Optimization of Factory Layout Design Using Simulation Tool

Vishal Naranje P. Venkata Reddy

Deptt. of Mechanical Engineering, Deptt. of Mechanical Engineering
Amity University, Dubai Amity University, Dubai
Dubai, UAE Dubai, UAE
e-mail: vnaranje@amityuniversity.ae e-mail: vreddy@amityuniversity.ae

Bhoopesh K. Sharma
Deptt. of Forensic Science
Amity University, Dubai
Dubai, UAE
e-mail: bsharma@amityuniversity.ae

Abstract—This paper used the simulation techniques to manufacturing processes without actual implementation [3].
analyses the problems in current inventory management Recently various researcher proved that simulation can help
system and proposed the solution for these problems. Further, to improve the productivity and effectiveness of
an assessment of the factory layout of the company was carried manufacturing system through optimum utilization of
out to identify problems in the existing layout. A Systematic resources. There are various commercial software are
Layout Planning (SLP) tools are used to develop a simulation available in market which can be used to build and simulate
module for layout optimization. Also, simulation of factory complete manufacturing system. There are increase in
layout is carried out using Technomatrix to validate the demand of simulation software in the industry. Several
proposed solution. The present study critically analyzes the
researchers used the simulation tool to study the performance
effect of each key process variables on process and factory
performance. The proposed analysis will helps the company to
of manufacturing system. Scriber [4] used a simulation
optimize the inventory policies and factory layout. techniques to identify best production system from available
four proposed production systems. Wiendahl et al. [5]
Keywords-Factory layout; Systematic layout Planning; applied a simulation tools for assembly planning process.
Technomatrix They divided the complete process into assembly shop, cell,
station and component. Azadeh [6] applied a simulation
I. INTRODUCTION technology to rolling mill system to optimize various
alternatives in order to generate optimum production
Various studies shows that the contribution of material
alternatives. Patel et al. [7] applied simulation tool to
handling equipment cost to the total cost of manufacturing is
automobile manufacturing process to improve the system
up to 70 percent [1]. Optimizing it can save tons of money
performance. Choi et al. [8] presented a set of guidelines on
and time, which optimizes the company as a whole and
how to use simulation tool for visual management and
maximize the profits. It is well established that for the
analysis at an automotive foundry plant manufacturing
smooth functioning of various activities of any
engine blocks. Potoradi et al. [9] used simulation modelling
manufacturing plant is depends on the optimal arrangement
for scheduling process of large volume of product to meet
of various facilities of the plant. The main objective of plant
the weekly demand. Kibira et al. [10] presented a model to
layout design is to reduce the time and cost required for
represent the design of production line for mechanically
material handling which will help to reduce overall cost of
assembled product through the use of virtual reality
production. Further, the good plant layout design will help to
simulation tool. Altiparmak et al. [11] used simulation
manufacture the different variety and volume of product
metamodels to improve performance of asynchronous
economically. The other objectives of plant layout design are
assembly system through by optimize the buffer sizes in the
to increase return on assets through productive utilization of
system. Gurkan et al. [12] used the simulation to the weaving
space, people, equipment and energy, employee wellbeing
mill to remove the bottleneck of the process and proposed
etc.[2]. Due to rapid change of consumer needs and
the new system for the aforementioned mill.
complexity in products, the manufacturing industry faces a
From the above literature it is found that simulation is an
tremendous pressure to meet the market demands rapidly
essential tool to model manufacturing system in order to
without much change in existing manufacturing setup. Hence
identify the bottleneck in the process, and suggest various
there is a need of techniques which will address the various
alternatives to help to select best alternative by using
problems associated with today’s manufacturing arena
comparison and sensitivity analysis without implementing
without stopping the production process or doing any
the solution without actual implementation and disturbing
expensive modifications. Researchers developed a computer
routine production process. Hence the computer simulation
based simulation tool that perform the simulation of various

