Suzhal – An Alternative Layout to Improve Productivity and Worker Well-being in Labor Demanded Lean Environment

Ergonomics continues to be relevant in work-places in which a significant amount of manual labor exists, such as in some of the Cellular manufacturing Systems (CMS). In order to distribute the workload evenly over all the workers in the line, some of the industries resorted to the practice of rotating all the workers through all workstations in the cell (Nagare cell) that prevents monotony and boredom. The presence of automated equipment in the cell will hamper this strategy for job rotation. This study aims to demonstrate the application of ergonomically designed looping layout in the assembly cell in the labor demanded lean manufacturing environment. The study was conducted in a process line in an automobile ancillary unit. The current process line which was conventional U-shaped line was simulated and the productivity has been verified and validated with the real life environment. Process map showed that the operators walked long distances, felt stress in certain workstations and that inventory piled up at the bottleneck workstation. We identify sub-cells within the cell. With the same manpower, we develop a new layout (Suzhal) and make workers rotate within each sub-cell. The proposed layout was simulated and results have been compared with the current layout. The analysis shows a reduction in the total operating cycle time, higher alertness among operators, better distribution of workloads in the group and hence higher productivity.