Manufacturing

Systems
Manufacturing System
Design & Control
Manufacturing System Design & Control

Facility Layout and Work Flow

Arrangement within a factory of:
•Machines
•Departments
•Workstations
•Storage areas
•Aisles and common areas

Ensures a smooth flow of work, material, people and

information through the system
 Manufacturing System Design & Control

3 three basic types of layout:

•Process
•Product
•Fixed-Position

3 hybrid layouts:
•Cellular
•Flexible Manufacturing Systems
•Mixed-model Assembly Lines
 Manufacturing System Design Control
Process Layout:
•Similar activities grouped together in work areas
•Suitable for low volume or batch production
•Flexible
•Not very efficient
•Storage space – large receiving, small shipping
•Large aisles for movement of material
Lathe Milling Department Drilling Department
Department
D D D D
M M M
L L
D D D D

L L
Grinding Department Painting Department

L L G G G G P

P
L L
Receiving and Shipping
Assembly

A A A
 Manufacturing System Design Control

Product Layout:
•Arrange activities in sequence of operation
•Line set up for one product
•Specialised machines
•Suitable for mass production
•More automated than process layouts
•Efficient
•Line flow – avoid bottlenecks
•Not flexible

IN

OUT
 Manufacturing System Design Control
Fixed Position Layout:
•Large projects too big to move
•Equipment and parts moved in and out of work area
•Highly skilled workers - costly
 Manufacturing System Design Control

Hybrid Layouts:
Try to mix flexibility of process layout with efficiency of
product layout

Cellular Layouts:
•Machines grouped into cells
•Cells process parts with similar features
•Work cell resembles a small assembly line (product)
•Layout between cells treated as process layout
 Manufacturing System Design Control

Processed based layout

Assembly

4 7 9
6

5 8

2 10
12

1 3 11

Raw Materials
 Manufacturing System Design Control

Design of work cell

Assembly

4 8 10 12
9

6
2
11

3 5 7
1

Raw Materials
Manufacturing System Design Control

Flexible Manufacturing Systems:

•Automates the entire manufacture of a
product
•Very costly
•Complex software
•Small number of FMS worldwide

Flexible Manufacturing Cell:

•Smaller version of FMS
•One manufacturing process is automated
Manufacturing System Design Control

Progressive FMS:
•All parts follow same progression through the work
stations
•Best where group technology can be applied
Unload Station Load Station
Pallet

Progressive FMS
Manufacturing System Design Control
Closed Loop FMS:
•Larger variety of parts
•Parts can follow different paths
•Parts can skip stations
Load Unload

Pallet

Closed Loop FMS

Manufacturing System Design Control

Ladder FMS layout:

•Parts moved to and from any machine in any
sequence
•More flexible than progressive and closed loop
systems Load/Unload
Manufacturing System Design Control

Mixed Model Assembly Lines:

•More than one product is processed by the line
•Workers trained to work on more than one station
•Layout of line changed
•Long and short operations arranged to cancel
each other

Traditional line

U Shaped Line
Manufacturing System Design Control

Capacity Management:
•Demand for product can fluctuate over time
•Capacity < demand - Lose business
•Excess capacity: storage cost, labour cost etc.
•Capacity planning: match capacity to present and
anticipated demand
Capacity Planning
•Capacity Lead Strategy
•Capacity Lag Strategy
•Average Capacity Strategy
Manufacturing System Design Control

Capacity Lead Strategy

•Capacity expanded in anticipation of demand
•Expect to gain customers from competitors

Capacity
Quantity

Demand

Time
Manufacturing System Design Control

Capacity Lag Strategy

•Capacity increased after increased in demand
•Common where competition is weak

Demand
Quantity

Capacity

Time
Manufacturing System Design Control

Average Strategy Lag

•Capacity expanded to coincide with average
expected demand

Capacity
Quantity

Demand

Time
Manufacturing System Design Control

How much to increase capacity?

•100% capacity not efficient
•20% cushion is generally used
•20% capacity allows for unexpected demand
•Negative capacity can be used - Airlines