Production Scheduling System for Prefabricated Units
Digital Asset Delivery and Project Management
Challenge Statement Owner
Greyform Pte Ltd, a member of Straits Construction Group, was incorporated in December 2015 to offer Precast and Prefabricated solutions to the construction industry from our Integrated Construction and Prefabrication Hub (ICPH) facility. Through automation and digital innovation, Greyform enhances construction productivity, safety, and quality, and is transforming the industry by integrating future-ready skills and technologies.
Background
The current scheduling system for Prefabricated Bathroom Units (PBUs), from carcass to full fit-out, is manually managed and struggles to keep up with the growing number of concurrent projects, each with multiple PBU types.
Frequent changes in client delivery dates – often due to fluctuating site progress – are currently updated manually from wall charts to Excel and into a monthly planning process. This reactive approach often misses long-term conflicts, creates bunching effects in production, and results in resource allocation issues.
Mould changes during production take 4 to 16 hours to complete, and poor grouping of similar PBU types leads to unnecessary downtime. The lack of predictive capability means the system cannot forecast or plan for potential storage shortages, material constraints, or manpower allocation issues in advance.
An integrated, automated scheduling system could enable more proactive, optimised planning and resource use, reducing delays and operational inefficiencies.
The Challenge
How might we develop an automated and responsive planning system that integrates procurement, production, logistics, and warehouse management, replacing manual scheduling and enabling daily updates to accommodate frequent client changes, while preventing delays from supply chain disruptions and workload reassignments?
Requirements
Functional Requirements
- Continuously adapt to frequent and unpredictable client delivery schedule changes
- Forecast potential impacts and conflicts from 6 to 12 months in advance
- Group similar PBU types to minimise mould change downtime (currently 4 to 16 hours per change)
- Minimise time and cost from mould changes during production
- Streamline workflows across procurement, production, logistics, and warehousing
- Provide intelligent recommendations for moulds, manpower, materials, and storage space
- Enable proactive planning to prevent bottlenecks and overstocking
- Support short- and long-term planning with predictive analytics
Technical Requirements
Core Requirements:
- Integrate with Greyform’s existing ERP system or BIM model and panelised system workflows
- Accept client delivery schedules and recommend production start dates and required resources in real time including panelised PBU carcass and fitout
- Group similar PBU types to optimise casting runs and minimise downtime from mould changes
- Support economic batch planning to reduce downtime and material waste
- Forecast manpower, materials, and storage space needs using historical data and future projections
- Ensure compatibility with industry-standard data formats and protocols
Additional Preferences:
- AI-driven scheduling engine to optimise production sequences and adapt to changes
- Real-time data synchronisation with client schedules and site updates
- Dashboard for stakeholders to monitor progress and make informed decisions
- Scenario simulation and forecasting to test alternative scheduling approaches
- Cloud-based platform for transparency and collaboration among stakeholders
Expected Outcomes
- Improved responsiveness to client delivery changes
- Optimised resource allocation across moulds, manpower, materials, and storage space
- Reduction in downtime from mould changes (currently 4 to 16 hours) through smarter grouping and scheduling
- More standardised and predictable production schedules across multiple projects
- Better coordination and resilience across the supply chain
Deployment Environment and Constraints
The system must operate within Greyform’s PBU production facilities and be capable of scaling to other precast production lines. It should handle multiple concurrent projects, variable PBU designs, and fluctuating site progress inputs.
Proof-of-concept (POC)/Pilot Support
Greyform will provide:
- Access to PBU production facilities for pilot testing
- Operational data and production schedules for system training and evaluation
- Domain expertise and mentorship from experienced staff
- Iterative testing and feedback to refine the solution
Commercialisation and Scaling
Greyform is committed to implementing the system, whether market-ready or co-developed. For market-ready solutions, they will prioritise rapid deployment with allocated budget for integration and training. For systems needing development, they will co-develop with a system integrator, providing in-kind contributions.
Once proven, the solution could be expanded to PPVC production, carcass works, and marketed to other contractors, manufacturers, and smaller precast operators for fit-out stage scheduling.
