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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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August 2021 #13265 Page #142
The Last Word on... CM Disruption Joe Kannapell, P.E.
s component manufacturing ripe for disruption? Two foreign-backed entities came to our shores and tried to do just that for six years: Katerra with billions and Blueprint Robotics with many millions. Both were going to teach us how to build better, but with entirely different approaches. Out West, Katerra took on vastly more than just building components. In the East, Blueprint took a component-centric approach, but with a European bent.
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Today both are shut down, although Blueprint is hanging on. But their demise wasn’t because they picked the wrong place or time or didn’t invest enough money. Katerra picked Phoenix, with 25,000 new residents arriving every year. Blueprint picked the Baltimore-DC-Northern Virginia metro area with even more in-migration. And their timing was prescient. Housing starts would increase by 40% during their tenure. It seemed the ideal environment for start-ups. But not so for these two would-be players. The Katerra fiasco has been well documented but was foreshadowed by the former CEO’s observation that, “The building business is stupid.” That naivety belies the complexity that CMs face, as characterized by “Builders Daily” post-mortem, “People in residential construction – taught, wizened, successful, chastened, humbled, and experienced – know in their hearts, however, that Katerra’s failure was not financial. It was operational…its operators on the real messy ground of assembly tables, sophisticated CNC cutting machinery, and real estate development met more than their match…the nexus of design, engineering, and assembly can be imagined to be simpler than it really is.”* In other words, CMs know what they’re doing. Though it isn’t rocket science, it takes proven systems, it takes time, and it isn’t easy. The Blueprint story is a lot different but involves some of the same hubris. On these pages I have written favorably of their potential, with their unique Baltimore Harbor location adjacent to the massive Amazon Fulfillment Center complex.** I was impressed with their latest generation Hundegger/Randek automation equipment, logo-emblazoned trucks, sky-lifts, and uniforms. I began to give credence to the now-fateful words of their German equipment representative, “You
*The Builders Daily, June 2, 2021 by John McManus, “RIP Katerra: A Bold Play That Failed to Get a Real-World Footing” **The CM Advertiser, February 2017, “German Robotics in U.S. Housing,” and July 2019, “The Last Word on The Second Wave of Automation?” PHONE: 800-289-5627
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