Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management

Bogota, Colombia, October 25-26, 2017

Optimal Layout Design by Line Balancing Using Simulation

Modeling
(Case Study on MAA Garment and Textile Factory)

Aregawi yemane1
Bahir dar institute of technology, industrial engineering, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
[email protected],

Serajul haque2
Bahir dar institute of technology, industrial engineering, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
[email protected]

Iván Santelices Malfanti3

Universidad del Bío-Bío, Departamen to Ingeniería Industrial, Concepción, Chile
[email protected]

Abstract

This study deals with optimal layout design by line balancing using simulation modeling. Modeling and
simulation are potential tools for analysis of the assembly lines like apparel of a garment manufacturing.
The experiment controls the resources of the assembly line process without affecting the real production
system. In this study the Arena software, AutoCAD and POM software are employed to model and
measure the performance of the existing sewing line of the Ronny t-shirt model. The t-shirt has 12 major
parts to be assembled. For each activity, the researcher has taken 15 sampling observations using
stopwatch. All the collected data are statistically analyzed using arena input analyzer for statistically
significance and determination of expressions to be used to the simulation modeling. Standard simulation
model was developed and run for 160 replications. The result shows the line is operating with a line
balance efficiency of 72.56%. In the course of action using Opt Quest different types of scenarios had
been developed and line balance efficiency increase to 75.3% and the company saves 518,400 birr per
year that spent for salary. This arena simulation model has considered the production resources,
processing time of each activity and testing different scenarios.

Keywords: - Layout, Line Balance, Opt Quest, Optimization, simulation modeling

INTRODUCTION
Ethiopian clothing industries face many problems that have not become competitive globally. These problems
include; the poor performance of products in the export market, poor quality and inadequate supply of raw materials,
low productivity and poor resource utilization. Because of those, most of the country's textile companies are not
lucrative and most are in great loss [1]. Layout design is key concern to organize operations in such a way as to
maximize resource usage and overall system throughput. The level of layout facility determines the efficiency of the
entire delivery operation in the system. Improper layout of facilities is detrimental to operations. Any existing
bottleneck in the system results in long queues, long waiting times, stock outs, high operating costs, low throughput
and overall system inefficiency. Such a system would operate below capacity. Properly planned and arranged
workstations on available facility space, with optimal assignment of available resources, are expedient for the
maximization of resource capacity and the level of efficiency of operations [2]. Several studies have focused on the
facility layout problem, a segment of facility layout that focuses on the arrangement of departments, work stations
and storage areas for an existing or proposed facility such that the most efficient use of all resources involved is
realized. Poor layout designs lead to accumulation of work-in-process (WIP),

