Open AccessProductivity Enhancement with Material Handling System Design and Human Factors Analysis – a Case Study
Author(s) -
Muhammad Waseem,
Usman Ghani,
Tufail Habib,
Sahar Noor,
Tauseef Ahmed
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
mehran university research journal of engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2413-7219
pISSN - 0254-7821
DOI - 10.22581/muet1982.2103.10
Subject(s) - productivity , production (economics) , quality (philosophy) , risk analysis (engineering) , investment (military) , production line , process (computing) , manufacturing engineering , computer science , business , engineering , marketing , philosophy , epistemology , politics , political science , economics , law , macroeconomics , operating system
Global competitiveness leads industry to meet the customer needs by short lead time to market and quality products with low prices. Survival in such a market can be accomplished by either adopting latest technologies or improving the existing systems to the best possible level. Acquiring these technologies need heavy investments and consistent demands due to which small and medium industries skip this option and tend to opt for other choice that is: improve the existing system. Material handling activities contributes a significant investment in production cost. Effective handling system reduces total production cost while considering ergonomics issues improves the productivity. This paper presents a conceptual framework with material handling systems design and the effects of human factors to improve productivity by reducing cost and optimizing quality. The framework provides a general methodology for analyzing a manufacturing/production line. Procedure for its implementation is discussed in a hierarchical way and finally the framework is used to analyze the production lines of a petrochemical industry. The analysis results in successful improvement of the process with 15% increase in overall manufacturing cycle efficiency.