Outsiders might have some solutions for one of Australia’s most serious and persistent problems: Housing.
Housing is one of Australia’s biggest issues.
Right now, it’s far too expensive and there’s not enough of it. And federal and state governments appear to be struggling with how to fix this situation.
Solving Australia’s housing problem is no longer a worn-out election promise. It passed that point long ago. It’s now a worrying wound that won’t heal and it’s evident our leaders don’t know what to do.
The way out of this bog probably won’t be found in the housing sector’s book of answers.
And we need answers quickly.
One reason this is such a major national issue is time. It took a long time to get to this point and it will take time to solve it to some workable level. This time is precious because an Australian generation or three might never get the chance to own their own homes.
ABC journalist Alan Kohler says housing prices have grown from around 4 times annual income (25 years ago) to 9 times annual income, showing how house prices have sprinted ahead while wages and productivity growth have just strolled.
It appears we also don’t have enough housing stock, causing a supply / demand / high-price problem that won’t go away any time soon. Kohler says Australia’s Housing Accord target is 1.2 million dwellings over five years, or 240,000 per year. That’s a lot.
The ABC has also looked into how Australia builds its houses and suggested prefabricated housing is worth considering. Fans of the UK TV show Grand Designs will know that the factory-built German Huf House is a clever and practical solution.
It’s just like a CKD (completely knocked down) new-car assembly. The major pieces are made in a factory and shipped to the final site to be put together.
There are so many benefits to making major components in factories.
For example, not every employee needs to be a tradesperson, unlike stick-building a house on a building site.
One of the many beauties about industrialised assembly line production is processes. And given how complex new cars are, the automotive industry is arguably the best at this. Pre-fab and factory-manufactured houses can help bypass the current ‘tradie shortage’ and get things built faster.
The car industry is also an answer book for productivity. Want to know how to project-manage thousands of pieces into mass-produced finished products that meet a millimetre-tight business case, even 10 years from now? Just ask a major automaker.
Want to know how to coordinate millions of moving pieces in a factory to make complex products without stocking the necessary parts on a shelf? The car industry calls this Just in Time and Just in Sequence production. We’ve been using it for decades.
The global and local automotive industries are a benchmark for project management. It’s deeply evolved in terms of consolidation and efficiency, not to mention accuracy and quality.
So, if the leaders of the country want to increase productivity and increase supply of housing, ask the auto industry for some how-to insights. They work.
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