In order to compete in the residential housing market, prefab builders are required to build custom homes at a faster pace. As a result, they are facing many challenges in their production facilities including various product configurations with different product flows that have an impact on their productivity. Computer simulation is an ideal technology for exposing underlying problems in the production line and identifying the optimal solutions. This paper presents a practical simulation tool that has been developed for prefab builders to conduct what-if analyses for productivity improvements. A simulation model is built with control logics of the process flows. A statistical analysis module is developed to identify and analyze critical process parameters. A database is modeled to contain configuration information for production lines, processes and products that can accommodate various changes that are required for load balancing in production lines. The tool can simulate various house configurations and panel sequences, and provide animation for production processes. It can be used in both the production planning and operation stages to enhance productivity through load balancing and mixed model sequencing. Further developments can be realized on automatically mixed model sequencing to achieve production optimization.
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