U-shape layout is one of the product layouts in manufacturing industries.The layout covers the arrangement of the equipments and processes in the workstations to produce the desired product.In this research, the production of carbonated drinks is being selected as the product to demonstrate the use 

of the U-shape layout concept.The research 

revealed the concepts and operation of this product besides the advantages and disadvantages of using the U-shape layout in the production of the carbonated drink.The knowledge of appropriate usage of the U-shape layout can help the interested readers in implementing this type of layout in their 

industries

Chiam, Shiun Ming

Chiew, Zi Wei

Lau, Yew Choon

Low, Sook Kuen

Rajemi, Mohamad Farizal

UUM Repository

Prosiding Simposium Pengurusan Teknologi, Operasi & Logistik, (SIPTIK IV) 14-16 Mei 2013, Universiti Utara Malaysia  377  THE APPLICATION OF U-SHAPE ASSEMBLY LINE SYSTEM ON CARBONATED DRINKS PRODUCTION  1Chiew Zi Wei, 2Low Sook Kuen, 3Chiam Shiun Ming ,4Lau Yew Choon, M F Rajemi  College of Business, Technology Management Building, University Utara Malaysia, 06010, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia Email: 1helenchiew416@gmail.com   ABSTRACT  U-shape layout is one of the product layouts in manufacturing industries. The layout covers the arrangement of the equipments and processes in the workstations to produce the desired product. In this research, the production of carbonated drinks is being selected as the product to demonstrate the use of the U-shape layout concept. The research revealed the concepts and operation of this product besides the advantages and disadvantages of using the U-shape layout in the production of the carbonated drink. The knowledge of appropriate usage of the U-shape layout can help the interested readers in implementing this type of layout in their industries.  Keywords U-shape layout, carbonated drinks, concepts and operations, advantages, disadvantages  1.0 INTRODUCTION  In this project, the isotonic drink, 100 Plus drinks has to be the object we choose to study U-shaped assembly system. We are only concerning on the model of 500ml 100 Plus, with the roughly dimension of 22.50cm height and 6.00cm width.  100 Plus drinks is a brand of carbonated isotonic sports drink that is sold in Singapore, Indonesia, South Africa, Brunei, Canada, and Philippines besides it is the top one isotonic drink in Malaysia (Wikipedia, 2013). 100 Plus isotonic drinks is a lightly carbonated, isotonic drink that helps to replenish the fluids and electrolytes that the body loses during physical exertion (100plus.co.za., 2013). It is also one of the products manufactured by Fraser & Neave Limited that is usually called as F&N. In 2011, F&N Limited had promoted 100 Plus drinks in addition of four flavors; those are Original, Tangy Tangerine, Lemon Lime and Active to increase its market range and its competitiveness.   U shape assembly line system is a type of product layout that will process raw material to product. It is arrange in U shape. In our design, there are eight workstations which are bottle unscrambler, bottle cleaner, filler, filler detection, capper, labeler, label detection and case packer. Conveyor will be used as transfer line in our process.  U shape assembly line is suitable for the products that have many processes. So the U shape design will be used to reduce usage of the workplace. 100 plus isotonic drinks is our product because U shape assembly line can produce high volume of products. 100 plus isotonic drinks nowadays is quite popular drinks for people. So the production of 100 plus isotonic drinks will be very high to fulfill the demand of the customers. To fully utilize the properties of the U shape assembly line, 100 plus isotonic drinks is chosen as our products.  100 plus isotonic drinks is quite useful to the people today especially for athlete and the people who like to exercise very much. This is because 100 plus isotonic drinks can maintain the performance of the athlete. It also can delay the fatigue of the athlete due to replenish the carbohydrate that lost in training. It can let us gain the minerals too especially in a hot day that let us sweat easily. Lastly, it is less sugar content when compare with others carbonate drinks.  2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW  U-shape assembly line system is actually one type of the product layout in manufacturing industries and the layout of equipment and processes of this design in the workstations are distributed around the needs of the end product. It involves the arrangement of equipment according to the progressive steps that a product made and each station will be given certain number of tasks to be completed in a certain sequence (Palmer, n.d).  