The case under study is a bicycle manufacturer that received the order from its main office to increase the production of two bicycle models that requires two different production processes because one bicycle is made from aluminum and the other one from titanium and steel. The difference of materials affects the use of the Tool-machines and the man work requirement. The main office requirement is one thousand bicycles of aluminum-titanium and one thousand bicycles of steel.
There are three possible solutions to the problem:
1. Divide the shop with two production lines, distributing the equipment per line. There is equipment that will be common for the two production lines. This configuration requires temporal personnel.
2. Divide the fiscal year into two phases. The first phase with the aluminum-titanium bicycles and the other phase for the steel bicycles. Each configuration uses the same personnel in different months of the year. The personnel will be the same.
3. Concentrate the production in only one type of bicycle and outsource the production of the other bicycle with another shop. The excess of equipment could be shared with the outsource shop reducing unit production cost.
The evaluation criteria for the selection of the solution of the problem must solve:
■ Production requirements. This criterion has a weight of 50% in the decision.
■ Production costs and cost per unit. This criterion has a weight of 30% in the decision.
■ Solution that uses the existing resources of the company: labor, material and equipment. This criterion has a weight of 20% in the decision.
The previous example relates to Industrial Engineering by the relation machine-man, the optimal use of resources, logistics, and the plant distribution issue. The diversity of products increases the complexity of a manufacturing facility .
Reference List
Fast Design. (2015). Industrial Plant Layout. Retrieved from http://www.fastdesign.it/en/engineering/mechanics/industrial-plant-layout
