Patent Application
20050235581
This invention relates to a system for manufacturing standard size dwellings using a satellite manufacturing facility that can be erected on or near a large housing development to efficiently manufacture standard size dwellings, substantially in their entirety, in a factory environment using subassemblies manufactured at one or more other facilities and/or materials supplied from one or more other sources, prior to transporting and placing these completed dwellings on pre-constructed permanent foundations.
The present residential construction industry can be divided into segments based on the three basic methods which are utilized to produce dwellings: manufactured or modular (manufactured), panelized or component (panelized)—with elements fabricated both on and off site, and individually built (stick-built)—with dwelling construction in-place at a specific building site. Each of these three methods has distinct advantages and disadvantages. In addition, each method is suited to produce a particular type of dwelling. A common goal of the residential construction industry is to produce quality dwellings that have broad market appeal in a cost efficient manner.
The manufactured home is built in a factory which is geographically remote from a housing development or a particular building site. The factory produced modules must be transported over public highways and roadways to a dealership or pre-determined building site. The earliest of this class of homes were called mobile homes. They were, and still are, equipped with axles attached to an undercarriage framework. The typical manufactured home is built in a factory which serves a broad geographic region, ranging in size from tens or hundreds of miles in radius to several states. Because of the cost efficiencies inherent in factory production, the manufactured (and some panelized) method is successful in producing lower cost new housing typically for small size homes which are often in a rural setting. A manufactured home is produced for direct sale to a customer and installation at a particular building site or it may be sold to a dealer and held in inventory for a subsequent sale and installation.
The present-day manufactured home offers significant improvements over the former mobile home. A plurality of manufactured modular segments may comprise the finished home and the modules are transported from a remote factory to a dealership or destination building site. Once delivered to the final building location, the modules are joined together to form a resultant dwelling that is significantly larger than a typical 12′×70′ single module manufactured home.
The major advantage of manufactured homes is the use of a factory environment. Within a factory setting, a controlled environment exists where complete, roadable dwellings are built. Factories represent a significant advantage in mass production efficiency. The advantages of a factory environment are:
A method of dwelling construction which has similarities to the manufactured dwelling technology is the panelized method of construction. Panelized construction consists of a system for prefabricating walls, floors, and roof components into units or sections. This method of construction is most efficient where there is a repetition of the panel types and dimensions. Panels are manufactured using a jig, into which the framing members are placed and then interconnected via nails, screws, or welds. The interior and/or exterior sheathing, or even the complete interior or exterior finish, may be applied to the wall panel prior to the finished panel being hoisted onto the structure. Shop panelization offers numerous advantages. The panel shop provides a controlled environment where work proceeds regardless of weather conditions. The application of sheathing and finish work is easier and faster with the panels placed in a horizontal position instead of a vertical position.
With panelized construction, major components of homes are either prefabricated in a remote factory environment or at the site where, unfortunately, panel installation is exposed to local weather conditions. If components or panels are built in a factory, they are subsequently transported over public highways and roadways to the building site where they are hoisted into place and interconnected to form the basic dwelling structure using conventional building techniques. The panelized construction technique requires the use of hoisting equipment at the building site to handle the preassembled components and also requires that significant amounts of finish work be performed at the site to assemble components and finish construction joints between panels and then to apply all finishes that were not included in the panels or components.
The major advantages of panelized construction are the following:
The remaining category of residential housing is the stick-built house that is either custom built according to an owner's individual specifications, or as a builder's spec home, or constructed as one of a plurality of pre-existing models in a housing development. These dwellings are built in the traditional manner of using framing members (typically dimensional lumber) to fabricate the dwelling on a foundation at the building site according to a set of architectural plans. Stick-built home design differs greatly from manufactured home design. There are no architectural, structural, or dimensional limitations with stick-built housing like those imposed on manufactured design by virtue of the roadway transportation limitations. Transportation over public roads involves height, width, length, and weight restrictions. In stick-built construction, height, width, depth, roof pitch, roof overhang, gabled, dormered, etc., are all completely open to individual tastes limited only by the governing building code restrictions. The ability to produce standard size homes with substantial design flexibility is the reason that the majority of homes built today are stick-built homes.
