The residential building industry is one of the largest and most important sectors of the U.S. economy.
After years of rapidly rising rents and prices of homes, housing affordability has become a great concern. Currently the cost of a manufactured housing (MH) unit is approximately 70% of the cost of a comparable site-built house (MHI 2003).
Manufactured houses offer an affordable alternative for the housing demand by meeting the expectation for cost-effective and quality homes. Despite the important role played by the MH industry in providing affordable housing, a questionnaire survey, personal interviews, and several visits to factories have demonstrated that the material control system used by the MH industry is still primitive in its equipment and use of modern techniques compared to other manufacturing industries (AbuHammad et al. 2002; Barriga 2003).