Abstract:
A facility planning project was conducted at Enterprise, a meat processing facility in
Gauteng. The project involved the facility layout and design of the hamper room. The
hamper room is defined as an area where four different hampers are manually packed with a
range of 19 different products. (Each hamper consists of a mixture of some of the products.)
The day after the hampers have been packed, they are sold at Enterprise’s factory shops.
These shops are located in Germiston and Polokwane. The hampers are in high demand
and thus each hamper not packed is considered as a loss of sales.
An in-depth as-is analysis of the hamper room facility was performed. A literature study was
conducted to understand the problems. This document contains recommendations to rectify
issues of labour utilization, wastages, high inventory levels and inadequate facility layout.
The degree to which the output of the hamper room does not conform to the demand was
calculated and converted into cost of lost sales.
The problem investigation and the conceptual design revealed alternative layouts that will
allow the hamper room to fulfil the required demand while addressing scheduling and safety
hazard issues. Employee ownership, order replenishment schedules and alternative layouts
were investigated and recommendations were made. The aim of the recommendations was
to improve overall efficiency. The final recommended solution was then verified and
validated.
The most significant improvement from the current facility is alternative layout 3.
Implementation of this layout will ensure that the unfilled demand of 13 pallets per day is
fulfilled. This fulfilment will decrease the cost of lost sales that amounted to R175 500-00 per
day.
