The Layout Optimization of Production Process Facilities in Apple Processing to Improve Productivity and Sustainability SMEs

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant influence for social and economic development in Indonesia. The increasing amount of SMEs in several regions of Indonesia led to fierce competition. The development of SMEs is the key targets to strengthen and sustain the economy of Indonesia. Kota Batu is one of the region in Indonesia with SMEs reached more than 20 thousands which featured local products are apple processing. The intense competition for the similar SMEs in these areas has made SMEs owners realize the production process is an important factor of sustainable entrepreneurship engagement. Unfortunately, many SMEs run their production processes without sufficient knowledge and studies to obtain optimal results. Facility planning is an effort of the company to organize a variety of means of production in order to provide efficiency in terms of layout. This study was expected to determine the relationship between the proximity of facilities in the production floor, provide proposed alternatives facility layout to the production floor, and choose the best alternative layout for the production floor. In this study, activity relationship chart (ARC) was built to identify the relationship between the proximity of production facilities. Then designed the layout of the facility using BLOCPLAN method produced proposed alternatives layout of the facility. Each alternative layout had a value of Adjacency score, R-score, and Rel-dist Score that will be used as criteria for selecting the best facility layout alternative by using brainstorming with the owner. Finally the recommendation based on this analysis can be given to SME owner in order to improve productivity and sustainability SME.