Comparative Study of Manufactured Housing Production Systems

This paper illustrates the production process of a manufactured housing factory and potential bottlenecks that could affect the system efficiency. To investigate ways for improving the performance of the U-shaped flow pattern layouts, a comparative study between two case study factories was conducted to realize their relative efficiencies and drawbacks. Process maps were prepared to establish the subactivity relationship at every assembly and subassembly station. Time data were collected for the station process time and the subactivity process time at the two factories to realize a generic (streamlined) system. The efficient criteria of the two systems were joined to develop a streamlined generic system.