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="auto, (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="auto, (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="auto, (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

In this summary of our <a href="https://www.offsight.com/category/how-to-prefab-guides" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How To Guide For Prefab Leaders</a> we cover the crucial aspects involved in planning your projects for factory production and prefabrication. These posts will walkthrough the key aspects of staffing your prefab projects and then accurately planning your production to hit your schedule and delivery timelines. This series can be a great fit for contractors opening their first prefab plants or for established prefabricators looking to scale their projects and provide capacity and schedule visibility to project owners and stakeholders.



<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/Live-Nov-5-2-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1651" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-2-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-2-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-2-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-2-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Make the Case For Moving Projects Offsite With Accurate Costing and&nbsp;Planning</h2>



<a href="https://www.offsight.com/post/drive-projects-offsite-with-accurate-prefab-planning-forecasting-and-estimation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a>&nbsp;to read more.







<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/Live-Nov-5-3-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1652" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-3-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-3-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-3-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-3-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-3-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Planned Vs Actual: Managing Your Prefab and Making Adjustments to Meet Delivery Targets</h2>



<a href="https://www.offsight.com/post/the-how-to-guide-for-prefab-leaders-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a>&nbsp;to read more.



<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/Live-Nov-5-4-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1653" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-4-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-4-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-4-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-4-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Live-Nov-5-4-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Staffing Your Prefab Factory Correctly and Managing Labor Capacity</h2>



<a href="https://www.offsight.com/post/managing-capacity-and-hiring-for-prefab-projects" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a>&nbsp;to learn more.

In this summary of our How To Guide For Prefab Leaders we cover the crucial aspects involved in planning your projects for factory production and prefabrication

How Prefab Leaders Can Accurately Plan, Schedule and Forecast their Offsite Projects 

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="auto, (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="auto, (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="auto, (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="auto, (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="auto, (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

In this Live From the Floor case study, we summarize how speciality contractors leverage Offsight to plan their prefab projects and forecast their schedules based on their factory capacity and labor constraints. Offsight helps manage production, quality and rework directly from the shop floor and can be easily scaled across your multiple production lines or factories within your business and amongst project stakeholders.







<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/Live-Oct-28-2-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1629" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-2-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-2-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-2-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-2-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Planning Commercial Prefab Projects</h2>



<a href="https://www.offsight.com/post/how-valley-interior-systems-manages-their-prefab-project-lifecycle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a>&nbsp;to read more.







<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/Live-Oct-28-3-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1630" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-3-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-3-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-3-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-3-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-3-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Managing Prefabrication From the Shop Floor</h2>



<a href="https://www.offsight.com/post/how-specialty-contractor-pci-drives-roi-with-offsight" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a>&nbsp;to read more.







<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/Live-Oct-28-4-1024x573.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1631" srcset="https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-4-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-4-300x168.jpg 300w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-4-768x430.jpg 768w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-4-1536x859.jpg 1536w, https://cms.offsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Live-Oct-28-4-2048x1146.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Collaborating With Project Stakeholders</h2>







<a href="https://www.offsight.com/post/live-from-the-floor-durapods-uses-offsight-as-their-platform-for-commercial-projects-and-collaborating-with-onsite-contractors" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a>&nbsp;to learn more.

In this Live From the Floor case study, we summarize how speciality contractors leverage Offsight to plan their prefab projects and forecast their schedules based on their factory capacity and labor constraints. 

How Specialty Contractors Plan, Manage and Scale Their Prefab Operations With Offsight

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="auto, (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="auto, (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



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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. 



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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



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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.