SIMULATION ON LAYOUT DESIGN: A CASE STUDY

Layout design is very important not only in manufacturing systems but also in service systems. However, traditional research mainly focused on the objective of finding an optimal facility layout to minimize the material handling cost in manufacturing systems. Few studies concentrated on improving the facility layout of service systems to optimize their service level, such as waiting number and waiting time of customers. In this paper, simulation is used as a critical technology to analyse and improve the layout of a refectory. Two conclusions are drawn by the case study. One is that the methods used in manufacturing systems such as product-oriented layout design, specialization and standardization can also greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness in service systems. The other is that simulation technology can play an important role in layout design.