Back to the Drawing Board – Drafting and Basic Integration

For a long time, integration has been the one of the prime buzzwords in manufacturing. Everybody wants systems that seamlessly unite purchasing, design, manufacturing, delivery and site work, methods that share and utilize critical information at every step. If you can eliminate the wasted time, wasted motion, wasted materials caused by the lack of integration, you’ll be much better able to serve your customers. You’ll also be a lot more competitive.

At Deluxe, we’ve made manufacturing integration a basic goal. Our state-of-the-art parametric drawing program provides significant advantages to customers, based on systems that make all relevant information part of the project at every stage. First, last and always, it’s really about integration.

We’ve built our system around the Vertex BD package. This sophisticated software puts a comprehensive library of parts at our fingertips. It also incorporates significant Building Information Modeling (BIM) capabilities – essential to the system’s strength and versatility. Select any part, and you’ve accessed all of its dimensional and construction attributes, including how it works with any other part in the database. When the draftsman goes to work, every bit of that comprehensive information becomes an integral part of the drawing.

From there, the information is key to total integration with Deluxe’s manufacturing process. Complete database information on any part makes it possible to develop an accurate bill of materials, parts list, and lumber cutting list. We can produce these documents for any completed drawing. We even cut the pieces in sequence relative to how the building will be manufactured and installed.

Another powerful advantage: the system perfectly defines and renders all wall panels, internal supports and other construction details. This speeds work both in the factory and on the jobsite. You set systems parameters and project parameters, and the drawings are exactly right one hundred percent of the time.

What’s more, every building module is clearly defined on the drawings we send to the site. This is one of the things our customers mean when they say that Deluxe engineering makes a big difference to them on the jobsite.

Here’s another element of our work that the drafting program handles really well. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) drawings are often difficult. It’s important to verify alignment of MEP elements between modules, and – within each module – to eliminate interferences with framing members or between MEP parts. With its library of preset objects, our system really makes MEP drafting much simpler and more accurate. Its features enable draftsmen easily to show piping, duct, wiring and many other details, always complete, correct to the specific project, and interference-free. Our engineering department draws much faster now than they did in 2D. And once again, this knowledge tool completely integrates MEP drawing with purchasing, manufacturing and site work.

To sum up, this is a system that produces drawings for any job fast and without errors. It adjusts to changes as quickly as the draftsman enters them. It’s scalable and it spots construction interference and helps the draftsmen get rid of it right away. Drawings are immediately available in plan, elevation, or a choice of three-dimensional views (including solid modeling, cutaways and wire framing) from any interior or exterior angle.

Most of all, it uses the database’s complete part information to make drawings and documents that encompass all the working information of the project, and tie that information directly into every manufacturing and installation phase from start to finish.

At that level of industrial management we’ve gone far beyond buzzwords. When it comes to manufacturing integration, this is the real thing.

A Good Way to Spend a Week

When you think about the advantages that come from system-built construction, the obvious first thought is speed. Compared to stick-built alternatives, the system-built approach accomplishes the same work in a fraction of the time needed to build from scratch on the site.

Speed’s important, but it’s far from the only advantage with modular construction. That’s illustrated nicely by one of our recent projects, the Dayton Condominiums, a 45-module residential project in Morgantown, W.Va. That 20,600 sq. ft. complex went up in just under one week this summer. And the people we partnered with on this one say that, from their point of view, engineering moxie counted for just as much.

Three years in the planning, the project was prepped with demolition of the previous site structures in the fall of 2007 and excavation/foundation placement in late February and early March of this year. The buildings were ordered in April and factory-built in time for the week-long setting process in June.

Just to share some vital statistics: The project included 21 dwelling units, assembled in three-story configuration above a site-built parking garage and retail stores. Overall, the condominiums feature 39 bedrooms. Employing wood-frame 5A construction, the system-built units are fire-sprinklered and factory-equipped with an EPDM roof.

Specially angled modular units were built to accommodate architects’ design requirements and site conditions. Setting began on Monday, June 9 and wrapped up by Friday, June 13.

It’s impossible to minimize the impact of prompt delivery and quick setting to the developers and owners of the project, The Phoenix Group of Morgantown. As the home of West Virginia University, Morgantown sees a constantly growing demand for multi-unit housing. Quick installation turnaround meant that the project would be available for occupancy by the fall term.

But Phoenix Group President Mike Castle says speed was only one positive aspect of the project. I’ll quote him: “Deluxe had the production capacity for this project. They helped to reduce our risk exposure – crane risk, setting risk, and so on.

“What mattered most from a developer’s perspective was their engineering capability. They really have the multi-family gig down. Our site manager was impressed with the quality of the plans they delivered – you really don’t get that degree of engineering foresight from lot of others. There’s a Deluxe way of doing things, a culture that says, ‘We want to control the process.’ ”

It’s almost enough to make us blush. There’s no question that engineering prowess translates as serious advantages to the developer and owner. It makes a difference in limiting problems and complications on the construction site. It results in a better, more lasting finished structure. And yes, it also contributes in a big way to the essential speed with which the project gets done.

Putting It All on the Line: Automating for Speed and Agility

Most manufacturers these days understand that their shop capabilities will go as far as technology takes them. When you consider the versatility and sheer productive power that come with constant technical advances, it just makes sense.

At Deluxe, we get this – big time. After all, we’ve experienced it firsthand. Finding that technological edge has turbocharged our manufacturing performance.

At the heart of all this is the automation we’ve applied to our wall and floor manufacturing lines. It pays off in a revolutionary new ability to respond to production demands. Automation means that we’re very responsive and accurate.

Our million-dollar production equipment from Triad/Ruvo has been key. To be specific, the 32 automated screw guns in the new screw bed do their work in the time it took to put in one screw manually. They’re faster than old manual welding methods they replaced for some operations, too. And we waste zero time in picking things up manually and lugging them around. Every product on the line is picked up by hoist and moved by conveyor now.

Quality has also ramped up. Automation means every operation is performed the same way every time, for superior process continuity and product consistency.

So overall our manufacturing lines are faster, more accurate, and at least 25 percent more productive. We’ve tallied savings in overhead, and our customers’ investment is tied up for a shorter length of time. Just as important, we can now handle a wider variety of projects. It’s a better way of doing things – faster off the line and more agile at every stage of production.

Automated methods have improved our performance on every product line we make. Factory construction for apartments, hotels, condos, senior living facilities, student housing, townhouses, and housing developments is now finished with unprecedented speed.

Deluxe is capable of outputting millions of square feet of modular walls and floors each year through our two highly efficient quarter-mile-long assembly lines.

It boils down to engineering our process specifically to accomplish the twin goals of greater agility and responsiveness. The Triad equipment pays off in greater productivity on the line, not to mention new speed and versatility. What we send to the site is better and easier to assemble than ever.

As far as technology is concerned, what we’ve seen would make a believer out of anybody.