Let me ask, if you finally found a leopard that COULD change its spots and potentially be the next coolest animal on the planet, would you not take active interest, want to find out more and perhaps monetize? Well, it has arrived; allow me to explain. The construction industry has remained substantially unchanged over the past century+. Where other industries such as auto manufacturing, renewable energy and certainly most anything IT related, all look vastly different today versus the early 1900s, the same much cannot be said for construction; that is, until now. Offsite Construction (OSC) is disrupting the construction industry and proving to be a sustainable “mutation” given its technological advancements, value propositions, scale and optimization models. How, where and when to participate and leverage this phenomenon could become a highly strategic asset to any fabricator and much depends on how creative and industrious the leaders within can be.

OSC seems to have its birth circa 1908 when Sears & Roebuck Co. began selling homes in the form of a kit, nothing too different than buying a model airplane -- open the box and assemble the pre-fabricated components. In fact, “prefabricated home” was the name given to this model, and in a little more than a decade later, Sears formalized this in a sophisticated offering focused on a more modular model.