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Abstract
This paper presents the use of simulation modeling in an industry-specific facility layout design problem. The objective is to design the 'best' facility layout vis-à-vis 'maximizing' throughput capacity with restrictions such as the space available and operators used. First, the precedence relationship in the assembly sequence was studied through process mapping. Combined with detailed time studies, the theoretical maximum capacity was obtained from critical path analysis. The workstations were divided into sub-assembly and major assembly workstations. Then, a simulation model was built to investigate the dynamics of the defined workstations and the feasibility of the preliminary design. Different layout alternatives, such as fixed layout and product layout, were simulated and evaluated to determine the 'best' alternative. Upon implementation, it was observed that the proposed layout was able to provide the desired throughput.
Keywords
Facility Layout, Process Mapping, Simulation
1. Introduction
The survival of manufacturing companies requires an increasingly efficient use of its resources in today's extremely competitive global market. This is where a solution to the problem of designing an appropriate layout can make a significant contribution. With increasing pressure from both customers and competitors, manufacturing organizations constantly face a problem vis-à-vis finding a balance between 'high' responsiveness to the market's demand while concurrently maintaining low manufacturing costs. Facility layout affects the overall material flow of an organization and could have a significant impact on enhancing responsiveness and lowering manufacturing costs [12]. Traditionally, there are four types of layout designs that manufacturing organizations employ, namely, process layout, product layout, fixed position layout, and Group Technology (GT) layout [10]. Many factors contribute towards the decision on choosing a particular type of layout [3-5]. They include:
* Specification of the objectives and corresponding criteria to be used to evaluate the design;
* Estimates of product demand on the system;
* Processing requirements in terms of the number of operations and the amount of material flow between the elements in the layout;
* Space requirements for the elements in the layout; and,
* Space availability within the facility itself, or if this is a new facility, possible building configurations.
The determination of the best layout for a facility is regarded as a classical optimization problem [5, 11]. The best layout can optimize measurements of production efficiency,...