Stick-built construction requires a sequenced building format, where item A must be completed before item B can begin, and in turn, item B must then be completed before item C can begin and so on. For example, the ground level walls must be completed before the second level floor can begin, and the second level walls must be completed before the second level ceiling can begin. The stick-built home industry is primarily based on homebuilding companies which subcontract labor and material packages to a series of independent companies who supply and install their portion of the work. While this method of residential home construction has worked for many years, there are inherent inefficiencies in this method that result in significant cost penalties to the homebuyer.
Stick-built dwellings can be built to any size or layout that is desired within the limitations of the structural capabilities of the framing material. Multi-story homes can easily be built with the architectural features, room size, and layout being determined by the architect, homebuilder, and/or owner. There are no overriding constraints imposed by a need to transport the structure over the existing public highway or roadway system.
Other advantages of stick-built construction techniques are:
Thus, it is evident that each of the above-noted methods of residential dwelling construction has certain distinct advantages, which advantages are typically intimately coupled with the type of dwelling produced by the selected method of construction.
While manufactured, panelized and stick-built homes have many advantages in their respective market applications, each of them also has distinct disadvantages. These disadvantages form the core problems which face the housing industry today and, in particular, for the manufactured method:
There are also problems with panelized constructed homes:
There are also problems in the stick-built method of dwelling construction:
A significant disadvantage of the stick-built dwelling construction technique is that, regardless of the size and/or complexity of the dwelling, these homes are built according to a process that is determined by both building codes and the need for efficiency of the various independent subcontractors that are engaged to construct the dwelling. In particular, each subcontractor wishes to minimize the number of times that he must visit the building site and often prefers unobstructed access to the majority of the structure with limited interference or coordination with other subcontractors. This construction process, especially early on, is highly dependent on weather conditions and can only occur during daylight hours. An interruption in the flow of construction caused by one of the subcontractors has a ripple effect in that the other subcontractors must await the completion of a particular task before they can begin their work. Therefore, while each individual subcontractor task does not necessarily take a lot of time in constructing a stick-built residential dwelling, the time intervals between the arrival of the various subcontractors and delays occasioned by weather and other subcontractor work significantly lengthens the amount of time required to complete each dwelling.
Furthermore, operating in a field environment is detrimental to maintaining the quality of the construction since it is difficult using portable hand tools to precisely cut and assemble framing material into walls and various finish elements with precise tolerances. It is often difficult in stick-built home construction to find a sufficient number of skilled workmen who can craft a residential structure of high quality at very reasonable costs. The quality suffers and there is also a significant amount of waste, since the materials must be handled at least 2 to 3 times between shipment from the factory or mill to being delivered to the individual job site. There is excess labor and significant breakage as a result of this repetitive handling of materials. In addition, typically there aren't people at individual job sites all day to receive materials, so materials and supplies are exposed to the possibility of delivery damage, theft, and bad weather. Surplus materials, unless they represent a significant quantity, are discarded since the value of salvaged materials does not offset the cost involved to salvage these materials.
While the stick-built residential structure is the most desirable residence for consumers because of the design flexibility, the cost benefits obtained by the factory manufacturing environment are unavailable to this type of construction method due to the size and more often than not multi-story nature of these structures.
The above-described problems are solved, and a technical advance is achieved, by the system for manufacturing standard size dwellings which uses a satellite manufacturing facility that is capable of efficiently producing standard size dwellings in a factory environment. This manufacturing system uses a network of manufacturing facilities to respond to the fundamental desire to maximize home building efficiency by implementing both a factory for and a method of standard size dwelling construction that is of novel design.
The system for manufacturing standard size dwellings comprises a network of facilities, sited to maximize the efficiency of the product and materials flows. In particular, one or more manufacturing facilities are used to manufacture subassemblies and supply materials for use in assembling a standard size dwelling in a factory environment. These manufactured subassemblies and materials are transported to one or more satellite manufacturing facilities, each of which are located proximate to a location where a large number of dwellings are to be built. The satellite manufacturing facilities function to integrate the received subassemblies and materials together to create a standard size dwelling, which is then transported to the foundation where the dwelling is to be sited. The satellite manufacturing facilities can optionally manufacture subassemblies, such as a roof subassembly, where appropriate as part of the dwelling assembly process.
