Learning from Fires That Friction Creates

Fresh Eyes on Modular By: Jorie Wisnefski

I learned about Wright’s Law this week from Regan Robertson, and I immediately saw how it applies to modular construction.

Someone else has already tested the idea inside a modular construction factory.

Wright’s Law describes a simple relationship: as cumulative production increases, the resources required to produce each additional unit tend to decrease. People learn. Processes improve. Technology gets refined. Mistakes get eliminated.

Those of us who are parents call it, Learning by Doing.

A 2023 study, Identification of Learning Effects in Modular Construction Manufacturing, analyzed production data from an actual modular factory. Researchers found that production time generally decreased as cumulative production increased. In the factory they studied, production time dropped from more than 190 days to around 120 days during the mass production of 149 modular units.

That's a great example of learning through repetition.

Doing something repeatedly isn't necessarily the same as learning from it.

We learn when something doesn't work.

A delay. A material shortage. A scheduling problem. A workaround everyone has just accepted. A module sitting in a yard because the next step in the process isn't ready.

Those moments create friction.

And we tend to try to eliminate friction.

But we should also see friction as information.

Innovation lives in friction.

However, recognizing a problem doesn't change a single thing. There has to be awareness that a change is needed, a willingness to change it, knowledge of the right innovation, application of that knowledge, and tenacity for the new approach.

Learning doesn't become innovation until it changes what happens.

That's an interesting lesson for modular construction because friction doesn't happen in just one place.

A purchasing decision can create a production problem. A production decision can create a transportation problem. A transportation delay can affect the jobsite. A foundation issue can waylay a finished module.

Everyone may understand their own piece of the process well, but are we capturing what the friction is teaching us about the whole process?

Modular has an enormous opportunity right there.

If we're going to scale the industry, we shouldn't just focus on building more. We should be getting better at turning experience into knowledge and, therein, knowledge into better processes.

What we’re learning from those problems is part of the thinking behind the conversation Gary Fleisher and I are putting together for our October summit in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. We’re bringing together people who understand different points across the process—from ERP and purchasing through manufacturing, transportation, foundations and the jobsite—to talk honestly about what drives them crazy in their own part of the process, how they’ve worked around it, and where they’re still looking for better answers.

Register for the October 28 Roundtable

The idea isn’t that no one has the definitive solution. It’s that someone else in the room may have seen the problem from a different angle, tried something that could help, or have an idea worth exploring. We’re hoping to create a space where people can troubleshoot and think through the problems together.

The goal isn't to talk about innovation in the abstract.

It's to look at the friction, understand what the fire is telling us, and see what we can learn from it.

Because if Wright's Law is right, experience should make us better.

And we have to make sure we're really learning from it.

Jorie Wisnefski

** Repetition can make us better, but only if we learn from the problems we encounter. In modular construction, friction between different parts of the process can reveal opportunities to improve. Gary Fleisher and Jorie Wisnefski’s October summit will bring modular construction people together to share those problems, compare what they've tried, and brainstorm better solutions.