REDUCING DIRECT LABOR COSTS THROUGH U-SHAPED CELLULAR LAYOUT IN INJECTED AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENTS INDUSTRY

Reducing direct labor costs can be used to create a low operation cost as the way for winning future markets including injected automotive components. This paper aims to provide an overview of direct labor costs reduction in injected automotive components through a U-shaped cellular layout as part of the lean concept. Over a decade, many types of research had already used the lean concept to solve problems in production activity through lean tools. In this paper, several lean tools such as Takt time, value stream mapping, and U-shaped cellular will be used for reducing direct labor costs that have increased yearly in Indonesia since 2015. Those lean tools will be performed in a job-shop of injected automotive components. After performing the U-shaped cellular layout, the direct labor costs were reduced to 25 % by combining the job held by two operators to become one operator.

Optimization Of the Manufacturing Process for School Portfolios Through the Implementation of The Cellular Layout

One of the most common problems encountered in the manufacturing process is improper layout. About 30% of production time is wasted on transporting materials and products. The causes of this waste are problems in the disposition of stock and machines in production, that is, in the factory layout production of school desks became more efficient with the use of the cell layout. The result found was that with the implementation of the cell layout, there was an increase in the number of wallets produced and a reduction in the waste of materials. It is concluded that the. In this context, the production line based on the cellular layout has been an excellent ally, since the cells of this layout can improve the use of available space, without increasing costs due to major renovations or constructions. To prove such improvements, through the implementation of the cell layout, the PSL method (Systematic Layout Planning) was used, which follows steps such as data collection, analysis of necessary and available space, and factory limitations. With these stages of knowledge and analysis of the factory, it becomes possible to discard layouts that do not fit the characteristics of the company, whether related to financial resources, available space, and factory culture. Using the Chi-Square test for statistical analysis, it was possible to verify that the cell layout is an efficient optimization tool in the school desks production process, as it brought numerous benefits to the factory under studies, such as increased productivity, greater organization, and flexibility in the processes.

Cellular facility layout problem: a case of tower manufacturing industry

Purpose In today’s competitive market, product demand and its mix frequently vary due to various uncertainties, which thus imparts the overall manufacturing cost. Furthermore, uncertainties also impart the layout design in manufacturing industries in the long run. Therefore, the layout design needs to capture the possibility of uncertainties, and these uncertainties must be captured while designing the layout of a facility. Hence, an efficient facility layout design minimizes the manufacturing cost and lead time. The purpose of this paper is to propose a cellular layout design for a tower manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops an embedded simulated annealing-based meta-heuristic to solve proposed cellular layout under different scenarios considering single and multi-time periods for tower manufacturing industry. A comparative study is also performed to analyze comparison among static cellular layout, a dynamic cellular layout or a robust stochastic cellular layout for the tower manufacturing industry. Findings The current layout of the industry is a process layout. Here, the layout for a tower manufacturing industry is proposed under SCFLP, DCFLP and RSCFLP. The proposed models and solution methodology is tested using six scenarios with different combination of time periods. Lastly, OFV value obtained for all the scenarios is compared, and it is found that RSCFLP outruns other SCFLP and DCFLP for a tower manufacturing industry. Based on the above study, it is also concluded that RSCFLP is an efficient and effective layout in tower manufacturing industry. Originality/value The paper proposes a cellular layout design for a tower manufacturing industry. The cellular layout design is found to be preferred over the traditional layout as it reduces material handling cost, manufacturing lead time and hazards. Moreover, it enhances productivity and quality.