Manufacturing
Factory Industrial Design
Factory Industrial Design
Working with one of the UK’s fastest growing volumetric offsite house builders, Develop Consulting were asked to lead the industrial design aspect of their new greenfield factory.
The new factory was to be a major step-forward in the design, automated production and volume output of factory-built quality homes for the UK market, and would be the largest and most advanced facility of it’s kind in Europe.
Develop Consulting’s scope of activity, over a 16-month period, was to support, from site selection, factory layout, process design, lean operations design, equipment supplier selection, design & project management, and then lead the design of the building and infrastructure required to accommodate the new factory setup.
Results
The new factory was designed:
- On time for all milestones:
– Planning
– Architecture
– Construction
– Mechanical & electrical fit-out
– Equipment design & installation - On budget, with options to further reduce or defer investment
- No outstanding HS&E design issues
- No outstanding process design issues
Observations
The client had an established ‘pilot’ factory capable of producing up to 500 homes per year. Their expansion plan, supported by institutional investment, required a new second factory to be designed and built, with key statistics of:
- 658k sqft – 5.3x the size of Factory 1 and about 10 football pitches.
- 7800 Annual Output Capacity – A module produced every 26 minutes (or 3900 homes and a home produced every 52 minutes).
- 3 day lead time – from timber launch to home ready for despatch.
- Highly Automated Wall, Floor & Ceiling Lines – Automated framing, sheathing & fastening using over 60 robot arms.
- Employing c.1000 staff – 400 per shift on the shop floor
- Zero Carbon Build – BREEAM Excellent
- Yard Storage space for 8 days worth of output – over 240 modules
Objectives
Develop Consulting’s scope of activity, over a 16-month period, was to support, from site selection, factory layout, process design, lean operations design, equipment supplier selection, design & project management, and then lead the design of the building and infrastructure required to accommodate the new factory setup.
Actions
Working in a small, close-knit client project team, the Develop Consulting designer had direct involvement and oversight of all aspects of the factory design. This ‘simultaneous engineering’ approach ensured that issues and challenges were dealt with appropriate solutions in a much more timely manner than if separate teams had passed their designs ‘along’ to the next team in the chain.
As key suppliers were brought in to the project (architects, M&E designers, equipment suppliers, etc.), Develop Consulting had the role to integrate and project manage each new function, ensuring accurate sharing of latest information, and cross-supplier working.
As the internal project team started to expand, Develop Consulting helped ‘coach’ the new team members in the design principles and operating ethos of the new factory, before handing over each relevant element of the project in readiness to occupy and complete the fit-out.
