Innovating for a Better Future

How can the construction industry break free from traditional constraints and truly innovate? In this episode, live from Advancing Prefab 2025, Harriet Ingham of Holmes Solutions joins Todd Weyandt to explore how offsite construction and AI-driven workflows are changing the game.  

Key takeaways:

🔹 How prefab eliminates construction site limitations
🔹 Balancing standardization with customization in projects
🔹 The role of AI & robotics in construction efficiency
🔹 De-risking innovation & redefining failure in the industry
🔹 The power of collaboration & breaking down silos

🎧 Join us for a deep dive into how industry leaders are leveraging incremental innovation to drive big results!

Harriet Ingham is VP of Major Products at Holmes Solutions. She works to drive innovation in the industry through product research, development, and testing. Her background as a structural engineer, combined with experience in product design, enables her to lead projects that seek to improve material and labor efficiency through the design of new technologies.

TODD TAKES

1. Prefab Isn’t Just About Projects—It’s About Products: One of the biggest mindset shifts in prefabrication is moving from thinking about projects to thinking about products. Harriett emphasized that when you approach prefab as a repeatable, scalable product, you unlock massive efficiency gains and innovation potential. The key? Standardization and testing, because when you refine a product over time, you create something that’s smarter, faster, and more cost-effective.
2. Innovation Doesn’t Have to Be Big—It Just Has to Move the Needle: There’s a misconception that innovation means reinventing everything from the ground up, but Harriett made a great point—sometimes, the most powerful innovations are small, incremental changes. Whether it’s testing a new connection systemor adjusting workflows with data-driven insights, even the smallest refinements can lead to massive efficiency gains over time. Prefab isn’t about one giant leap—it’s about continuous improvement that keeps pushing the industry forward.
3. Collaboration is the Key to Making Prefab Work: Prefab can’t succeed in a vacuum—it requires early collaboration between all stakeholdersto truly optimize the process. Harriett highlighted that too often, construction teams are stuck in silos, only thinking about their piece of the puzzle. The projects that are winning in prefab are the ones where designers, contractors, and manufacturers sit at the same table from day one, ensuring seamless integration and shared success.

 

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Other Relevant Links:
Harriet’s LinkedIn
Holmes Solutions