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Inefficient set-ups and longer queues making poor facilities design a long term costly investment that may require
rearrangement and modification later on leading to huge expenses. It is therefore worth investing in extensive
facilities planning before set up to ensure that higher efficiencies, reduced costs and increased productivities can be
realized later on [3].
Layout design delinquent is a strategic issue and has an important impact on the efficiency of manufacturing system.
In garment whether assembly finished on time for delivery, how machines and employees are being utilized whether
any station in the assembly line is casing behind the schedule and how the assembly line is doing overall. To
accomplish this approach, work-time study, assembling line balancing and simulation can be applied to production
line to find substitute solutions to increase the efficiency of the sewing line. A virtuous layout can be designed and
productivity can be increased by appropriate assembly line balancing [2].
So, simulation analysis is used to model the company and can be used to quantify the performance of the layout,
arrangement of the jobs, material handling, resource utilization like money, machine, material and man, inventory,
quality (like rework, defect and normal), cost of production or manufacturing cost, lead time in this manufacturing
firm. So, to improve the productivity of the company, the above problems could have been solved and there will be a
minimum work in process. In this case, simulation modeling is used to analyze the performance measurement of the
manufacturing firms and simulation performance measurement is an input to increase the productivity improvement
of the manufacturing firms like textile factories in this case the main inputs to increase the productivity by
minimizing the production cycle time and work in process of factories are type of products like (polo t-shirt,
trouser, pack out etc.) the sewing machines capacity, labor force, inventory, quality (like Rework, defect and normal,
cost of production or manufacturing cost, lead time in this manufacturing firm different product have different
layout, Scheduling, process flow and different products have different work sequencing.
Some scholars specified that, simulation model is used to detect production line bottlenecks and evaluate some
number of recommended solutions using arena software [4].in addition to that productivity of the company will be
enhanced while, the company used optimal resource, optimal layout, good line balancing by using time study of the
products that will be assembled in the production line, minimum queue length in the machines, minimum cost of
production, and high quality of products. Then, there will be maximum satisfaction due to working on time
(distributing on time) and optimum scheduling or sequencing of parts that will assemble to get the assembled cloth
and by appropriate line balancing and layouts to set an improved model of the manufacturing firms to intensification
its productivity. Some of the optimization layout design studies from balancing lines using simulation models and
different approaches will be studied in this type of problem discussed in the literature. The line balancing is the
assignment process of tasks or workstations so that the workstations have roughly the same time requirements. This
results in minimizing stop times along the line and high use of labor and equipment and minimizing the cycle time
of the production line.Cycle time is the maximum time allowed for each workstation in the production of clothing
items, clothing components or parts are collected in a finished output which is the final product of the subassembly
process. And the process has a different number of workstations, operators, and installation components. Therefore,
a good balance line increases the efficiency of the sewing section production line [5]. In the production of clothing,
responsible would have been able to check whether the assembly work will be completed in time for delivery, how
machines and man or operators are used, if any station on the line assembly line is late it is global. To achieve this
approach, the study of working time is the duration for each part to be mounted on production lines [5] and [2]
activities. The assembly lines are generating production systems to meet the humanity needs that have been growing
day by day. The goals of these systems produce products that have high production rates in the shortest time, in a
more productive, economical and quality manner. The purpose of the case study was to design the assembly chain to
achieve maximum line efficiency using the optimum machine working time for constant cycle time [6]. Line
Balancing is commonly used to solve problems that have occurred in the assembly line. Line balancing is a
technique to minimize the distance between workers and workload in order to achieve the desired flow rate [7]. This
can be done by equating the amount of work at each station and assigning the least number of workers to the
particular workstation. A line balancing can be classified into three categories according to the numbers Mounted on
the line and in accordance with the rhythm of line [8] and [7] are models;
Single line Model: - can be described as a line that combines a single model. This line produces many units of an
unchanged product. The tasks performed at each station are the same for all units. Products with strong demand are
destined for this line [9].
Mixed model line: - Mixed model line is producing more than one model. They are made simultaneously on the
same line. Once a model is running at a station, other products are made in other seasons. Therefore, each station is
equipped to perform various operations necessary to produce any model that moves through it. Many consumer
products are assembled in Mixed Model [3].

