Corresponding Author: ben.ugheoke@uniabuja.edu.ng.ac.ir 10.22105/SA.2021.281500.1061 Licensee System Analytics. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). 1|Introduction Cores Manufacturing transforms raw materials and information into finished goods and services to improve human needs [1]. To achieve this capability in a competitive business environment, manufacturers must adopt advanced systems to produce goods quickly at the least cost [2], [3]. Mechanical Technology and Engineering Insights www.mtei.reapress.com Mech. Technol. Eng. Insights. Vol. 1, No. 1 (2024) 15–27. Paper Type: Original Article Facility Layout Design, Simulation, and Optimization for Kaolin Beneficiation Plant Using Flexsim Abdulhakeem Hassan Nurudeen 1 , Ishaya Musa Dagwa 1 , Iyenagbe Benjamin Ugheoke 1, * , Ibrahim Dauda Muhammad 1 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Abuja. P.M.B 117, Abuja, Nigeria; ben.ugheoke@uniabuja.edu.ng. Citation: Received: 18 March 2024 Revised: 3 June 2024 Accepted: 10 July 2024 Nurudeen, A. H., Dagwa, I. M., Ugheoke, I. B., & Muhammad, I. D. (2024). Facility layout design, simulation, and optimization for kaolin beneficiation plant using Flexsim. Mechanical Technology and Engineering Insights, 1 (1), 15- 27. Abstract Nigeria has huge deposits of kaolin spread across the country. Yet, Kaolin and its derivatives cost Nigeria around 14 million USD annually, and they have diverse industrial applications such as the manufacturing of paper, ceramics, cosmetics, medicine, paints, and porcelain. This loss of revenue is due to the under-tapping of the mineral due to the absence of beneficiation plants. Currently, the mining is primarily done crudely by artisan miners. Implementing modern manufacturing infrastructure requires adequate attention to cater to facility layout and future improvements, reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, space utilization, etc. Simulation exercises proffer solutions to these problems in a virtual environment. This work reports a proposed facility layout design for kaolin beneficiation. The proposed plant was designed using Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) methodology and tested using FLEXSIM Simulation software to optimize the plant's production capacity. The results from the design showed that the optimized production plant had an annual production capacity of 95,328 tons, which was higher than the initial layout, with 69,120 tons per annum. The workstations utilization for the optimized layout showed better results than the initial layout design, with the optimized results showing improvements in the efficiency of the workstations as follows (after the simulation): fluid mixer1 had 73.77%, sedimentation tank had 18.44%, rotary drum dryer had 18.44%, packaging line had 63.87%, Screener_washer had 74.46%, and magnetic separator has 63.94% utilization. Keywords: Facility layout, SLP, Flexsim© simulation, Kaolin ore beneficiation.