Journal of Industrial and Intelligent Information Vol. 3, No.

2, June 2015

Production Layout Improvement for Steel

Fabrication Works
N. M. Z. Nik Mohamed, M. F. F. Ab Rashid, A. N. Mohd Rose, and W. Y. Ting
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Pekan, Malaysia
Email: nikzuki@ump.edu.my

Abstract—This paper focuses on the study of a steel layout, and open-field layout. The single row layout or
fabrication works production line in a particular company spine layout deals with facilities that are arranged along a
in Malaysia. The company’s main business is steel cutting line. The loop layout or circular layout deals with the
and bending service. Due to high number of customer arrangement of m facilities to candidate locations 1,...., m,
orders, the current production layout has to be improved.
in a closed loop network, around which parts are
The objectives of the study was to improve the current
layout in order to minimise material handling cost, improve transported in one direction. The multi-rows layout or
flexibility for operation, utilise the available area and ladder layout deals with different rows of facilities. The
minimise overall production time. The improvement process movements of parts occur between facilities from either
layout was studied using WITNESS software. Production the same row or from different rows. Finally, the open
analysis has been conducted in the process flow of the field layout deals with situations where facilities can be
company in order to identify improvement at the placed without any constraints.
problematic areas. Finally, improvement alternative In general, the facility layout has a lifecycle which
solutions were proposed based on Witness simulation. consists of design, implementation, growth, maturity and
obsolescence phases [2]. In each phase of the lifecycle
Index Terms—production layout, steel fabrication,
WITNESS software
many considerations have to be made which include
design, evaluation and selection of an effective layout,
production planning and scheduling. Moreover, due to the
I. INTRODUCTION current market demands, the decisions related to the
modification in an existing design also need to be
A manufacturing company must have an efficient thoroughly studied to cope with the requirements. Hence,
production system to accomplish its operation. The it is important to have an efficient layout arrangement and
systems consist of people, equipment, and procedure material flow path design because material handling
designed for the combination of materials and processes requires a large percentage of the product cost [4].
that steer the company’s operations [1]. Basically, there However, due to land supply is insufficient and
are two types of production systems; production facilities expensive, especially in urban areas, the constraint of
and manufacturing support systems. Production facilities available horizontal floor space forces a need to use a
refer to the physical equipment and the layout vertical dimension of the factory. Therefore, it is
arrangement of equipment in the company. These necessary to arrange the facilities on several floors. This
facilities include the factory, production equipment and multi-floor layout enables parts can be moved both
material handling equipment. horizontally on a given floor and to other floors located at
In manufacturing system, facility layout is considered a different level in vertical direction and requires a
as one of the important criteria which has a significant vertical transportation device such as elevator [3].
effect towards manufacturing productivity in terms of Material handling system (MHS) is an important
cost and time [2]. The objectives of a layout are to component of manufacturing system which act as an
minimise material handling cost, improve flexibility for inter-connector for facilities and should facilitate the
arrangement and operation, utilise the available area and process of delivering the right amount of materials, to the
minimise overall production time. According to [3], “a right place, at the right time and at the lowest cost [5].
facility layout is an arrangement of everything needed for According to [6], MHS is responsible for transporting
production of goods or delivery of services”. A facility materials between workstations efficiently by joining all
layout is an entity that provides the performance of any workstations and workshops in manufacturing systems
tasks that include a machine tool, a work centre, a with minimum obstruction. According to [7], MHS
manufacturing cell, a machine shop, a department and a integrates functions within a manufacturing system and it
warehouse. plays a very important role in the manufacturing system
According to [4], there are four types of layout because it accounts for 30-75% of the total cost of a
categories based on the type of material handling. Those product.
layouts are single row layout, loop layout, multi-rows An effective MHS should improve the performance of
a manufacturing system, especially by reducing work-in-

Manuscript received January 29, 2014; revised July 4, 2014. process (WIP). Therefore, it is very important to

