Go/No-Go Why has manufacturing gotten dramatically cheaper for 200 years, and construction hasn't? Brian Potter of Construction Physics has spent years finding out.
Mar 12, 2026
Brian Potter, author and infrastructure fellow who studies construction productivity, explains why manufacturing fell in cost for 200 years but building has not. He traces interchangeable parts to SpaceX materials choices, examines prefab and Katerra’s struggles, and explores why scale, regulation, and variability keep construction expensive. The conversation ends by asking whether anything can realistically change.
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Katerra's Factory Housing Failure
- Potter joined Katerra expecting factory production to transform construction and make it as cheap as Ford made cars.
- Katerra raised billions, tried to mass-produce housing in factories, then burned money and went bankrupt, prompting his investigation.
Interchangeable Parts Enabled The Assembly Line
- Ford's Model T success depended crucially on true interchangeable parts and accurate machines, not just the moving assembly line.
- Interchangeability let repeatable, high-volume assembly because parts were identical without manual finishing.
Obsess Over The Idiot Index
- Modern efficiency gains come from obsessively reducing the idiot index (part cost vs raw material cost) and redesigning processes and materials.
- Examples: SpaceX rethought materials/welding; Tesla uses giant castings to eliminate assembly steps.