978-1-7281-0851-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 193

approach help the industry to design optimum layout at diagram etc. have been used to identify the relationship
lower costs, shorter time, greater flexibility and much small between various variables and find optimum layout. Figure 2
risk. The objectives of this work are to understand the current shows the optimized inventory layout. In the proposed layout
layout of the inventory and the factory of Eagle Industries, fastest moving items are placed in close proximity with lifts
find the drawbacks in the existing system and develop ways or unloading area or even closest to the production area, to
to improve processes and increase control. This plays a huge place the racks in such a way that the dead stock can be
role in optimizing the factory for a greater good, saving a lot placed in the farthest available space in the warehouse, i.e.,
of time and money for the factory. the expanded mezzanine.
II. PROBLEM FORMULATION
Eagle Industries Inc. located in Dubai South, UAE
manufactures ground support equipment (GSE). The
company is having problems in inventory management and
factory layout. The inventory is maintained poorly resulting
in a waste of time and money. Another problems was the
poor design of factory workspace. Hence there is need to
redesign the existing layout to reduce the wastes and increase
the productivity. The factory is having machining, wielding,
plasma, paint, Electric Assembly, Assembly shops. A
Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) tool is used for layout
optimization. Subsequently simulation was carried out using Figure 2. Optimized inventory layout
Technomatrix to examine the role and impact of product
complexity and other key variables on factory performance. This reduces the time and stress on the workers, who
have to move heavy materials to greater distances. Also it
III. INVENTORY OPTIMIZATION increases the cleanliness of the warehouse surroundings.
AutoCAD DRAW software was used to design the IV. STUDY OF EXISTING LAYOUT
existing layout of the company. It is representing the
existing position of inventory in the inventory section Eagle industry plant factory layout consists of welding
factory layout: shop, machining shop, paint shop, electric assembly shop,
assembly shop and test track. The existing factory layout is
shown in Figure 3

Figure 1. Existing inventory layout Figure 3. Existing factory layout

After analyzing the existing layout it was observed A. Process Flow of Product 1 and Product 2
that fast moving items are placed at the expanded
The complete production process of product 1 is shown
mezzanine. Therefore, it takes more time to load and
in Figure 4 and 5
unload the parts. Further, it is having low accessibility.
The first step is to transfer the material from warehouse
Another issue is the dead stock accumulation in the most
to the assembly area to do manual assembly. Afterward,
prominent locations of the mezzanine floor, it results a
welding operations has been performed on parts received
wastage of working space and increasing material
from machining area. Next the assembly of electronics
preparation time for stock transfer for production, hence
parts are carried out in the assembly area. After assembly
more time wasted for the workers. To optimize the
operation, these parts undergoes to the quality check to
inventory layout a Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) tool
ensure the various quality criteria before it going for final
has been used. Under this flow analysis, relationship diagram,
welding. After the final welding the assembly then taken
space recruitment and availability, space relationship

