Talk:Katerra
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NYT article indicates Katerra is more than merely an "offsite construction company"
[edit]From https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/business/dealbook/katerra-softbank-vision-fund.html:
<<In Katerra, the Vision Fund and other investors — they include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Soros Fund Management — are backing a start-up that is approaching the $12 trillion construction industry in a new way. The company’s founders include Michael Marks, a former chief executive of the electronics company now known as Flex; Jim Davidson, a founder of Silver Lake, the technology investment firm; and Fritz H. Wolff, the executive chairman of the Wolff Company, the real estate private equity firm.
Katerra, which has its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., is essentially a one-stop shop for buildings, from architectural design through the actual construction. It obtains the materials itself and creates components at its factory in Phoenix. It has formed a network of suppliers around the world.
Not every project makes use of all of Katerra’s suite of offerings. The Union South Bay residential apartment complex in Carson, Calif., for example, is being built by Katerra from a design created by Architects Orange.
The idea, according to Mr. Marks, is to approach construction more like a factory run by Toyota, which is known for efficient mass production, rather than the current method of assembling disparate components in a less organized fashion. The business model has similarities to that of the electronics industry, which Mr. Marks and one of the company’s biggest investors, Foxconn, know well.
The idea is to not have every building be a one-off prototype, the company says.
“It’s shocking how poorly things work,” Mr. Marks said of the construction industry in a telephone interview. He added, “There’s a lack of quality processes throughout the system.”
By contrast, Katerra’s approach, he contends, allows clients to save money and erect buildings like offices and multifamily homes more quickly.>>
Frappyjohn (talk) 05:42, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
Introduction Inadequacies + Dead Links
[edit]Just wanted to leave a quick note here for any further improvements to this article, since I don't know much about the topic at hand but did notice:
- reading through the introduction to this article leaves the reader with a slew of vaguely connected details, but not much about what the company did, how it came to be, etc.
- initial flow of the introduction was also rough and had a few grammar issues, and even after I've attempted to patch a few of the grammar issues it doesn't read quite right
- since the company has now stopped operating, all sourced links to their website katerra.com cannot be verified
- for the purposes of clarity the article could be separate the Operations section into a description of the company, its business model, etc. and a separate "Decline" section or similar describing its bankruptcy and collapse