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

对于中小企业来说，产品线的多样化对他们的生存越来越重要。然而，在现有生产线上增加新产品需要在现有生产线的背景下进行仔细的规划，即避免降低其产量，更重要的是现有的设施布局，即有效地共享空间和设备。因此，该项目的目的是提高现有装配线的生产效率，该装配线是为一种新型产品开发的。然而，这次调查并不是仅仅关注一个项目，即生产线，而是将范围扩大到包括设施的布局。当然，由于其他产品的存在，任何布局的改变都需要从其对整个生产的影响来理解。因此，为了实现高效的制造过程，必须对设备、制造过程和员工（后者不在本项目范围内）进行多次（可能相关的）分析。这项研究将允许开发一种综合方法，通过设计创新的操作程序来提高模块化建筑制造性能，以支持自动化机械的实施，并结合优化工厂布局设计的物流规划，将ATCO的操作从传统的模块化“屋顶下的棒状建筑”转变为真正的工业化制造操作。

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.