Productivity Improvement of Furniture Production System through Line Balancing Techniques

Abstract

Firms who are operating in the manufacturing sector are facing many challenges in this very competitive and dynamic market environment. For the purpose of overcoming those challenges these firms are trying to apply different Industrial Engineering techniques that lead them to improved productivity. Line balancing is a manufacturing technique out of Industrial Engineering disciple that involves matching the output rate to the cycle time by balancing operator and machine time. This study focuses on the productivity improvement of furniture production system using different heuristic line balancing techniques by considering Technostyle Furniture factory which is located in Ethiopia as a case study.  Time study was used for the purpose of data collection and analysis, Ranked Positional Weight (RPW), Longest Operation Time (LOT) and Most Following Task (MFT) heuristic line balancing techniques was also used for balancing the production line. Based on the result, the application of RPW and LOT heuristic method showed a remarkable result in terms of line efficiency with existing number of workstation. The line efficiency was improved from 54% to 87%, while the number of workstations remains the same for these two methods. This result indicates that the application of assembly line balancing techniques can be applicable as a means of productivity improvement of furniture industry as well. Therefore, it is concluded that the use of these two aforementioned methods can improve the productivity of the furniture production line.