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Optimization of The Plant Layout in The Production

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97 views6 pages

Optimization of The Plant Layout in The Production

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anilsinghtesla
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Optimization of the Plant Layout in the

Damir Belic
Assistant Production of the Special Transformers
University of Zagreb
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and - Case Study
Naval Architecture
Croatia
This paper is a case study of the plant layout optimization in the
Zoran Kunica production of the special transformers. The continuous global crisis is an
Professor ideal time for companies to raise their efficiency, flexibility and trans–
University of Zagreb parency of their operations and competitiveness in the global market. One
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and
Naval Architecture of the possibilities to improve these features is a reduction of internal
Croatia transport costs, based on the utilization of the company's own resources.
With optimal layout of the workplaces and the equipment, the transport
Tihomir Opetuk routes are shortened, thereby the employees’ time is reduced, transport
Postdoctoral researcher
University of Zagreb
means are released, production lead times are shortened and intermediate
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and warehouses are reduced or closed. Because the employees’ time is
Naval Architecture reduced, they have more time to do something effective - what the buyer is
Croatia
willing to pay for. Also, with shorter production lead times, there is a
Goran Dukic faster material flow, less waiting and less opportunity cost of capital. The
Professor paper shows the steps that are necessary for the transition from the
University of Zagreb existing to the optimal layout of workspaces and equipment. Bloch-
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and
Naval Architecture
Schmigalla triangular method is used for the optimization.
Croatia
Keywords: intralogistics, material handling, routing, triangular method,
performance analysis.

1. INTRODUCTION Unfortunately, these three characteristics are


contradictory. The higher the reliability of deadlines and
In an ever more globalized world, manufacturing flexibility are, the more difficult is economical
enterprises are facing growing challenges in terms of production at a fixed price. On the other hand, if the
competition, volatile markets and a turbulent envi– company economy is the most important characteristic,
ronment [1]. At a time of rising costs, time pressures in then it is difficult to meet the deadlines and to be
production and globalization in general, plant layout and flexible. The next important characteristic is to be up-to-
logistics are among the key factors for the success of the date. If a company does not use IT-supported data
company [2]. If the company wants to stay competitive acquisition, then the data are not up to date. Also, due to
it must continuously increase its efficiency on all fields the reduction of product life cycles and the fast
of manufacturing [3]. Nowadays, the three most impor– changing global demands, production and factory
tant characteristics of a company are: economy, planning cycles become shorter. Agile enterprise
reliability in meeting the deadlines, and flexibility structures are necessary to manage ongoing changes [5].
(Figure 1.) [4]. Because of all mentioned above, the company must
operate fast under a new scenario and needs to have a
review of the current situation about [4]:
• where and what is going on,
• where the problems occurred,
• where the delays occurred,
• what functioned better than planned.
At every moment, the company knows its status
regarding capacities, materials and costs. Consequently
it is possible to make new plans quickly, taking into
account customer satisfaction and economy.
The paper shows the steps that are necessary for the
transition from the existing to the optimal layout of
workspaces and equipment. Bloch-Schmigalla
Figure 1. Main characteristics of a manufacturing company triangular method is used for the optimization.
[4]
2. PLANT LAYOUT OPTIMIZATION
Received: November 2016, Accepted: November 2017
Correspondence to: Damir Belic Spending a little time to plan the arrangement before
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical installation can prevent unnecessary losses [6, 7].
Engineering and Naval Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia Planning the production plant layout at the outset before
E-mail: [email protected] building the plant or office is the best way to reduce the
doi:10.5937/fmet1802285B
© Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade. All rights reserved FME Transactions (2018) 46, 285-290 285
costs remarkably. Manufacturing products or delivering 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXISTING LAYOUT
services at high quality, with less cost and in short time
using the fewest resources is the objective of properly Special transformers and reactors for medium voltages
managing a facility [6, 8]. It is important that the produced by Končar D&ST (Distribution and Special
facilities must be managed properly in order to attain Transformers) have a long tradition and are well known
the objective. Also it is necessary to optimize a worldwide for number of years. Production program of
production plant layout in existing factory, if the layout special transformers is produced in a separate
isn’t designed correctly. production hall, where each process is organized
There are many procedures and algorithms that can especially for the assembly of special transformers -
assist facility planners to construct the new layout or from separate hot air drying plants, winding machines
improve the current layout such as: Systematic Layout and oil purification machines for several oil types
Planning (SLP), Pairwise Exchange Method (PEM), (including mineral oil, synthetic organic ester, silicon
Graph Based Theory (GBT), Dimensionless Block and vegetable oil) [12].
Diagram (DBD), Total Closeness Rating (TCR), Bloch- Simplified flow chart of transformer production is
Schmigalla triangular method, etc [9]. shown in Figure 2.
On the basis of research [4, 10, 11] a conclusion was In the current production hall there are four
done that the optimization of layout of production machines for winding different types of wires
means can be carried out in four steps: (workstations 1 to 4), two dryers (dryer of the active
• Step 1: Description of the manufacturing process, part and the electrical dryer), control station and a space
for external oil filling and assembling of active parts
• Step 2: Creation of the material flow intensity
and final assembling. Figure 3 shows 2D layout of the
matrix,
production hall. Blue circuits are representing
• Step 3: Description of the existing layout of Workstations 1 to 4, and transport routs are marked by
production means in the company, yellow lines. Following the simplified flow chart, this
• Step 4: Proposal of the improved layout of production hall is suitable for making every step in this
production means in the company. chart except cutting and stacking a core. Cores are cut
In this case study, the Bloch-Schmigalla triangular and stacked in the separate production hall and they are
method is used for the layout optimization of the transported to the place suitable for assembling of the
existing production plant. active part in this production hall.

