Evaluation of Materials Flow Optimization and Factory Layout in Digital Factories: A Categorical Imperative in Industrial Engineering

The major factor in order to be competitive in present day modern market without incurring additional cost also respecting customer lead time lies on the ability to identify customized products particularly for engineering-to-order companies. The layout optimization is a fundamental issue required in the present day ever-changing environment in the development of a virtual layout in accordance with the Digital Factory concepts; it can be profitable to identify and also to resolve potential problems during planning phase, before its realization stage. The aim of this survey in order to reduce the production lead times is represented by the proposal of a technological solution for the parts feeding system of the industrial plant analyzed and a layout reconfiguration. Phase one provides an overview of the Digital Factory applications, the phase two  after data analysis in a Nigerian manufacturing company, Simio simulation software was employed in the design of the simulation model. A comparison of simulations results concerning queue times obtained from different orders and production have been critically done with actual configuration data. The results from the surveyed company indicated an improvement in terms of increase in customer’s satisfaction due to total production lead time reduction and reduction of waiting times.