The construction industry <a href="https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag23.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has a record high 422,000 unfilled job openings</a> which is almost 4x the unfilled openings a decade ago and represents a growing crisis. Many construction execs have rightly identified the need to retain talent in a competitive market and boost productivity dramatically to complete more projects with fewer resources. Thus, many builders have already begun investments in growing their offsite construction and prefabrication businesses, which will leverage the benefits of factory production to deliver on their labor constraints. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Capital%20Projects%20and%20Infrastructure/Our%20Insights/The%20next%20normal%20in%20construction/executive-summary_the-next-normal-in-construction.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">71% of the construction value chain</a> will be disrupted by this movement towards leveraging offsite construction on major projects and 60% executives foresee this disruption gaining momentum over the next 5 years. 



In this How to Guide, we review how making an investment in scaling your offsite business and launching prefab factories will lead to future success if complemented with onboarding a dedicated&nbsp;Prefab Manager&nbsp;role to manage your supply chain and operations at the factory level. Furthermore, it is crucial that your Prefab Managers have the tools and technology needed to make the factory successful.&nbsp;



Given our experience working with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/customers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">many different prefabricators</a>, we often get asked whether a Prefab Manager needs to have prior experience in the manufacturing industry or if it&#8217;s better to hire from the construction industry and train the manager on manufacturing principles and processes. In this Guide we will review how hiring a &nbsp;Prefab Manager from the construction industry and providing them with essential tools in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.offight.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsight</a>&nbsp;can bridge any gaps and set your Prefab Manager up for long-term success.&nbsp;







Planning For Prefab



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-2-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1672" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-2-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-2-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-2-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-2-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Offsight’s Pre-Production feature set, including our <a href="https://www.offsight.com/forecasting-estimating" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forecasting &amp; Estimating</a>functionality and <a href="https://www.offsight.com/templates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Configured Templates</a>, assists prefab managers with planning their prefab projects and accurately understanding their resource requirements to achieve their target delivery dates and meet their project schedule. With this feature set, managers can accurately forecast and calculate labor, materials and installation costs on complex prefab projects. Offsight’s templates leverage workflows built around factory assembly as opposed to traditional job site work. We accurately tie labor to workstations or stages in your manufacturing process. Our algorithm incorporates factory availability hours, labor capacity, holidays, and project workstation hours to generate your prefab project schedule.







Managing Prefab From The Shop Floor



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-3-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1674" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-3-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-3-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-3-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-3-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-3-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Once a Prefab Manager has built their plan using Offsight’s Pre-Production feature, they can import their plan to Offsight’s Production feature to manage and track prefabrication in real-time during the active project. As with Pre-Production, the Production feature set also guides Prefab Managers in creating manufacturing workflows based on physical workstations or areas in their prefab shop. The manufacturing workflows can be associated with specific prefabricated products or designs to define how these products will flow through the factory. Operators on the shop floor can then access <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/offsight-project/id6477734937" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsight’s mobile apps</a> to track progress in real-time for each prefabricated product in the project and Prefab Managers can access live updates on progress, schedule delivery and create quality reports. 







Controlling Prefab Project Costs



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-4-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1675" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-4-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-4-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-4-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-4-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Prefab-Nov-15-4-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Offsight’s <a href="https://www.offsight.com/materials-inventory" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Materials &amp; Inventory Management</a> tool set and the <a href="https://www.offsight.com/labor-tracking-timesheets" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Labor Tracking &amp; Timesheets</a> tool set are essential for Prefab Managers to gain full control on managing their variable project costs during prefabrication. The Materials &amp; Inventory feature set is designed for the DfMA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly) process which allows Prefab Managers to define a Bill of Material (BOM) for every individual prefabricated product or product design. This allows for highly accurate material tracking and cost management. In addition, the Labor Tracking &amp; Timesheets feature set incorporates manufacturing principles including linking labor to factory shifts and workstations and tracking labor across each individual product in the overall offsite project. This allows Prefab Managers to create materials consumption and labor cost reporting to ensure projects are within budget and on schedule for delivery.

The construction industry has a record high 422,000 unfilled job openings which is almost 4x the unfilled openings a decade ago and represents a growing crisis.

