A digitized design process to optimize workspaces allocation in industrial buildings of medium-sized companies

The contribution aims to develop a computational and digitalized design process, in order to re-engineer production layouts in terms of allocation of working machines, in medium and small manufacturing companies. The process leads consequential steps from the analysis of the facility layout till the material and worker handling systems, with particular reference to their spatial allocation within the plant area of the host building. The data collected are ubsequently stored in a Building Information Model which acts as “input driver” for the design process in order to reach a local replanting of workspaces, given a number of building constraints. By using a BIM-interoperable approach which includes a Space Syntax Analysis, the result is a redesigned parametric model with optimizes machines’ allocation of the addressed case study. The design process has been validated in three different companies and suggests a different allocation of workspaces compared to their original spatial placement.