Layout design and comparative analysis of a notebook factory using FlexSim ? software

The worldwide market is increasingly competitive and, for this reason, companies need more technologies and tools to help them improve their production processes and decision-making. The present work analyzed the case of a notebook factory and aimed to obtain data to choose the most appropriate physical arrangement, with the aim of achieving an optimized operational efficiency standard. In this sense, the methodology for carrying out the case study took place in three stages: the conception, presenting the objectives, the definition of the system and the construction of the conceptual model; the implementation, where the construction of the computational model was carried out, through the FlexSim (R) software, simulating the initial situation, which uses the in-line layout model; and the analysis, proposing a cell layout model, which was elaborated with the aid of assembly line balancing techniques and tested through the execution of experiments in the computational model, simulated in the same software. The proposed model was compared with the initial situation and the result obtained surpassed the initial data with regard to productive capacity, the use of the productive area, the reduction of machines in the process, the reduction of the necessary labor and the reduction of waste by transport, attesting to the benefits that the literature presents about the application of these technologies in production processes.