The satellite manufacturing facility is thereby capable of producing standard size dwellings and supplying them to a new community in a cost effective and time efficient manner unlike any construction method of the prior art. The satellite manufacturing facility not only overcomes the problems inherent in the construction methods of the prior art, but also combines the advantages of the three methods of dwelling construction identified previously. Dwellings produced within the satellite manufacturing facility appear to the consumer to be identical to stick-built standard size dwellings. These dwellings have substantial design and architectural flexibility, high volume rooms, modern floor plans, and significant overall living space. The dwellings that can be produced utilizing the satellite manufacturing facility are unlike any manufactured dwellings produced today. These dwellings may include a wide diversity of standard size one- and two-story single family dwellings or various forms of multi-family dwellings.
A major attribute of the satellite manufacturing facility is its ability to build a huge diversity of dwelling products. The only thing required is a community of sufficient size to amortize the cost of the satellite manufacturing facility. This flexibility is essential for international applications because housing design and requirements are vastly different from one region to the next. A common ingredient is that most often in bulk housing requirements, high-quality, low-cost dwellings that can be built in a timely fashion are in demand. In addition, the use of a satellite facility to perform the subassembly integration process removes the constraint of a limited number of dwelling designs from the assembly process, since subassemblies from a number of master production facilities can feed the satellite manufacturing facility, thereby adding to the diversity of dwelling choices available to the consumer.
The satellite manufacturing facility is a specialized manufacturing facility erected proximate to a location where a large number of dwellings are to be built. The satellite manufacturing facility may be linked to this community via a controlled access roadway, where public access can be limited and where width and height impediments may be much less restrictive than public streets and where distances from the satellite manufacturing facilities to the locations at which the assembled dwellings are to be sited are short. As a direct result, the primary problem involving the constraints of the public roadway infrastructure that lie between the factory and the building site for shipment of manufactured or panelized products is overcome. The satellite manufacturing facility brings the factory to the building site. This opens the door to a whole new world of design and construction methodologies for factory-produced dwellings. The overwhelming constraints imposed on dwelling design, size, transportation concerns, etc., due to public roadway transport limitations between a remote factory and the final dwelling site are eliminated.
The dwellings to be produced using the satellite manufacturing facility have special design characteristics. One example is an integral base frame comprising a structural base element located at the perimeter of each dwelling, and at the base of load bearing interior walls, which strengthens and stabilizes these standard size dwellings for manufacturing, transportation, placement on foundations, and long-term durability. One important feature of the satellite manufacturing facility is that the sequential building process necessary with the prior art of stick-built methods for producing standard size dwellings is now obsolete.
Subassembly hoisting equipment, such as clear span bridge cranes, are the key to material handling and transportation in the staging areas in the satellite manufacturing facility. Semi-trucks with loaded trailers may enter the main structure of the satellite manufacturing facility to promote highly efficient unloading and subsequent material handling directly from bulk truck shipments to the staging areas or storage areas via the subassembly hoisting equipment. The hoisting equipment can also place large rolls of carpeting, appliances, cabinets and the like directly inside the partially manufactured dwelling to eliminate excess labor. Large single- or multiple-story wall panels, floor assemblies, large roof assemblies, etc., can be handled in a production setting. Finished components from the staging areas can also be lifted and set directly at each component's final destination in the partially completed house with the hoisting equipment.
The satellite manufacturing facility represents a radical new approach to building standard size dwellings on a large scale basis. The satellite manufacturing facility not only overcomes the problems inherent in the construction methods of the prior art, but also combines the advantages of the three methods of dwelling construction identified previously. The result is that standard size dwellings can be built substantially faster, with higher quality, less cost, and more efficiently than comparable homes built on-site by use of prior art construction methods.
The terms used in this description are defined below to ensure that the proper import is ascribed to these terms and the usage of these terms is therefore unambiguous.
Satellite Manufacturing Facility—the facility described herein which is used to produce standard size dwellings in a hoisting supported production environment, which can comprise one or more enclosed structures or other work areas.
Dwelling—a structure(s), typically comprising either a single family or multi-family home, which is used to house individuals.
Standard size dwelling—a dwelling which constitutes a “normal” or full size dwelling, presently produced on-site by means of stick-building technology. This dwelling has an extensive range of design and floor plan flexibility and includes both one- and two-story single or multi-family structures. The average size, new, normal dwelling built in the United States is about 2,000 square feet in size.
Integral base frame—that structural element which is integral to the base of a satellite manufacturing facility produced standard size dwelling, and provides the foundation upon which the floor and wall framing elements for the dwelling are attached. The integral base frame provides the structural integrity which allows a standard size dwelling to be created in its entirety and moved prior to being located on a permanent foundation. The integral base frame is typically provided at the base of the outside bearing perimeter walls, at interior load bearing walls, at selected other locations, and may be contained within a floor subassembly.
