Simulation Based Process Flow Improvement for Wood Framing Home Building Production Lines

This thesis describes a methodology for process improvement of panelized home building production lines through increasing productivity and reducing production cycle time based on lean production and simulation tools. In panelized home building, panels are produced in a factory and then moved to the construction site for assembly. The challenge here is the high customization level in home models and also the wide range of panel types with different design properties which lead to highly variant processing times. In this thesis, a regression-based methodology is proposed which formulates the task times of different activities based on the unique design properties of a panel. The regression models are used as input in the simulation model to validate the process improvement plans such as line balancing and panel sequencing. This methodology is implemented in a home building manufacturer in Edmonton in order to reduce the overall home completion time.