Manufactured Home Builder Taps Amazon for its First VP Manufacturing Technology

Troy, MI—Skyline Champion Corporation (NYSE: SKY) named Dr. Roland Menassa its first VP Manufacturing Technology. He served as principal and senior manager – Advanced Technologies at Amazon.

The newly created position focuses on innovation, deployment of robotics, advanced automation, process controls, and innovation in material handling systems. Skyline Champion employs 7,700 people at 40 manufacturing sites in the production of finished homes, including kitchen and bath cabinetry, flooring, doors and windows, in an enclosed factory setting.

“We look forward to the expertise that he brings to our organization as we continue to transform the way homes are bought and built,” says Skyline Champion CEO Mark Yost. “Automating the future will help us improve employee safety and engagement, and further enhance our sustainability and cost advantages. With him in this role, we can drive the legacy homebuilding industry forward.”

Based on demographic profiles, Yost anticipates manufactured homes will be the most affordable option and a better match for the newest wave of first-time home buyers entering the market.

At Amazon, Menassa led the development and deployment of advanced robotics across the fulfillment enterprise. Menassa also served as the leader of the General Electric Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center where he was responsible for advanced technologies, automation, and robotics.

Prior to General Electric, Menassa held growing roles at General Motors which culminated in becoming the company’s Technical Executive and General Motors Fellow – Flexible Manufacturing Systems. In addition to his professional development, Menassa has received numerous awards for innovation and automation from General Motors, General Electric, and NASA, with over 100 patent filings in the flexible manufacturing-related areas and holds a Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Mechanical Engineering.

Skyline Champion Corporation (NYSE: SKY) is the largest independent, publicly traded, factory-built housing company in North America and employs approximately. With almost 70 years of homebuilding experience and 40 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and western Canada, Skyline Champion is well positioned with a leading portfolio of manufactured and modular homes, ADUs, park-models and modular buildings for the single-family, multi-family, hospitality, senior and workforce housing sectors.

In addition to its core homebuilding business, Skyline Champion operates a factory-direct retail business, Titan Factory Direct, with 18 retail locations spanning the southern United States, and Star Fleet Trucking, providing transportation services to the manufactured housing and other industries from several dispatch locations across the United States.

Skyline Champion builds homes under some of the most well-known brand names in the factory-built housing industry including in the U.S. Skyline Homes, Champion Home Builders, Genesis Homes, Athens Park Models, Dutch Housing, Excel Homes, Homes of Merit, New Era, Redman Homes, ScotBilt Homes, Shore Park, and Silvercrest, and in Western Canada Titan Homes, and Moduline and SRI Homes.

BACK TO NEWS