Lean Factory Design
Executive Summary:
Researchers provided technical assistance in the design of two of the nation’s newest modular home factories. The research team incorporated lean manufacturing principles in the designs, making the new factories more flexible, responsive, and efficient. To test these concepts, researchers developed a computer simulation model of the proposed new factory. Innovations included supersize drywall, replacement of drywall screws with foam adhesive in walls, industrial manipulators and mechanized material bridges, pairwise line movement, off-line roofing and ceiling drywall, and specialized off-line customization bays.
In addition to the new facilities, this research has led to an overall approach for designing a new modular manufacturing facility and several conceptual design tools that support the design effort:
Generic modular manufacturing process map – identifies typical value-added production activities and positions them on a production time/space axis [download generic process map]
Taxonomy of production flow concepts for modular manufacturing [download presentation showing flow concepts (11MB)]
3. Generic modular manufacturing simulator that facilitates rapid development of simulation models.
Technical Reports & Papers:
Nasereddin, M. and M. Mullens, “Automated Simulator Development: A Strategy for Modeling Modular Housing Production”, Automation in Construction. Accepted for publication 4/14/06Nasereddin, M., M. Mullens, D. Cope, “The Development of A Reusable Simulation Model for the Modular Housing Industry Using ProModel and Visual Basic,” Industrial Engineering Research ‘02 Conference Proceedings, Orlando, May, 2002.
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