Habitat for Humanity Canada Announces Successful First Test of New Home-Building Technology

For Immediate Release

Waterloo, Ontario, July 15, 2006 -- Habitat for Humanity Canada is pleased to announce the successful first test of a new technology which the non-profit organization intends to offer to Affiliates throughout Canada.  In partnership with Logicap Engineering Corp. of Cambridge, Ontario, Habitat for Humanity Canada has taken a revolutionary step toward improving productivity in house construction.  The test entailed rapid, detailed engineering of wood-framed wall panels for assembly into a complete 4-bedroom bungalow.

On May 13, 2006 under the supervision of Terry Probert, Construction Superintendent for the Greater Vancouver Society of Habitat for Humanity Canada, eight volunteers from Schneider Electric built wall panels for a Bayou model home.  Using a detailed engineering design package generated by Logicap's NeXtreme CAD Automation software system, the team fabricated 12 softwood frames in one day.  The experiment underscored Habitat for Humanity Canada's determination to increase efficiency and volunteer participation in building homes for the world's less fortunate.  The day's activity was rated as very successful because the volunteers were able to work virtually unsupervised while delivering high quality product in record time.

A month later the house was assembled by Habitat volunteers in the plaza of the Vancouver Pan Pacific Hotel on June 20, 2006 for display during the World Urban Forum which drew nearly 10,000 visitors to the city.  Again, detailed engineering documentation made the process so straightforward that the job was accomplished in a few hours.  A week later the house was disassembled and shipped by truck to Louisiana to help in rebuilding the U.S. Gulf Coast area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina of August 2005.

David Hughes, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Canada, said "Our donors want to see action and efficiency as our organization builds homes around the country.  This development enables us to give volunteers a heart-warming experience while they perform at a productivity level comparable to experienced framing tradesmen."  Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the National Office is currently introducing sweeping reforms to transform the traditional process of house-building into a lean manufacturing operation.

Terry Probert remarked on the benefits of the new technology, noting "I was very pleased.  Our crew were very impressed, they found the documentation easy, and they were highly productive."  Volunteers working on the project that day also praised Habitat for Humanity Canada for its willingness to adopt new approaches to make the work more enjoyable and satisfying.  All of this effort is directed at building affordable, high-quality houses for less fortunate families throughout North America.

About Habitat for Humanity Canada
Habitat for Humanity is an independent, charitable, faith-based housing program dedicated to the elimination of poverty housing by building homes in partnership with families in need.  The organization builds simple, decent, and affordable houses and provides interest-free mortgages to families who would otherwise not be able to purchase their own home.  The Habitat program is about home ownership and providing a long-term solution designed to break the poverty cycle.

About Logicap Engineering
Logicap is the developer of NeXtreme CAD, a web-based enterprise application enabling non-technical people to drive complex design and pre-production processes without engineering assistance.  Product specifications are used to generate a precise full-scale 3D digital prototype from which all technical documentation is extracted for visualization, price quotation, and to guide fabrication.  NeXtreme records Bills of Materials and Process Plans in external databases to drive procurement and manufacturing planning, eliminating time-consuming and costly clerical functions.  Applying this cost-saving technology to the housing industry is a natural extension of Logicap's success in serving traditional manufacturing markets.