Defining a Modular Factory’s Capacity is Complicated Gary Fleisher One of the words most often heard when talking about the modular construction industry is “capacity.” Webster defines it as “the amount that something can produce.” Somehow that just doesn’t seem like the right definition for modular construction. One of the... Read More April 2021 Issue #13261 Page 106
Lumber Briefs: Softwood Framing Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman COVID’s 2021 Reverse Impact Let’s see if we can get this one right. A member recently requested that I forecast when the misses were going to happen. Sounds difficult, but not impossible. COVID 2020 was a once in a lifetime paradigm shift in our learning curve. To date, I have... Read More February 2021 Issue #13259 Page 96
Lumber Briefs: Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman America’s Achilles Heel I want to drift off topic for a bit. Last week we were advised that the U.S. was under a massive cyber attack. As of today, Sunday December 20, the attack is on-going, there is no determination of who is responsible, how deep the attack has penetrated, how to... Read More January 2021 Issue #13258 Page 106
Lumber Briefs: Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman COVID Shipment Delays WILL RISE The global pandemic surge is further exacerbating shipment schedules, lengthening many commodity and specialty items that are weeks behind already. Some truckloads of basic commodity Canadian lumber are just now catching up on two-month delays despite prices... Read More December 2020 Issue #12257 Page 84
Going Modular Can’t Fix Affordable Housing Crisis Gary Fleisher Usually I am the first person in line shouting the benefits of modular construction to help the affordable housing market, but not this time. That’s because it doesn’t matter how you approach the affordable housing market if there isn’t enough factory capacity to keep ahead... Read More December 2020 Issue #12257 Page 96
Lumber Briefs: Lumber Market Forecast Matt Layman 2020 Hindsight 2020 hindsight. Deduce deeper. Look farther than the end of my nose and keep asking, “What’s next?” I didn’t do that at the beginning of the pandemic. I failed to consider how men specifically would respond to the lockdown. I saw hangout at home, catch... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 94
The Next Evolution in Modular Has Started Gary Fleisher When the first automobiles began showing up on the streets more than 100 years ago, most were built in barns and warehouses one at a time. There were no car dealers as the two or three person shop that built them also sold them. Car builders began popping up in every small town in the... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 108
Polls Done 13 Months Apart Show Covid Is Nudging Builders Toward Off-Site Construction Craig Webb Like scientists tracking a slow-moving glacier, a leading pollster of America’s builders is seeing signs that contractors’ views are warming when it comes to off-site construction. The research by Ed Hudson, director of market research at the Home Innovation Research Labs,... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 114
Have You Become “Marketing” Poverty Stricken? Gary Fleisher When we think of poverty, we think homelessness, food banks, and welfare. Chronic poverty was once compared to catching a grasshopper in a jar when we were kids. The jar had a lid with holes poked in it. For a while, the grasshopper jumped up and kept hitting his head against the lid. Then he... Read More October 2020 Issue #12255 Page 104
The Future of Modular Construction in (Post-)COVID-19 Gary Fleisher Shortly after COVID-19 became the most debilitating thing that has happened to the US economy in recent history, modular construction stepped up to fill the demand for temporary medical facilities. Many modules were built to meet that need, but here we are just 5 months later and that market... Read More September 2020 Issue #12254 Page 100