Publications / 1996 Proceedings of the 13th ISARC, Tokyo, Japan

A Flexible Manufacturing Approach to Wood Frame Housing Construction

M. A. Mullens
Pages 991-998 (1996 Proceedings of the 13th ISARC, Tokyo, Japan, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

This paper describes the first installation of advanced CAD/CAM and flexible manufacturing technologies available to U.S. industrialized homebuilders. The production system can produce both interior and exterior wood frame wall panels in an infinite variety of configurations to meet virtually any architectural design need. The paper describes how this production flexibility is gained without sacrificing the benefits of automation. The paper also describes some of the difficulties encountered during system startup including: 1) the difficulty in defining system capacity for advanced production technologies, particularly while allowing almost total design freedom and 2) the difficulty in evolving operations management practices to optimize these advanced technologies. Finally, the paper describes how computer simulation and animation were used to address these issues and provide real system improvement.

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