Facility

Layout
Project
Alliance
College
Library
Submitted to: Dr.
Madhumita
Mazumder

Submitted by: Group

1 ALLIANCE
Aakanksha
BUSINESS
Agnihotri SCHOOL
Anurag Agarwal
Saloni Singh
Smeet Patel
Sushmita
Chakraborty
Yoga Moorthy

4/6/2009
 CONTENTS

Sl.No. Topic Page No.

1 Introduction 1

2 Service Layout 1-4

3 Library Service 5
Layout

4 Library Layout Map 6-8

Exhibits

5 Analysis of Library 9-11

Layout

6 Recommendations 12

7 Conclusion 13

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 1. Introduction
Layout decisions entail determining the placement of departments, work groups within the
departments, workstations, machines, and stock-holding points within a production facility.
The objective is to arrange these elements in a way that ensures a smooth work flow (in a
factory) or a particular traffic pattern (in a service organization). In general, the inputs to the
layout decision are as follows:
1. Specification of the objectives and corresponding criteria to be used to evaluate the
design. The amount of space required, and the distance that must be travelled
between elements in the layout, are common basic criteria.
2. Estimates of product or service demand on the system.
3. Processing requirements in terms of number of operations and amount of flow
between the elements in the layout.
4. Space requirements for the elements in the layout.
5. Space availability within the facility itself, or if this is a new facility, possible
building configurations.

2. Service Layout

The objective of a service layout (as is found in stores, banks, and restaurants) is to
maximize net profit per square foot of store space. A company that has been very successful
in leveraging every inch of its layout space to achieve this objective is Taco Bell Restaurants.
Exhibit 1 illustrates Taco Bell store layouts used in 1986 and from 1991 to the present. The
nature of the layout changes reflects actions required to support the company’s value strategy
of speed and low prices. Key operational modifications include elimination of many on-site
food preparation steps, which simultaneously increased the speed of service while reducing
the amount of working space needed. For example, the chopping and bagging of lettuce
and the precooking and seasoning of meats, beans, and hard tortilla
products are now done at central kitchens or by suppliers. The restaurant
kitchens are now heating and assembly units only. In addition to such
outsourcing, changes were made in queue structures, such as moving
from a single line running parallel to the counter, to a double line running
perpendicular to it. This improved product flow facilitated serving drive-
through windows, increased capacity, and allowed customers to see
assembly workers’ faces (as opposed to just their backs, as was the case
before).

The following exhibit is the floor space area of Taco Bel Restaurant and it
clearly depicts how effective use of floor space can help in increased
production as was witnessed by the restaurant.

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4
Following are the few factors to be considered while coming up with a
service layout:

• Service capes

As previously noted, the broad objective of layout in retail services is generally to maximize
net profit per square foot of floor space. Operationally, this goal is often translated into such
criteria as “minimize handling cost” or “maximize product exposure.” However, as Sommers
and Kernan observed more than 30 years ago, employing these and similar criteria in service
layout planning “results in stores that look like warehouses and requires shoppers to
approach the task like order pickers or display case stockers.”7 There are other, more
humanistic aspects of the service that must also be considered in the layout. Bitner coined the
term services cape to refer to the physical surroundings in which the service takes place and
how these surroundings affect customers and employees. An understanding of the services
cape is necessary to create a good layout for the service firm (or the service-related portions
of the manufacturing firm). The services cape has three elements that must be considered: the
ambient conditions; the spatial layout and functionality; and the signs, symbols, and
artefacts.

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 • Ambient Conditions

The term ambient conditions refers to background characteristics such as the noise level,
music, lighting, temperature, and scent that can affect employee performance and morale as
well as customers’ perceptions of the service, how long they stay, and how much money they
spend. Although many of these characteristics are influenced primarily by the design of the
building (such as the placement of light fixtures, acoustic tiles, and exhaust fans), the layout
within a building can also have an effect. Areas near food preparation will smell like food,
lighting in a hallway outside a theatre must be dim, tables near a stage will be noisy, and
locations near an entrance will be airtight.

• Spatial layout and Functionality

Two aspects of the spatial layout and functionality are especially important: planning the
circulation path of the customers and grouping the merchandise. The goal of circulation
planning is to provide a path for the customers that exposes them to as much of the
merchandise as possible while placing any needed services along this path in the sequence
they will be needed.

It is common practice now to base merchandise groupings on the shopper’s view of related
items, as opposed to the physical characteristics of the products or shelf space and servicing
requirements. This grouping-by-association philosophy is seen in boutiques in department
stores and gourmet sections in supermarkets.
Special mention is in order for a few guidelines derived from marketing research and relating
to circulation planning and merchandise grouping:

1 People in supermarkets tend to follow a perimeter pattern in their shopping behaviour.

Placing high-profit items along the walls of a store will enhance their probability of
purchase.

2 Sale merchandise placed at the end of an aisle in supermarkets almost always sells better
than the same sale items placed in the interior portion of an aisle.

3 Credit and other non-selling departments that require customers to wait for the completion
of their services should be placed either on upper floors or in “dead” areas.

4 In department stores, locations nearest the store entrances and adjacent to front-window
displays are most valuable in terms of sales potential.

• Signs, Symbols and artefacts

Signs, symbols, and artefacts refer to the parts of the service that have social significance.
As with the ambiance, these are often a characteristic of the design of the building, although
the orientation, location, and size of many objects and areas can carry special meaning. As
examples,

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• In the old days, bank loan officers were easily identified because their desks were located
on a raised section of the bank floor called the platform.
• A person seated at the desk closest to the entrance is usually in charge of greeting
customers and directing them to their destination.
• In a department store, the tiled areas indicate the aisles for travel, while carpeted areas
indicate departments for browsing.
• Some car salespeople have blackboards installed in their offices because a person writing
on a blackboard symbolizes someone who should be listened to and trusted (such as a
teacher).

