The Future Is Now: Raghi Iyengar of ViZZ Technologies On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

You Never Know What Will Trigger Industry-Wide Disruption. The need for remote teams and easy collaboration during COVID spurred on years of digital transformation in just months across the industry. As teams could not return to the field and had to remain quarantined indefinitely, the need for offsite construction was significant. This was something no one could have predicted, but there’s always the chance that a significant event or moment in time can be the impetus for real change.

As a part of our series about cutting edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Raghi Iyengar.

Raghi Iyengar is the President of ViZZ and Manufacton, DSi-Digital-owned AEC software providers. With more than 30 years of experience in the construction technology profession, Raghi has led several software initiatives towards the development of the Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) process and helped bring building information modeling (BIM) into construction.

Raghi became founder of Manufacton in 2014 to bring the best of manufacturing to construction. As an industrial engineer, working closely with general contractors, trade contractors and modular builders, Raghi has been at the forefront of the global AEC supply chain transformation towards Industrialized Construction.

Prior to Manufacton, Raghi served as the Senior Product Line Manager for Construction at Autodesk, where he led initiatives around construction modeling with Revit, acquisition of Navisworks and several cloud/mobile startups that are now part of the collaborative construction application called BIM 360.

Beyond his work at Autodesk, Raghi also led software initiatives to support construction, operations & maintenance, and materials management at Intel’s factories worldwide as Program Manager. During his tenure at Intel, Raghi was also Technical Advisor to the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford University, where he funded research for VDC.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was exposed to the construction industry early in my childhood due to my family being involved in the sector, which fostered my interest in the process of constructing buildings. This ultimately led to me becoming an industrial engineer with a specific interest in optimizing processes for the industry. I spent the first ten years of my career at Intel learning everything about manufacturing, the supply chain, factory operations and more. And I helped optimize business processes by implementing technologies at factories worldwide to improve efficiencies. Then, armed with lessons and experiences from Intel, I set out on a goal that I had since the late 1980s: make construction as efficient as manufacturing, something we are doing at Manufacton by ViZZ Technologies. It is thrilling to now be in the middle of the transformation of the construction industry.

Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthrough you are working on?

Construction is moving from field to factory and it’s vital that stakeholders have real-time, accurate and complete control, visibility and transparency into their projects. They’ll need to know who is building what, when, where and how far they are in their respective processes and factories. This is where Manufacton comes in. We are a SaaS platform for materials and inventory management, offsite production and onsite installation of building components. We are the offsite construction platform for tomorrow’s buildings.

How do you think this might change the world?

Our offsite construction platform allows the industry to build better, faster, cheaper and greener. In addition, by taking processes offsite, we can accelerate innovation by applying best-in-class manufacturing processes, helping to lay the groundwork for future innovation in the sector for decades to come.

This is especially significant because, as shared in a recent McKinsey study, the construction sector’s annual productivity growth over the last 20 years has only increased by 1%, which is devastating growth when you consider the fact that industries like manufacturing experienced a 1,500% productivity growth over the same period. Clearly, it’s time the construction industry takes cues from those leading the way in terms of productivity, which is why we are optimizing offsite processes to accelerate disruption in the sector and see real growth in productivity and efficiency.

Offsite construction has other significant benefits, including aiding in the affordable housing crisis currently being felt across the United States by shortening project timelines and reducing construction costs.

Another benefit of modular construction is that it addresses the ongoing skilled labor shortage in the field. Rather than facing difficult and sometimes unsafe conditions at a jobsite, employees can work in factories which provide a safer and climate-controlled environment.

Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?

Over the past decade,I witnessed an increasing number of conversations in the industry around prefabrication and modular construction. Innovative construction companies aspired to become building manufacturers as an answer to improving productivity. This changing sentiment was the tipping point leading to creation of the Manufacton platform.

What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?

As they say in “Crossing the Chasm,” offsite construction is moving from Innovators to Early Adopters, and we’re a step away from penetration with the Early Majority. Even though this is a huge industry, it’s a small world with a vast amount of potential. And, while there are so many players in the sector, due to the nature of the work we do and the need for partnerships on projects, it can often feel small — like a tight-knit community. Because of this, word-of-mouth and awareness among the industry are key for the widespread adoption of Manufacton.

None of us can achieve success without help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?

A person who has truly mentored and advised me throughout my career is Dr. Paul Teicholz, professor emeritus of civil engineering at Stanford University. I met Paul in the fall of 2018 when I first joined Intel as a young engineer. This same year, Paul started the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford, and I led the charge on Intel becoming a member of the research center. I served as an advisor to CIFE for ten years, and Paul has been my mentor ever since. He asked me to think of the entire construction lifecycle, to think about how the industry would benefit from better processes and better building. Notably, one of his biggest pieces of advice was, “Don’t be afraid to attack difficult problems.” This helped me to think bigger and led to the founding of Manufacton.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

With Manufacton, we can truly improve the lives of those in the construction industry and far beyond. As mentioned, by taking teams from the field to the factory, we improve their quality of life. Instead of working in dangerous weather or conditions, teams are inside manufacturing facilities in climate-controlled environments listening to music and chatting with coworkers.

Beyond the industry, by optimizing offsite construction with our platform, we also help make our sector more sustainable. For example, as we shift the construction industry towards manufacturing principles, we reduce waste because materials that might normally be discarded onsite can be reused for other projects, ensuring they do not become debris. Similarly, teams can ensure they are ordering the accurate number of needed materials and optimize processes to limit waste with modular construction.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why.

Thinking back to my earliest days exploring the construction industry to today, there are certainly a few things that I learned that I wish I knew earlier. They are:

1. Trust Your Instincts. While I was at Arizona State University, I honed in on construction systems concentration for my master’s in industrial engineering, while my peers were pursuing CAD/CAM and operations research. At the time, they expressed their opinions that it was a mistake. But, thirty-five years later, and construction remains my life’s work.
2. Aspirational Goals are Possible. When I first wondered, “can construction be more like manufacturing?” it seemed like a moonshot goal. And even though it has been a 30-year journey to get to where we are today, I wish someone had told me that this seemingly impossible goal would be possible.
3. Take the Leap. When I decided to leave Autodesk and found Manufacton, I first broke the news to Paul Teicholz, a pioneer for the construction industry and co-author of the BIM Handbook. After telling me that it would be a difficult pathway to disrupt the sector, he also explained that my experiences, knowledge, and passion made me the perfect person for the job. I was lucky enough to have someone give me a final push to take this leap, but I wish that others ready to challenge the status quo had someone in their corner to give the boost in courage they need.
4. Give the Industry Time to Catch Up to You. When I first started Manufacton, there were only a few innovators ready to transform the sector and apply the principles of manufacturing to construction. “Crossing the chasm” takes time, and we’re still focused on driving adoption of offsite technology to optimize the industry.
5. You Never Know What Will Trigger Industry-Wide Disruption. The need for remote teams and easy collaboration during COVID spurred on years of digital transformation in just months across the industry. As teams could not return to the field and had to remain quarantined indefinitely, the need for offsite construction was significant. This was something no one could have predicted, but there’s always the chance that a significant event or moment in time can be the impetus for real change.

Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

Construction is moving from field to factory in order to overcome decades of inefficiency and low productivity Manufacton’s SaaS platform Optimizes materials and inventory management, offsite production and onsite installation. Our goal is to make construction projects faster, cheaper, safer and greener.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.