194
to the paint shop to be painted. After the paint work, it is
again taken to the final quality check(QC). Afterwards the
product is brought back to the assembly area for its final
finishing operations. The product is then finally tested in
the test track and then stored or sent to delivery.
Figure 4. Process flow of Product 1
Figure 5. Process flow of Product 1
B. Problems in the Existing Layout
Through investigation and analysis, following problems
were found in the existing production process and factory
layout: The product production process is time consuming.
Since the product is heavy, it takes a lot of time to shift/move
the product to different location of the factory. Since there
are very few workers in the assembly area, the process of
assembling the product is also time-consuming. There was
inefficient use of machines in the machining area. There is a
large amount of inventory in the station layout, and long
transport distances between some machining shops. Lack of
manpower in the factory makes the whole process inefficient.
V. OPTIMIZATION OF PRODUCTION LAYOUT
According to the existing production situation and
existing problems of plant factory of Eagle Industries LLC,
we applied the system layout planning (SLP) method to
optimize and improve the original layout, where the
195
assembly area is set as the reference and all the other areas
are shifted (refer Figure 6) to achieve optimism the layout
design. The various machining shops are rearrange by
studying various factors such as transportation time for
material handling, frequency of travel of parts between the
shops, process sequence etc. The improvised layout is shown
in Figure 7.
Figure 6. Proposed factory layout
Through investigation and analysis of the improved
structure, we found that the problems that existed production
method are solved in the proposed layout: The product
production process not time consuming anymore. Time
consumption is optimized. Better machinery is being used to
transport the heavy materials to different location of the
factory. More assembly workers were hired to make the
assembly process more efficient and optimized. Machines
were optimized to the fullest amount. Worker per machine
were also optimized. Transport distance between stations
were optimized and made minimum. Efficient and optimum
workers are hired. Warehouse optimized for large amount of
logistics in station layout.
Figure 7. Process flow in improved Factory layout
VI. MODELING SIMULATION
In order to verify the rationality and feasibility of the
improved scheme and to show a clear implication on
production process, the Simulation of the complete plant was
carried out using Technomatrix software designed by
Siemens. Figure 9 shows the arrangement of different
processes used in the plant. The description of each process
is given as below:
Figure 9. Simulation model of Factory layout
A. Plasma Cutting
Figure 10 shows the existing plasma cutting process in
the plant. It contains a worker pool that transports the
product to the buffer and then to the plasma cutter. The
plasma cutter must be operated by skill worker. Extreme
cautions must be taken for safety. It takes about 30-60
minutes to complete the operation.
Figure 10. Simulation model of plasma cutting process
After simulation run it is found that the time required to
finish the plasma cutting for one product with high precision
about 30 min and for low precision it took 10 min. There is
machine error of 5 percent. The robot does not work on
100% efficiency. Hence to eliminate this, a skilled and
experienced workers are hired. Figure 11 and 12 shows the
simulation run and process flow respectively after the
process operated by skilled workers.
Figure 11. Simulation run of the plasma cutting process
Figure 12. Process flow of plasma cutting process
Similar to plasma cutting process, the simulation model
and simulation run were carried out for welding, machining,
electric assembly, paint and final assembly process. The
simulation details of these processes are given as below.
B. Welding
The wielding process consists of two inputs. The input 1
leads to robotic welding while input 2 leads to manual labor
welding. The wielding process takes about 15-20 hours in
196
total to complete. Figure 13 shows the Robotic and the
manual labours wielding process.
Figure 13. Simulation model of the existing welding process
The simulation runs shows that the time taken for robotic
wielding to finish one product is about 3 hours, while the
manual labours take about 8 hours. The manual labour
cannot eliminate because there is error in robotics welding.
The robot does not work on 100% efficiency. Hence to
eliminate this and make the process more efficient and
optimized, manual welding is suggested.
C. Machining
The machining shop layout is shown in Figure 14. It is
consist of laser cutter, bender and the lathe machine. It also
has a ‘pick and place’ for the product part to get from one
machine to another. An automated quality check is installed
within the machining to ensure precision of the products
produced. The quality check sends the default product to the
rework section.
Figure 14. Simulation model of machining process