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doi: 10.12720/jiii.3.2.133-137
 Journal of Industrial and Intelligent Information Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2015

determine the suitable material handling equipment and to the specific area of the fabrication works in order to
the tasks of material handling operations to each cater for the increasing demand, which make the layout
individual piece of equipment. Ref. [6] categorised the of the factory not in proper order. Hence, a study was
equipment types of MHS in the ‘‘Inter-Departmental needed to overcome this problem. In order to optimize
Handling of Discrete Parts” into six categories, namely the production, the WITNESS simulation analysis was
industrial trucks, floor conveyors, overhead conveyors, utilised in this study. It was found that the major concern
automatic guided vehicles (AGV), cranes and manual. in the company was the layout problem, manpower and
Manufacturing support systems, on the other hand, are operation system. In order to establish this adequate
the procedures used by the company to manage relationship between all these criteria and plant layout,
production operation, solve the technical and logistics cycle times for each process, production line, worker
problems. The systems involve materials ordering, work involved were studied and analysed.
flow sequence, and ensuring the products meet quality The improvement of production layout is vital in order
standards. Manufacturing engineering is normally to fulfil the increasing demand of steel fabrication works.
responsible for the company’s planning and WITNESS simulation software is one of the simulation
manufacturing processes. Furthermore, Production software that specially designed for manufacturing
Planning and Control (PPC) department is responsible for applications. It is ideally suited to a variety of production
solving the logistical problems in manufacturing, which and storage layouts and logistical modelling scenarios. In
includes material ordering, production scheduling and short, the software can be used to design and analyse the
capacity planning. Finally, Quality Control (QC) is factory manufacturing plant layout and its production
responsible to ensure the products are according to behaviour. The role of simulation is to evaluate practical
specifications and standards set by the company. alternatives available either in support of major strategic
Both production facilities and manufacturing support initiatives which might involve a large financial budget. It
systems involve dedicated people that are very important also supports the continuous search for better
to ensure the company’s smooth operation. There are two performance at operational and tactical levels. Examples
categories of people involved; the first is factory labour, of such evaluations include changes to the product mix,
who is responsible for direct operating the manufacturing increases or decreases in volumes, improvements in
equipment. The second is the professional people who are throughput, shorter lead times and improved customer
responsible for manufacturing support. In order to face response times [10]. Simulation provides the user with a
these challenges, manufacturing companies must have greater breadth and depth of information which lead to
strategy and competitive priority in order for them to the final decisions. In addition, the simulation approach
compete in the dynamic market. According to [8], “a supports sensitivity analysis by allowing rapid changes to
manufacturing strategy is a set of manufacturing policies the model logic and data. Therefore, the objective of the
designed to maximize performance among trade-offs study is to ensure capacity utilization is balanced with the
among success criteria to meet the manufacturing task forecast demand at all time, together with the right
determined by a corporate strategy”. It is the quantity of raw material, labour, and equipment during
responsibility of the top management of the company to fabrication works.
ensure that there is a coherent manufacturing strategy and
policies at all levels designed to support the whole III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
company’s mission [8]. According to [9], manufacturing
The original layout set-up for a particular steel
strategy refers to the competencies that a company
fabrication works in Malaysia is shown in Fig. 1.
practices in its operations in the aim to promote the
company’s competitive strength.

II. RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Generally, this study is based on a steel fabrication
works factory. The company is specialised in all kinds of
metal works and provides steel fabrication, cutting and
bending service. The Company has also facilitated for the
opportunities and platforms for quality steel molding
processes, heavy machinery repairs and servicing. The
vision of the company is to venture into a major steel Figure 1. Original floor layout of steel fabrication works company
fabrication industry, covering light and heavy molding
services.
The factory facilities consist of lathe machines, milling A. Current Set-up
machines, drilling machines, shearing machines, bending Based on Fig. 1, noticed that the machines and the
machines, welding machines, CNC plasma cutting working cells for labours were not well arranged. The
machines and press machines. The company received location of the raw material supplies was far away from
projects from different customers to fabricate the the location of most of the machines. The materials had to
products. The process layout is used by the company in travel long path before they could reach to the designated
the steel fabrication process. New machines were added machines to be processed. Normally, in this kind of

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industry, the fabrication work requires several machines happened during the process. For instance, buffers of raw
to process the work piece before the product is completed. material stacked near the machines were due to the long
In the current layout, the machines were placed not waiting time. They need to queue until the machines were
according to the normal steel fabrication sequential ready to be used. The consequences of the long lead time
process, which make the process less efficient. caused unproductive output, less efficient and less profit
Due to the improper layout design and operation to the company.
management of the factory, there were serious buffers

