IMA Schelling – Consulting
Factory structure planning

Performance module: strategic factory and corporate development

Restructuring of production layout

Prefabricated house manufacturer expands production capacities in existing halls

Our mission


A prefabricated house manufacturer with an annual output of more than 300 house units placed an order with us for performing a bottleneck analysis and developing a new manufacturing concept for each working area. In particular, our task was to plan the production layouts throughout the different factory development stages and to support our customer with the implementation.

Our scope of work


Our bottleneck analysis of the existing manufacturing systems has revealed numerous production bottlenecks. In the first step we deduced solution approaches allowing the bottlenecks to be removed in a short time and on a small budget. These solutions included decoupling the prefabrication from the element construction within the production lines and increasing the production rate for each line by moving time-intensive components to stand-alone work cells. Moreover, by displacing work tasks within a production line, we managed to achieve a uniform production rate in fully integrated lines.

Subsequently we developed a concept for the future manufacturing structure and the production layout with the aim to increase the production capacities in existing halls. In order to reach this objective, we first defined the required production capacities for each manufacturing system based on the turnover targets of our customer. The next step was to increase the amount of prefabrication by utilizing new, additional equipment – including, for example, a central panel cutting cell and timber processing centres. At the same time, we determined the number of production capacities required per production area and adjusted the production principles based on upcoming replacement investments (technological adaptation). Furthermore the production layout was completely readjusted by us, taking account of the existing and the new equipment, and a concept for stepwise development and investment was elaborated.

In addition to that, we assisted the customer with bringing the entire project into being.

Benefits


Thanks to our concept of factory expansion on the same footprint, the prefabricated house manufacturer was able to expand its capacities step by step by around 40 percent and increase its productivity by approximately 20 percent.

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