Optimal design of facility layout for manufacturing system

南地拖车是一家卡车拖车制造商，总部设在莱斯布里奇，AB.该公司制造他们的全部产品内部。目前制造工厂的设施布局不是最优的。在过去的20多年里，它已经逐渐被消耗，不幸的是，这导致了一些遗留问题。非最佳设施布局是最臭名昭著的。目前的设施布局导致了非增值材料的移动，这导致了低效率和生产率。由于目前设施布局的低效率，估计每年要花费额外的4030个工时来移动材料和在制品（WIP）拖车。该公司每年为此花费超过25万美元，这些钱本可以更好地用于增值业务活动。为了解决这一问题，南地拖车计划在2-3年内以最优的工厂布局建设新工厂。该公司希望通过该研究项目获得设计最佳设施布局的专业知识。此外，Southland Trailer也希望探索其他可能的合作方向，包括寻找一种新的材料来用于他们的封闭货物拖车的墙壁，分析生产流程并寻找可能的改进，以及设计一种新的悬挂系统。

Southland Trailer is a truck trailer manufacturer based in Lethbridge, AB. The company fabricates their entireproducts in-house. The current facility layout of the fabrication plant is non-optimal. It has been graduallyexpended over the past 20+ years, which, unfortunately, results in some legacy issues. The non-optimal facilitylayout is one of the most notorious. The current facility layout incurs non-value-adding material movements,which leads to low efficiency and productivity. An estimate of extra 4030 labor hours are spent annually onmoving materials and work in process (WIP) trailers through the facility due to the inefficiency of the currentfacility layout. It costs the company more than $250,000 yearly, the money of which could have been betterspent in value-adding business activities. In order to address this issue, Southland Trailer plans to build a newplant with the optimal plant layout within 2-3 years. The company intends to gain expertise in designingoptimal facility layout through this research project. Moreover, Southland Trailer also wants to explore otherpossible directions for collaborations, including looking for a new material to be used for the walls of theirenclosed cargo trailers, analyzing production flow and looking for possible improvement, and designing a newsuspension system.