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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Introduction
This chapter presents the introduction to the background of the study. It
focuses more on the background of the research, problem statement, and justification
of research, methodology, objectives, scope, and also contribution of this research.
1.2
Background of the Project
Nowadays, every company regardless of small or big scale will face many
problems to survive caused by the big competition from the outside which copying
the same product with low cost and same quality. Thus, small companies need help
from any agencies to continue run the production. Not are neglected, small
companies also giving more contribution to development of nation’s economy as
well as large company.
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Small company always face problems to produce the capacity of product per
day caused by the lack of systems to ensure that company cope with the demands.
Meanwhile, planning or forecast the sources are also one of the factors that cause of
lost vitality of small company. No systematic layout design in the small company is
among causes the high transportation cost. Thus, this study is importance to improve
the manufacturing process, profit generated, quality product and company
productivity as well as Industrial Engineering tools has been proven as very powerful
tools to improve the manufacturing process.
In this project, the focusing is on line balancing in the production Line 420.
The line balancing said by (Essafi, 2010) is about assignment of operation to
workstations is an important problem in the design flow lines. Thus, to increase
production rate of the line and reduce average work in progress (WIP) between
stations is by optimization of existing facilities. Perfect work load balance is
something that is impossible to be achieved due to the idle times that exist between
each station. The reason is that processing time will not be the same at different
stations. The station that require less time than the longest time will have a certain
amount of idle time. This time lag is called balancing loss which is represented as the
difference between cycle time and service time (Hofmann, 1990).
Systems are becoming more complex as the result of growing technology
specification and greater process integration. Therefore, the application of simulation
will be a powerful analysis tool to help engineers and planners make intelligent
decision in the shortest time frame that has become a requisite in today’s complex
business system.
For this project, a line balancing analysis was conducted at NurInfra Mutiara
Feedmill Sdn. Bhd.. The annual profit generated and the number of workers has
proven that this company is a small company. The main product of this company is
food pallet goat and food pallet cattle. At the same time, this company also make
packaging for feed pallet for freshwater fish such as catfish, etc. The current
production line has a problem such as line balancing. In order to reduce the line
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balancing loss and transportation cost, this project will generate alternative using
Industrial Engineering tools.
1.3
Problem Statement
The main problem that has been faced by the company is poor line balancing
due to long time processing for each machine to be completed in every batch. This
situation has been contributed many of idle time which is higher than the process that
supposed to do. The time lag is called as bottleneck in the production line caused the
production always couldn’t achieve the target in daily output or monthly output. This
is spoiled the company productivity in addition cause loss of profit into the company.
Besides, the other problem is in term of lack skill workers. The workers are
come from many type of industries before start working in the company which are
different skilled and attitudes. No training provided to the workers on how to use the
machine correctly and how to manage the problem when the machine is breakdown
or else. Sometime this problem caused the production need to stop for a couple days
to overcome this problem first. This problem is mainly cost to the company which
need to wait a few days to handle for maintenance and running out the target output.
Besides, the layout design of the company which is small and narrow
contributes poor safety and health to the workers. The repetitive motion by workers
when handling and lifting a lot of bags to the pallet in daily life can cause the back
pain to the workers. Each bag contains 50 kg of pellet food of goat and cattle.
Handling a bag which is hot, dust, and odour in daily give a bad impact onto workers
performance. Then, improper lifting technique can lead to back, leg and arm pain.
Poor technique can cause both acute injury, and serious chronic effects. The
ergonomics design can be proposed in order to reduce the back pain of worker.
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1.4
Justification of Research
The justification of doing this research is to help the small company as
NurInfra Mutiara Feed Mill Sdn. Bhd. to survive longer in the industry and get place
in within and outside the country. This research hopefully can improve the
productivity of the company and increase output capacity. Furthermore, this study
can also increase the awareness of the employers to provide better ergonomics
environment to the workers so that the workers are comfortable and less
compensation are been made. In short, the company can improve the productivity of
the workers, materials, energy, capital, and miscellaneous. Other than that, overall of
this study will help the company to make the decision to estimate the output capacity
in each month as well as reduce the number of workers to lifting the bag.
1.4
Methodology
The methodology that will be used is time study which is to establish time
standards of the entire process. This required both of art and science which is to
approach everyone to come in contact and also understand the various functions
related to the study. The element that include is recording significant information.
The verification by using Witness Simulation Software will be done to ensure the
entire of the process in each station is similar to the manual calculation. Then, the
alternative solution will be proposed to look deeply which alternative can help the
company to increase the process and at the same time reduce inventory production.
Next is the methodology to handle manual material handling problem. The
analysis is by using Analyze by using multisegment model and NIOSH lifting guide.
Based on the result from the both method, the proposed solution is suggested by
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designing the product or machine that can help the worker to lift and handle the load
again. This is also can prevent the workers from experience low back pain.
1.5
Objectives
The objectives of this study are:
a) To identify which workstations with high cycle time and bottleneck.
b) To propose the solution to increase the output capacity.
c) To propose new design of manual handling
1.7
Scope
The scopes of this research are:
a) Case study is only on production line.
b) The analysis will be of output capacity production line 420 and
ergonomics study in handling and lifting bag (load).
The other
problem will not study.
c) The implementation of the improvement is not necessarily
implemented.
1.6
Research Contributions
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At the end of this project, this research will come out the simulation of the
line balancing production capacity. This study can help the company to measure the
actual capacity that produce per day. At the same time, the company also will have
the data of line balancing machine that produce the product. Thus, the company will
know either that day the product produced achieve or not achieve the target.
1.7
Outline of Report
This chapter consist 7 chapters. Chapter 1 covers the introduction of this
research which includes the background of research, problem statement, objectives,
and scope. Literature review and the related issue in this research are discussed in
chapter 2. The discussion about the methodology of doing this research is given in
chapter 3 and followed by the background of company in chapter 4. Chapter 5 will
cover the data collection and analysis of this research. Meanwhile, propose solution
and analysis will discuss in the chapter 6 regarding the result obtained from chapter
5. The last chapter which is chapter 7 will provide the conclusion and future works.
1.8
Conclusions
As the conclusion, this chapter has discuss the overview of this research,
problem identification, justification of research, general methodology, objectives,
scopes, research contribution and outline of the project. The next chapter will discuss
about the literature review and the related issue of this research.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Introduction
This chapter will present the summary of a literature review regarding a
development of Small and Medium Industries (SMI) in the rural area. This chapter
intends to provide a better understanding on how the productivity of Small and
Medium Industries (SMI) can be develop through the usage of Industrial Engineering
tools. Brief explanations on the tools that are going to be practiced will also be given
in this chapter.
2.2
Small and Medium Industries (SMIs) in Malaysia
Small and Medium Industries (SMI) is the main catalyst for the growth of the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In addition, the birth of SMIs can also help the
government to boost state revenues in general, the existence of the SMIs are intended
to reduce poverty among the population and at the same time increasing per capita