Be It Ever So Humble, It Could Be Made in Japan

Every mayor of a major city is acutely conscious of the need for affordable housing. And as our cities’ populations continue to grow, it is increasingly clear that we may not be able to rely on traditional construction methods to provide people with shelter.

I hope that, in seeking alternatives, American firms can compete with inventive foreign manufacturers. However, unless U.S. home-builders learn to rely less on hammers and saws and more on computers and robots, they will soon see the day when many American homes carry the tag “Made in Tokyo.”

Companies in Japan, Sweden, Denmark and Norway are using computers and robotics to produce manufactured houses that offer substantial cost savings, increased energy efficiency and expert craftsmanship.

Charles Graham, a professor of architecture at Texas A&M; University, says that the Scandinavian firms could produce a home in the United States for 10% less than if it were designed and constructed by an architect and crew. He estimates energy savings at 50%, and says that the manufactured house would include such exceptional workmanship as European cabinetry.

Swedish and Danish companies are already marketing the manufactured homes in the eastern United States. Japanese firms also hope to capitalize, to the detriment of the American home-construction industry, on soaring house prices and a steady demand created by “baby boomers” seeking to buy single-family residences.

Graham predicts that these foreign firms could, within half a decade, capture up to 25% of the U.S. market for new home construction. (More than 1.4 million houses are built in an average year.)

But there is nothing to prevent American companies from getting into the act. The technology is readily available--all it takes is the willingness to try a new approach.

In Japan, six manufacturers use computers and robotics to construct the parts of a custom-designed house in less than an hour. A buyer can move into the dwelling within four weeks of ordering it.

Here’s how it works: A buyer visits a manufactured-housing office and chooses design features from as many as 2,000 options, including such items as construction materials, layout and interior paneling. The information is fed into a computer, which drafts a set of “blueprints” to produce the home in either modular units or as a completed structure. The home then is transported to the site. A Japanese company can produce up to 30,000 such homes a year.

Graham is a firm believer that the future of home-building can be found at the plants in Scandinavia and Japan. “They are light-years ahead of current American methods,” he adds.

Americans working for the Japanese firms have written to U.S. trade publications touting the new home-construction techniques and warning of the day when U.S. consumers will design and purchase their Japanese-built home from a local department store.

Most analysts agree with Graham that the Japanese and Scandinavians are at least 10 years ahead of us in developing new home-manufacturing techniques. These firms have devoted extensive resources to the industry, bolstered in some cases by government subsidies. And they have the savvy to sell to the American consumer.

These competitors have just begun to penetrate the U.S. market. Before we hear cries for government protectionism, isn’t it time we got moving?