The influence of behavioural factors makes the development of hard and fast rules for
services cape layout rather difficult. Suffice it to say that making the layout choice is not
simply a matter of choosing between display space and ease of operation.
3. Library Service Layout

There are three dimensions to the type of service- standard or custom design, amount of
customer contact, and the mix of physical goods and intangible services.

Objectives of Library Service layout operation:

• Easily understood service flow pattern.

• Adequate waiting facilities.
• Easy communications with customers.
• Easily maintained customer surveillance.
• Clear exit and entry points with adequate checkout capabilities.
• Departments and processes arranged so that customers see only what you want them
to see.
• Balance between waiting areas and service areas.
• Minimum walking and merchandise (books) movement.
• Lack of clutter.
• Attractive display of merchandise (books)

We have analysed layout of Alliance Business Library and given our recommendations to
enhance the service layout and effective floor space utilization.

Library services to be provided

➢ Copying: Self-service photocopiers, both black and white and colour.

➢ Binding: The Copy Centre offers a binding service at very competitive rates
➢ Just visiting: Any member of the public who needs to do so can visit the Library and
consult its collections. Individual and corporate external memberships are available
upon application and allow members to borrow.
.

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 4. Library Layout Map

Exhibit 1: The Foyer

Source: Authored by the group

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 Exhibit 2: The books section

Source: Authored by the group

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Exhibit 3: The elevated reading area

Source: Authored by the Group

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 5. Analysis of Library Layout

Library is a service layout, hence the objective here should be to maximise the customer’s
exposure i.e. the student’s exposure to the books and the reading facilities available in the
library. The technique that we will be using here is ALDEP (Automated Layout Design
Program). We will then select the best possible layout from a set of layout scores.

The various departments of the library that we have considered are as follows:

1. Issue & Return Section

2. Reading Area
3. Reference Books Section
4. Issuable Books section
5. Dissertations & Reports Section
6. Magazines Section

Total number of departments = 6

The closeness ratings that are considered are as shown in the table below:

CLOSENESS NOTATION VALUE

Absolutely Necessary A 64

Necessary E 16

Important I 4

Slightly Important O 1

Unimportant U 0

Undesirable X -1024

Some of the other assumptions are:

• Minimum Department Preference = 4

• Sweep Width = 2

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RELATIONSHIP (REL) CHART

The relationships (REL) chart showing the departments and the area requirement as follows:

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DEPARTMEN 1 2 3 4 5 6 AREA Required
TS REQUIREMEN Blocks
T (SQ.MT)
(approx.) 50sq.mt
= 1 block

1.Issue & - U U O U U 100 2

Return

2.Reading - E I I A 900 18
Area

3.Reference - E O U 100 2
Books
Section
4.Issuable - U U 300 6
Books
Section
5.Dessertatio - U 100 2
n & Reports
Section
6.Magazine& - 200 4
Newspaper
Section
TOTAL AREA 1700 34

Total approximate area is taken as 1700 sq.mts for the operating zone.

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Iteration1:

Starting with Dept.2 at random i.e. the Reading Area, the layout can be designed as below:

Blocks 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 2 4 4 4 4

2 2 2 6 6 4 4

3 2 2 6 6 5 5

4 2 2 2 2 1 1

5 2 2 2 2 3 3

6 2 2 2 2 0 0

Layout Score, LS1 =90

Iteration 2:

Selecting Dept.5 at random after dept.6, the new layout design is:

Blocks 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 2 5 5 3 3

2 2 2 6 6 4 4

3 2 2 6 6 4 4

4 2 2 2 2 4 4

5 2 2 2 2 1 1

6 2 2 2 2 0 0

Layout Score, LS2 =74

Since the design with the minimum layout score is most efficient, hence the second layout
design is the best with a score of 74.

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 6. Recommendations for Library

The following are the recommendation to improve the present layout of the library in order
to maximise the exposure of the students to the books and other facilities in the library:

➢ It is important that the reference books section should be placed nearer to the reading
area so that more and more students can conveniently read them as there books are
non-issuable. Whereas now only 2-3 tables are provided near the reference books.
➢ Lighting cost can be saved in the book shelf area by installing motion sensors that
activate lights in a particular place whenever there is a person there and deactivate it
when nobody is there. Presently lights are switched on and off as and when people
walk into and out of a particular area in the book shelf area, leading to inefficiency.
➢ Books falling under one category or similar categories may be placed in shelves such
that they are opposite each other, instead of the linear approach used now. Placing
books in parallel shelves, facing each other, would result in reduced movement of
people, saving their time, and saving electricity costs for the library.
➢ Entry/exit register could be shifted to the entrance of the main library from the
entrance of the library building so as to avoid no-count registration of those who walk
into the building to return/re-issue books or to go to use the reading room above the
library or to use the lavatory.
➢ Library Catalogue is the key to checking what books, journals, DVDs and other
materials the library has in stock. Books are shelved by subject using the classification
numbers on their spines. Journals (periodicals) are kept in the same general subject
areas as the books but are shelved A-Z by title. Student requirements vary and can
conflict with one another! To work together in small groups, the Library provides
Group Study areas on Floor 1. All other work areas are designated for silent study.
Study carrels on Ground Floor are available for private study to final year students and
postgraduates.

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 CONCLUSION

The space in the library is used effectively but the services can be enhanced further to serve
the students in the best possible and effective manner. Thus the recommendation on the basis
of closeness chart as well as emphasising the various factors like Service capes, Signs,
Symbols and artefacts, Spatial layout and Functionality, ambience etc the facility can be
further improved.

The library has sufficient space and resources to support large number of users. With a few
changes as suggested before it can enhance its performance.

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