Figure 2. Current layout of steel fabrication works company

Based on Fig. 2, WITNESS software simulated the number of idle percentage and also busy percentage.
current layout, including the processes involved in the These machines referred specifically to shear machine,
company. It can be seen that the arrangement of the drill machine, mill machine, bending machine, plasma
machines were not streamlined. Machines were located cutting and punch press machine.
not according to their functions and relation to each other. The idle percentage of these machines was mostly
As mentioned, the problem happened at the very below 6%, a busy percentage was below 3%. Only lathe
beginning, which was the location of receiving the raw machine was having 89.47% of idle percentage and 0.3%
materials. It was located far away from machines, which busy percentage. On the other hand, these machines were
required more handling. Scattered machines locations having extreme percentage of blocked, which was above
also, worsen the problems to the lead time. 95%, except for lathe machine which was recorded
10.23% of blockage percentage.
For the manufacturing cells, they have above 90% of
idle percentage, low busy percentage and zero blockage.
Furthermore, number of operation among the machines
and the work cells were not balanced. The highest
number of 515 operations was recorded at Drill machine,
while the lowest number of 1 production was recorded at
Bending2, Plasma cutting, and punch press machines.
Data for working cells, the highest production was 494
productions recorded at Cell04-Launch, and the lowest
production was 6 productions recorded at Cell06-
Machine04.

Figure 3. Current machine statistics of steel fabrication works

company
Figure 4. Current layout labour statistics
Fig. 3, WITNESS results showed the machine statistics
and labour statistics during the ongoing process. Most of Fig. 4, WITNESS results showed the labour statistics
the machines in the current layout were having low for the current layout. The maximum idle percentage for

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workers recorded was 99.61% which showed less optimisation of the workers in those particular cells.

Figure 5. Improved layout of steel fabrication works company

Figure 6. Improved layout of steel fabrication works company

workers in their work cell. The improvement links with

B. Improvement Set-up
working time and optimisation of space and distance.
Based on the current layout results, the improvement Based on the current layout, and WITNESS result, the
design need to be done which involved the addition of longer the distance, the more risk and more lead time will
conveyor, reducing the number of workers and occur during an operation.
rescheduling the operation by adjusting the time interval Fig. 6 shows the flow path of the improved layout. The
and index time of the conveyor. Fig. 5 shows the layout is designed based on the improvement criteria as
improved layout for steel fabrication works incorporating shown in Fig. 5. Based on WITNESS results, and by
all the above criteria. referring to Fig. 7, all of the machines are having lower
The improvement made involved the re-location of the idle percentage. Increase in busy percentage of some of
machines, raw material receiving area, and optimisation the machines, and none of the machine is having
of the process line flow. The new process layout is more significant blocked percentage.
streamlined compared to the previous layout. The same phenomena experienced by the work cells
Streamline process flow is made by considering the where they recorded lower idle percentage and having
best positions of machines to be as close as possible to increments in busy percentage. Also, Fig. 8 shows the
each machine. It also involves new position of receiving maximum idle percentage for workers is 95.07% which is
and supply material; final product area and placement of at least 5% of workers’ idle time has been reduced. This

