Posted June 15, 2020

MARYVILLE, Tenn., June 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Clayton Home Building Group®, a leading builder of off-site and site-built homes, collaborated with the University of Tennessee's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering to help innovate the off-site home building process and improve Clayton's team member experience through research-based learning. This dynamic partnership is part of Clayton's broader commitment to make homes more attainable for home buyers across America by incorporating advanced automation and robotics into the off-site construction process that improve efficiencies and reduce costs.

"Our country is experiencing a widespread need for quality, affordable housing solutions," said Rick Boyd, President of Clayton Manufacturing. "At the same time, we are continuously researching ways to reduce labor stress for our valued team members. Automating processes and integrating robotics in our current production not only lessens the physical burden, but also enhances safety and improves efficiency. By testing and incorporating the latest available technology into our construction processes, we hope deliver innovative and attainable solutions to more home buyers."

In early 2018, UT engineering faculty and students began conducting research over multiple three-week periods at Clayton Rutledge in East Tennessee, one of the company's 40 off-site home building facilities nationwide. By using wearable activity trackers and analyzing hours of video, the students were able to compare value-added to non-value-added tasks for each team member throughout their day and offer solutions to create better use of time and labor efforts.

"My experience with Clayton had a positive impact on two aspects of my life— problem-solving and relationship management," said Abhay Bajpai, a Graduate Research Assistant at UT. "Through our research and collaboration, we were able to understand the production process, as well as provide solutions to problems and constraints they were experiencing. The relationships we built with the team members were crucial in our methods for an overall sustainable process improvement."

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