How to Hire Prefab Managers with the Right Tools for Success

As the prefab and offsite construction industry continues to grow rapidly, an industry wide problem is emerging on how to hire the right talent at the right time. The goal is to staff your factory and manage your capacity and production pipeline to ensure your factory is operating year round efficiently without downtime. Downtime can be extremely costly and having to let go of your trained workforce or furlough employees between projects can prevent your prefab business from retaining labor, a major competitive advantage in the labor constrained construction industry.







In this How To Guide, we walkthrough how to leverage the full functionality of Offsight’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/forecasting-estimating" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pre Production feature set</a>&nbsp;to accurately plan out a full year of factory production, identify factory downtime and opportunities to fill production pipeline, and correctly staff your factory to run efficiently year round. &nbsp;







Building Your Factory Production Schedule



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-2-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1639" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-2-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-2-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-2-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-2-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



To build your factory operating plan, we turn to Offsight’s Planning Dashboard. In this dashboard, you can define a new production plan by creating a project or multiple project phases with a target start date. You can define your products by first adding the product types that will be assembled (e.g. interior panels, exterior panels, bathpods, volumetric modules, etc) and the order in which each product will flow through production. For each product, you can define the zones or process steps and how long each zone or process should take to complete.&nbsp;



Once all products are added to each project, you can define labor capacity by assigning the initial labor resources (framers, welders, technicians, etc) to staff your factory and define their expected start date and the zones or process steps in your production workflow where they will be working.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-3-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1640" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-3-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-3-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-3-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-3-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-3-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>







Furthermore, Offsight’s <a href="https://www.offsight.com/templates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Configured Templates</a> offer pre-existing project templates, which can save you a lot of time in your planning process. Once all current projects in your pipeline are added to your plan, Offsight’s algorithm Generates a full production schedule and forecast plan with target start dates and end dates for each product. This forecast will have duration times for each project and how long it would take to assemble each product. Project schedules and timelines can be accelerated or manipulated accordingly by adding or subtracting labor resources, changing factory hours or improving process time requirements for assembly. 







Identifying Capacity Gaps



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-4-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1641" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-4-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-4-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-4-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-4-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-4-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Once your factory operating plan is generated, Offsight’s Planning KPI Dashboard identifies where you have factory downtime or gaps in projects or production. Offsight’s dashboard will also provide open project capacity with total days of downtime and also identify start and end dates for periods of no production activity. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-5-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1643" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-5-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-5-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-5-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-5-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-5-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



To fill these demand gaps, you can easily share your dynamic operating plan with sales and front office staff to help them identify where they can book or move client projects and optimize factory capacity. This helps you plan your year round production schedule better and avoid factory shutdowns. These demand gaps can also be shared with your customers to better coordinate across multiple project phases such as shipment schedules and onsite installation for major commercial projects. 



Understanding Labor Constraints for Hiring



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-6-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1644" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-6-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-6-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-6-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-6-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Prefab-Guide-Oct-31-6-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Once your plan is generated, Offsight will provide a full breakdown of the total labor needed for each project and product and their cumulative labor cost. Offsight also provides a summary of the total labor cost by zone or process to ensure each workstation in your factory is staffed appropriately. In order to accelerate your project schedules you can hire additional labor resources and assign them to specific workstations or processes. Furthermore, you can track improvements in labor productivity and should you find that your workforce is capable of completing assembly processes or tasks faster than expected you can adjust your projections and Offsight will instantly update the forecast and reflect the schedule changes across your plan.

As the prefab and offsite construction industry continues to grow rapidly, an industry wide problem is emerging on how to hire the right talent at the right time.

Managing Capacity and Hiring for Prefab Projects

Correctly and systematically streamlining final sign-offs, building code review and visual inspections at the factory level can be the difference between achieving the efficiency advantages of offsite construction or getting bogged down by costly on-site repairs/rework that eat into your profit margins. In this How to Guide for Prefab Leaders, we review how to build a robust quality control program for commercial prefab and how to manage the entire inspection process through digital tools like <a href="http://www.offsight.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsight.</a>







Build Your Factory Quality Workflows



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-2-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1621" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-2-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-2-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-2-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-2-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



