Improving Facility Layout Using an Ergonomics and Simulation-Based Approach

In today's world, a sizable portion of small and medium sized businesses deal with various issues relating to productivity. These can be in the form of machine conditions, bottlenecks, material handling delays and various others issues. However, the success of the businesses depends on work efficiency and productivity. With new engineering techniques, one can design, develop, and implement better facility layouts that can help with both efficiency and productivity. The FlexSim software is used to develop these better facility layouts by simulating the machine areas and plant operations. It is also used to test and analyze the performance of the remodeled facility layouts under various scenarios. Each run of a modified version of the simulation shows changes in productivity and performance. By using simulations, we find a better and a more economical alternative to simply increasing the efficiency of every machine. In this paper, we investigate how discrete plant layouts affect the manufacturing process's production limits.