Experts highlight a big challenge in tackling the housing crisis. Canada’s construction productivity hit a 30-year low. This issue poses a serious threat to the economy, housing affordability, and the overall well-being of Canadians.
Prefabrication and mass timber construction offer a solution that could dramatically increase productivity and address housing shortages.
The productivity decline in construction is due to a range of factors, including labour shortages, supply chain issues, and rising material costs. The demand for skilled workers has outpaced supply, causing delays and increasing costs. Moreover, reliance on traditional construction’s slow methods exacerbates these challenges. Prefabrication leverages standardization, industrialization and automation to address these inefficiencies.
Prefabricated mass timber homes, like those produced by Massive Canada, are built in controlled factory environments, allowing much faster assembly on-site. This reduces the need for a large on-site workforce and minimizes disruptions caused by weather or other external factors. By streamlining the construction process, prefabrication can directly counter the rising costs and delays that have been hampering the industry.
In addition to boosting productivity, prefabrication enhances quality control. In a factory setting, materials can be cut by CNC machines; robot arms can safely and effortlessly move large pieces into place. This leads to fewer mistakes and higher consistency in the final product.
At a time when the Canadian construction industry is struggling to meet housing demand and improve affordability, prefabrication offers a clear pathway to improve productivity and address the nation’s growing housing crisis.
