The Facilities Design Function

One of the oldest activities of the industrial engineer is plant layout and material handling. At least that is what it has been called for many, many years. It is the activity that deals with the design of an arrangement of the physical elements of an activity and has always been very closely related to the manufacturing industry, where the drawing of the resulting design was known as a plant layout. And a good layout nearly always involves the methods of handling material as it moves through the plant; therefore, plant layout and material handling. However, in recent years, as the industrial engineer broadened his outlook toward physical activity, he became aware that almost all meaningful activity required physical facilities, and most often such facilities could and should be planned and designed by following pretty much the same principles and procedures he had been using on plant layouts. o, he began to use his methodology in the design of any physical facility therefore, facility design, a term !ust as significant for the arrangement of the physical elements of a warehouse, post office, retail store, restaurant, hospital, home, or even a factory. In any such pro!ect, the overall ob!ective would be to consider what the appropriate inputs might be, and design an arrangement that would move them efficiently through the facility as the required activities are performed to achieve the desired outputs "see #able $%$&. As can be seen, all of the activities involve inputs and outputs. #he processing can be loosely referred to as production "productive activity& and in most cases requires a number of work places, ma chines, or other pieces of equipment, through which the inputs pass in being processed into outputs. However, lest the above be misunderstood, the facilities design engineer does not design the building the architect or architectural engineer does this.

Definition of Facilities Design

The Facilities Design Engineer analy'es, conceptuali'es, designs, and implements
systems for the production of goods or services. #he design is usually represented as a

floor plan, or an arrangement of physical facilities "equipment, land, building

utilities&, to optimi'e the interrelationships among operating personnel,