Lecture 7 Layout Strategy

Layout Strategy: Specifies the arrangement of processes, the related equipment

and work areas, including customer service and storage areas: Facilitates the flow of
materials and people within and between areas.
Determines long run efficiency of the plant
Objective is to develop an economic layout that will meet the requirements of
1. Product design and volume
2. Process equipment and capacity
3. Quality of work life
4. Building and site constraints
Arrange the system to operate at peak effectiveness and efficiency

Layout Depends on Types of Production Systems

Job production (Process Focused System)
Involves manufacture of products to meet specific customer requirements of special
orders. The quantity is normally small, usually one off and is normally concerned
with special projects, models, prototypes, special machinery to perform specialised
tasks. E.g. boilers, bridge, house, ship
Fixed layout is adopted i.e. the product is fixed and labour moves around it

Batch production system (Product Focussed system)

Involves the manufacture of a number of identical products either to meet a specific
order or to satisfy continuous demand. When production of the batch is finished the
plant is available for the production of similar or other products
The batch may be produced once or at irregular intervals. This type of production is
very common and involves the use of flexible systems.

Continuous production systems

Involves the manufacture of identical products on which the plant is fully engaged.
Two types
Mass production systems where the equipment are not specially designed for one
component alone. After the manufacture of one component for a large quantity,

Prepared by: Dr D.K.Hurreeram

August 04
 Lecture 7 Layout Strategy

operations can be switched to another but will require major tooling changes. Eg
Toyota car types)
Flow production systems where the equipment and layout have been primarily
designed to manufacture one component and changes in components are not possible
without substancial changes in plant layout and tooling. E.g sugar, chemicals, petrol,
electricity)

Jobbing Increased dedication to product

Increased inflexibility
Increased interdependancy on machines
Batch Increased production rate/quantity
Increased need for special tooling
Less and less skillful labour needed
Line/Mass General to special equipment/tooling needed
Process to product type of Layout
Decreased cost per unit
Flow

Plant Layout
A good layout requires determining
Capacity and space requirements
Material handling equipment
Environment and aesthetics
Flow of information
Cost of moving between the various work areas

Strategies

Fixed position layout (ship building, construction sector)
 Process oriented layout (low volume, high variety processes)
 Product oriented layout (high volume, low variety, best m/c util.)
 Retail/service layout, Warehouse layout

Prepared by: Dr D.K.Hurreeram

August 04
 Lecture 7 Layout Strategy

Fixed Position Layout

Mostly for jobbing type of production. Project remains stationary and requires
workers and equipment to come to the one work area.
Layout decided upon on an ad hoc basis
Limitations
1. There is limited space at virtually all sites
2. At different stages of the project, different material is required
3. The volume of material required is dynamic
Alternative
Use of Group Technology for off site manufacturing of components

Process Oriented Layout

Mostly used for batch type of production (low volume, high variety)
Transformation resources or similar functions are grouped together in the same work
centre usually a department, under the management and control of a functional
specialist. E.g engineering production, garage services, film processing etc

Grinding Store
Drilling

Painting/Electroplating

Inspection
lathes Assembly Shipping

The most common tactic is to arrange departments or work centres in the most
economical locations, minimising material handling costs
Place departments with large interdepartmental flow of parts or people next to one
another.

Prepared by: Dr D.K.Hurreeram

August 04
 Lecture 7 Layout Strategy

Material handling costs depend on

The number of loads to be moved during some period of time between two
departments
The distance related costs between departments

Minimise cost = Xij Cij

For i and j ranging from 1 to n, where,

n = total number of work centres or departments

i,j = individual departments
Xij = number of loads moved from department i to j
Cij = cost to move a load between department i and department j

Example
Procedure
1. Determine the number of trips between each department and construct a from to
matrix
2. Determine space requirements and distance between each department
3. Develop an initial schematic diagram
4. Determine the cost of this layout (multiply trips by distance)
5. By trial and error try to improve the layout
6. Prepare a detailed plan that evaluates other factors

