Natural disasters affect millions of homes and individuals each year, posing supply chain challenges for recovery efforts aimed at providing replacement housing. Industrialized, off-site construction offers a practical solution by reducing costs and improving responsiveness. Focusing on cost efficiencies, this capstone examines how varying levels of centralization in the off-site construction supply chain affect total landed cost. Furthermore, it evaluates the trade-off between labor and transportation costs associated with off-site manufacturing and assembly. Applying a top-down, assembly-cost-based model, the capstone team estimated total costs for traditional housing construction and compared them with cost savings from off-site construction. The findings show that in serving high-labor-cost markets, off-site construction can reduce costs by up to 47%. Additionally, the team developed a facility location model to quantify the impact of location-based labor and transportation costs, suggesting facility location and market-allocation decisions to minimize total cost. Results show that locating manufacturing facilities in lower-cost states allows developers in high-labor-cost markets to reduce construction costs and improve profit margins. Stakeholders, including industrialized construction companies, federal agencies, and nonprofits, can reference the models and results to make data-driven decisions to decrease total landed costs. Beyond disaster relief, the capstone’s analysis and insights have broader relevance for advancing housing accessibility and affordable housing initiatives.
