Author : Kanagaraj A, Vivek C, Vigneshraj C T and RajeshKannan K

Poor layout design is determined as a major problem in small and medium industry. These particular problems thus affect the productivity and the line efficiency as well. In automotive industries, assembly line is the major area to be taken into consideration for increasing productivity. The focus of this project is to identify the bottleneck workstations in the current layout and eliminate those activities that are taking time on those workstations. The time study is done manually by us. The current layout is redesigned by computing take time and processing times in each workstation. The case study shows how the takt time calculation is done and from this takt time, the processing time is decided for all workstations. The time consuming activities are reduced and thus the processing times at all workstations is made possibly equal. The time reduction increases productivity in the form of increased number of units of production in the same previous time. Line efficiency is also found to be improved which is described in terms Overall Line Efficiency (OLE).

Keywords: Line Efficiency, Line Balancing, Bottleneck, Cycle time, Workstation, Idle time, Productivity.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.4, No.3 (Sept-2016)