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Batch line: - This line produces every batch model. Typically, the workstations are set to produce the required
quantity of the first model then stations are rebuilt to produce another model. The products are often assembled in
batches required when the average. It is cheaper to use a mounting chain to produce various batch products to build
a separate line for each model. The research will take place in the field applied a mixed model line. Simulation is
one of the tools that have been widely used in various sectors and manufacturing. Using a valid simulation model
gives numerous benefits and benefits in creating better manufacturing in order to improve system performance
simulation models are used to identify bottlenecks in the production line and evaluate a few proposed solutions
[9].Systems simulation modeling objectives are producing products that have high production rates in the shortest
time in a more productive, economical and agreed manner. An assembly line garment was selected and simulated
using Arena simulation and statistical methods to solve the balanced problem [6] have been used. Most Ethiopian
textile factories could have been low in productivity and therefore less competitive in the world market due to delays
in delivering products to customers. The major problems facing businesses are not optimal layout design; less
resource utilization is used for different products, inappropriate line balancing. Therefore, because of those problems
the company has failed to meet its daily plan. In this case, the actual production of the sewing section is about 550-
680 t-shirt per day with an average of 650 t-shirt its lane is 900 t-shirts per day. Overall, there is a variation between
its plan and target. The issues faced in the case of study are; improper assembly balance and insufficient time
standard for each product of the company generally did not use an optimal resource to achieve its goal. This study
demonstrates that enough time is needed to balance line patterns and model development to increase line efficiency.
In the ronny t-shirt manufacturing model there is a high WIP in some operations such as shoulder attach, sleeve
attach and back top stitch and zero waiting time provided in some operations such as quality checkers, trimming and
sleeve hemming in those operations the resources that assigned have below 50% utilization.
The layout design is a strategic issue and has significant impact on the efficiency of a manufacturing system [9]. A
good layout can be designed and productivity can be increased by appropriate assembly line balancing. [7].
Layout simulation improved the production operation of the company based on the performance measures such as
increasing In-operation percentage or process efficiency, Units per Hour Produced and Resource/ Machine
Utilization. It also reduced the Unproductive Time, which includes blocked time and waiting time, total distance
travelled, total cycle time [10].
The objectives of the study are to optimize the layout of the garment line by improving the line balance using
simulation analyses of the textile company.
To develop a simulation model layout and line balancing to the sewing section of the textile factory.
To assess performance of the existing layout of the sewing.
To improve the layout of the sewing section.
To estimate the standard time of the products.
To analyze the causes and effects of the production areas of the sewing section for not meeting their goal.
METHODOLOGY
This study needs a lot of data like man power, machine capacity, machine layout, sequence of jobs, inter arrival of
parts for assembling, processing time at each machine, efficiency, quality product outputs (number of defects,
rework, normal) such data are used for the re-layout of the machines, balance the lines and for model the production
line. Therefore; the researcher had used primary data and secondary data (documented data), and the researcher used
stop watch for recording some necessary information like processing time for new products transfer time from one
station to the next one. The researchers had tried to find the cause why the company did not achieve its goals is due
to different material shortage like the inputs for different sections, cotton, yarn, fabric cloth or improper line
balancing. So, this can be solved due to approaches like optimal layout, proper line balancing, time study and
simulation approaches. Simulation model and it gives the optimal resource, and gives an alternatives or scenarios in
the bounded solution with the specified schedule and will have simulated and gives different alternatives of layouts
by assigning of resources for the stations. The researcher used different tools for analysis of the data that had
collected from the company and interpret according to the results that get from the simulation model.Arena
software: - to develop the models and measure the performance of the company, its existing and the developed
model (improved) through its layout and time measurement for each component of the product with its controls,
responses, constraints and objectives. Simulation methodology has eight phases [11].
Step 1: Define the Problem Which Study and Why Business Reason?
Step 2: design the model that study (s) that will provide answers to who?
Step 3: Designing the Conceptual Model Which strategy model (continuous, discrete and mixed) will be used and at
what level of detail?
Step 4: Formulate inputs, hypothesis, and process definition which study hypothesis is based on and what production
factors and process definition will guide the model?

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Step 5: Build, verify, and validate the model is the model properly built (check)? Is the correct model built
(validation)?
Step 6: Experimenting with the Model What Do Think of Modeling?
Step 7: Document and Present the Precious Experience Results What is the Basis for Future Work?
Step 8: Define the Lifecycle Model Can the model provide long-term benefits, throughout or throughout training,
programming, system redesign, and system launch?

