One advantage might be that you could have all the materials delivered in one go from a single supplier (a concrete manufacturer), instead of having multiple deliveries from different places for the different materials (brick, concrete, cement, rebar, etc).
All materials are delivered to the prefab factory, in bulk, the prefab house is assembled complete in about a week (including internal finish), and the house is delivered in a single delivery.
If you locate your prefab factories along convenient bulk shipping routes (railroads, rivers, canals) and order houses from the closest factory, you've reduced your shipping costs considerably.
the problem is that prefab houses are not very hurricane / tornado proof. A good cement printed house could be made to withstand a lot better conditions. I think this is something very important for the future.
I do really like this idea. I believe something like this, with some prefab parts that are automatically mounted could really get us one step closer to something like what Jacque Fresco envisioned http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacque_Fresco. I especially like his automated building tech which could combine prefab with foundations etc being built by a machine like this.
http://thevenusproject.com/technology/construction
There are shoddy prefab homes and good prefab homes and shoddy custom builds and good custom builds.
This manufacturer says No Manufactured Home built to the new Florida Building Codes implemented in 1999 went down in any of the hurricanes of 2004-2005.
That's just the first interesting link I found searching on "hurricane double wide", and of course it is promotional, but what is important is whether the building is built to stand up to the storm.
I agree about labor though.