Designing an effective facility layout to improve the flow of a modular construction assembly line

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Diversification of the product line of small to medium companies is becoming increasingly crucial for their survival. However, adding new products to the existing ones needs to be carefully planned in the context of the existing production line, i.e. avoid decreasing its throughput, and more importantly the current facility layout, i.e. efficient sharing of space and equipment. As a result, the aim of this project is to improve the production efficiency of an existing assembly line which was developed for a new type of products. However, rather than focusing solely on a single item, i.e. the production line, this investigation extends the scope to include the layout of the facility. Of course, because other products exist, any change of the layout needs to be understood in terms of its impact on the whole production. As such, to achieve an efficient manufacturing process, it is imperative to conduct multiple (possibly correlated) analyses focusing on the facility, the fabrication process, and the employees (the latter being outside the scope of this project). This study will allow for the development of an integrated methodology to improve modular construction manufacturing performance by designing innovative operational procedures to support automated machinery implementation and incorporating logistical planning for optimised plant layout design, transforming ATCO's operation from conventional modular "stick-building under a roof" to a true industrialised manufacturing operation.