HOW TO INTEGRATE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING EFFICIENTLY WITH COMPLETE INSIGHT AND TRACEABILITY OF ALL INFORMATION REQUIRED: CASE STUDY OF THE INTEGRATION OF SMART PRODUCTION INTO SMART™ YARD IMPLEMENTATION FOR PIPING FABRICATION

摘要

Shop fabrication, an early stage in industrial construction projects, has a significant influence on successful construction project delivery, since it brings higher productivity in a more controlled environment compared to the field. Effective planning and scheduling of industrial fabrication activities become essential to reduce time and cost of construction projects during this stage. However, the fabrication process is always complex and associated with a high degree of uncertainty. Such complexity makes it difficult for most fabricators to produce a reliable project estimation. This is especially true for fabricators using traditional management methods that lack advanced capabilities such as probabilistic branching, resource interaction, and production cycling.rnIn this paper, the authors will present a framework for optimizing shop planning and scheduling for a pipe spools workshop in Malaysia. The case study shows how through a tight integration of multi-discipline design, construction, material management, quality management, process machines, and heuristic approaches into an integrated system, it is possible to automate shop fabrication and promote the efficient handling of dynamic and complex pipe spools fabrication processes. Additionally, the authors will address how a design-to-production CAD model is used to explore different scenarios to determine possible improvements in the shop based on a complete insight of fabrication sequencing, material optimization and load balancing. Management of change is significantly improved by design information sharing, together with transparent production, real-time status and full traceability on the shop floor.