Facility Layout

What is Facility Layout?

Facility layout means planning:

for the location of all machines, utilities, employee workstations, customer service areas, material storage areas, aisles, restrooms, lunchrooms, internal walls, offices, and computer rooms

for the flow patterns of materials and people around, into, and within buildings
infrastructure services such as the delivery of line communications, energy, and water and the removal of waste water all make up basic utilities.
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Objectives of Facility Layout

Minimize material handling costs Utilization of space, equipment, & labor efficiently Customer satisfaction Eliminate bottlenecks Facilitate communication and interaction between workers, between workers and their supervisors, or between workers and customers Employee morale & safety
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Objectives of Facility Layout Cont.

Reduce manufacturing cycle time or customer service time Eliminate waste or redundant movement Facilitate the entry, exit, and placement of material, products, or people Incorporate safety and security measures Promote product and service quality Encourage proper maintenance activities Provide a visual control of operations or activities Provide flexibility to adapt to changing conditions
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Importance of Layout Decisions

Requires substantial investments of money and effort Involves long-term commitments Has significant impact on cost and efficiency of short-term operations

Basic Production Layout Formats

Process Layout (also called job-shop or functional layout) Product Layout (also called flow-shop layout) Group Technology (Cellular) Layout

Fixed-Position Layout

Process Layout (Job shop or functional layout)

Used when the operations system must handle a wide variety of products in relatively small volumes (i.e., flexibility is necessary) Designed to facilitate processing items or providing services that present a variety of processing requirements. The layouts include departments or other functional groupings in which similar kinds of activities are performed. A manufacturing example of a process layout is the machine shop, which has separate departments for milling, grinding, drilling, and so on.
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Process Layout

Characteristics of Process Layouts

General-purpose equipment is used Changeover is rapid Material handling equipment is flexible Operators are highly skilled Technical supervision is required Planning, scheduling and controlling functions are challenging Production time is relatively long In-process inventory is relatively high

Advantages of Process Layout

Can handle a variety of processing requirements Not particularly vulnerable to equipment failures Equipment used is less costly Possible to use individual incentive plans

Disadvantages of Process Layout

In-process inventory costs can be high Challenging routing and scheduling Equipment utilization rates are low Material handling slow and inefficient Complexities often reduce span of supervision Special attention for each product or customer Accounting and purchasing are more involved

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Product Layout (Flow shop Layout)

Product Layout :- A production system design in which every item to be produced follows the same sequence of operations from beginning to end, such as an assembly line. Product layouts are used to achieve a smooth and rapid flow of large volumes of products or customers through a system. A job is divided into a series of standardized tasks, permitting specialization of both labor and equipment. The large volumes handled by these systems usually make it economical to invest huge amount of money in equipment and job design.
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Product Layout (Flow shop Layout)

For instance, if a portion of a manufacturing operation required the sequence of cutting, sanding, and painting, the appropriate pieces of equipment would be arranged in that same sequence. Operations are arranged in the sequence required to make the product

Product layouts achieve a high degree of labor and equipment utilization.

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Product Layout for Carwash

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Characteristics of Product Layouts

Special-purpose equipment are used Changeover is expensive and lengthy Material flow is continuous Material handling equipment is fixed Little direct supervision is required Planning, scheduling and controlling functions are relatively straight-forward Production time for a unit is relatively short In-process inventory is relatively low
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Product-Oriented Layout Advantages

Lower variable cost per unit Lower material handling costs Lower work-in-process inventories Easier training & supervision Rapid throughput

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Product-Oriented Layout Disadvantages

Higher capital investment

Special equipment

Any work stoppage stops whole process Lack of flexibility

Volume

Product
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Fixed-Position Layout

In fixed-position layouts, the item being worked on remains stationary, and workers, materials, and equipment are moved as needed. Fixed-position layouts are used in large construction projects (buildings, power plants, and dams), shipbuilding, and production of large aircraft and space mission rockets. Fixed-position layouts are widely used for farming, firefighting, road building, home building, remodeling and repair, and drilling for oil.
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Layout Strategies
Project (FixedPosition ) Job-shop (Process oriented) Continuous (Product oriented)

Example Construction Road Building, Ship Building

Problem Move material To limited Storage areas around the site

Hospitals Machine Shop, Kitchen Material Flow Varies with Each product

TV assembly Automobiles

Balancing Product Flow from one workstation to next

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Cellular Layout - Work Cells

Cellular Layout is a type of layout in which machines are grouped into what is referred to as a cell. Groupings are determined by the operations needed to perform work for a set of similar items, or part families that require similar processing. These relate to the grouping of equipment and include faster processing time, less material handling, less work-in-process inventory, and reduced setup time. Temporary arrangement only Example: Assembly line set up to produce 3000 identical parts in a job shop

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Improving Layouts by Moving to the Work Cell Concept

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Office Layouts

Design positions people, equipment, & offices for maximum information flow Locate workers requiring frequent contact close to one another
Examples

Insurance company Software company

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Retail/Service Layout

Design maximizes product exposure to customers Decision variables

Store flow pattern Allocation of (shelf) space to products

ExamplesDepartment Store Drug Store

Video

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A Good Service Layout (Servicescape) Considers

Ambient conditions - background characteristics such as lighting, sound, smell, and temperature. Spatial layout and functionality - which involve customer circulation path planning Signs, Symbols, and Artifacts - characteristics of building design that carry social significance
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Warehouse layout

Design balances space (cube) utilization & material handling cost Similar to process layout

Items moved between dock & various storage areas

Optimum layout depends on

Variety of items stored Number of items picked
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Warehouse Layout Floor Plan

Conveyor
Truck

Zones

Order Picker
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Assembly Line Balancing

Analysis of production lines Nearly equally divides work between workstations while meeting required output Objectives

Maximize efficiency Minimize number of work stations

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