



A: There are several advantages to prefab; these include schedule, quality, and installation. Prefabrication can save time on the schedule so owners can open their facilities earlier compared to traditional methods.&nbsp; Also, in locations where weather can be a problem, sites can dry in more quickly so that interior work can start.&nbsp; These are some of the advantages our clients are looking for when they choose to partner with Kapture Prefab.



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Q: Panelized construction can be used on a variety of projects to produce a diverse set of finishes. What would you say are the best types of projects that maximize the design benefits of panelized construction?



A: Prefab lends itself well to any project that is a steel or concrete frame and from 3 to 4 or more stories. After that, there are many different finishes that we can produce, from an EIFS system to some intricate metal panels, and other high-end finishes.



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Q: As more and more construction projects move offsite over the coming years, in what ways can technology help bridge the communication gap between developers, general contractors and factories?



A: Of course, without the technology and the ability to coordinate offsite design, prefab wouldn’t work. But in addition to design, we leverage technology in many ways.&nbsp; I mentioned quality, on our production line, every panel goes through a rigorous quality inspection at every station.&nbsp; We use&nbsp;<a href="http://www.offsight.com/">Offsight’s project management software</a>&nbsp;to track and monitor our quality data, as well as share our data with our clients at the end of each job. &nbsp;We also leverage technology platforms to communicate between our production staff and design teams.

Developers Turn to Kapture Prefab for Commercial Projects

With the need to turn around patient rooms, ICUs and containment units in record time to address the COVID-19 crisis, many local Governments and States have turned to modular construction as a solution.



In this blog post, we interviewed our client Antony Kountouris, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="https://bmarkostructures.com/">BMarko Structures</a>&nbsp;on how his team met the challenge of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency by delivering 24 modular patient rooms in record time to the Phoebe Putney Memorial North Hospital.



We also discuss the long term use of modular and offsite construction as a means to build state of the art hospitals and healthcare facilities faster and more cost effectively.



Q: Congratulations on successfully completing the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ttnews.com/articles/georgia-company-builds-hospital-rooms-shipping-containers">Phoebe Putney Memorial North Hospital</a>&nbsp;project in record time! Tell us a little bit about how you were approached by the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency to address their immediate need for patient rooms during the COVID-19 crisis? Were they actively looking for modular technology as a means to address the shortage?



A: Early on in the process, we created and started recruiting for an initiative we called Liberty Boxes. Just like Liberty Ships in WWII, standing up against COVID-19 was going to take everyone’s effort and commitment on a vast level. We reached out to as many State Emergency Management Agencies as we could until GEMA finally reached out to us saying they needed a solution, and they needed it fast.



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Q: We’ve heard how other governments have leveraged modular construction during the COVID-19 crisis given it’s speed and efficiency. In the future, how can the federal government be best prepared to leverage modular builders like yourself during a crisis (e.g. natural disasters, pandemics, etc)?



A: In my opinion, a lot of government agencies are unrealistic with their lead time requirements for new hospitals. They need a solution in a matter of days, with the expectation&nbsp; to solve this issue in a matter of a week and are not patient enough to wait slightly longer for a long term solution. That forces them to look at fabric made structures, which are as temporary as nature decides them to be and don’t include the sophisticated HVAC and air circulation available with more permanent modular rooms.



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Q: Today, modular and offsite construction has become a hot topic among real estate developers and general contractors. From your experience, how do you see the adoption curve happening? What challenges need to be solved for offsite to become the industry standard?&nbsp;



A: I believe we are at a tipping point in the construction industry where offsite is becoming more and more attractive for both developers and general contractors trying to realize the speed benefits of modular construction. Once the learning curve is overcome and the repeated success of modular/offsite projects are highlighted, I would expect the number of offsite projects to exponentially grow over the next few years and potentially overtake onsite/stick-built construction in the future.&nbsp;&nbsp;