FrameTec Realizes the Potential of Prefab Framing with Dusty

FrameTec is a pioneer in bringing high-tech prefabrication to Type V construction, and Dusty translates the accuracy of their digital models to the jobsite. Precision-manufactured components plus accurate layout help FrameTec’s GC customers build significantly faster than with traditional stick-framing.

FrameTec's advanced manufacturing facility in Camp Verde, Arizona, is as high tech as they come. The highly automated plant prefabricates interior and exterior wall panels, floor trusses, and roof trusses. The company ships its components directly to construction sites. Then they provide onsite framing services — simplifying jobsite logistics and erecting buildings in days, rather than weeks. 

Prefab with Manual Layout Risks Costly Rework

“The first couple of houses we built with prefabricated panels were laid out manually by a framer in the field. But it’s easy for a framer to interpret a detail of the plans slightly differently from the designer — how two panels come together at a corner, say,” explains Josh Lewis, Chief Operations Officer at FrameTec. 

When stick-building, changes can be made on the fly to accommodate little differences between the plans and layout in the field. But that doesn’t work with prefab panels. They’ve already been made-to-measure to fit together precisely. So, “inaccuracy in laying out the plans onsite can easily lead to a disaster that can mean a lot of rework, which is expensive and time-consuming,” Josh continues.

Snapping out layout by hand carries other risks of human error too. “Imagine a foreperson gets distracted and writes the wrong panel number down on the slab. Or their 3 looks like an 8. The framing crew might put a wall panel in the wrong place and before you know it, the whole house doesn’t work.” Rework is time and money nobody wants to spend.

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Dave Everson is President of Mandalay Homes, one of the companies FrameTec works with. He explained, “The historical challenge has been to marry-up between site conditions and a refined deliverable from the factory. Dusty bridges this gap by incorporating the same digital files used by the factory to print the plans on the concrete slab, accurately and ready for the walls and trusses. We continued to print more and more information on the concrete for the other trades to follow, all from the same digital source. Rework will be a thing of the past as we continue to leverage this multi-trade layout approach and integrated system.”

So Easy a 12-year-old can Lay Out a House

Josh Lewis is a second-generation framer. He has fond memories of growing up helping his dad lay out houses with paper plan sets and a chalk box. “So it was bittersweet the first time I ran the robot. But construction needs to change. Refusal to change has been a big limiting factor in our industry.”

Realizing there had to be a better way than laying out plans manually was a light bulb moment for Josh. “We already had the digital plans — a single origin of truth. We just needed to get that design directly into the field, with no room for different interpretations, inaccuracy, or mistakes. Dusty clearly communicates the panel numbers and which way around they go, eliminating the risk of human error that would cause rework.”

And Josh says you don’t have to be a tech wizard to use the FieldPrinter. “My 12-year-old with Dusty is as effective as a 55-year-old with a chalk box,” he says. “My son can run the robot and lay out a house by himself. If I gave him a set of plans and some chalk, he wouldn’t know where to start.” 

"My 12-year-old with Dusty is as effective as a 55-year-old with a chalk box. My son can run the robot and lay out a house by himself. If I gave him a set of plans and some chalk, he wouldn’t know where to start.”

Josh Lewis

COO

Josh’s kids are excited by the robot, and they’re not unusual. Josh believes incorporating technology is crucial for enticing young people into the industry. “We need to embrace new ideas and move the industry forward,” he adds.

Using Dusty to print layouts directly from CAD files is both easy and accurate — and it saves time. “It used to take us 12-16 hours to manually lay out the plans for a 3,500 square foot size house for just the framing layout. Using Dusty, it takes 6-8 labor hours and we lay out every trade at once. With Dusty we can do double the work, more accurately than traditional layout.” 

Collaboration Speeds Up Construction

Josh is a great believer in teamwork and he does what he can to help trades down the line — and the GC. So he uses Dusty not just to lay out walls for his framing crew, but also to print the other trades’ layout. “With the FieldPrinter, I can show the plumber the center line of all his fixtures. That makes their life easier and it essentially eliminates the risk of a plumbing fixture interfering with where a wall panel’s supposed to go.”

