When there is cost savings, it’s often because a prefabricator can locate their operation in a place with low-cost labor, and ship it to a place with high-cost labor. Modular manufacturer Autovol is able to manufacture modules in their Utah factory (where labor costs are low), and ship them to California (where on-site labor costs would be high). Stack Modular uses a similar business model, manufacturing modules in China and shipping them to the western US and Canada. But this requires a substantial labor price differential, and the high costs of transporting large, bulky prefabricated building components means that there’s a limited number of places where this strategy works.