When undertaking commercial prefab projects, it&#8217;s important to build a robust quality control program that can supplement your factory assembly process. While it may seem cumbersome to manage frequent building code inspections and sign-offs throughout factory assembly, actually having a robust process in place can expedite your project schedule by reducing costly on-site rework and return to factory repairs. To build your quality inspection process, we start by creating digital quality workflows in Offsight’s Management Dashboard. These workflows define how each product type (panel, pod, module, etc) moves through production and the key stages where quality verification checklists and sign-offs need to be completed.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-3-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1622" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-3-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-3-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-3-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-3-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-3-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>







Once you define the specific products that will be prefabricated for your commercial projects and their appropriate stages of production (e.g. Framing, Welding, Finishing etc.) the next step will be building a robust digital quality checklists and forms. These checklists are typically considered either Critical (e.g. must pass for the product to move to the next stage) or Cosmetic (e.g. missed painted corner that can be done later before shipment) and customized down to the product level to match your design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) process. Every product or product type may have a unique manufacturing workflow and therefore unique sign-offs and assembly verification that&#8217;s needed. With Offsight’s Task Checklists Builder, custom checklist and forms with pre-built workflows including radio buttons, image capture and predefined responses with timestamps can be created to streamline the quality documentation from the shop floor. 







Automating Your Quality Workflows



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-4-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1623" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-4-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-4-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-4-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-4-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-4-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



In order to truly drive the value add of a robust quality program across your factory projects it’s crucial that quality and operations personnel adhere to the program. With Offsight’s Workflow Automation Dashboard  in our <a href="https://www.offsight.com/production" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Production &amp; Quality Tracking</a> feature set you can build robust IF/THEN logic and event based workflows to save your quality and operations personnel time and effort which incentivizes them to better adhere to your program. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-5-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1624" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-5-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-5-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-5-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-5-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-5-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



By automating your quality workflows, issues that are identified at various stages of assembly can automatically create trigger alerts for other linked checklists. These alerted tasks will have an “Open” status that can be managed and reviewed in our Alerts Dashboard. When repairs are performed in the factory to address these alerts, the alert status will change to “Closed” and automatically removed from the alert dashboard. 







Set Up Robust Reporting for Project Collaboration



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-6-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1625" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-6-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-6-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-6-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-6-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-To-Oct-25-6-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



With Offsight’s <a href="https://www.offsight.com/reporting-auditing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reporting &amp; Auditing</a> feature set, prefabricators can manage the final part of their quality and verification process, which includes regular updates to project stakeholders and third parties. Reporting workflows can be created within Offsight’s Reporting Dashboard to pull real-time and historical building code and conformance checklists and provide these on daily cadence to third party inspection providers. Similarly, final sign-offs with including photos for image verification and timestamps can be provided in quality reports to general contractors, onsite installers and other project stakeholders to confirm that all assembly was completed according to specifications before shipment.

Correctly and systematically streamlining final sign-offs, building code review and visual inspections at the factory level can be the difference between achieving the efficiency advantages of offsite construction or getting bogged down by costly on-site repairs/rework that eat into your profit margins.

Streamlining Visual Inspection and Sign-Offs for Commercial Prefab

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="215" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-1024x215.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1514" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-1024x215.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-300x63.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-768x161.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left.png 1479w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Jason Dixon







Actively Manage Your Prefab Schedule



In this edition of the How To Guide for Prefab Leaders, we review how to generate a schedule forecast and factory production plan and how to manage the prefab project cycle to ensure that you are hitting the schedule targets.







In order to manage prefab project delivery in real-time, we will turn to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/forecasting-estimating" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forecasting &amp; Estimating</a>&nbsp;feature set to build our plan and then leverage the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/production" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Production &amp; Quality Tracking</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/real-time-analytics" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Real Time Analytics</a>&nbsp;feature sets to manage factory production, live, and ensure we are meeting our deadlines.







If production falls behind schedule, we will review how to take proactive steps to accelerate work and how to better understand the cost implications of these corrective actions.&nbsp;



Generate Your Prefab Project Schedule



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-2-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1576" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-2-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-2-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-2-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-2-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Begin by generating your project schedule and leveraging Offsight’s <a href="https://www.offsight.com/forecasting-estimating" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forecasting &amp; Estimating</a> suite with built in algorithms that factor in labor capacity constraints. These constraints also apply to the unique prefabrication process for the products you are assembling. With <a href="https://www.offsight.com/templates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsight’s pre-built prefab planning, forecasting and estimating templates</a>, you can define your prefabrication process by your product type (e.g. EIFS panels, bath pods, volumetric modules, etc).