Coordinating fixtures for a framing ahead of time, and then making sure those fixtures are accurately placed in the field per that plan, helps reduce FrameTec’s pickup time by 15x to 20x. (Pickup is the final detailed—and often corrective—work that a framer does before the drywall is hung. It includes the rework that often results when the framing and MEPs haven’t been well coordinated or are placed inaccurately, making it necessary for the framer to add extra members, block out, or make even bigger changes.)

“Our pickup might take 20 to 30 minutes per house. Most other framers do 8 to 10 hours of pickup on a single-family house. That’s a huge reduction in cycle time,” Josh says.

This eye-popping benefit is thanks to FrameTec’s precision manufacturing plus Dusty’s accurate multi-trade layout. Josh explains, “Because our plant is so highly automated, the computer modeling work is already done. We have the digital files showing the house layout — where every stud is, every HVAC register, every light. It’s a small step to drop the files into the Dusty printer, and run it on the jobsite to get the plans onto the slab.”

FrameTec Helps Homeowners Visualize Their Dream Home

Dusty helps FrameTec’s builder customers save time and money on every job. Framing is erected more quickly and more accurately, with less pickup time. And because trades are more coordinated, there’s less risk of rework. 

But there’s more. Having Dusty print accurate plans directly on the slab helps builders’ sales teams. “It's easy for those of us who work in construction every day to visualize a house from plans and measurements. It’s not so easy for homebuyers,” Josh says. After Dusty has printed the plan on the slab, “the builder’s sales team can walk their customers through the house so they can visualize the size of the kitchen, where the pantry will be, and so on.”

Homeowner satisfaction is critical to builders’ success and Josh says it’s a huge benefit for builders to give their customers confidence that the rest of the project will go smoothly. He adds, “We become partners of the GCs we work with, genuinely invested in the success of their projects, and they recognize that. Dusty has helped us forge those valuable partnerships.”

Josh knows collaboration and teamwork is key in construction overall, adding, “In my career, I've found that if you take really good care of your employees and your customers, then the P&L works itself out. Dusty helps my team deliver exceptional service to our customers, and at the end of the day that's what matters. To my mind, that's how you build generational companies.”

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Dave added, “When FrameTec shared their mission statement with Mandalay Homes, we couldn't wait for the first homes to get underway. The benefits that come from a factory-built 'repeatable and reliable environment is every builder's ideal. Additionally, our sales and marketing team fell in love with the process immediately and now use it as a tool to better help our customers understand their home and their selections. From door swings to light switches and from cabinets to ceiling fans our customers now get an exciting visual of their new home with ever greater confidence in us as building professionals.”

Dusty Helps FrameTec Grow and Win More Bids

“I’m already convinced it would be crazy not to use Dusty,” Josh says. The market reflects this enthusiasm. “I’m getting unsolicited phone calls from builders who’ve heard that we’re doing cool stuff to coordinate the trades and they want that on their jobsite.”

Josh says, “My bid hit rate is 100%, and Dusty plays a major role in that success. It’s not because I’m cheap. It’s because I’ve spent my life in the trades, I know what the customer’s pain points are, and I believe in working as a team to address those pain points. Dusty enables me to help the entire team building a house do a better, faster job.”

"I’m already convinced it would be crazy not to use Dusty. Dusty enables me to help the entire team building a house do a better, faster job.”

Josh Lewis

COO

FrameTec’s CEO, Kyle Brock, adds, “It’s easy to quantify the value that the Dusty Robotics system provides us in terms of saving time, but the overall benefit is invaluable to FrameTec. Dusty gives us a huge leg up on customer satisfaction and acceptance from all the other trades. Imagine a highly accurate 1:1 scale drawing on the floor with not only the framing layout, but layouts for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, appliances, cabinets, and more. Dusty identifies problems before they’re constructed and eliminates finger pointing.” 

FrameTec is a young, ambitious company that’s expanding fast. They’re now working on their first multi-story hotel project. Partnering the high quality of FrameTec’s components with the accuracy of the FieldPrint Platform means, as Josh puts it, “With FrameTec and Dusty, you get essentially the best-framed building possible. There’s no way to do it better.”