Research
An Optimal Layout Design in an Apparel Industry by Appropriate Line Balancing: A case study
The layout design problem is a strategic issue and has a significant impact on the efficiency of a manufacturing system. Much of the existing layout design literature that uses a surrogate function for flow distance or for simplified objectives may be entrapped into local optimum; and subsequently lead to a poor layout design. The present study explores the use of appropriate line balancing to facilitate a good layout design. Construction of a quality garment requires a great deal of know-how, a lot of coordination and schedule management. Clothing manufacturing consists of a variety of product categories, materials and styling. Dealing with constantly changing styles and consumer demands is so difficult. Furthermore, to adapt automation for the clothing system is also so hard because, beside the complex structure also it is labour intensive. Overall, the important criteria in garment production is whether assembly work will be finished on time for delivery, how machines and employees are being utilized, whether any station in the assembly line is lagging behind the schedule and how the assembly line is doing overall. To achieve this approach, work-time study, assembly line balancing and simulation can be applied to apparel production line to find alternative solutions to increase the efficiency of the sewing line. In this paper we showed how a good layout can be designed and productivity can be increased by appropriate assembly line balancing.
Fuzzy-TOPSIS Analysis for Standard Alternative Selection: A Multiple Attribute Decision-Making Method and Application for Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises (SMEs)
In the era of industrialization small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play great role in world economy. The developed as well as developing countries are being benefited from SMEs which holds a strong position creating new employment and helping in the development and supporting in local production. The job creation element of SMEs enables many poor people to feel more secure, assuring that they have a stable job to survive .But the actual situation and overall working condition of SME’s is very dreadful especially due to limitation of resources, facilities and techniques. This paper compares different performance criteria on three different SME and indicates a standard benchmark SME using fuzzy-TOPSIS analysis. The proposed method states optimum SME working condition among different performance variables with different values. Qualitative variables with multiple criteria problems have been analyzed here. As human assessment is uncertain and often subjective for qualitative characteristics, the alternatives’ characteristics are expressed in linguistic terms. These linguistic terms are then evaluated through integrated fuzzy-TOPSIS method to produce numerical value which is the performance rating for each characteristic of SME alternatives. According to the fuzzy rule, the alternative with the highest value is chosen as the standard and other variables of alternatives are compared with the standard. The advantage of using fuzzy- TOPSIS is that it distinguishes benefit and cost category criteria and selects solution that is closed to the positive ideal solutions and far from the negative ideal solutions. Moreover, the paper offers a new method of identifying best SME using integrated fuzzy-TOPSIS and recommends optimum performance variables.