Manufactured home—a home built in a factory environment and transportable over public highways to a building site. These homes include trailer homes, modular homes, and dwellings comprising a plurality of limited size segments that are transported to the building site and which may be joined together.
Panelized home—a dwelling wherein a significant number of components representing a portion of the dwelling are fabricated in a factory environment, then transported over public highways or within the project to the building site where they are assembled to form the basic structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,192 titled “Method of Production of Standard Size Dwellings” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,504 titled “Manufacturing Facility for Production of Standard Size Dwellings” both disclose an integrated manufacturing facility for manufacturing standard size dwellings in a factory environment. The manufacturing facilities disclosed in these patents manufacture the entirety of the standard size dwelling within the factory and deliver the completed dwelling to the building site, which is located proximate to the manufacturing facility. A problem with this integrated architecture is that the entirety of the manufacturing process is implemented at a single site and the manufacturing facility must be replicated in its entirety at each community where dwellings are to be manufactured.
The present system for manufacturing standard size dwellings comprises a network of facilities, as shown in
Prior Art Manufacturing Facility for Production of Standard Size Dwellings
By collapsing the linear structure of traditional residential housing production into a substantially volumetric process, and relocating the partially completed structure from one subassembly production line of the manufacturing facility 100 to another, a significant amount of flexibility in the scheduling of the work can be attained by intermixing finished, roughed-in, and feature work into concurrently extant operations within the same structure.
A completed standard size dwelling D can be seen in
The transport elements T shown in
The community can be occupied in stages as the standard size dwellings are manufactured and sited. Public access to the community is typically selected at a location distant from the manufacturing facility 100, such that dwellings are sited from this juncture incrementally to the manufacturing facility 100. The manufacturing facility 100 makes use of temporary roadways R, which are restricted from public use and are available to transport the completed standard size dwellings D from the manufacturing facility 100 to the building site B. As sections of the roadways R are filled with completed dwellings, these sections can be converted from restricted/controlled access construction use to public use.
The siting of the manufacturing facility 100 is such in the particular environment illustrated in
Prior Art Manufacturing Facility Architecture
The economic viability of the prior art manufacturing facility 100 is a function of the efficiency with which it can produce the residential structures, since the efficiency must offset the cost of erecting the manufacturing facility 100 at a particular housing development site. It is obvious that the benefit afforded by this manufacturing facility 100 is a function of the number of building sites B, the incremental cost savings associated with each unit manufactured, and the speed with which these sites can be populated with residential structures. The manufacturing facility 100 achieves its efficiency by collapsing the linear, mutually exclusive building trades operation of the prior art into an intensive volumetric focus in the residential structure assembly process. This difference in assembly philosophy as well as the use of hoisting elements that are used in the manufacturing facility 100 provides the efficiencies and “automation” that assist in making this project cost-effective. Furthermore, the unique integral base frame that is used as the underpinnings of each standard size dwelling D that is assembled not only enables the completed structure to be constructed, transported, and placed on an irregular field poured concrete foundation but also provides a base for the standard size dwelling D that is of greater stability and rigidity than existing methods of manufacture.
The manufacturing facility 100 is oriented as shown in
With reference to
Juxtaposed to and orthogonal to the plurality of subassembly production lines P1-P5 and at the end thereof opposite the delivery alley DA is a dwelling assembly alley HA wherein the raw materials and subassemblies produced in each subassembly production line P* are assembled in an integrated manner into the standard size dwelling D. Each subassembly production line P* takes raw materials and either produces subassemblies that are lifted by the hoisting elements H* onto the standard size dwelling D that is being assembled or provides a warehousing capability for the various raw materials that are used to create the standard size dwelling D.
The specific details of each subassembly production line P* are a matter of design choice and somewhat dictated by the architecture of the standard size dwellings D that are being assembled in the manufacturing facility 100. Suffice it to say that each subassembly production line P* is responsible for the complete construction of a volumetric section of the standard size dwelling D or is used to complete the finished work within the standard size dwelling D that has been largely completed at the prior stages of the construction process.
