Investigating the Role of Group Technology in the Production Homebuilding Industry
Subrahmaniam Narayanan Rajambal, Spring 2007
Brief:
The production homebuilding industry has in recent years experienced substantial growth, with industry leaders looking to further expand their operations in the future. Despite this exponential growth, the use of technology and innovation in the homebuilding industry is still in its infancy stage. Although automation and information technology has been used in residential construction to a limited extent, factory made homes slowly have made their presence felt in the market. This study touches upon the shortcomings in the current practices, and suggests improvements in the production home building industry. The core of this research talks about the technique of Group Technology (GT) and the possible role GT could play in the housing sector, in improving the productivity. This thesis reviews and assesses the potential impacts that the concept of GT could have on the production home building industry with the help of a case study. For the purpose of case study, the operation of cutting and delivering of post-tension cables to a production homebuilding site has been studied in depth. The investigation of the relevance of standardization of post-tension cable lengths through the concept of GT forms the bulk of the report. The research concludes by validating the hypothesis and recommending future research in discovering the potential of GT and identifying different areas of production homebuilding for its implementation.