Who will build tomorrow's homes?

The labor shortage has builders struggling to figure out how to build more homes with fewer hands.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, TOLL BROTHERS MADE A decision that has given the company an edge in dealing with today's labor shortage: It opened its own lumber component plant in Morristown, Pa. These days, the plant supplies wall panels, roof trusses, window assemblies, and trim to all Toll homes from Boston to Charlotte, N.C. All this by using new equipment that allows just one person to operate the machinery.

Although factory component production like Toll's isn't a universal answer to the labor shortage, it does have builders of all sizes rethinking how they can increase productivity without expanding staff For good reason: In 1998, the national unemployment rate 4.5 percent-reached its lowest point since 1969 (see chart, right). Panelization often costs more than stick building. But with good help harder to find, the expense is easier for builders to swallow.

By early 1999, Chicago-based Town & Country Homes was one of the companies feeling the sting of that low jobless rate. Its plan to make the most of its labor force involves applying strict new quality standards and offering in-depth training sessions. It also means boosting the number of factory-fabricated or finished components.

"We've done on-site panelization to help speed up cycle time," says Rick Bush, vice president of purchasing. The company builds temporary, though secure, panel plants on the jobsite for use by its two large carpentry contractors. Laid out like a component shop, the post-and-beam structure -with heavy canvas roof, small paved floor area, and electricity-protects materials from the weather and allows work to continue. The collapsible unit is taken from site to site as communities are completed.

Last year, Bush tried out the system on two 300-home communities. He hasn't yet quantified the cost savings, but this much is certain: Cycle time is reduced, along with waste, and some manpower pressures have been relieved.

Labor-starved Virginia builder Rupert C. Hughes took a different tack. He was having a devil of a time finding enough skilled workers to build io custom homes a year for his Harrisonburg-- based Blue Mountain Construction. So he started using R-Control panels made from engineered wood facings attached with adhesive to polystyrene rigid insulation. (For more about the product, visit www.rcontrolibs.com.)

The panels' UL rating, BOCA approval, thermal performance, and shorter construction time make for an easy sell to home buy@ ers. The panels shave four days off a 17-day framing job, reduce trash, and ensure a square fit. Factory-made-to-order from the builder's blueprints, they also require less labor and are simpler for not-so-skilled workers to install, points out Hughes.

From coast to coast, the shortage of skilled labor is accelerating this drive for efficiency-pioneered by Rayco and DiVosta and later adapted by their acquirers, Kaufman and Broad and Pulte. K&B, for example, uses centralized scheduling and contracts with plants in the West to provide exterior wall and truss panels at a rate per plant of 10 homes daily. Meanwhile, Toll Brothers is increasing its components output with a just-purchased second plant in Emporia, Va.

"The whole industry will have to think in different ways," says Bush. "They're going to have to go with modular or manufactured housing techniques to achieve higher quality and lower cost."

Home building's future rests with just such strategies. -R.M.

YESTERDAY

I only hope that the brain worker will be as well paid In 1993 as will be the manual laborer, who Is fast controlling the fates of this republic. ..."-Mary Katherine Keemle feld. newspaper correspondent, columnist, travel book author, 1893

TOMORROW

"Superbrains born of silicon will change everything. Previously Intractable proban In science, engineering, and medicine will be a snap. Robots wig rapidly displace hum- from factories and farm"-BusinessWeek August 23-30,1999