Redesign and simulation of facility layout in a manufacturing company

Facility planning involves the organization of departments or machines for improving the work efficiency. A study has been conducted in a jigs-and-fixtures manufacturing company to improve the facility layout of the company. The main objective of the study is to identify the current problem in the existing layout and develop better layouts to minimize the total distance travelled. The main problems in the existing layout are the long distance travelled and unsystematic material flow. A Group Technology approach has been applied to group several products as families. Based on the cells generated using Group Technology, an alternative layout has been developed using MULTI-floor Plant Layout Evaluation (MULTIPLE) method. For comparison purposes, another alternative layout has been generated using the Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) method. The existing layout and its developed alternatives are compared and evaluated through manual calculation and WITNESS simulation. The alternative layout using MULTIPLE method has shown a greater improvement for the facility layout compared to the other two methods. The objective of the study has been successfully accomplished through the problem identification and alternative layouts generation