Advantages of Process oriented Layout

1. It enables changes in quantity and type of products manufactured to be introduced
easily
2. Flexibility in terms of production types and ranges
3. Less duplication of specialised equipment (lower investment)
4. Workers and supervisors can become highly skilled in the operation of a single
type or group of production resources

Prepared by: Dr D.K.Hurreeram

August 04
 Lecture 7 Layout Strategy

5. Machine breakdown would not normally hold up production as a job could be

switched to another similar machine
6. Machines can be kept busy most of the time and low and medium volume
production costs cab be held down
7. Higher effective machine utilisatiion

Disadvantages
1. Scheduling work in the work centres is usually complex and tedious
2. Production throughput time is usually larger
3. Queues of work build up at some centres while others are underutilised (deliberate
queuing policy)
4. Balancing work load is usually difficult
Arrange departments or work centres in the most economical locations (minimise
material handling costs)
Place departments with large interdepartmental flows of people and/or parts next to
each other (number of loads to be moved, the distance to be travelled).

Minimise Cost = i=1 j=1 Xij Cij

where n = total number of work centres or departments
i,j = individual departments
Xij = number of loads moved from department i to j
Cij = cost to move a load b/w department i to j
Example

Work Cells (Group Layout special case of process layout)

New production management philosophy component thinking rather than
product thinking (Each cell capable of producing a family of components)

Based on the Group Technology philosophy Achieves some of the advantages of
product layout and the flexibility of process layout strategies. GT a
manufacturing philosophy in which similar parts are identified and grouped
together to take advantage of their similarities in manufacturing and design.

Prepared by: Dr D.K.Hurreeram

August 04
 Lecture 7 Layout Strategy

Processing of each member of a given family would be similar, resulting in

manufacturing efficiencies

Arrange production equipment into machine groups or cells to facilitate work flow

Similarities in terms of design attributes or manufacturing attributes

Part family collection of parts which are similar either because of geometric
shape and size or because similar processing steps are required in their
manufacture

Product Oriented Layout

Organised around a product or a family of similar high volume, low variety products:

Volume adequate for high equipment utilisation

Product demand is stable enough to justify investment in highly specialised
equipment

Product is standardised

Supplies of raw material and components are adequate and of uniform quality

Fabrication or assembly lines

Line balancing (high personnel and facility utilisation and equity between
employees work loads

Example of line balancing

1. List the tasks to be accomplished
2. Construct precedence chart and diagram
3. Calculate cycle time (time the product is available at each work station)
Cycle time = Production time available per day / demand per day or production rate
per day
4. Calculate the theoretical minimum number of workstations (total task duration
time divided by cycle time)
= (time for task i) / cycle time (i = 1 to m)
5. Perform the line balancing task

Identify a master list of work elements and separate the available work
elements from the unavailable work elements

Prepared by: Dr D.K.Hurreeram

August 04
 Lecture 7 Layout Strategy

Eliminate those work elements that have been assigned

Eliminate those work elements whose precedence relationship has not
been satisfied

Eliminate those work elements for which there is inadequate time available
at the workstation

Identify a unit of work that can be assigned, such as the first unit of work in
the list, the last unit of work, the unit of work with the shortest time, with
the longest time, or other criterion

Switch the work elements to find the best balance available

Other Production Concepts

Production: Series of individual steps including processing, assembly operations,
material handling, storage, delays, inspection and other non productive activities.
Operation and non-operation elements (value added and non value added elements:
To : Time per operation at a given machine or workstation
Tno: non operation time associated with the same machine
nm: number of separate machines or operations through which product has to be
routed
Q: Number of units in a batch
Tsu: Set up time

Compute:
1. Manufacturing Lead time MLT
2. Production Rate
3. Components of Operation time
4. Capacity
5. Utilisation and Availability
6. Work in progress

See Example

Prepared by: Dr D.K.Hurreeram

August 04