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“Prefab Apartment Buildings on the rise” according to Marketplace.org

Prefab apartment buildings on the rise

​by Dan Bobkoff

Monday, April 21, 2014 – 16:13

Dan Bobkoff

The first floors of a modular apartment building are already in place behind the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Dan Bobkoff

The skeleton of a new apartment module comes together at Capsys’s factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Dan Bobkoff

A bathroom in an apartment at The Stack. All fixtures were installed in the factory, not at the site.

Dan Bobkoff

A kitchen in an apartment at The Stack. Even the appliances were installed in the factory.

Dan Bobkoff

A model living room at The Stack in the Inwood section of Manhattan.

Dan Bobkoff

The staggered block design of The Stack was designed to highlight its modular construction.

A new apartment building called The Stack is about to open in the Inwood section of Manhattan. By design, it looks like a collection of staggered Lego blocks. On the inside, it’s like any other modern rental building in New York. It has a sleek, simple design.

What’s different is that these apartments were not built here in Manhattan, but almost entirely somewhere else.

“The paint, the lighting, the kitchen cabinets, the appliances, the bathroom tile, fixtures, mirror, all of that is done in the factory,” says The Stack’s architect, Tom Gluck, with the firm GLUCK+.

Gluck has been an architect for years, but this is the first time his firm has built what’s called a modular building.

Each apartment comes out of a factory from a company, like Capsys in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It looks like an auto plant, complete with assembly line run on a track in the ground.

“Where we’re building pieces of building like you’d build a car in a factory. You get that repetition, that precision,” says Tom O’Hara, director of business development at Capsys.

On one end of the plant, a team is joining steel beams to make the skeleton of a new apartment. On the other end, a crew is putting the finishing touches on a unit. One guy is tiling the bathroom. You could cook in this kitchen. There’s even a thermostat on the wall already. The apartments are so close to finished that they look like you could move in immediately, if they weren’t sitting on a factory floor.

 

An apartment module nearing completion at Capsys. It will soon be trucked to the building site and hoisted into place. (Photo: Dan Bobkoff)

But soon, this entire apartment will be put on a flatbed, trucked to the Bronx, then hoisted on top of all the other modular apartments. When the building’s done, you won’t even know it was built this way.

There are many reasons proponents like O’Hara think modular construction is better: it’s built inside, away from weather and dirt. It’s faster because you can build the foundation and the building at the same time. There’s much less wasted material. And yet, while it’s popular in Europe, modular construction in the U.S. remains a rounding error, accounting for just a tiny percentage of new home and multifamily construction.

“I think a lot of people really have misconceptions about the modular business,” O’Hara says.  “I think they feel somehow that there’s substandard construction in the factory.”

He says most people think modular means mobile homes or boring, blocky buildings. To him, it just means it’s built better.

“Why would I want my toaster built by a guy sitting on a bench with a ten snip banging things together. I want it out of a factory! Why shouldn’t the building come out of a factory?” O’Hara says.

Modular has been seen as the future before, and yet never caught on beyond certain sectors like college dorms and hotels.

But nearly everyone I talked to thinks this is the moment that changes.

“A lot of it truthfully has to do with this building that we’re standing in front of,” says Jim Garrison, an architect and professor at the Pratt Institute. We’re behind the new Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn, looking at what’ll soon be the tallest modular building: 32 stories of apartments.

It’s funded by a big name developer. Garrison says it’s the biggest example that modular is possible, practical, and not necessarily cookie cutter.

“We now have opportunities to build very interesting buildings using these systems. And, people are listening to the benefits that come with it,” Garrison says.

That’s not to say modular doesn’t have downsides. Because it’s made of boxes, you end up with walls against walls, taking up valuable square footage in the building. Designers have to decide everything on the front end. But more developers are attracted to modular’s faster, and sometimes cheaper construction. And, with new projects in the works, maybe this time is different.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/prefab-apartment-buildings-rise

Kanban Pull System

As the Ashburton and McDougal Project are nearing turnover to their respective owners, the plant “Kanban Pull System” project is out of the planning stages into the implementing stage. The Japanese word, “Kanban” can be translated into English as “Sign Board” and is an important part of our “Pull System”. Taichi Ohno, the creator of the Toyota Production System,  devised a plan in the 1950’s to have demand and actual production determine quantity and timing of re-orders in purchasing. This plan was thought up into existence after Mr. Ohno and the Toyota team visited a United States Supermarket and could not believe its efficiencies.  Using Visual Re-fill points (flags, measuring rods, marked bins, three bins, etc.) and Re-order points coupled with a Daily Patrol and thorough 5S, we can achieve a “pull system” instead of the very wasteful “push system”.

Our System is nearly 50% complete and fully implemented by November of 2011. The 5S methodology will give our plant a very aesthetically pleasing environment with a clear vision of continuous improvement in the Inventory Scheduling and Control Systems.

The initial Value Added Space Percentage was recorded at 60% (40231/66816). After the 5S, we are estimating at improving that number to 80% then continuously improving from there.  The 5S methodology consists of:

  1. Sorting – Recognizing waste and discarding
  2. Straightening – Creating a set place for all materials and processes
  3. Shining – Keeping things clean
  4. Standardizing – Everything should be consistent and identical. Every process and worker should know exactly what their role’s and responsibilities are.  
  5. Sustaining – This is easily the most difficult part of the process and a clear system of sustaining the gains made while continuing to improve must be part of the corporate charter.

Come out for a tour and see how our already efficient production process and soon to be Lean Supply Chain will change the face of construction in New York!

Lean Thinking

With Capsys adopting Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing into its Manufacturing line, one cannot help but think of a famous quote by Shigeo Shingo, “The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.” One can locate waste in many different departments in any organization by asking the simple question, “Does this add value?” If it does not, it is waste and must be discarded. 

Waste or “Muda” as it is called in Lean Manufacturing is everywhere and it starts in the system/program that is responsible for everything. When designing an inventory system, production line, supply chain, production process, schedule, site management, quality control system, one must be cognizant of each step in the process because each step is magnified through time and it either focuses or folds to its pressure.  

Starting in February of 2011, Capsys has adopted this kind of Lean thinking and has enjoyed great success in its manufacturing line by nearly doubling its production efficiency in a little over 5 months while controlling costs by changing to a Kanban, pull-type Supply Chain. Its yields have also been increasing due to a more proactive quality control system that locates causes of problems versus just trying to catch after the fact defects.

On June 27th, 2011, Capsys welded its first Chassis for Phase III of the Nehemiah Spring Creek Townhouse Project. In concurrency, Capsys is setting the Hanac Bathroom Pods, putting the finishing touches on the Ashburton and McDougal Projects, and starting erection of the Victory Blvd projects in early August of 2011.

Bringing these individual systems and projects together in an interconnected system of continuous improvement makes Capsys poised for a strong finish to 2011 and a stronger beginning to 2012. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like a tour of our construction manufacturing plant in New York City.