Analysis of Work-Flow Design Related to Aspects of Productivity and Ergonomics

All the facility layouts are designed to enhance productivity. Though automation plays a huge role, still manual workers are considered essential for achieving the perfection of the product. In that case, any layout that doesn’t consider the ergonomics of the workplace to ensure the worker’s health and safety is deemed to be inconsequential. A balanced layout should consider ergonomic variables such as posture, awkward positions, and workstation dimensions. The enhancement of productivity and efficiency in the workflow process along with significant ergonomic improvements can be achieved through simulation. The results obtained are used to validate the procedure and the support methodology. This gives the link between the plant layout variables and ergonomic variables. Amongst the various simulation software, this report discusses FlexSim in detail focusing on the plant and process layout while the ergonomic variable is addressed through the literature survey.