Basically, U-shape assembly line is more compact and this design requires teamwork indeed where communication is necessary. It is always allows flexibility in work assignments as workers can handle adjacent stations as well as stations on opposite ends and used to ensure the maximum output at a minimum possible cost. However, sometimes this design is also facing the problem  378  about cross travel or movement ofworkers and mobile equipment (Kachru, 2007).  In this case, there are some factors that lead us to select the U-shape assembly line system as our plant layout. For instances, distance between processes, logical sequence of the process, volume of output, location of entry and exit and others. In the real world, the design of U-shape assembly line able to bring a lot of benefits to the company that applied it. Moreover, in order to achieve a low production cost, an efficient facility U-shaped layout is used with multifunction operators to perform a wide range of tasks (Simaria & University of Aveiro, 2007).  In this U-shape assembly line system, the entrance and the exit are located on the same position and closely together. The machines with different tasks are arranged around the U-line and are organized into different workstations. Therefore, the workstations that arranged with the same directional alignment as the entrance is called front zone while the opposite side of the front zone is called as back zone. The sets of tasks that joining both front zone and back zone that become the base of the U-line is called as side zone. Hence, the bottles will flow sequentially along the front, side and back of the U-line (Chutime and Olanviwatchai, 2010).  We can also declare that this layout is a kind of cellular manufacturing. According to Shishir (2008), cellular manufacturing is aggregate of dissimilar machines or process into cells. It is a workplace design. The production work station and equipment are arranged in a sequence that supports a smooth flow of materials and components through production process with minimal transport or delay.    3.0 METHODOLOGY  First we had to find the concept of U-shaped assembly line layout and the operations of manufacturing the 100 Plus isotonic drinks. We found a figure that shows the U-shaped assembly line layout with together all the work machines for the production of 100 Plus through an internet website (http://www.lazartechnologies.com).  We had obtained extra journal articles, videos and internet sources for the further understanding of the operations of manufacturing 100 Plus isotonic drinks as well as the concept of U-shaped assembly line layout.   Besides, we had to compare this U-shaped assembly line layout with other layouts, such as in-line layout in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages of using U-shaped assembly line layout in the production of 100 Plus. The sources we adopted to study this research include “Alibaba”, “Youtube” and the articles from Google. All of these sources are considered as reliable.  4.0 FINDINGS   Through this study we know about the basic concept of the U-shaped assembly line layout besides the operations of manufacturing 100 Plus isotonic drinks. Furthermore, we can see that the U-shaped assembly line layout is more suit to the production of 100 Plus isotonic drink compared with other assembly line layouts.   This is because in order to produce 100 Plus isotonic drinks, eight machines are needed. So, it can save the workplace if compare with the in-line layout. In-line layout may cause a problem which is that the machine is too many or too big and have to be arranged in a straight line. So, the area of the workplace is highly consumed and sometimes, the small factory does not has an appropriate workplace for such layout. Thus, in our case, U-shape assembly line is more suitable to produce 100 Plus isotonic drinks since the machine are in big size and need a lot of workplace especially filling machine. Besides, we also need to leave an empty area in factory to place the tanks near to the filling machine. So, by applying U-shape layout, we can definitely decrease the workplaces consumed for a production line.  The movement of materials in U-shape assembly line is better than process layout. The movement of the materials in U-shape assembly line can be transfer by conveyor but in process layout it is hard and in process layout a lot of labors are needed, so the labor cost will high.         Other than that, the movement of the workers is flexible indeed. In the other words, the workers are not compulsory to be responsibility only at one station, instead, they will be trained to become multi-skilled workers. Then, there are very few workers are needed for a production line by using U-shape layout.    