Mathematical model proposal for facility layout problem: An application for a plastic industrial consumables manufacturing company

The concept of facility layout is a direct determinant of the resources and conditions under which products or services will be produced by businesses. Facility layout design studies, which are generally aimed to be carried out at most once with a correct planning, can turn into a difficult and costly problem for business owners and officials if they are not designed correctly. This study aims to minimize the transportation distances in production and accordingly improve the transportation times by redesigning the facility layout of an enterprise manufacturing plastic industrial consumer goods. In the Introduction section of the thesis, an overview of the study and its contribution to the literature is presented. In the first chapter, the concept of production is outlined. In the second chapter, the basic concepts of plant layout problems are discussed. In the third chapter, general information about the company that is the subject of the thesis study is given and the work flows of the products produced are schematized. In the fourth chapter, which is the application part of the study, the research problem is defined and the purpose, constraints and assumptions of the study are stated. Subsequently, the transportation distances and transportation times that occur during the production phase are compiled. After the data collection process, the mathematical modeling of the problem was carried out and the new plant layout design was determined according to the solution obtained in the LINGO optimization program and the improvements provided by the new plant layout compared to the existing plant layout were examined. In the "Conclusion and Recommendations" section of the study, the findings obtained in the study are evaluated.