The time taken to manufacture part in machining
department is about is about 2-3 hours, it also includes the
rework time.
D. Electronic Assembly
The electronics shop of Eagle industries is operated by
skilled electrical personals. The used of machines is less in
this shop because of the fact that this assembly has complex
assembly operations. All the wiring requires checking and
proper arrangement inside the product which requires skill
worker.
Figure 15. Simulation model of electric assembly shop
Through simulation (Figure 15) it is found that the
electronic assembly took is about 6 hours provided
everything goes right. This is one of the second most time
consuming process in Eagle Industries.
E. Paint Shop
The paint shop is consist of buffing, priming painting.
Figure 16 shows the existing paint layout.
Figure 16: Simulated model of paint shop
The buffing process takes 2 hours, priming takes 3 hours
and finally painting takes 4-5 hours depending on the size of
the product. On top of this there is the drying time for the
paint which takes about a day or two.
VII. ASSEMBLY
The assembly shop of the plant is the most efficient
amongst all the other shop of the industry. Figure 17 shows
the simulated model of assembly line.
Figure 17. Simulated model of final assembly line
The assembly shop is having rework section, assembly
line for wielding points, packing etc. to make the final
product in its most optimized way. The time required for 1
assembly is 2-3 hours. Figure 18 shows the process flow of
product in assembly shop.
Figure 18. Process flow of assembly process
After implementing the proposed solutions the simulation
models shows an improvement process performance. The
total number of workers has been reduced by 137, handling
time and distance respectively reduced by 16h and 12m.
Besides, the breakage rate of tooling becomes reduced, the
total production rate was accelerated, and production cycle
became shorter. Meanwhile, it saved production costs about
34% for enterprises and made production process automation
degree of the plant factory higher. In a word, the research
result provided a scientific basis for process and layout
planning and design of plant factory. Results of different
shops are summaries and shown in Table 1
197
TABLE I: SIMULATION RESULTS OF DIFFERENT MFG. SHOPS
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
In this proposed work a discrete system simulation model
has been proposed for efficient management of inventory and
improvement of the productivity of production shop through
rearrangement of production layout. A Technomatrix
simulation software has been used to develop the simulation
model. Therefore, the proposed methodology can use to
improve the process performance of other discrete system
production processes without physically changing the actual
production process.
REFERENCES
[1] Banks, J., Carson J. S., Nelson B. L., 1996, Discrete event system
simulation, , 2d ed, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall.
[2] Bennett, B.S., 1995, Simulation fundamentals, Prentice Hall
Intenational, Hertfordshire
[3] Law, A. M., Kelton, W. D., 1991, Simulation modeling and analysis,
2d ed., New York, McGraw- Hill.
[4] Scriber T. J. ‘An introduction to simulation using GPSS/H’, 1991,
New York, Wiley.
[5] Wiendahl, H., Garlichs R., Zeugtraeger K., ‘Modeling and simulation
of assembly systems’ CIRP Annals 1991, 40(2), pp. 577-585.
[6] Azadeh, M. A., ‘Optimization of a heavy continuous rolling mill
system via simulation’ Proceedings of the Seventh International
Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management,
2000, Guangzhou, China pp. 378-384.
[7] Patel, V., J. Ashby, and J. Ma. 2002. Discrete event simulation in
automotive Final Process System, Proceedings of the 2002 Winter
Simulation Conference, ed. E. Yücesan, C.-H. Chen, J. L. Snowdon,
and J. M. Charnes, pp. 1030-1034, San Diego, California.
[8] Choi, S.D., A.R. Kumar, and A. Houshyar., ‘A simulation study of an
automotive foundry plant manufacturing engine blocks’ Proceedings
of the 2002 Winter Simulation Conference, ed. E. Yücesan, C. H.
Chen, J. L. Snowdon, and J. M. Charnes, 2002 San Diego, California,
pp.1035-1040.
[9] Potoradi, J., O.S. Boon, S.J. Mason, J. W. Fowler, and M. E. Pfund,
‘Using simulation- based scheduling to maximize demand fulfillment
in a semiconductor assembly facility’ Proceedings of the 2002 Winter
Simulation Conference, ed. E. Yücesan, C.H. Chen, J. L. Snowdon,
and J. M. Charnes, 2002, San Diego, California pp.1857-1861.
[10] Kibira, D., McLean C., ‘Virtual reality simulation of a mechanical
assembly production line’ Proceedings of the 2002 Winter Simulation
Conference, ed. E. Yücesan, C. H. Chen, J. L. Snowdon, and J. M.
Charnes, 2002, San Diego, California pp. 1130-1137.
[11] Altiparmak, F., B. Dengiz, and A. A. Bulgak., ‘Optimization of buffer
sizes in assembly systems using intelligent techniques.’ Proceedings
of the 2002 Winter Simulation Conference, ed. E. Yücesan, C.H.
Chen, J. L. Snowdon, and J.M. Charnes, 2002, San Diego, California
pp. 1157-1162.
[12] Gurkan P., Taskin C., ‘Application of simulation technique in
weaving mills’ Fibers & Textiles in Eastern Europe, 2005, Vol. 13,
No.3(51), pp. 8-10.