Smorgon Steel
The Issue
The company wanted to understand where their light-weight steel beam product, which already had established success in certain applications in the Australian building market, might fit into the highly competitive U.S. residential housing market.
Our Approach
Home Innovation Labs used an integrated, multidisciplinary research approach for Smorgon. First, we conducted an extensive series of interviews and other qualitative research with home builders and distributors in major markets around the United States. We then combined the information gathered during that process with our decades of market data collection and analysis to identify relevant trends and likely opportunities. Finally, we applied our expertise in the code arena to determine the market path with the fewest barriers to integration and success.
Our Solution
Home Innovation Labs recommended that Smorgon market its light-weight steel beams for basement applications in the Northeastern United States. This seemed like a radical suggestion to the company initially – they don’t build basements in Australia, so it was unchartered territory for them.
The Result
Successful launch of product in the United States.
U.S. Department of HUD - Townhouse Accessibility Design Retrofits
The Issue
HUD identified a housing issue that was in need of some innovative solutions. Semi-detached and non-detached residential buildings -- e.g., townhomes and rowhouses -- typically have walk-up entries, narrow floorplans, and functionality spread between several levels of the home. This presents particular challenges for elderly and/or disabled residents when modifications are required to improve access, safety, and usability.
Our Approach
Home Innovation Research Labs, with our strong engineering and building science focus, along with experts from the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA), teamed to propose a multi-phase approach to creating practical and meaningful solutions to solve this issue. The team will draw from previous research, a literature review, focus groups, and an interdisciplinary advisory team of leading experts in the fields of universal design, accessibility, and aging-in-place to help bolster the depth of knowledge used to inform the project.
Our Solution
Based on our unique and interdisciplinary approach, HUD awarded the Home Innovation & IDeA Center team a three-year, $835,325.00 grant to (1) study the typical opportunities, needs, and solutions for retrofitting for accessibility in townhouses and rowhomes; (2) identify best practice solutions; and (3) develop construction guidance and ROI benchmarks. The primary deliverable is a plan book of specific and coordinated accessibility modifications to meet budget, construction, and geometry constraints unique to the target housing types.
Along the way to creating the plan book, Home Innovation will develop a set of prototype designs, construct them in our full-service testing laboratory, then bring in stakeholder groups to test and comment on solutions through an iterative process to ensure optimized final designs. This is where having an on-site market research facility, which overlooks our laboratory floor, as well as decades of market research expertise significantly benefits our clients.
The Result
This project is ongoing. Construction processes will be documented to support a Builder/Remodeler Guide, including a comprehensive set of specifications and a cost-benefit analysis for recommended design solutions. Already, the project has the support of AIA, NAHB through its Certified Aging-in-Place (CAPS) designation program, and more than a dozen other stakeholder groups. It is a vital next step in the mission to help our growing older and disabled populations continue to live in their homes safely, happily, and constructively.
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
The Issue
HUD created a program – the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing – aimed at eliminating barriers to foster faster change and widespread use of innovation in the residential construction industry. Getting the program up and running and making a difference in the real world presented numerous challenges for HUD staff in Washington, DC.
Our Approach
Home Innovation Labs, with our years of relevant experience and a strong connection to the housing industry, served as one of the lead technical partners for the PATH program, providing a range of services to HUD, including leadership support to the program in the PATH office. Home Innovation Labs was able to bring our real-world experience to bear so that the return on the government’s investment was practical and actionable information that builders and trade contractors could use and apply in their companies to improve the quality and affordability of housing.
Our Solution
We built an inventory of emerging technologies for builder consideration, we developed field evaluation and demonstration projects with builders across the United States, we created a technology road-mapping process for PATH, and we provided leadership support via Home Innovation staff working in the PATH office.
The Result
Over a five-year period, the National Academy of Sciences reported that the PATH program successfully supported activity at every stage of the technology development and diffusion continuum, from basic research and R&D through the various stages a technology goes through until it is successfully incorporated into the market. The key roles played by Home Innovation Labs – including the launch and maintenance of a comprehensive and unbiased information dissemination portal, the construction of small and large demonstration projects, and the development of a Technology Inventory – were key to the success of PATH. Home Innovation Labs bridged the gap between government and industry to help create an invaluable public/private partnership.
Bollinger Construction
The Issue
This framing company wanted to improve the efficiency of its operations and its profitability.
Our Approach
Home Innovation Labs refined the ISO 9000 quality management principles specifically for builders, trade contractors, and suppliers – resulting in our Home Innovation Quality Certified Builder & Trade Contractor Program (formerly called National Housing Quality/NHQ Certification). We provided quality training to Bollinger Construction so that the company could develop and implement its own custom quality management system.
Our Solution
The Quality Certified program developed and delivered by Home Innovation Research Labs includes a detailed array of requirements that provides companies with an outstanding quality management system to help them realize improved customer satisfaction, reduced callbacks, and an improved bottom line. A critically important element of the program for trade contractors is for the contractor to assume primary responsibility for the quality of its own work and not rely on the builder’s inspections to find mistakes. A Home Innovation Quality Certified Trade Contractor is responsible for job-ready, in-process, and job-complete inspections. Home Innovation provided oversight and support to company staff, and then performed an audit to ensure the company was adhering to its approved quality management system.
The Result
President Josh Bollinger reported that after implementing Home Innovation's quality program, the company’s first-time pass rate with code inspectors went from 63 to 97 percent consistently. Additionally, profitability increased nearly 10 percent, which represented the largest increase in the company’s history. Employee turnover decreased and the company expanded because of an increase in new clients.