Figure 2. Simplified flow chart of the transformer production

Figure 3. Layout of the production hall

286 ▪ VOL. 46, No 2, 2018 FME Transactions


4. OPTIMIZATION OF THE SYSTEM LAYOUT there is more than one object with the same highest
number of connections with the dislocated object, a
The goal of the system optimization is to get the optimal random one is selected. After the selection of the
layout of the elements in that system. Positioning of the subsequent object is located, its potential position in the
elements is based on the material flow. There are two triangular network is determined [15].
criteria for layout optimization. First criteria are based There are a few main disadvantages in the modified
on the optimization of material flow direction (the goal triangle method. Although the procedure of calculating,
is to ensure that the material flow is as linear as it can selecting and placing elements in equilateral triangle
be). Second criteria are based on minimization of mesh is relatively simple for low numbers of elements,
transport distance (total transport intensity). Total it becomes much more complex and time-consuming if
transport intensity is a product of the material flow there are more than ten elements in the system. The
intensity and the distance between the elements. second problem is the fact that the degrees of material
In this paper the Bloch-Schmigalla triangular flow, and sums between elements which are not jet
method is used for optimization of the material flow. placed and the pairs of already placed elements, start to
The triangular method was developed in 1950. by repeat themselves. When selecting a new element for
Bloch. The goal is to arrange the elements by the placing in the triangular mesh, several possibilities can
criteria of minimum transport distance. Bloch's method emerge. This means there are more options for building
is based on these several principles: a layout. There can be more than one candidate to be
• If the connection between two elements in the system selected next or/and there are several possibilities
is needed (the elements are connected by some sort of regarding already emerged pairs where new candidate
transport), the optimal way to do that is to set both can be placed. Depending on the complexity of the
elements in terminal positions of the base line. model and connectivity between the elements, finding
• If the connection between three elements is needed the optimal solution can be extremely difficult to solve.
(the elements are connected by some sort of Nowadays there are many generic algorithms for
transport), the shortest way is to put them in the solving the facility layout problems such as one
vertices of equilateral triangle. presented in [16].
• The fourth element in the system can be put In this case, a study of the analysis of the existing
somewhere on the three possible locations of the layout system is given to check the suitability of the
adjacent equilateral triangles, which result the current arrangement in relation to the ideal. In addition
minimum transport cost, etc. to analysing the current situation, the proposals of the
new optimal layout system is given according to the
The disadvantage of Bloch's triangular method is
results obtained by the modified triangle method.
that the method does not give the answer to which
The starting point of the analysis is the calculation of
elements should be placed first in the mesh of
the material flow intensity matrix. The calculation of the
equilateral triangles. H. Schmigalla improved Bloch's
flow is based on the data of production program,
method and named that improved method the modified
development plans and assembly plans. Also the
triangle method [13]. The method is extremely useful
description of manufacturing program is given by the
when designing new production systems or when
company, so the calculation is given by analyzing the
analyzing the existing ones that are confronted with
fourteen representative products (divided into three groups:
changes during the production process or during the
dry transformers and two groups of special transformers).
process of optimisation of the current layer state. The
The calculation is made by following these steps [14]:
goal and the result of the method are to get the
minimum transport output: • The product is divided into smaller sections
(assemblies and parts),
m m
f c = ∑ k =1 ∑ j =1 bkj × skj → min (1) • Number of parts and assemblies are defined for
planning period (eg. month, year etc.),
The least possible value of fc means that the • Material handling equipment for each component is
elements in the system are placed in a way which defined.
ensures optimum flow of the material [14]. The starting • For each component the necessary number of
hypothesis of Schmigalla method is that the minimum transport is calculated. Number of transports for one
transport output will be achieved if the elements with series of one component is calculated by this formula:
the largest intensity of material flow are set next to each Qsi 1
other in the triangular mesh. If there are more than one nOli = × (2)
such pair, the one having the highest number of QPOi QTSi
connections with the other object is selected. If there is
• The material flow intensity, expressed in the number
still more than one such pair of objects, then a random
of transports between k-th and j-th element of the
pair is selected and placed in the neighbourhood vertices
system in the planning period is calculated (number of
of the central equilateral triangle of the mesh. Next, the
transports multiplicities the number of series).
sum of the intensity of connections between dislocated
• Total transport intensity in the planning period
and not dislocated objects is determined. Between non
between k-th and j-th element of the system is
dislocated objects, the one having the highest intensity
obtained by summing the transport intensity for all the
of connections with the dislocated object is selected and
components which are transported between the
placed next to the first pair in the mesh. If it turns out
elements of the system.