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-3-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1577" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-3-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-3-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-3-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-3-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-3-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Once each process step is identified and hours are assigned to complete each process, you can then add your current labor resources and capacity constraints to generate an accurate factory production schedule to forecast start and end dates. Projected delivery dates by panel or bundle of panels (e.g. 1st floor, 2nd floor, etc) can then be provided to other project stakeholders to coordinate on-site installation. 







Compare Real-Time Production with Your Planned Schedule



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-4-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1578" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-4-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-4-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-4-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-4-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-4-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



After building your forecasted schedule, you can turn to <a href="https://www.offsight.com/production" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsight’s Production &amp; Quality Tracking</a> feature set to track your progress against your prefab schedule once factory production begins. As operators actively work on products on the shop floor and products move through assembly, Offsight’s Live Dashboard actively tracks status in real time. In order to compare your real time progress against your planned project schedule, you can leverage Offsight’s Real Time Analytics capabilities.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-5-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1579" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-5-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-5-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-5-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-5-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-5-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



With Offsight’s Schedule and Analytics Dashboard, you can automatically pull a real time production Gantt chart for all live products on the floor and track when they start prefabrication. We also track the production status of all live products in the overall assembly, including which processes were completed e.g. framing, and which are still pending. 



Identify Schedule Delays and Correcting Course



In order to get a real time view of how you’re tracking against your original project plan, you will need to leverage the linking functionality in Offsight’s Schedule Dashboard to search and apply your forecasted schedule overlaid on your real-time production Gantt chart. By automatically linking forecasted product start and end dates by process and workstation, you can see how each individual product is tracking against your plan. Thereby you could track a large panelized project by individual panel or section, e.g. floor 1, and immediately identify when production is falling behind your schedule.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="573" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-6-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1580" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-6-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-6-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-6-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-6-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Process-6-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



In this manner all operators, team leads and supervisors can see when products and processes need to be completed to achieve your schedule targets. If updates to your forecasted schedule are needed to account for delays,  you can use the drag and drop feature to move the target start and end dates in the Schedule and Analytics Dashboard. This will ensure you are always tracking your progress and managing prefabrication against your overall project schedule. Furthermore by leveraging Offsight to communicate updates to all stakeholders in real time, you can enable collaboration and coordination throughout the project lifecycle.

In this edition of the How To Guide for Prefab Leaders, we review how to generate a schedule forecast and factory production plan and how to manage the prefab project cycle to ensure that you are hitting the schedule targets.

The How to Guide for Prefab Leaders: Actively Manage Your Prefab Schedule

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="215" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-1024x215.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1514" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-1024x215.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-300x63.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left-768x161.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jason-left.png 1479w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Jason Dixon







Many builders and contractors are actively investing in offsite construction by launching new self-perform prefab businesses and factories. While this is great news for the construction industry at large, it is crucial that technology and processes are implemented in parallel with these investments to ensure these new prefab businesses and operations are successful.







Builders and contractors need a better understanding of which parts of a large scale project are best suited to be prefabricated and how they need to manage their labor, materials and logistics to achieve the major cost, speed and delivery advantages that come with building offsite.&nbsp;







In this edition of the How To Guide for Prefab Leaders, we review how&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/forecasting-estimating" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsight&#8217;s Forecasting &amp; Estimating</a>&nbsp;feature set can be a gamechanger when it comes to accurately estimating prefab costs and forecasting your prefab project schedule. This tool is built to help with planning and bidding on major offsite projects and can help drive projects to your prefab factory.&nbsp;







Planning and Forecasting Your Prefab Schedule



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="697" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-2-1024x697.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1516" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-2-1024x697.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-2-300x204.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-2-768x522.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-2.png 1445w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



In order to correctly plan and forecast your prefab project schedule, it’s crucial that you understand how labor constraints and capacity specifically tailored to a factory production environment can impact your project delivery speed and cost. With Offsight’s Forecasting &amp; Estimating functionality, you can define your prefab production with target workflow process times for each stage in the prefab process.



