Good layout designs incorporate the placement of offices, docks, processing and material handling equipment properly to minimize operational costs while maintaining employee safety.
Cellular manufacturing and Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) are two tools that can be used to accomplish this goal. Productivity Solutions’ comprehension of the cost impact of proper layout designs was demonstrated with their research and publications related to Group Technology techniques back in 1991. This was before being fully accepted by industry.
Layout Design Capabilities
- Cellular Manufacturing / Group Technology Techniques
- Systematic Layout Planning (SLP)
- Warehouse Design
- Material Handling System Design
- Ergonomic – Work station design
Micro Modular Nuclear Reactor Prefabrication Site
Fabricate, build, assemble, test and stage modular nuclear reactor assemblies and support offices with control equipment.
- Designed a several hundred thousand SF greenfield fabrication facility layout, precast concrete operations and overall site layout.
- Used material flow paths to streamline operations.
- Selected and costed all processing and material handling material equipment.
- Calculated Takt times and labor requirements to meet throughput targets.
- Summarized all start-up and labor costs for a DOE loan application.
Steel Bridge Manufacturing and Installation Company
Designs, fabricates and installs steel bridges.
- Created 4 site layout and building expansion options for evaluation with Pros vs. Con documentation.
- Documented current and future state department floor space requirements.
- Documented current and new site operations with product line material flow paths.
- Researched, costed and proposed new cutting, welding and material handling technologies to reduce operating costs.
Electrical Vehicle Charger Manufacturer
Assembles and tests commercial electric vehicle charging stations.
- Created an assembly and test layout for a new product launch.
- Created material flow patterns to minimize travel distances.
- Calculated labor requirements for each workstation.
- Selected and calculated the processing equipment and material handling equipment start-up costs.
- Calculated raw material and WIP inventory levels.
High performance clamping, coupling components and fabricated subassemblies manufacturer in the aerospace industry.
- Consolidated 250,000 SF facility 4 stories high into a new 100,000 SF single level facility.
- Documented current and future state department floor space requirements.
- Documented new site operations with product line material flow paths.
- Designed layout based on Pareto sales volume of 5 product lines to minimize overall material flow distances.
Modular Office and Display Fabrication Company
- Created several site layouts for review with a 30,000 SF building expansion to estimate budgetary costs.
- Created detailed equipment layouts of the combined 100,000 SF facility.
- Proposed a new pallet rack locations and layouts that freed up 5,000 SF of floorspace.
Fiberglass Panel Manufacturer for the Recreational Vehicle Industry
Sprays chopped glass and polymers on molds, cuts and packages large panels for high end RV clients.
- Designed facility layout and capacity analysis of a $14 million building expansion to double production.
- Performed capacity calculations to specify material handling equipment requirements.
- Provided and trained employees on procedures, production target tables and operator utilization calculations for analyzing and identifying process improvements.
- Performed a labor analysis the resulted in a 25% increase in production efficiency. and capacity 25% by identifying and eliminating non-value added steps associated with labor tasks.
Projection TV Lens Manufacturer
Manufactures and assembles several million lens assemblies annually from glass blanks, injection molded lenses and components.
- Performed a 60,000-sq. ft. warehouse layout design to minimize floor space requirements, material handling costs and inventory carrying costs. This was done by performing a complete material flow analysis.
- Provided spreadsheet models for re-calculating reorder-point levels and inventory turns to minimize inventory-carrying costs of different product forecasts.
Glass Company
Manufacturer of glass blanks for microchip etching lasers
- Performed layout design for the packaging, shipping and receiving department.
- Calculated required WIP quantities in-between all processing steps.
Compressed Gas Equipment Manufacturer
Regulator, Valve, CGA Fitting and Manifold Design, Fabricate, Assembly & Test Manufacturer
- Implemented 5 manufacturing cells with components staged at point of use for manual assembly. This reduced inventory levels and increased production efficiency 15%.
Football Helmet Manufacturer & Reconditioner
- Designed complete process layout rearrangement that reduced travel distances 20%.
- Designed a new helmet packaging layout.
Architectural custom wood working design, manufacture and installation company.
- Created a 40,000 SF woodworking cutting, sanding, router, assembly and coating facility to minimize operational costs.
Medium Sized Batch Petro Chemical Company
Chemical mixing, blending and packaging company.
- Performed a 3 Phase site expansion feasibility study.
- Created several site and facility layouts for revision and updating.
- Calculated manpower savings from a consolidated barrel filling operation.
- Generated material handling costs for a $30 million, 3 line automatic, 55-gallon filling stations.
- Provided project management meetings, presentations within budget.
Tier 1 Stamping, Welding & E-Coating Company
- Designed and implemented a Kanban inter-plant replenishment process.
- Designed the Kanban kit carts and staging layout areas.
- Implemented a Production Reporting Program that tracked OEE, equipment utilization, downtime, employee efficiency and scrap rates.