Lean Principles and Factory Built Housing

From: HUD USER News
 
Pilot Study: Applying Lean to Factory Home Building is a
new release by the Partnership for Advancing Technology
in Housing (PATH), a public-private initiative
coordinated by HUD's Office of Policy Development and
Research. This study demonstrates the adaptation of lean
production methods, originally developed for automobile
manufacturing, by nine manufactured and modular home
production plants. By helping employees analyze their
production processes, researchers were able to help each
plant identify waste that results from excessive
production times, materials, and labor. Researchers
further helped manufacturers develop improvements
consistent with lean production principles. The
measurable improvements in productivity ranged from 10-
100 percent.
 
The objectives, principles, and methods of lean
production are explained in this research report. Their
application in five of the nine production plants,
together with the results, are detailed in case studies
showing that lean production can be adapted to a variety
of home manufacturing environments.
 
Part of a multi-year research effort to integrate lean
production principles with factory built housing
practices, this pilot study is available as a free
download from HUD USER
at www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/destech/pilotstudy.html.
A December 2005 report that assessed benefits of lean
production in factory built housing is also available
from HUD USER, free of charge,
at www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/manufhsg/leanprod.html.
 
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