In the first subassembly production line P1, a floor subassembly is produced and loaded on the transport element T. The floor subassembly includes an integral base frame which strengthens the floor subassembly to allow for the construction, transportation and setting of the standard size dwelling D on its foundation. In the second P2 and third P3 subassembly production lines, continuing to the right from the first subassembly production line P1, large wall panels are framed, sheet rocked, finished, painted and inventoried on racks prior to installation on the appropriate floor subassembly. Windows and doors are installed in the panelized wall subassemblies in the second P2 and third P3 subassembly production line. In the fourth subassembly production line P4, full size roof subassemblies are fabricated on the floor of the manufacturing facility 100 and then hoisted and placed on the framed partially completed standard size dwelling D by the bridge crane H4. Finish work, including panel joint finishing, cabinets, floor covering, fixtures, etc., begins in the second subassembly production line P2, continues through the fourth subassembly production line P4 and is the primary activity implemented in the fifth subassembly production line P5.
A strategic accomplishment of the manufacturing facility 100 is to provide a large scale factory in which multiple subassembly production lines P* exist and which can be utilized to produce incremental aspects of a standard size dwelling D. Some fundamental considerations are that the manufacturing facility 100 makes bulk materials available to all of the subassembly production lines P*, which capability is provided in the embodiment shown herein by the delivery alley DA, which serves all the subassembly production lines P*. A second consideration is that a plurality of subassembly production lines P* are used, each of which produces a distinct increment of the standard size dwelling D. A dwelling assembly alley HA is used to relocate the partially completed standard size dwelling D from one subassembly production line P* to the next sequential subassembly production line P* typically via the transport element T on which the standard size dwelling is constructed. A third consideration is the use of high capacity hoisting elements H* in the subassembly production lines P* to allow for the unloading and movement of bulk materials and for the construction and handling of large subassemblies, including the installation of the subassemblies in a partially completed standard size dwelling D.
Hoisting Elements
Efficiency of operation of the manufacturing facility 100 is in part achieved through the use of hoisting elements H* that enable the movement of large volumes of materials or large subassemblies that are efficiently produced within the manufacturing facility 100. The hoisting elements H* minimize the hand labor since they are used to pick and place raw materials, individual subassemblies, and to pre-stock materials, such as cabinets, flooring, plumbing fixtures, in the partially completed standard size dwellings.
As can be seen from the perspective view of
There can be multiple hoisting elements H* in each subassembly production line P*, with the hoisting capacity of these hoisting elements H* being individually sized to the task being performed in the associated subassembly production line P*. The area of coverage by the hoisting elements H* within a subassembly production line P* can overlap so that each hoisting element H* has a sufficient range of travel to provide the greatest flexibility in use in that subassembly production line P*, thereby enabling tasks to be performed by one hoisting element when the other hoisting element is occupied performing another task.
Architecture of the Satellite Manufacturing Facility
The integrated production of standard size dwellings in a single manufacturing facility that is illustrated in
The master production facilities 311-312 function to manufacture subassemblies and prepare materials for use in the plurality of satellite manufacturing facilities 300-302. A master production facility 311 can supply all of the subassemblies and materials used by a satellite manufacturing facility 301 or can provide a subset of the subassemblies and materials used by a satellite manufacturing facility 300, 302. In addition, the plurality of satellite manufacturing facilities 300-302 may receive materials and/or subassemblies from other sources for use in the dwelling manufacturing process. Each of the implementations of the satellite manufacturing facility 300 comprise one or more staging areas, into which are transported the subassemblies produced by the master production facilities 311-312 and/or which are used to create subassemblies, and/or which are used to stage finish materials. The staging areas disclosed in
Each satellite manufacturing facility 300-302 is typically located as shown in
Transport Element
It is obvious that a number of alternative embodiments of the transport element T can be devised, such as having axles span the entire width of the transport element, as a function of the performance characteristics required for the specific implementation of the satellite manufacturing facility 300 as well as the nature of the path that the transport element may take to the building site. It is also envisioned that the wheel assemblies W can be made removable from the frame formed of supporting members T1-T5. Thus, it is possible that the transport element can comprise the integral base frame FF of the structure itself, with the wheel assemblies W initially installed thereto to facilitate the movement of the standard size dwelling through the manufacturing process and delivery to the building site. Once installed at the building site, the standard size dwelling no longer requires the wheel assemblies W, and these can be removed for reuse in the manufacturing of another standard size dwelling. Also, the wheel assemblies W can be interchanged so that a separate set is used to move the standard size dwelling D to the building site. The wheel assemblies W may also be dispensed with in the factory if the foundation frame is used as part of a rail system.
