Today, as an industry, we build faster, cut faster, design faster – thanks to technology and the automation it enables. The offsite construction industry is built on smarter design, more efficient fabrication. Whether in the office or on your plant floor, automation is very much a part of how work gets done. And, the need for efficiently produced housing has never been greater.
The component industry uses four types of AI today:
- Assisted Intelligence: AI systems that assist humans in making decisions or taking actions. Hard-wired systems that do not learn from their interactions. (Hardwired systems, human in loop)
- Augmented Intelligence: AI systems that augment human decision making and continuously learn from their interactions with humans and the environment. (Adaptive systems, human in loop)
- Automation: Automation of manual and cognitive tasks that are either routine or non-routine. This does not involve new ways of doing things – it automates existing tasks. (Specific systems, no human in loop)
- Autonomous Intelligence: AI systems that can adapt to different situations and can act autonomously without human assistance. (Adaptive systems, no human in loop)
In fact, a single system may use one or more types of AI in its different processes. My company, a commodity (lumber) purchasing platform, has used algorithms to ascertain (learn) differences between a requested item and quoted item, imputing and applying adaptors to produce synthetic market values for every item, every offer – without human direction/intervention – more than 15 million times (autonomous intelligence). This type of AI is not new, but it’s remarkably effective. The purchase decision (BUY) is made by a human buyer (assisted intelligence), executed by a machine on a network (automation). Experienced buyers save 1/3 of their time and reduce lumber cost 2%–4%. See my November article, ROI: Turn Your Largest COST (Lumber) into a Profit Driver, for a calculation of the savings using SBCA data.
A Legacy of Change and Innovation
Producing more for less is critical to home building today and for future generations. The truss and components industry was founded on innovation and automation. Today the imperative is to keep innovating, automating/optimizing production, minimizing cost. Technology is the link between data and automation. Innovative people applying innovative technology is the future of the industry.
Valerie Hansen is the Founder and Chairman of BuyMetrics Inc. She is a 45-year industry veteran and the former owner/CEO of Custom Components Company, Racine, WI (sold 2008). From 2000–2019, she earned 21 U.S. patents for inventions in the technical areas of finance and data management. Privately serving industry-leading CMs since 2000, the BuyMetrics® commodity procurement platform automates and informs the purchase of lumber and other volatile commodities.