Improving design and scheduling process for prefabrication of light gauge steel (LGS) panelized walls

模块化（场外或预制）建筑行业因其环保的施工过程、施工速度和以具有成本竞争力的价格减少废物而得到越来越广泛的认可。在这方面，模块化建筑提供了高水平的建筑灵活性，例如基于项目要求的墙壁、地板和屋顶面板或组件（单元或容器）。为了充分利用这些优势，模块化建筑公司需要为非现场制造和现场运营制定组织良好的调度。这些措施使模块化建筑商能够在不牺牲安全性的情况下不断改进其生产流程。为了通过消除流程浪费来提高生产率，可以使用各种工具（如精益、模拟和可视化）重新设计生产流程、设施布局、劳动力管理和物料搬运。此外，一个良好的设计系统（即，工作场所和制图）不仅可以减少受伤的风险，从而通过提高安全性提高施工过程的效率，而且还可以减少浪费（例如，材料浪费和非增值活动），从而提高工厂生产线的生产率。然而，由于缺乏基于模块的管理系统，许多制造业建筑公司面临以下挑战：（1）任务持续时间的变化很大;（2）生产线上的生产过剩和不平衡;以及（3）每个工作站的工人表现变化。为了克服这些挑战，研究小组期望以下好处：（1）通过开发基于日常的生产调度系统来提高生产率，该系统将连续流和拉动流的概念与模拟和优化相结合，以管理生产过程和资源;（2）通过开发面向模块的智能设计系统来减少浪费;（3）通过设计一个工业卫生模型来提高工人的工作绩效，主要集中在设计工作程序和工作场所，基于噪声和人机工程学分析。

The modular (off-site or prefabricated) construction industry is becoming more widely recognized for its environmentally-friendly construction process, speed of construction, and waste reduction at cost-competitive prices. In this respect, modular construction provides a high level of construction flexibility, such that wall, floor, and roof panels or components (units or containers), based on project requirements. To capitalize on these benefits, modular construction companies need to develop well-organized scheduling for both offsite manufacturing and on-site operations. Such measures allow modular builders to continuously improve their production processes without sacrificing safety. To increase productivity by eliminating process waste, production processes, facility layout, workforce management, and material handling can be redesigned using various tools such as lean, simulation, and visualization. In addition, a well-built design system (i.e., workplace and drafting) can reduce not only the risk of injury, thereby boosting the efficiency of the construction process through improved safety, but also waste (e.g., material waste and non-value-added activities) leading to improve the productivity of the factory line. However, due to the lack of modular-based management systems, many manufacturing construction companies have the following challenges: (1) a wide variation in task durations; (2) overproduction and unbalance on the production line; and (3) a variation of worker performance at each station. To overcome these challenges, the research team expects the following benefits: (1) productivity improvement by developing a daily-based production scheduling system, which integrates the concepts of the continuous and pull flow with simulation and optimization in order to manage the production process and resources; (2) waste reduction by developing a modular-oriented intelligent design system; and (3) improved worker performance by designing an industrial hygiene model, mainly focused on designing task procedures and workplace, based on noise and ergonomic analyses.