This is the first step in building your forecast and schedule. In this guide, we will walk through an example of a prefab factory that specializes in manufacturing wall panels. With&nbsp;<a href="https://www.offsight.com/templates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Offsight’s pre-built prefab planning, forecasting and estimating templates</a>, prefab managers can model entire workflows based on previous projects with existing labor and production constraints to streamline setup.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="697" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-3-1024x697.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1517" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-3-1024x697.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-3-300x204.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-3-768x522.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-3.png 1445w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



To build your plan you need to begin by defining the physical stages or work areas in your prefabrication process. These can include Framing, Subassembly, Sheathing, Insulation, etc. After defining the stages in your prefab process, it&#8217;s important to assign labor requirements and resources to your process. Labor will be the primary constraint in gauging the speed and cost of completing your project.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="697" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-4-1024x697.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1518" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-4-1024x697.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-4-300x204.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-4-768x522.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-4.png 1445w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Through Offsight’s&nbsp;Planning Dashboard, labor can be assigned with a rate per hour based on their role and skill set and a start date to specify when they should start working on the panelized project at the prefab factory. Factory working hours and target labor hours define how long it would take to complete a process e.g.&nbsp;Sheathing&nbsp;for a specific type of panel and the total process time would forecast the timeframe to complete a product.&nbsp;



In order to make our plan even more accurate, it’s important to specify all types of panel designs e.g.&nbsp;Interior, Exterior, Load Bearing, etc.&nbsp;that would be part of this project including how each design would move through the prefab process and approximately how many labor hours would be needed to complete each step in the prefab process. To receive an accurate production forecast, it’s important to also identify each panel as a product e.g. Panel &#8211; A1 and link this with that panel’s specific design we identified earlier. Finally, we set the sequence in which the individual panels proceed through the prefab factory during production. This sequence may be related to the order in which each floor on the job site may be constructed e.g. all panels on the 1st Floor start before all panels on the 2nd Floor and so forth.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="697" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-5-1024x697.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1519" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-5-1024x697.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-5-300x204.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-5-768x522.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-5.png 1445w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Now that our plan is set, we can leverage Offsight to automatically generate a detailed production forecast and prefab schedule. We can easily review when each panel would be forecasted to start and complete based on our labor constraints and visualize the entire project plan in Offsight’s dynamic GANTT Chart. If the owner or developer needs to accelerate project delivery, the prefab factory can modify labor resources by either adding more personnel or reducing the time between start dates to accelerate. We now have a highly dynamic prefab plan and labor cost estimate for our project which we can reference in our bid package. 







 Performing Materials Takeoff and Costing



After modeling our labor costs, the next part is calculating material costs with Offsight’s Takeoff tool for your prefab project. The materials costs can be added to our project by linking a Bill of Materials (BOM) with each unique panel design. You will recall we defined these earlier based on the type of panel. In some cases BOMs may be unique per Product e.g, Panel &#8211; A1  has a unique set of materials that are significantly different than Panel &#8211; A2. In either case the unique BOMs can be linked through Offsight’s Takeoff Dashboard. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="697" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-7-1024x697.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1520" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-7-1024x697.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-7-300x204.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-7-768x522.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-7.png 1445w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Once the BOMs are linked to their appropriate designs with materials and costs per unit identified, we can then link costs across all products we identified earlier in our plan to arrive at the total material cost for our prefab project. 







 Finalizing Your Prefab Estimate







With the addition of material costs, we now have a highly accurate picture of what our prefab project would cost. As a next step, we need to access Offsight’s Estimation Dashboard to complete our costing.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="697" src="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-8-1024x697.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1521" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-8-1024x697.png 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-8-300x204.png 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-8-768x522.png 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Process-8.png 1445w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



With Offsight’s&nbsp;Estimation Dashboard&nbsp;feature set, we can automatically pull a plan and all associated labor costs including factory prefabrication and installation costs and pair this with the appropriate materials costs for that plan. We can then add in logistics costs which can include shipping, warehousing and delivery. These costs can be entered as a fixed cost per a vendor’s quote or as an overall percent of project costs to account for variability in price that can scale with a project&#8217;s complexity.&nbsp;







Once these final elements are added, Offsight’s&nbsp;Estimation Dashboard&nbsp;will provide a complete project cost breakdown for your prefab project along with a full project schedule and forecast. These documents can be included in active bids or for better internal or external alignment with project stakeholders. Furthermore, this will provide your prefab team with the tools needed to accurately bid on projects and advocate for prefabrication to meet the project objectives and goals.&nbsp;