A decision support system for manufactured housing production process planning and facility layout.

摘要

Productivity improvement of manufactured housing (MH) production systems has been a great concern to manufacturers and production managers. The evaluation of the production system efficiency in the factory is essential for meeting the growing demand of customers with respect to design and size of the manufactured housing product (MH).; The purpose of this research is to resolve some of the problems of the MH production system. The problems of the existing system are identified in the master's thesis, Abu Hammad 2001, as follows: (i) process bottlenecks hindering productivity, (ii) unbalanced processes, and (iii) layout limitations to the production capacity. Moreover, a lack of technology is observed in the existing MH operations. Existing production systems employing the traditional production line have low throughput and are inefficient. This dissertation research explores alternative layout designs that are proven via simulation to be more efficient and productive. Additionally, an advanced MH production system employing recent theories in technology and manufacturing is addressed in this research.; The major contribution of this dissertation is to develop a decision support system (DSS), which provides the MH industry with an efficient tool to streamline the performance of existing MH facilities. This dissertation investigates the interrelation impact of multiple factors on the productivity of four modules: (i) market, (ii) factory, (iii) manufactured housing processes, and (iv) production system layout. The following objectives have been achieved in support of the stated goal: (1) Develop a streamlined MH process; (2) Develop optimization models to streamline the activities and predict relevant parameters; (3) Develop advanced layout designs employing recent theories in manufacturing (i.e., lean production theory).; The DSS provides assistance in the following decisions: (i) selecting an efficient system layout matching user requirements, (ii) streamlining activities and operations of the overall production system, and (iii) predicting the productivity and product sizes based on the organizational requirements. Finally, a feedback from the manufacturers has indicated that the DSS meets a crucial need for streamlining the system operations. The proposed DSS is a practical, simple, and accurate tool for scheduling and planning the operations, resources, and material requirements of the production system.