Review of exemplary sales procedures used by U.S. industrialized housing manufacturers
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Date
1991-11
Authors
Hulse, David (David W.)
Brown, G. Z.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Center for Housing Innovation, University of Oregon
Abstract
Since 1989 the U.S. Department of Energy has sponsored a research program
organized to improve energy efficiency in industrialized housing. Two research
centers share responsibility for the Energy Efficient Industrialized Housing
(EEIH) program: the Center for Housing Innovation at the University of Oregon
and the Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of
Central Florida. Additional funding is provided by non-DOE participants from
private industry, state governments, and utilities. The program is guided by a
steering committee composed of industry and government representatives. Industrialization of U.S. housing production varies from mobile home builders
who ship furnished houses to a site, to production builders who assemble factory
produced house components on a site. Such housing can be divided into four
major categories: HUD code (mobile) homes, modular houses, panelized houses,
and production built houses. There are many hybrids of these categories. The U.S.
Housing industry is highly diverse and categorizations based on processes used
rather than on products produced are not common. This presents special
challenges to any attempt to create tools, computer-based or otherwise, which are
widely applicable within the industry.
We developed a characterization of sales processes used in the industry through a
combination of literature search, telephone interviews, site visits, and on-site
interviews. Based on this characterization, two panelized manufacturers were
chosen for additional site visitJinterviews focusing specifically on: 1) the role of
computerization in their current sales processes; and 2) the potential for
improvement of these processes through additional appropriate computerization.
They were chosen based on their representativeness within the industry in terms
of: 1) their focus on energy as a feature of their products; 2) the extent to which
they allow home buyers to customize their standard house plans; 3) their sales
volume and market niche; and 4) their willingness to embrace computerization as
evidenced by present computer-based practices.
Description
31 p.
Keywords
Industrial housing -- Energy conservation