A revised systematic layout planning to fit disabled workers contexts

Abstract

Some people may be disadvantaged on the labor market because of their lower productivity; still, they have the same right to be employed as any other citizen. Social cooperatives employ disabled workers who are trained and supported in developing their abilities through individualized paths and targeted techniques. For the cooperatives to survive on the labor market, an improvement of management procedures and internal organization is required. To achieve this result, an optimal arrangement of activities must be determined to streamline the production processes, which is why Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) has been modified and adapted to fit disabled workers contexts. The factors of social cooperatives influencing the layout study have been determined and introduced into the classic SLP; the new methodology has been applied at L’Iride, a social cooperative developed through the years. The new layout has shown an improvement in space saturation of 219.2% and 197.5% considering the years 2019 and 2020. This paper provides social cooperatives with a revised SLP, including social factors, to enhance the disabled workers situation.