On June 17th, Dog Eat Hog touched down at the “first of its kind” Autovol pre-fab building factory in Nampa to hear tips on how to crush it from the visionary CEO and cofounder, Rick Murdock. Rick gave us a field guide to being a game-changing solutioneer—as seen through the lens of his work in affordable housing.

Affordable housing is a pressing issue nationwide. Over 33% of Americans say the lack of affordable housing prevents them from living near their jobs. As Rick says, “We can no longer see housing primarily as a financial instrument or investment vehicle, but as a basic human right!” So he asked, why is the construction industry still painstakingly doing everything by hand?

Automated volumetric construction exists in every major manufacturing category (think: making vehicles) except for the housing industry. Due to high labor costs over extended timeframes, it costs more to build one affordable two-bedroom apartment in a Northwest city than to buy a comparable home in the US. The solution of prefab construction opens up breakthroughs in time, cost, and quality. Machines can do the heavy-lifting that often injures or shortens the careers of construction workers, and the end result can be consistently superior.

Autovol is the home of the solutioneer: “A person who is among the first to explore, design, and rebuild innovative ways to solve problems that overcome new challenges and situations.”

Rick’s 5 tips to being a solutioneer:

#1: Be passionate about what you do, why you do it and who you do it for.

#2: Be real, not rude. And think of people as people, not workers or customers.

#3: Don’t accept “that’s the way it’s always been done” as an answer.

#4: Make breakthroughs in time, cost, and quality.

#5: Collaborate with others, use creative ingenuity, and invent solutions to improve lives around the world.