MDP408a

Production & Operations

Management (Facilities Planning)
Lecture #12
Facility Layout Planning
 Today’s lecture
• Introduction to facility layout planning
• Flow patterns
• Measuring flow
What is “facility layout”?
 Meaning of facility layout
• The physical location of the various
departments/workcenters/units of the facility
within the premises of the facility.
Objective of facility layout planning
“The basic objective is to achieve an orderly and
practical arrangement of departments and
workcenters to minimize the movement of
material and/or personnel while allowing for
sufficient working space and perhaps space for
future expansion within an area that may be
predefined.”
-- as stated in the textbook
 Performance related objectives
• Proper space for machines, workers, tools,
work-in-process inventory, quality inspection,
local storage of inbound and outbound
material.
• Minimum movements of workers/material
• Least chances of accidents and safe working
conditions.
• Simpler plant maintenance/quality inspection.
• High productivity.
 Input data to facility layout planning
• Available space
• Selected type of production system (job
shop/batch production/mass production…etc)
• Selected machines and their numbers
• Selected material handling equipment and their
numbers
• Number of direct labors
• Material flow patterns
• Material flow rates
• Flow patterns

Flow Patterns
• Defining the flow of material, physical
distribution, and logistics are of value to the
facilities planner.
• Flow patterns may be viewed from the
perspective of flow:
– within workstations
– within departments
– between departments.
• Flow patterns

Flow patterns within workstations

• Motion studies and ergonomics are important
for establishing the flow within workstations.
• Flow patterns for hands, arms and feet need
to be studied to reduce mental, eye and
muscle fatigue, and strain.
• Usually rhythmical and habitual flow patterns
are preferred.
• Flow patterns

Flow patterns within departments

• Depends on the type of department.
• In product layouts, the flow of work follow the
product flow. There are five forms of material
flow in such systems: end-to-end, back-to-
back, front-to-front, circular and odd-angle.
• In process layouts, little flow occurs between
workstations within departments. Flow
typically occurs between workstations to the
aisles.
• Flow patterns

Flow patterns within product departments

• Flow patterns

Flow patterns within process departments

• Flow patterns

Flow patterns between departments

Flow between departments typically consists of a combination of the four general

flow patterns show in the following figure.
• Flow patterns

Flow patterns between departments

• An important consideration in combining the
general flow patterns is the location of
entrance (receiving department) and exit
(shipping department).
• A few examples of how flow within a facility
may be planned to conform to entrance and
exit restrictions are shown in the next slide.
• Flow patterns

Flow patterns between departments

• Measuring flow

Quantitative Flow Measurement

• Captured in a From-To chart
• Units are the number of trips of equal ease of
movement per time unit
– e.g., moving a large die is much more effort than
moving a small bin of parts
To
From Stores Milling Turning Press Plate Assembly Warehouse
Stores X 12 6 9 1 4
Milling X 7 2
Turning 3 X 4
Press X 3 1 1
Plate 3 1 X 4 3
Assembly 1 X 7
Warehouse X
• Measuring flow

Construction of the From-To Chart

1. List departments in rows and columns
according to the general flow of jobs
• Helpful but not critical to list in this order
2. Translate movements of different jobs/items
into equivalent materials handling moves
3. Translate production quantities/routings into
materials handling moves between
departments
• Measuring flow

Example
• A firm produces three components. Components 1 and 2 have
the same size and weight and are equivalent with respect to
movement. Component 3 is almost twice as large and moving
two units of components 1 or 2 is equivalent to moving one unit
of component 3. The departments included in the facility are A,
B, C, D, and E. The quantities to be produced and the component
routings are as follows:

Production Qty.
Component Per Day Routing
1 30 A-C-B-D-E
2 12 A-B-D-E
3 7 A-C-D-B-E

• Construct a From-To chart

• Measuring flow

Example
• Measuring flow

Qualitative Flow Measurement

• Captured in what is called an Activity Relationship
Chart
• The criticality of department adjacency is captured
on the following scale:
– A – Absolutely necessary
– E – Especially important
– I – Important
– O – Ordinary closeness OK
– U – Unimportant
– X – Undesirable
• Assessed through interviews and meetings
• Measuring flow
This block shows relation

1 Punch Press 1
Example 1
between “1” and “3”

2
I
3
2 Auxiliary 1 U 2
Punch Press D U 4
5
3 Drilling 2 U U
6 3
I U U
4 Grinding 2 I U U 7

U 2 U U A 8
9
5 General E U I 2 E
Fabrication 10 Importance of Relationship
U 2 U O 2 O 2 I
6 Wet Tumble U I 2 O 2 U 2 O
11 (top)
U I 2 O 2 O U 3 I 12 Reasons in Code (bottom)
7 Special I 2 O 2 A 2 O O 4 13
Production 14
E 2 U 2 U 2 O 3 O 4
15
8 Raw Material 2 I U I 3 O 4
Storage U 2 E E 3 U 4
9 In-Process U 2 O 5 X
Storage U U 3 I 6
10 Assembly U U 4
O U
Code Reason
11 Shop Toilet 3 U
O 1 Frequency of use high
12 Shop Office and 4
2 Frequency of use medium
Tool Room
13 3 Frequency of use low
4 Information flow high
14
5 Information flow medium
15 6 Information flow low
• Measuring flow

Qualitative Flow Measurement

• Can also construct activity relationship charts
from flow data by equating flow amounts to
activity codes
• Measuring flow

Example
• Measuring flow

Notes on the Relationship Charts

• Positions activities spatially
• For N activities there are N(N-1)/2 relationships
• 10 activities – 45 relationships
• 50 activities – 1225 relationships
• Can overcome this by grouping areas that have
strong relationships
• Usually expect about:
– 5% A relationships
– 50% U relationships
– 5% X relationships