Figure 1 sewing line

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The standard methodology used for this thesis is a generally accepted computer simulation model. A garment
(sewing section) assembly plant producing a ronny t-shirt style with a total number of parts namely; shoulder attach,
rib tacking, neck rib attaches, piping tack, piping attach, sleeve attach, back top stitch, bottom hemming, trimming,
quality checking to be assembled in the production process line of sewing section was selected for the model.
Activity identification in the sewing section, process mapping how to understand how the product (entities) using
built in area input analyzer, simulation model development and identification of replication numbers with the
methodologies used.
A total number of 12 activities were identified for a ronny model t-shirt production assembly line. Since, the model
input based on the literature review and the actual performance of the production lines the following variables which
used in the measuring of efficiency and effectiveness of the garment process is collecting.
ROOT CAUSE OF THE VARIATION IN ACTUAL OUTPUT AND TARGET OR PLAN
OUTPUT
The researchers have taken a discussion with the production managers of the garment section, quality assurance
manager, planning and cost control manager, supervisors of the lines the production line and discussed about the
causes and the effects of why the company did not meet its target output means high variation between actual output
and target output. In this study, as the researcher has gotten from the discussion the main causes are as follows in the
below root cause analysis diagram.

Figure 2 root cause analysis

OBSERVATION TIME
Data collection and analysis for ronny t-shirt operation in the sewing section

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Table 1: observation time

Standard allowances for determining standard time of operations are;

Table 2: standard allowances

Personal and fatigue allowance 11% for sitting position work
13% for standing position
Contingency allowance 5%
Machine Allowance rating
1. Single needle lock stitch machine 9%
2. 2 thread lock stitch machine 14%
3. 3 thread over lock machine 7%
4. 4 thread over lock machine 9%
5. 5 thread over lock machine 11%
STANDARD TIME
Standard time for each operation of the ronny type model of t-shirt is as follows.

Table 3: standard time

From this table, it is estimated that total number of man power is 19 needed to complete the related operations for
making a t-shirt.
DATA INPUT ANALYZER
1. Shoulder attach

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Distribution Summary
Distribution: Uniform
Expression: UNIF(40, 42.8)
Square Error: 0.008889
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test
Test Statistic = 0.109
Corresponding p-value > 0.15
Data Summary
Number of Data Points = 15
Min Data Value = 40
Max Data Value = 42.5
Sample Mean = 41.2
Sample Std Dev = 0.898
Histogram Summary
Histogram Range = 40 to 42.8
Number of Intervals =5
SEQUENCE OF OPERATIONS FOR RONNY T-SHIRT

Figure 3: flow process of ronny t-shirt

DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARD SIMULATION MODEL

This research is developing computer simulation model for the purpose of experimentation of the system “as is” or
existing system and developed one (the improved one). In this case the model development started with the distance
between machines or workstations, processing time, entity, resources, sets of machines or operators, arrival of parts
that assembled.

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Figure 4: existing model

Model verfication and validation

Verification and validation of the model Validation of templates for this study were carried out using the daily
production statistic validity by comparing the actual system and the simulation model results for the existing ronny
t-shirt model system. If there is no difference in statistical significance between the data sets, consequently, the
model considered a valid model. Otherwise, the model needs extra work before analyzing the model's relationships.
In this case the average ronny model out shirt day or work time is eight hours between 550-680 shirts per day with
an average of 650. And the output of the simulation model is 647 t for eight hours a day. Therefore, simulation
model outputs close the actual outputs of the system. In this case, the simulation system that represents the real
system for this model is valid. In addition to this the results of the simulation model some workstations have high
work in progress and work underway under the actual system and the simulation model.
Calculation of replication number
To determine the replication number for the first model, the researchers must calculate the mean, standard deviation,
and half-width of the first ten replications. In other words, half width is a sampling error that is introduced by
sample sampling. Therefore, the half width value can be determined by considering a confidence level of 95% if the
t value can be read from the student table probability distribution [12], [13], [14], and to determine the initial 10
number of replication is recommended for 95% confidence level [15]
𝜕𝜕
.𝑦𝑦(𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚) ± 𝑡𝑡 − 1, 1 − ∗ 𝑠𝑠/√𝑛𝑛 ( confidence interval)
2
n=no of replication

