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

模块化(场外或预制)建筑业因其环保的施工工艺、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，模块化结构提供了高度的施工灵活性，因此，根据项目要求，墙板、楼板和屋顶板或组件(单元或容器)。为了利用这些好处，模块化建筑公司需要为异地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造商能够在不牺牲安全的情况下不断改进其生产工艺。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、员工管理和材料处理。此外，一个完善的设计系统(即工作场所和图纸)不仅可以减少受伤的风险，从而通过改善安全来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)，从而提高生产线的生产率。然而，由于缺乏基于模块化的管理系统，许多制造建筑公司面临以下挑战：(1)任务工期差异很大；(2)生产线上生产过剩和不平衡；(3)每个工位的工人表现不同。为了克服这些挑战，研究小组预计将获得以下好处：(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；以及(3)通过设计工业卫生模型来提高工人的绩效，该模型主要侧重于设计基于噪声和人体工程学分析的任务程序和工作场所。

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.