We call it "pre-fab" housing in the US and generally look on the results with disdain. But if you have ever spent time building a house, you know that a whole lot of mistakes are made in the field. The site-buillt house is more of a marketing image than a reality. It is much easier to control the quality in a factory than it is outside with a crew.
It seems to me that eventually pre-fab housing will really take off and once again, Toyota seems to be involved ahead of the curve. Read it yourself.
Toyota banking on famed production ways in housing business
KASUGAI, Japan — Cubicles that are bits of homes, tucked with stairways, built-in closets and pink bathtubs, roll off the assembly line at a bustling Toyota plant in central Japan — not the usual rows of shiny cars.
Kasugai Housing Works, a plant for prefabricated housing run by Toyota, prides itself on the same production methods that gave the Japanese automaker a reputation for quality and efficiency around the world. The plant was shown to reporters on a rare tour Wednesday.
Housing makes up less than 1 percent of Toyota's $183 billion annual sales. But company officials say technology acquired from years of making cars is central to homebuilding Toyota style.
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Toyota homes are mass produced like Toyota cars. About 85 percent of the work on the metal-frame cubicles is finished at the plant. The prefabricated cubicles, made to order for the customer, are stacked like toy blocks with a huge crane and topped with a roof in just six hours.
The cubicles called units vary in size, with the bigger ones measuring 20 feet long. An average Japanese home requires 12 units. A buyer chooses from several designs, ranging from sleek modern to standard fare with tiled roofing and balcony windows.
