Layout design for a new manufacturing for a leading producer of solar devices

The company is a market leader in solar energy devices and a recognised exporter of solar panels to numerous countries in the world. They have a manufacturing plant located at the Electronic City in Bangalore . The company was in the process of setting up a state-of–the-art facility for manufacturing solar panels that will cater largely to its growing export market.

The management invited Kaul Associates to validate their existing layout and suggest changes that would promote world-class standards in quality and productivity.

The project was undertaken to validate the current layout and suggest such changes that would enhance operational efficiencies as a result of:

Better productivity

Improved space utilisation

Reduced transportation and material handling effort

Flexibility for future changes in product mix and volumes and
Support for future initiatives towards lean and agile manufacturing
   

The constraints were defined as follows:

The capital investment plan did not permit any major increase in expenditure

The construction was already at the plinth level and hence did not permit any substantial changes in the footprint of the building

   
The task force designed a new U-shaped cellular layout and evaluated this against the original layout:
Lean Considerations:

The U-shaped cellular layout was found to be superior to the original. The summary of the findings was as follows:

The new layout was modular and provides flexibility for change. Any cell may be replaced by another upgraded version in the future without causing substantial changes in the plant layout.

It promotes process & quality ownership. The operators form a team and co-operate with each other for continuous improvement of the cell performance. Healthy competition between cells would spur them to excel.

The final operation being located closer to the starting operations enables faster quality feedback. This would facilitate fault diagnosis and traceability.

The U cell is designed for single piece flow. This promotes faster flow leading to significant reductions in throughput times and WIP.

Production planning and scheduling is made easier in a contained cell.

A special prototype run can be contained within one cell while the others continue to produce at rated output.

New equipment and technologies may be introduced in a phased manner, cell by cell.

New tools and techniques like 5S, TPM etc. can be implemented in one cell and then deployed horizontally once it is successfully proven in.
   
Layout Evaluation:
Based on the various considerations a final evaluation was done for the short-listed options 2 & 3.
   
Criteria
Original Layout

New layout

  
 
 
Capital Investment
4
3
  
Area Per Megawatt
5
4
  
Energy (Material Handling)
5
3
  
Throughput Time & WIP
3
5
  
Quality & Process Ownership
3
5
  
Traceability & Problem Solving
2
5
  
Productivity & Team Work
3
5
  
Communication & Response to Change
2
5
  
       
Total
27
35
  
 
Scoring:    

5 - Excellent

   

4 - Superior

    

3 - Good

    

2 - Satisfactory

    
1 - Poor    
     

This evaluation showed that the U-cell layout is superior largely due to factors, which were concerned with team working, quality and responsiveness. These would naturally translate into benefits of cost, quality and on-time delivery.

The evaluation was done once again using the format provided by their parent company in USA . In this case the factors were ranked and to ‘lean considerations' were given higher weightage . The results are tabulated below.
 
Layout Evaluation - Module Assembly Line
BP Solar
Layout Drivers
Rank
"U" Cell
Hybrid cell
Comments
   
score
extended
score
extended
 
1 Noise
3
7
21
5
15
  
2 Safety
5
7
35
5
25
  
3 “Lean Considerations”
4.5
7
31.5
4
18
  
4 Space efficiency
2.5
5
15
7
17.5
  
5 Utility/ Distribution and Tool Hook-up
2
7
17
9
18
 See notes below
6 Flexibility
3
7
21
5
15
  
7 Tool Utilization
3
7
21
9
27
  
8 Line Change
3
6
18
3
9
  
9 Capital Cost
2.5
7
17.5
9
22.5
  
10 Operating Cost
3
7
17.5
9
22.
  
  TOTAL    
194
 
167
 

NOTES:

Lean Benefits

Rank is 1-5, 5 highest

Cost

Score is 1-10, 10 highest

Quality
 

Throughput
 

Cycle time
 

Inventory turnover
 

ROI
  Productivity
     

The U-shaped cell was the obvious choice. Subsequently further detailing was done to complete the layout:
Store areas were sized as per norms of storage specified by the Purchase and located to minimise material handling.
Office areas were located on the West Side perimeter.
Layout was modified to enable sharing of equipment between adjacent cells to minimise additional capital expenditure.