Production and Layout Concepts
Produkt, Prozess, Layout: alles passt
A well-functioning production facility cannot be calculated at the push of a button, nor plotted with a mouse click.
As factory planners, we have spent a long time thinking about how to make the planning of production sites easier for our clients – and for ourselves. Strictly speaking, instead of LogistikPlan we should be called FabrikPlan. Okay, the domain works well. But instead of rebranding, we invested in methodological research. The result is a consulting program: My Factory of the Future.
► Too specialized or universal? The catch with software.
- Especially when it comes to developing rough concepts that are intended to lead to strategically sound decisions within a short period of time, factory planners face a difficult choice:
- Either they painstakingly build a reasonable volume structure “by hand” and sketch corresponding solutions – using paper and scissors, or with office or CAD support.
- Or they invest in professional planning software that maps all objects and key figures in a data model, visualizes layouts and ideally even simulates material flow.
- However, modern planning tools are either too generic or tailored to very specific fields of application, such as assembly planning in the automotive industry. None of these tools can be used when dealing with specific technologies and products, for example:
- production and handling of bulk materials or long goods,
- standards-compliant planning for hygiene or medical products, cleanroom airlocks or media connections,
- complex packaging or picking systems,
- low-vibration measuring stations or machine foundations.
With My Factory of the Future, LogistikPlan therefore relies on proprietary solution modules, enriched with your individual technological know-how and specific design requirements.
► Lego for entrepreneurs: My Factory of the Future
- Under the title My Factory of the Future, LogistikPlan – together with partners from TU Dresden – has developed a consulting program for the strategic design of production sites. The method is tailored to early phases of factory planning and works in a remarkably simple way.
- Imagine a Lego construction kit. Each brick represents a module of your virtual factory. As a layout module, it is designed according to standards, so that when assembling the modules into different scenarios, you practically hear them “click” into place.
- In the background, the modules are equipped with a few key data points: geometry and construction parameters, production and logistics capacities, as well as personnel, time and cost figures.
- After dimensioning and structuring your selected modules, you can develop any number of site scenarios and factory layout variants.
- Based on different demand forecasts (worst case / best case), this results in robust capacity and equipment scenarios. Evaluating utility value and costs thus becomes a strategic back-of-the-envelope calculation – and your board will be delighted!
► 500 million units? A practical example:
► What is to be achieved? The task definition.
Our client is a growth-oriented market leader in the production of plastic packaging. The company requires a production concept to increase its manufacturing capacity in the medium term from 400 to 500 million units per year. The company’s site strategy provides for
- investment in an extension building of 2,000 m²,
- the gradual acquisition of four additional semi-automated production lines, and
- the creation of an integrated flow between production, assembly, quality inspection and warehousing.
At the same time, the factory expansion is intended to implement industry-specific standards:
- higher cleanliness (clean factory, pallet-free production, low-abrasion technology), and
- comprehensive quality assurance (100% inspection of finished products).
► What matters most? The target criteria.
Before our consulting work begins, we clarify the success criteria together with our client. These benchmarks are used at the end of the project to jointly assess how well the objectives have been achieved:
- Demand-oriented, flexible supply and disposal in line with lean production logistics principles
- Minimization of buffer ranges, production inventories and transport effort
- Compliance with industry-specific quality, cleanliness and hygiene standards
- Ensuring high availability of the entire logistics system
- Material-flow-oriented layout within limited space
► How does it work? The consulting process.
- Kick-off workshop, data collection and structural analysis
- Functional concept with target processes and IT requirements
- Equipment concept with functional areas, machinery and workstations; development of layout variants
- Material flow and warehouse concept with automation solutions and detailing of layout variants
- Variant evaluation (technical, organizational, economic) and narrowing down of the preferred solution in the results workshop
Results at a glance: The production concept
- End-to-end data basis:
All planning-relevant data mapped within a structured volume model. Rough dimensioning of production, warehouse and transport volumes- Scenarios activated at the click of a mouse:
Two expansion stages with increasing production volumes – synchronized with the ramp-up of new production lines- High-performance material flow concept:
Design of intralogistics processes for production supply, disposal, warehousing and shipping preparation- Modular layout and equipment concept:
Variant-based visualization of space utilization and equipment- Automation concept:
Conveyor systems and control rules for supply and disposal, modularly tailored to each module- Cost-benefit evaluation:
Qualitative and quantitative assessment of variants, providing a sound decision basis for the preferred option