Integral Base Frame Architecture
The integral base frame is that structural element which is integral to the base of a satellite manufacturing facility produced standard size dwelling, and provides the foundation upon which the floors and vertical framing elements for the dwelling are attached. The integral base frame allows a standard size dwelling to be created in its entirety and moved prior to being located on a permanent foundation. The integral base frame is typically provided at the base of the outside bearing perimeter walls, at interior load bearing walls, at selected other locations and may be contained within a floor subassembly.
In the satellite manufacturing facility, the standard size dwelling is built with an integral base frame to enable the simple relocation of the partially built dwelling within the satellite manufacturing facility and eventually to a permanent foundation at the dwelling site. The dwelling can also be later moved without significant complexity, since the structure incorporates the integral base frame and can be relocated to another permanent foundation.
Thus, the standard size dwelling built in the satellite manufacturing facility is substantially built “in space” rather than “in place”. For this to be possible, the initial step in the manufacturing process requires the use of the integral base frame which establishes a solid point of beginning and provides a dimensionally stable foundation. The integral base frame thereby provides structural integrity to the base of the satellite manufacturing facility manufactured dwelling, which enables the dwelling to exist in space without continuous additional support to enable the standard size dwelling to be manufactured, transported and placed on a permanent foundation as an integral, self-supporting and rigidized structure. The integral base frame distributes vertical loads downward from the wall sections to the transport element and upward from the transport element to the load bearing walls. The integral base frame also provides a dimensionally stable flat surface on which the floor and wall elements can be added and can be manufactured from light gauge steel, standard steel sections, wood, concrete, plastic, or other suitable materials.
Satellite Facility Configurations
The sequence of process steps (described below) and the siting of the various functions illustrated in
The linear flow of the process shown in
In all of these configurations, and others naturally derived from these configurations, hoisting apparatus are used to move, lift and place the base frame, floor subassemblies, wall subassemblies, prefabricated kitchen/bathroom modules, roof subassembly, and any other components or materials. The centralized fabrication of subassemblies and/or the processing of materials into “cut lengths” and/or the staging of components and materials at the master manufacturing facilities 311, 312 provides economic and efficiency advantages, where the master manufacturing facilities 311, 312 can feed numerous satellite manufacturing facilities 300-302, where the assembly of the dwelling takes place, using hoisting apparatus to implement this process. The following description of the various staging areas refers to the specific configuration illustrated in
First Staging Area
The first staging area P1 of the satellite manufacturing facility 300 is primarily used to create the floor subassembly, which as a minimum includes the residential integral base frame described above, and can also include the floor joist assembly and sub-flooring as described above. The floor platform subassemblies are then typically placed on to beams and rollers of the transport element T that is positioned in the dwelling assembly alley HA of the satellite manufacturing facility 300. An integral base frame assembly staging area may be included in the first staging area P1 and the partially assembled integral base frames are used to create a subassembly of floor joists, with insulation, wiring, plumbing installed therein and the overlay of floor sheathing installed thereon. The floor joist subassemblies are transported and placed on the transport element T in a predetermined position and interconnected with other (if any) frames produced to create a complete floor subassembly.
Second Staging Area
The second staging area P2 of the satellite manufacturing facility 300 is primarily used to fabricate the exterior walls and first floor interior walls of the standard size dwelling D. A wall panel assembly staging area is included in the second staging area P2 to store subassemblies of an exterior or interior wall, with insulation, wiring, plumbing, windows, doors installed therein as desired. Workers can tape drywall seams, finish the drywall, and paint the wall subassembly, if not already done. The finished wall subassembly is then relocated to storage racks located in the second staging area P2 or directly placed in position and secured in the dwelling D being assembled in the dwelling assembly alley HA in a predetermined position and interconnected with other wall subassemblies to create a complete framed and subfloored structure assembly.
The exterior finish may not be present on the exterior walls to thereby enable the workers to access the various utilities that are run through the walls. As wall segments are joined, the utilities pre-installed therein must be interconnected, and this can be done via access from the exterior (or top) of the wall, rather than the interior as is presently done. The multitude of subsystems that comprise a dwelling are treated as an integrated system with the progression of construction of each subsystem coordinated with the various other systems to ensure coherent construction of the dwelling in an efficient manner.
