A layout design using a production line balancing approach.

The pace of new product development is rapidly increasing in order to satisfy the customer needs, which translates into a rapid change in the market requirements. Thus, manufacturing companies need to adapt to this rhythm to be successful in the market. This case study takes place in a Portuguese SME in the electronics industry, which needs to introduce a new production line on the shop floor, for a recently developed product. Usually, in industry, line balancing and layout problems are often solved and addressed by the production managers, that rearrange the workstations and allocate tasks to operators following a method based on practical knowledge. The development of a new production line for a new product is a situation where it makes perfect sense to use the existing theoretical methodologies to implement an efficient production line. The new line must be not only balanced but also, its layout should be optimized to ensure its production efficiency. In this case study, the layouts solutions were achieved using three different methods. The first two were obtained by solving the Facility Layout Problem (FLP) with the application of two methodologies - Empirical Model (EM) and Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) - and the third layout was obtained by the application of a Production Line Balancing (PLB) approach, in which an assembly line balancing problem is solved using a linear programming model. The most suitable solution between the three layouts is chosen by performing a comparative analysis on the KPIs defined by the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]