Belit CEO Barry Dixon participated in a panel discussion led by SBCA at the International Builders’ Show in early February. He says the NAHB Building Systems Council’s lounge was full of engaged attendees as the panel delved into “The Benefits of Turning Onsite Sticks into Offsite Framing.”
“The questions being asked really focused on supply chain issues,” Dixon says. “Regardless of where they were from, the builders in attendance were very engaged and interested in how to build better partnerships with their local supply chain to get more done off site.”
Dixon says it was encouraging to see such openness to forging partnerships along the construction supply chain, noting that he felt the market is truly collaborative for the first time in his 30-year career. “My sense from builders’ interaction with the panel is that they want to work through mutually beneficial solutions as much as component manufacturers do,” he says, “which makes it all a lot more fun.”
“Both the panel discussion and my experience at IBS in general this year confirmed that BeLit is on the right path,” Dixon explains. “Collaboration is the answer to so many of the questions being asked, an answer we’ve been working on across our family of companies for more than two decades.”
Barry Dixon joined a panel of component manufacturers at IBS 2022 to discuss the benefits of offsite framing with a room full of builders keen on finding solutions.
With roots in residential homebuilding and component manufacturing coupled with a leading-edge approach to architectural design and engineering, Dixon was able to address the current concerns of builders across the country from BeLit’s unique perspective.
“Every builder has different pain points, different problems to solve, and a different strategy for going to market,” says Dixon. “Reducing onsite framing with offsite solutions and automation can help ease many of the issues builders are experiencing right now. But if you don’t go about developing those solutions in a holistic and collaborative way, with a clear focus on the builder’s strategic plan, you will never really solve the fundamental problems.”
Dixon says his message boiled down to the need for builders to model their program in a collaborative environment where decisions are made based on data, not emotion.
“Certain supply chain issues, like capacity or lumber prices, will ebb and flow and resolve themselves over time,” says Dixon. “Making data-driven decisions to implement offsite solutions in a way that leads to less waste – of time, money, and materials – and a mindset of continuous improvement is the future of residential building.”
Dixon continues to be excited about the role BeLit will play in the future of the construction industry. He says that after a day of collaborating at IBS 2022 he is certain that hiring BeLit’s new Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) Project Manager “will be pivotal in the company’s quest to make the industry stronger and smarter.”