As we advance both the science and art of residential construction, collaboration among home builders and building products manufacturers is critical. A strategic collaboration can leverage the strengths of both parties as builders tend to have the best firsthand knowledge of what consumers want and need while manufacturers often have the most influence on what materials and products can be designed and commercialized.
A well-facilitated discussion can ultimately help create innovation at the manufacturer level that provides tangible benefit to the builder, profit for the manufacturer, in addition to benefits to the end user.
Table Stakes
The conversation must start with the right foundation in place. When both the manufacturer and builder can agree to the common objectives, then the teams can prioritize what will drive the most value to the end user.
Here’s a list of the table stakes.
- Competitive on value: The product or material must deliver value beyond its cost.
- Minimal disruption to existing building practices: This can be a controversial area, but for commercial and timely success, the product must be easy to install to go mainstream to have an impact on the masses.
- Sustainable and environmentally conscious: There can be no negative impact to the occupants or our environment in the manufacture, delivery, installation, or performance over the product’s lifetime.
- Aesthetically pleasing: Even if the product is hidden from sight, it cannot create an unsightly structure. If it’s visible, it needs to conform to the standards of attractive design.
- Improvements/Maintenance: A strategy for minor modifications and continuous improvements must be understood and are mandatory for the ongoing success of products.
Deeper Discussion
While knowing some of the basic foundations for a collaboration, there needs to be a strategic starting point as well. Builders and manufacturers alike filter user requests and suggestions that are both solicited and unsolicited. How do you funnel that data to arrive at a next step with a partner?
Take a look at consumer requests. You can start organizing them into different types of requests to prioritize and create the next step in the journey of product development.
Types of consumer requests:
- Outrageous
- Repetitive
- Do they meet the cost/reward ratio?
- Top requests that go unmet the most often
Then look at the why of each type. Digging into this data could be the catalyst for the next conversation with a manufacturer partner or with a builder who is trying to tackle a certain area of housing demand.
Another area prime for exploration during product development phases is regulatory issues. Start a discussion with your leadership team about the areas of regulation that are the most demanding on your resources to explore how to approach a manufacturer that can help.
- What regulations are the most costly to our organization?
- Which regulations offer the least cost/reward benefit?
- What is the most underrated (important but not understood) regulation?
- What is the hardest regulation to conform to?
- What regulation is the most avoided?
- What should be regulated but is not?
Working through the underlying reason for these regulations will uncover issues that are ripe for improvement and innovation.
Next, start a discussion around undefined value areas. Talk to your leadership team about these questions.
- What would be high value but doesn’t exist today?
- What is the critical path/bottleneck in building today?
- What areas have the most rework or most touches to complete?
- What is too expensive today, but would be used at 10% of current cost?
- Where is most of the labor cost concentrated?
Finding a Partner
Once you have outlined the issue, you have to find the right partner with which to explore solutions. This is an important step because there has to be trust in order to drive the right results. Consider these traits when identifying the right partner:
- Participates in the discussion.
- Provides ongoing feedback throughout the design process.
- Finds a safe place to trial prototypes.
- Provides frank and direct feedback on the trial.
- Provides feedback on value relative to their next best option.
- Provides feedback from trades, consumers, realtors, and other industry influencers.
- Expects the manufacturer to listen and respond to feedback.
- Expects some form of reward for taking the risk.
Innovation will be central to the success of housing in the near future. These practices will set your organization on the right track. Discover more this year at the HIVE conference, scheduled Dec. 6 to 7 in Los Angeles. Register now.
This story appears as it was originally published on our sister site, www.hiveforhousing.com.