However, there are some disadvantages for U-shaped assembly line. One of the vital disadvantages is the capital investment. The amount of investment required for capital is extremely high if compared with other types of layout. Secondly, it may increase the down time of the machines. Thirdly, it reduced the manufacturing flexibility due to the arrangement of the machines for each stations and the sequence of raw material that flow from first station until the last station.      379  5.0 DISCUSSION &CONCLUSION In this research we are expected to more understand about the type of layout in workplace and what are differences between them. Advantages and disadvantages of apply these layouts.   In this research, we are mostly discussed about the process of producing 100 Plus isotonic drinks and through this project we can clearly see the use of the U-shaped assembly line and as well as the pros and cons of the U-shaped assembly line. In order to produce 100 Plus isotonic drinks, we need eight machines, which are bottle unscrambler, bottle cleaner, filler, filler detection, capping, labeling, label detection and case packer. We had labeled them as numbers in the diagram of the production line, which are number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively. We arranged them in a proper sequence to enable the raw material go smooth along the production line from enter point, which is first station until the exit point, which is the last station. As you see in the Figure 1 and Figure 2, the station 1 and 2 are aligned opposite to make sure the operators can take care both of the stations.  Furthermore, some of the advantages and disadvantages had also been discussed. The very first advantage is that only a worker is required to handle both cell inputs feeding and output, hence, the labor cost is decreased. Secondly, this layout is able to minimize the walking distance between the workers and the stations. Thirdly, the operators can move between the both ends of the line to perform combinations of task and successive quality checks.   While for the disadvantages part, as we mentioned before, the capital investment is high if compared with other types of layout. This is because you have to invest on the machines and technology if you want to apply U-shape layout since the machines used are almost fully automated. Secondly, it may increase the down time of the machines. Thirdly, it reduced the manufacturing flexibility. Lastly, an issue about the rising of operators’ responsibility should be concerned. Therefore, behavioral aspects of management become crucial (Kachru, 2007).      Figure1: The workstations of production of 100 PlusFigure 2: U-shaped assembly line layout of the production of 100 Plus  In conclusion, we found that 100 Plus isotonic drink is a type of product that is suitable to be produced by using U-shape assembly line system. Despite, we also found that the factor of number of tasks at each station, cycle time of each task had became the limitation to the U-shape assembly line system. So, we had suggested that worker involvement, continuous improvement and reduced setup time and others might be the ways to improve the performance of the production line and increased the profit.       380  REFERENCES  Chutima, Parames; Olanviwatchai, Panuwat. (2010, May 5). Mixed-model U-shapedassembly line balancing problems with coincidence memetic algorithm. The Free Library. (2010). Retrieved May 20, 2013from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Mixed-model+U_shaped+assembly+line+balancing+problems+with...-a0227197048 Kachru, U. (2007). Production and Operation Management . A-45,Naraina, Phasel, New Delhi 110 028: Anurag Jain for Excel Book. Lazar cappers. (n.d.). In Lazartechnologies. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.lazartechnologies.com/Support/Guide/Equipment#5 Palmer, L. R. (n.d). What is a product layout?In Wisegeek. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-product-layout.htm Production operation management.(n.d.).In Zeepedia. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.zeepedia.com/read.php?process_selection_basic_layout_types_advantages_of_product_layout_production_operations_management&b=55&c=19 Shishir, B. B. N. (2008). Improve Profits and reduce cycle time with manufacturing cells. Journal of advances in production engineering and management 3, 1, 17-26. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://maja.uni-mb.si/files/apem/APEM3-1_017-026.pdf Simaria, A. S., & University of Aveiro, D. (2007). Meeting Demand Variations by Using Flexible U-shaped Assembly Lines. International Journal of Production Research, pg 5. Sunshine Corporation. (n.d.). Applications. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.sunshine.com.pk/industrial.htm 100 Plus. (2013). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100plus 100plus.co.za. (2013). Rehydrate with 100plus. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.100plus.co.za/site/home     

The application of U-Shape assembly line system on carbonated drinks production

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