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y mean= sample mean

s=sample standard deviation
𝜕𝜕
half width= t n-1 ,1 − ∗ 𝑠𝑠/√𝑛𝑛
2
𝜕𝜕
set half width =h, solve for n=t2 n-1 ,1- ∗ 𝑠𝑠 2 /ℎ2
2
replace t by z , crosponding normal critical value
𝜕𝜕
n≅z2 1- ∗ s2/h2
2
R

easier but different approximation

n≅noho2/h2
𝑛𝑛
s2=� �(yi−𝑦𝑦(𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚))2
𝑛𝑛−1
�
𝑛𝑛=1
ho= half width from initial number of replication t0.975 from the table of students t distribution is 2.262.
table :- mean, standard deviation and half width for initial 10 replication.
ho= t10-1,(1-0.05/2)*( 4.351245/√10)
=3.112477
Therefore, the percentage error for the sewing section line of the the garment section is equal to
(647.4+3.112477)/647.4
=1.0048076568=0.48076568%
𝜕𝜕
Therefore, by using the replication number calculations n≅z21- ∗s2/h2 andn≅noho2/h2
2
n≅noho2/h2
n≅10*3.1124772/0.782
n≅159.229≅160
𝜕𝜕
n≅z21- ∗s2/h2
2
n≅1.962* 4.3512452/0.782
n≅119.55≅120
therefore, from the two alternatives the researcher has selected the maximum number of replication that is 160.

SIMULATION MODEL RUN RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION

The objective of this thesis is to model the sewing line layout and balancing the activities that assebled, analyze its
porformance and the finally propose an improved model to that.problems identified in this section are low
throughput, high work in progress, high waiting time, which are due to low capacity utilization of resources that are
machine utilization and operators utilization, unorganized flow process etc.in this case, the performance selected to
analize are entitiy, process, queue and resource of the sewing section.
entity performance
the following points are identified from the entity performance;
 the wip is higher for rib parts, back and front parts, lower for piping parts.
 Almost all of the entities that come into the department are out due to the small mumber of processing stations
in the department
 The time required for qantities to wait is higher due to the large number of of queues there and additional
resource can be assigned in those stations.
Processperformance
from the model run results of process performance, the following points are identified.
the accumulated waiting time for process like back top stitch, piping attach, piping tack, rib tacking, sleeve attach is
higher their value added time. It also higher than waiting time of any other process.this means that entities at this
station spend more time waiting than being processed.The accumulated waiting time in quality cheeking ,trimming ,
sleeve hemming are zero, therefore some resources from this station can be shared.All of quality checking,sleeve
hemming, trimming stations that come to those stations are always processed fully. The least number of entities are
processed in sleeve hemming station compaired to others.
queue performance
from the model run results of the of queue performance, the waiting time and number waiting in back top stitch,
shoulder attach and sleeve attach is highest and the number waiting in of quality cheecking, sleeve hemming and
trimming is zero. this result shows that, there is unbalanced allocations of resources to each station.

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resource performance
The model can give us, a usage of resources this includes instantanous utilization, number busy, number scheduled,
scheduled utilization, and total number seized. Therefore the following are the instantanous and scheduled
utilization identified.
 Number busy for 4tol 1,operator 1,4tol 3a,4tol
3b,operator 4a, operator 4b are more than one therefore, more than one resource are required in those stations.
 The scheduled utilization for 4tol 1, operator 1,4tol
3a,4tol 3b,operator 4a, operator 4b is higher that indicates the resources in this station is almost fully utilized.
however,dueto high number of entities that arrive to this station and the single resource available, the waiting time
and the number waiting is largest. This is also due to unbalanced utilization of different stations in the section. It can
be also be seen the lowest scheduled utilization is in 4tfl1a, 4tfl2b, snls2 machines and operator 11a, operator 11b,
operator 5, and quality 1 and2, therefore, allowing these machines and operators to be utilized fully can have a big
effect on the output.
Cycle time of existing line
Line cycle time is the maximum time allowed for work at each station.
1
Desired cycle time (CT)= , where r is production output rate.
𝑟𝑟
8∗3600𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
Desired cycle time (CT)= =44.4444sec/t-shirt
647𝑡𝑡−𝑠𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖
Table 4: efficieny of existing model