FME Transactions VOL. 46, No 2, 2018 ▪ 287


Figure 4. The material flow intensity matrix for default process [17]

Following the completion of the calculation, the Transport output based on the current layout is also
material flow intensity matrix is made. The values calculated and that value is 897 distance units/planning
inside the matrix represent the transport intensity period, so it is evident that the current layout can be
between the k-th and j-th element of the system. As each optimised. Based on the amount of the manufactured
element of the system can be a source or a target point, products, the planning period used in this case study is one
the matrix is square. The material flow intensity matrix year. In this case study only the optimization of location
for default process is shown in Figure 4. was used based on existing limitations. Taking into account
Based on the data given from the material flow some management limitations that some elements of the
intensity matrix, the mesh of the equilateral triangles is system must remain in the current positions (in this case
created. First two elements which are assigned in trian– those elements are the control station and both dryers) the
gular mesh are the ones with the highest material flow new layout is proposed and shown in Figure 6. Also work–
between them; in this case they are assembling of the station 2 and workstation 3 are similar by their charac–
active part and control. Next elements assigned in the teristics, so workstation 3 can be excluded from the system
triangular mesh are defined by following the rules men– because considering the current amount of the products, it
tioned before in the text. Elements within the triangular is not necessary to use both workstations. Eliminating
mesh are labeled by numbers shown in the Figure 3. workstations 3 from the system and the redistribution of
(e.g. Workstation 1 is 1, Control is 9 etc.). The trian– the elements would enable extra space for storage of semi-
gular mesh of the default system is shown in Figure 5. finished and finished products (the area with hatch in
Figure 6). Therefore, taking into account the listed limi–
tations, the new minimum transport output is calculated
and that value is 787 distance units/planning period.
The actual value of transport output is calculated by
entering the actual distance between the elements (instead of
a unit distance in the triangular method). The value of the
transport output for the current state is 12554 m/planning
period and the value of the transport output for the optimal
layout (taking into account given limitations) is 9787
m/planning period. The results are shown in Table 1.
By redistributing of elements, the obtained savings
would be 2767 m/planning period for the current
amount of products. If the assumption is that the
Figure 5. Mesh of equilateral triangles [17]
average transport speed is 5 m/min, it is calculated that
Based on the layout of the elements given in the saving time for transport is 9,2 hours/planning period,
triangular mesh, the minimum transport output for and also by eliminating the Workstation 2 and
optimal layout is calculated: redistribution of the elements, a certain space is given
(in this case 42 m2) which can be used for storage or
f c = ∑ k =1 ∑ j =1 bkj × skj = 638
m m
(3) something else.

288 ▪ VOL. 46, No 2, 2018 FME Transactions


Figure 6. Proposed layout for the production hall
Table 1. Comparison between the current layout and the some changes in the system, taking into account
proposed one calculated savings and possible costs. But if there will be
Distance a significant increase in the quantity of the product
m/planning redistribution of the system elements into the optimal
units/planning
period layout, it should be considered.
period
Current layout 897 12554 By redistributing elements of the system using
Layout with
Bloch-Schmigalla method, taking into account some
implemented 787 9787 management limitations that some elements of the
managament limitations system must remain in the current positions, the
Savings 12,26 % 22 %
obtained savings would be 2767 m/planning period
which is a reduction of 22 % compared with the current
layout. Also, the utilization of the elements in the
5. CONCLUSION
current layout is approximately 30 %, so there is a space
for a significant increase in the quantity of the products.
This paper is a case study of the plant optimization in the
The optimization of the material flow must be followed
production of special transformers. The goal of the
by a standardization of the transport routes, manufac–
optimization is to make cheaper and faster delivered
turing process, etc., in order to achieve further optimi–
products. Investing in new equipment is not always the
zation of the production and shorter lead times.
best solution because it is costly and most companies buy
With the obtained savings in transport times, the
new equipment and machines and install them where they
energy consumption of the material handling equipment
have free space, not taking into account the material flow
is reduced, which leads to increased sustainability
optimization. This can result in unnecessary transport
within the transport system.
cost rise. In many cases companies have reserves that can
As part of the future work it will be beneficial to
be exploited. One way to find these reserves is by using
use methods (e.g. Value Stream Mapping) to identify
the material flow optimization with adequate dislocation
wastes in the whole production program. Also usage of
of the working stands participating in the internal
simulation programs connected with Industry 4.0 would
transport by Bloch-Schmigalla method. The analysis of
help to quickly (in real time) define wastes and other
the internal transport of the company has shown the
problems in the production and also in the warehouses,
potential of the optimization in respect of the material
such as presented in papers [18, 19].
flow and the minimization of the cost involved in it.
Although the analysis by Bloch-Schmigalla method has
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