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shows the workforce in the factory has been optimised, patterns,” European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 164, no.
2, pp. 440-455, 2005.
better than the current layout design.
[5] D. Raman, S. Nagalingam, and B. W. Gurd, “Quantity of material
handling equipment--A queuing theory based approach,” Robotics
and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 348-
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Based expert system and genetic algorithm for efficient selection
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with Applications, vol. 36, no. 9, pp. 11875-11887, 2009.
Figure 7. Improved layout labour statistics [7] S. Sujono and R. S. Lashkari, “A multi-objective model of
operation allocation and material handling system selection in
Table I shows the performance comparison between FMS design,” International Journal of Production Economics, vol.
105, no. 1, pp. 116-133, 2007.
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fabrication works in Malaysia. Journal of Operations Management, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 328-335,
2007.
TABLE I. PERFORMANCE COMPARISON [9] K. Amoako-Gyampah and M. Acquaah, “Manufacturing strategy,
competitive strategy and firm performance: An empirical study in
Items Current Layout Improved Layout a developing economy environment,” International Journal of
Machine-busy 0.41% 10.67% Production Economics, vol. 111, no. 2, pp. 575-592, 2008.
Work cell - busy 0.84% 1.23% [10] J. Miltenburg, “Setting manufacturing strategy for a factory-
Shipped Item 51 91 Within-a-factory,” International Journal of Production Economics,
WIP 146 58 vol. 113, no. 1, pp. 307-323, 2008.
Productivity 0.42 units/hour 0.71 units/hour
Nik Mohd Zuki Nik Mohamed, born in
Kelantan, Malaysia in 1969. Bachelor’s
Every item has been improved based on the proposed degree in Mechanical Engineering from
improvement layout. The improvement has increased the Widener University, Philadelphia, USA-1992,
shipped items to 78%, as well as 70% of productivity. It Master’s degree in Manufacturing System
also reduces WIP to 151%. The improvement made to the Engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia-
2006, and PhD (Knowledge based system for
company’s layout has resulted in more balanced number Low Volume Automotive Manufacturing)
of operations recorded by all the machines and the work from University of Bradford-2012.
cells. He is currently the Head of Automotive
Programme at Mechanical Engineering
Faculty, Universiti Malaysia Pahang. Prior to his current position, he
IV. CONCLUSION has been with Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional (Proton) Holdings Sdn.
An organisational manufacturing workflow comprises Berhad, Malaysia for 14 years. He has a wealth of experience in dies
design, manufacturing, product development and project management
processes that need to be followed in order to produce with reputable dies makers from Japan, Korea, Thailand, Spain,
products. Process layout plays very important role to Germany, United Kingdom and Australia.
incorporate all the resources to be implemented. Dr. Nik Mohd Zuki Nik Mohamed, P.E, is also a registered Professional
Therefore proper layout design is required with the help Engineer with The Board of Engineers Malaysia and a corporate
member of The Institution of Engineers Malaysia. He serves as the
of modern tool such as WITNESS software to simulate current EXCO member for Pahang Branch.
the manufacturing process flow. In this study, WITNESS
software was employed to evaluate and validate a Mohd Fadzil Faisae Ab. Rashid received the
particular steel fabrication company. The software has Bachelor Degree in Mechanical (Industry)
from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2003,
suggested areas for improvement, and based on the M. Eng (Manufacturing) from Universiti
improved design, the simulation has shown promising Malaysia Pahang in 2007 and Ph.D in Applied
results. Sciences from Cranfield University, United
Kingdom in 2013.
During the early of his career, he works with a
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Japanese company as a Production Engineer
until 2004. Later, he was appointed as a Tutor
The authors wish to thank Universiti Malaysia Pahang and Lecturer in Universiti Malaysia Pahang.
for providing financial support for this research. During that period, he was awarded a scholarship to pursue Master and
Doctoral degrees. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer in Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang.
REFERENCES
His research interests are in engineering optimization, particularly focus
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manufacturing processes: A review,” International Journal of and discrete event simulation techniques.
Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, vol. 5, pp. 545-560,
2012. Ahmad Nasser Mohd Rose is a lecturer at
[2] D. Raman, S. V. Nagalingam, and G. C. I. Lin, “Towards University Malaysia Pahang. He received the
measuring the effectiveness of a facilities layout,” Robotics and B.Eng. in Manufacturing Engineering degree
Computer- Integrated Manufacturing, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 191-203, from University of Sunderland and MSc.in
2009. Manufacturing System Engineering degree
[3] A. Drira, H. Pierreval, and S. Hajri-Gabouj, “Facility layout from Warwick University. Currently, he is
problems: A survey,” Annual Reviews in Control, vol. 31, no. 2, pursuing his PhD in Lean Manufacturing at
pp. 255-267, 2007. University Kebangsaan Malaysia. His main
[4] T. Yang, B. A. Peters, and M. Tu, “Layout design for flexible areas of research interest are lean
manufacturing systems considering single-loop directional flow manufacturing, quality management,
production layout and efficiency.

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