Article
A Revised Systematic Layout Planning to Fit Disabled
Workers Contexts
Guido J. L. Micheli
1,
* , Annamaria Rampoldi
1
and Fabrizio Baccanti
2
Citation: Micheli, G.J.L.; Rampoldi,
A.; Baccanti, F. A Revised Systematic
Layout Planning to Fit Disabled
Workers Contexts. Sustainability 2021,
13, 6850. https://doi.org/10.3390/
su13126850
Academic Editor: Lucian-Ionel Cioca
Received: 30 March 2021
Accepted: 12 June 2021
Published: 17 June 2021
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4.0/).
1
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano,
20133 Milano, Italy; annamaria.rampoldi@mail.polimi.it
2
Head of Operation and Company Founder, FARE, 20900 Monza, Italy; f.baccanti@fareinnovazione.com
* Correspondence: guido.micheli@polimi.it; Tel.: +39-02-2399-4056
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.
Keywords:
layout study; systematic layout planning; social cooperative; disabled workers; produc-
tion process optimization; reconfigurability
1. Introduction and Objective of the Study
Work must be protected, promoted, and granted to all citizens. Disabled workers are
disadvantaged on the labor market, as they encounter difficulty or cannot carry out work
processes due to their deficit [
1
], but they have the same right to be employed as any other
citizen. The main barriers lie in the reluctance of employers to hire them and the small
number of protected workplaces [2].
Over the years, regulations have been introduced to recognize the disadvantaged
status and guarantee facilities to favor access to the labor market [
3
]. By favoring their
employment, many people previously excluded from the labor market now have the
opportunity to be included in a production process. To this end, Italian legislation has
established “type B” (as in Law 381/1991) social cooperatives that deal with carrying out
different activities, such as agricultural, industrial, and commercial, or services with the
aim of promoting work placement for disadvantaged people; they are the ones this work
refers to [
4
]. Social cooperatives have understood the necessity to adapt the production
cycle to people instead of adapting people to the production cycle [
5
]. Through customized
paths and targeted techniques, the disabled are trained and supported in developing their
abilities, by encouraging the acquisition of the technical skills necessary to perform the
required tasks [
6
]. Type B social cooperatives meet the needs of employers who must
hire disabled workers, as stated by Law 68/99. The agreement can concern up to 30% of
disabled workers of the enterprise, and employers undertake to entrust work orders to the
social cooperative [
7
]. Overall, this means a potential need for the social cooperatives to
grow in number, in volume, and in competitiveness in the near future, which is further
Sustainability 2021, 13, 6850. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126850 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
