My capstone team received 1st Place in the 2019 University of Louisville's Capstone Design Competition for our work involving the material flow analysis of a local wood product manufacturer. A material flow analysis (MFA) is a comprehensive study that examines the flow and management of materials within a facility's operations.

Key Objectives:
Value Stream Mapping — create a detailed map of the current material flow, highlighting any bottlenecks, delays, or waste (e.g. overproduction, defects, and excess inventory) in the process.

Data Integration — gather, clean, and integrate data sources, including CAD designs, bills of materials (BOM), production schedules, and inventory records, to use in analysis.

Visualization — generate material flow diagrams, also known as "spaghetti diagrams", providing a detailed view of how material flows through the facility.

Analysis and Optimization — identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement in material flow, including resource utilization, cycle times, and inventory management.

Scenario Testing — develop and assess "what-if" scenarios to evaluate different strategies for improving material flow, while adding capacity with an additional production line.

Report and Recommendations — generate a comprehensive report including the economic analysis of each scenario and provide final recommendations.

Results:
The client accepted the recommended layout including the installation of an additional production line, increasing throughput by 1/3 and eliminating about 2000 forklift operator hours per year . The solution had a high ROI with a roughly 2 year payback period.