At this juncture, to increase the speed of manufacture, reduce the handling of materials, cabinet assemblies, doors, windows, floor coverings etc. can be pre-stocked in the shell of the standard size dwelling D. The pre-stocking enables the workers at later stages of assembly to have the necessary materials already situated within the standard size dwelling D, via hoisting element H2, to enable the workers to perform finish work concurrently with the second story and the roof being assembled and installed on the standard size dwelling D. The materials, such as drywall, can be of dimensions greater than typically used since the hoisting element H2 can be used to transport these materials, rather than depending on the workers to handle each piece individually, with the size of the materials being dictated by the physical limitations of the workers.
Third Staging Area
The third staging area P3 is predicated on the presumption that the standard size dwelling being manufactured is a two story dwelling. Obviously, if one story dwellings are being manufactured, the third staging area P3 as described herein may be deemed to be unnecessary. The equipment (such as hoisting apparatus H3) and work areas of the third staging area P3 are similar to those of the second staging area P2.
Fourth Staging Area
The fourth staging area P4 of the satellite manufacturing facility 300 is primarily used to fabricate, relocate and install the roof subassembly of the standard size dwelling D. This staging area, if used to manufacture a roof subassembly may comprise a series of areas P4A-P4C, each of which is used to fabricate a portion of the roof subassembly or a plurality of roof subassemblies. The roof fabrication can be implemented external to the building that houses the satellite manufacturing facility. The equipment and work areas of the fourth staging area P4 typically comprise at least one raw material processing stage. In particular, standard lengths of framing members and roof truss members are delivered to the fourth staging area P4.
A roof subassembly staging area is included in the fourth staging area P4. The roof subassembly is then hoisted into place on top of the framed shell of the two story structure and thus must be constructed somewhat differently from existing roof designs. In particular, since a crane H4 (such as an overhead crane) “picks and places” the entire roof subassembly, the trusses used to fabricate the roof subassembly must be designed to support both dynamic and static traditional roof loads, supported by the frame of the house, as well as to be capable of supporting the weight of the assembled roof when it is being hoisted. Therefore, the roof trusses must be designed to account for compression and tension loads in all conditions. The overhead crane H4 transports the completed roof subassembly from the roof subassembly fabrication areas L4B, L4A to the dwelling assembly alley HA where it is placed on the framed structure, which was installed on the transport element T at the first P1 through third P3 staging areas of the satellite manufacturing facility 300, in a predetermined position and interconnected with the interior and exterior wall staging areas to create a complete enclosed standard size dwelling D.
The fabrication of the roof subassembly on the roof subassembly fabrication areas results in a reduced assembly time, since working on ground level is easier, safer and more efficient than constructing the roof in place on the framed two story dwelling as is presently done in the stick building technology.
Fifth Staging Area
The fifth staging area P5 of the satellite manufacturing facility 300 is used to perform all remaining finish work that was not completed in the previous manufacturing stages. In this regard, the fifth staging area P5 may not strictly be termed a staging area since no subassembly is produced therein, but instead, in the preferred embodiment of the satellite manufacturing facility 300, it is used as a storage and staging area where the pre-stocking materials, such as floor covering, are stored and cut to size for transportation to the appropriate staging area for insertion into the partially competed dwelling located in the dwelling assembly alley HA, as described above. Therefore, the finish work includes any remaining painting, installation of plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, trim work, appliance installation, etc. Additional exterior work that was not previously completed is now done, such as gutters, roofing, flashing, exterior trim painting, etc. The materials for these activities can be stored in a plurality of rows of high bay storage racks. The materials handled in the fifth staging area P5 of the satellite manufacturing facility 300 may be more adapted to processing using a forklift truck rather than an overhead crane. In addition, the dwelling assembly alley HA may not be contiguous with the fifth staging area P5, since there is not necessarily any relocation of large bundles of materials to the dwelling at this stage of production. Therefore, the dwelling can even be moved at this juncture to a section of the building remote from the staging areas P1-P4, or “off-site” external to the building to another enclosed structure, or even in an open area outside.
The benefits of the satellite manufacturing facility are that the standard size dwellings produced in the satellite manufacturing facility represent significant advances from what is produced by the housing industry today. It is achieved by collapsing the traditional sequential building process into a small finite number of steps, each of which is implemented in a predetermined staging area of the facility somewhat independent of, yet in close coordination with, the building activity that takes place in the other staging areas of the facility.
