Facility Layout
6-1
Facilities Layout
Layout
the configuration of departments, work centers, and equipment, with
particular emphasis on movement of work (customers or materials) through
the system
Facilities layout decisions arise when:
Designing new facilities
Re-designing existing facilities
6-2
The Need for Layout Planning
1. Inefficient operations
High cost
Bottlenecks
2. Accidents or safety hazards
3. Changes in product or service design
4. Introduction of new products or services
5. Changes in output volume or product mix
6. Changes in methods or equipment
7. Changes in environmental or other legal requirements
8. Morale problems
6-3
LO 6.5
Layout Design Objectives
Basic Objective
Facilitate a smooth flow of work, material, and information through the system
Supporting objectives
1. Facilitate product or service quality
2. Use workers and space efficiently
3. Avoid bottlenecks
4. Minimize material handling costs
5. Eliminate unnecessary movement of workers or material
6. Minimize production time or customer service time
7. Design for safety
6-4
LO 6.5
What are the principles of facility layout ?
• Cost minimization
• Optimum utilization of space and equipment
• Efficient material flow
• Utilization of constraint resources
• Efficient production process
• Maximization of communication and control
Basic Layout Types
Product layouts
Process layouts
Fixed-Position layout
Combination layouts
Cellular layout
6-6
Repetitive Processing: Product Layouts
Product layout / Line layout / functional layout
Layout that uses standardized processing operations to achieve smooth,
rapid, high-volume flow
Raw materials
Station Station Station Station Finished
or customer item
1 2 3 4
Material Material Material Material
and/or and/or and/or and/or
labor labor labor labor
Used for Repetitive Processing
Repetitive or Continuous
6-7
LO 6.6
Product Layouts: Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages
High rate of output Creates dull, repetitive jobs
Low unit cost Poorly skilled workers may not
Labor specialization maintain equipment or quality of
output
Low material handling cost per unit
Fairly inflexible to changes in
High utilization of labor and
volume or product or process
equipment
design
Established routing and scheduling
Highly susceptible to shutdowns
Routine accounting, purchasing,
Preventive maintenance, capacity
and inventory control
for quick repair and spare-parts
inventories are necessary expenses
Individual incentive plans are
impractical
6-8
LO 6.6
Repetitive Processing: Product Layouts
6-9
Non-repetitive Processing: Process Layouts
Process layouts
Layouts that can handle varied processing requirements
Machine shop
Dept. A Dept. C Dept. E
Dept. B Dept. D Dept. F
Used for Intermittent processing
Job Shop or Batch 6-10
LO 6.7
Process Layouts: Advantages &
Disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages
Can handle a variety of processing In-process inventories can be high
requirements Routing and scheduling pose
Not particularly vulnerable to continual challenges
equipment failures Equipment utilization rates are
General-purpose equipment is low
often less costly and easier and Material handling is slow and
less costly to maintain inefficient
It is possible to use individual Reduced spans of supervision
incentive systems
Special attention necessary for
each product or customer
Accounting, inventory control,
and purchasing are more involved
6-11
LO 6.7
Fixed Position Layouts
Fixed Position layout
Layout in which the product or project remains stationary, and workers,
materials, and equipment are moved as needed
Building Construction, Dams , Aircraft manufacturing
6-12
Combination Layouts
Some operational environments use a combination of the three basic layout
types:
Hospitals : process and fixed position
Supermarket : process and fixed (rollers)
Shipyards
Some organizations are moving away from process layouts in an effort to capture
the benefits of product layouts
Cellular manufacturing
Flexible manufacturing systems
Process ----------------------→product
6-13
Cellular Layouts
Cellular production
Layout in which workstations are grouped into a cell that can
process items that have similar processing requirements
Groupings are determined by the operations needed to perform the
work for a set of similar items, part families, that require similar
processing
The cells become, in effect, miniature versions of product layouts
6-14
Advantages of cellular layout
Less wastage
Improved lead time
Increased flexibility
Smooth flow
Quality improvement
6-15
6-16
Group Technology
Group technology
The grouping into part families of items with similar design or manufacturing
characteristics
Design Characteristics:
Size
Shape
Function
Manufacturing or processing characteristics
Type of operations required
Sequence of operations required
Requires a systematic analysis of parts to identify the part families
SMED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOri3WW3nd0
6-17
6-18
Service Layout
Service layouts can be categorized as: product, process, or fixed position
Service layout requirements are somewhat different due to such factors
as:
Degree of customer contact
Degree of customization
Common service layouts:
Warehouse and storage layouts
Retail layouts
Office layouts
6-19
Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)
FMS
A group of machines designed to handle intermittent processing
requirements and produce a variety of similar products
Have some of the benefits of automation and some of the flexibility of individual, or
stand-alone, machines
Includes supervisory computer control, automatic material handling, and robots or
other automated processing equipment
6-20
6-21
Service types : Degree of customization and contact
Degree of Degree of Service
customer contact customization
H H personal
healthcare ( job
shop)
L H picture framing ,
tailoring
H L supermarkets, self
service
L L automation/
online services /
web services
6-22
6-23
Designing Product Layouts:
Line Balancing
The goal of a product layout is to arrange workers or machines in the sequence that operations
need to be performed
6-24
LO 6.8
Line Balancing
Line balancing
The process of assigning tasks to workstations in such a way that the
workstations have approximately equal time requirements
Goal:
Obtain task grouping that represent approximately equal time requirements since
this minimizes idle time along the line and results in a high utilization of equipment
and labor
Why is line balancing important?
1. It allows us to use labor and equipment more efficiently.
2. To avoid fairness issues that arise when one workstation must work harder than another.
6-25
LO 6.8
Cycle Time
Cycle time
The maximum time allowed at each workstation to complete its set of tasks
on a unit
Cycle time also establishes the output rate of a line
Operating time per day
Cycle time =
Desired output rate
Operating time per day
Output rate =
Cycle time
6-26
LO 6.8
How Many Workstations are Needed?
The required number of workstations is a function of
Desired output rate
Our ability to combine tasks into a workstation
Theoretical minimum number of stations
N min =
t
Cycle time
where
N min = theoretical minimum number of stations
t = Sum of task times
6-27
LO 6.8
Precedence Diagram
Precedence diagram
A diagram that shows elemental tasks and their precedence requirements
6-28
LO 6.8
Assigning Tasks to Workstations
Some Heuristic (Intuitive) Rules:
Assign tasks in order of most following tasks
Count the number of tasks that follow
Assign tasks in order of greatest positional weight.
Positional weight is the sum of each task’s time and the times of all following tasks.
6-29
LO 6.8
Measuring Effectiveness
Balance delay (percentage of idle time)
Percentage of idle time of a line
Idle time per cycle
Balance Delay = 100
N actual Cycle time
where
N actual = Actual number of stations
Efficiency
Percentage of busy time of a line
Efficiency = 100% - Balance Delay
6-30
LO 6.8
