Improving Production Management in a Modular Construction Facility Using Data Modeling and Analytics

Prefabricated construction, as an alternative to the traditional stick-built construction, has its advantages in shortening the schedules and reduce onsite construction exposure. The prefabricated construction components are often produced in offsite controlled environment and shipped to site for installation. Due to its similarity to manufacturing, prefabricated construction provides opportunities for continuous productivity improvements. Through such improvements, production data is required and critical to construct analytical models for measuring progresses. Alantra Leasing (hereinafter “Alantra”) is a New Brunswick-based modular manufacturer for mobile office trailers. In this proposed research project, the intern will work closely with the team at Alantra to develop an analytical model to analyze its ongoing production by incorporating Lean manufacturing principles. The intern will collect data at the Alantra facility and use it for modeling and validation. The outputs from this research can be used by Alantra to continuously evaluate its production, identify, and resolve bottlenecks and plan for increases production capacity.

Faculty Supervisor:

Zhen Lei;Jeff Rankin

Student:

Alyssa van de Riet

Partner:

Alantra Leasing

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

University of New Brunswick