Table performance measures by running the model ‘’AS- IS’’

Table 5: performace measurment of existing
sn Performance indicator Model result of sewing line
1 Input 900
2 Manning level 19
3 Output(p) per 8 hour 647 t-shirts
4 Production rate(Rp)=p/480 min=648/480 1.35 t-shirts per min
5 Make span worck content time(Twc)=cycle time*number of workstation 488.8884sec
6 Wip 253

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7 Production efficiency(Ep)=output/input=647/900 71.89%

8 line balance efficiency=Twc/n*ct=488.8884/11*44.444 72.556%
PROPOSED MODEL DEVELOPMENT
In this paper, the researchers have selected one product that is the ronny model t-shirt in the garment of textile
factory. The model is built based on the existing model and have analysis its performance. During the analysis, the
bottlenecks were identified. The bottlenecks have identified based on resource utilization, number waiting in queue.
The main bottlenecks are that resources with low utilization that is below 50% utilizations like 2nfl1a, 2nfl1b,
operator11a, operator11b, operator 11a, operator11b, quality checker 1and quality checker2 and some of stations
have also high waiting queue like shoulder attach, sleeve attach.
In developing alternative solutions researchers have proposed and experimented with different scenarios and come
up with the following optimum solutions. In today's highly competitive global situation, people are faced with many
difficult decisions, such as allocating financial resources, building facilities, managing inventories, determining
product mix strategies, and more. Modeling a decision problem in Arena tells you what performance measures you
can expect using a certain strategy [16].
OPT QUEST
A strategy can be defined as a convinced set of values for the controls. Others words for strategy include state and
solution. refers to the control values (inputs to the Arena simulation), not to the resulting values of the performance
measures ( responses, or outputs from the Arena simulation).If your goal were to find the best strategy (without
using Opt Quest), you would have to enter the control values for one strategy you are considering into the Arena
model, run the Arena simulation, analyze the results, then enter a new set of control values, run the simulation again,
and so on. Often it is not clear how to adjust the controls from one simulation to the next. This type of search is
tedious and, in problems with thousands or millions of potential alternatives, impractical. Opt Quest enhances Arena
by programming the search for an optimal strategy. When Opt Quest is thrown, it checks the Arena model and loads
information from the model, including the defined controls and responses, into its own database. The user then
proceeds to express the optimization problem using Opt Quest’s boundary. Opt Quest reiterations this process,
running multiple simulations. Its ultimate goal is to find the solution that optimizes (maximizes or minimizes) the
value of the model’s objective. An optimization model in Opt Quest for Arena has three major fundamentals
constraints, controls and objective.
Controls: - Are variables or resources that can be meaningfully operated to affect the performance of a simulated
system.
Constraints: - Are relationships among controls and/or responses. For example, a constraint might confirm that the
total amount of money allocated among various investments cannot outdo a specified amount, or at most one
machine from a certain group can be selected.
Objective: - Is a response or an expression used to represent the model's objective, such as minimizing queues or
maximizing outputs.

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CONTROL RESOURCES
Table 6: controls

Controls: - Are variables or resources that can be

meaningfully manipulated to affect the performance of a simulated system. The resources that have a bottleneck in
the production line are quality checker 1, quality checker 2, trimmers, sleeve hemming machines and operators,
shoulder attach machines and operators, or those which have high number in queue and have high waiting time in
queue are the controls in the simulation model.
Responses: - are the performance measurements of the resources when they have different alternatives declared or
when the controls vary then, measure the queue waiting number and queue waiting time, resources utilization etc.

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CONSTRAINTS
Table 7: constraints

Constraints: - Are relationships among controls and/or responses. For example, a constraint might ensure that, the
total number of machines which allocated among various operations exceeds a specified amount, or at most one
machine from a certain group can be selected. So, from these constraints table the sleeve hemming operation needs
at least one machine to perform the operation and the number of machines that in the line must be below fifteen
machines and the operators assigned for the line a maximum of nineteen in each of the production lines.
OBJECTIVES
Table 8: objectives

Objective: - Is a reply or an expression used to characterize the model's objective, such as minimizing queues
waiting time, queue waiting number in the bottlenecks or maximizing outputs.
According to [16] the number of simulations for the opt quest are 500 because there are 19 controls and the best
solution is set at the first row in the grid-iron will be the best solution, the second row the second best, etc. The
simulation column identifies the simulation that generated that solution. For this research, the first row shows
simulation 2, the best solution is found at the 2nd simulation.
The number of controls critically affects Opt Quest’s routine. Opt Quest has no bodily limit on the number of
controls you can use in any given problem. However, the performance might depreciate if you use more than 100
controls.
Also, as the number of controls increases, you need more simulations to find high-quality solutions.

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Figure 6: best simulation number

From the result of the opt quest the optimal solution is in simulation 2 and the researcher have developed a model to
represent the real manufacturing system.

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Table 9: best solution

From the opt quest model the best solution is simulation 2 and the results are summarized as follows. The number of
machines and operators assigned for the assembly line are one trimmer, one quality checker, one sleeve hemming
and one operator, one shoulder attach machines and operator, one rib tacking machine and operator, two neck rib
attaching machine and operators, two sleeve attach machines and operators, one piping attach and operator, one
piping attach and operator, two back top stitch and operators and one bottom hemming machine and operator have
assigned to optimize the production line of the assembly lines.

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Table 10: proposed model efficiency

Comparison of the existing and proposed model

Table 11: performance measurement comparison
Performance indicator Existing Proposed
1. manpower 19 16
2. number of machines 15 14
3.output (p) per 8 hour 647t-shirts 650t-shirts
4.production rate(Rp)=P/480min 1.35t-shirts/min 1.354t-shirts/min
5.make span work content time 488.8884 sec 531.6 sec
6.line balance efficiency 72.56% 75.3%
7.balance delay 27.44 24.7
8.cycle time 44.444sec 44.3sec

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Table12: Resource utilization of existing and proposed model

From this the utilization of trimmers, quality checkers, and 2nfl1a is highly increased. Which the utilization of the
trimmer is increased from 0.3537 to 0.7119, quality checkers from 0.2633 to 0.5289 and the utilization of the sleeve
hemming machine which is 2nfl is increased from 0.4131 to 0.8255.
DEVELOPED MODEL

\
Figure 6: proposed model

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Table 13: proposed model utilization report

CONCLUSION
In this paper, the simulation modeling and layout design of the sewing line is done by using arena 14 version and
auto cad software. Based on the results of the simulation modeling the stations with large queue or high resource
utilizations like shoulder attach, sleeve attach and with low utilizations that is below 50% utilizations like 2nfl1a,
2nfl1b, operator 11b, operator 11a, quality checker 1 and quality checker 2 are bottlenecks in the production lines.
The bottleneck recognized are eliminated or minimized using reassigning of the existing resources the operators and
machines, to optimize the resources as much as possible.
Finally, a new model was developed using opt quest model of arena with different types of scenarios by considering
the constraints of the resources and controls and responses of the results. Therefore, the line efficiency has been
increased from 72.556% to 75.3% without buying machines and the line can be produced 650 t-shirts with 16-man
power. Therefore, they can produce this amount of t-shirt.
This computer model can be applied to similar or different multifaceted manufacturing industries wishing to analyze
and advance the performance of the production system. Hence, this research invites other interested researchers to
make similar researches to improve the apparel industries to improve their productivity using optimization
simulation modeling.
The company will save the unnecessary salaries that allocated for the lines with an average of 518,400birr/year for
16 lines of assembly lines.

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Biography of the authors

My name is Aregawi yemane meresa. I received my BSC degree in industrial engineering from Mekelle University,
Ethiopian institute of technology- mekelle in 2013, MSC degree production engineering and management from
Bahir Dar University in 2017. I am a lecturer in Bahir dar University since 2013 till now in the department of
industrial engineering. My research interests are simulation, productivity, and operation research.

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