Chapter 3

Facilities Layout
Introduction
Layout decisions are one of the key facts determining the long-run efficiency of operations.
Layouts have numerous strategic implications because they establish an organization´s competitive
priorities in regard to capacity, processes, flexibility, and cost. They are associated with the tactical decision
horizon and are dedicated to the concretion of strategic decisions like, e.g., facility location. Configured
production systems are input for the operational level, where the goal is to run the given system as
efficiently possible.

The aim of layout design is to organize the physical arrangement of economic activity centers within a
facility so that a process can be as efficient as possible

An economic activity center can be anything that consumes space: a person, or group of people, a teller
window, a machine, a workbench or work station, a department, a stairway or an aisle, a timecard-rack , a
cafeteria, or storage room, and so on. Planning for, the location of all machines, utilities, employee-work
stations, and customer-service- areas including material, storage areas, aisles, restrooms, lunchrooms,
internal walls, offices, and computer rooms. Planning for the flow pattern of materials and people around,
into, and within buildings. Location or arrangement of everything within & around buildings.

The Need for Layout Decisions

Inefficient operations: High Cost , Bottlenecks

Changes in the design of products or services

The introduction of new products or services

Accidents

Safety hazard

Changes in environmental or other legal requirements

Changes in volume of output or mix of products

 Requirements of Good Layouts

Selection of appropriate material handling equipment

Decisions regarding environment and aesthetics

Identification and understanding of the requirements for information flow

Identification of the cost of moving between the various work areas

• Types of layout

1. Process Layout: Machines grouped by process they perform deals with low-volume ,high-variety
production (“job shop”, intermittent production)

Example: Job shops, hospitals, kitchen.

2. Product Layout: Linear arrangement of workstations to produce a specific product [seeks the best
personnel and machine use in repetitive or continuous production] Example: electronic assemble, milk
bottling.

3. Hybrid (Cellular manufacturing systems or work cell layout) Layout: arranges machinery and
equipment to focus on production of a single product or group of related products.

Example: fast-food restaurants, airport passenger terminals

4. Fixed Position Layout: Layout in which the product or project remains stationary, and workers,
materials, and equipment are moved as needed [large bulky ] projects such as ships and buildings] –
Example: Ship building, road laying

5. Specialized Layout: Example: An office, warehouses, retails

Objectives of Facility Layout

Minimize material handling costs

Utilize space efficiently

Utilize labor efficiently

Eliminate bottlenecks
 Facilitate communication and interaction between workers, between workers and their supervisors ,
between workers and customers

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

Increase capacity

The overall Objectives of Layout Design

To arrange the facilities needed by a process so that desired output is achieved with minimum
resources.

OR

To lay out available facilities so that the maximum output is achieved.

• Characteristics of the Facility Layout Decision

Location of various economic activities center areas and its impacts of the flow through the system.

The layout can affect productivity and costs generated by the system.

Layout alternatives are limited by,

 The amount and type of space required for the various areas

 The amount and type of space available

 The operations strategy

 • Materials Handling

The central focus of most manufacturing layouts is to minimize,

a) The cost of processing

(b) Transporting, and

(c) Storing materials throughout the production system.

Materials used in manufacturing include:

Raw material

Purchased components

Work-in-progress

Finished goods

Packaging material

Maintenance, repair, and operating supplies used in manufacturing include,

• Material-Handling Equipment

Automatic transfer devices

Containers/pallets/hand carts

Conveyors

Cranes

Elevators

Pipelines

Turntables

AGV
 • 1.Process (Job Shop) Layout

Equipments that performs similar processes are grouped together.

Used when the operations system must handle wide variety of products in relatively small.

Volumes (i.e., flexibility is necessary

 • 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

Production time is relatively long

In-process inventory is relatively high

Planning, scheduling and controlling functions are challenging

• Designing Process Layouts

An Important Objective: Minimize the costs associated with movement of materials, people, etc.

Block Diagramming

Minimize non adjacent loads

Use when quantitative data is available

Addresses a single criteria/objective [generally minimizing transportation costs or distance traveled]

Relationship Diagramming -Systematic Layout Planning

Based on location preference between areas

Use when quantitative data is not available

Can be used for multi criteria/objective situation

Designing Process Layouts [Contd.]

There are three steps in the overall design:

(1) Collect relevant information concerning:

(a) Space required for each area

(b) Quantities moved between area

(c) Number of trips between areas

(d) And so on.

(2) Build a general Block Plan[Block Diagram] and try to minimize the total movement

(3) Add details to the Block Plan to give a final layout (using architects, engineers, consultants and other
expertise).

• A Procedure to evaluate the Block Plan

List the separate areas or departments to be located and determine the space needed by each one.

2) Build a “from-to” matrix. This records the number of trips directly between each pairof areas, and can
usually be found by observation over some representative period.

3) Use logical or sensible arguments to develop an initial schematic diagram for the layout (perhaps based
on the current layout).

4) Determine a cost for this layout. This can be phrased in terms of total meters moved (= ∑movements *
distance); kilogram-meters moved ( = ∑movements * distance *weight) or some other convenient measure.

5) Improve the initial layout. This may be done by trial and error, some algorithm (such as minimizing
non-adjacent loads) , or experience. Go back to Step 4.

6) Complete the block plan by including details of cost, additional constraints, preferred features, problems,
and so on.

• Plant Layout Procedures In planning for preparing the layout

1. Analyze the product or process to be produced

2. Determine the process required to manufacture the product

3. Prepare the layout planning charts

4. Determining work stations

5. Analyze storage area requirements

6. Establish minimum aisle widths

7. Establish office requirements

8. Consider personal facilities and services

9. Survey plant services

10. Provide for future expansion

• INFORMATION GATHERING

For the plant layout designer to perform effectively, certain information is required, pertaining to the
product ,Process and schedule.

Data requirements may not always coincide with data availabilities.

Data regarding product design decisions affect the layout significantly.

Thus product design decisions indirectly affect the layout.

Product design decisions can also have a direct affect the layout, since the design of the product
affects the sequence of assembly operations and the sequence can influence the layout.

Thus it is important to have data available concerning the design of the product.

Basic product design data can be obtained from the products exploded parts.

• ACTIVITY AND MATERIAL FLOW ANALYSIS

Flow analysis concentrates on some quantitative measure of movement between departments or

activities, where as activity analysis primarily concerned with the non quantitative factors which
influence the location of the departments or activities.

Once certain basic data are obtained concerning the process, product and schedule, the plant layout
analysis is in opposition to analyze a flow of materials, equipment and personnel.

Since the layout is designed to facilitate the flow of product, from raw material to the finished
product ,we are primarily concerned with the flow of materials.

• Some of the factors that affect the flow patterns

External transportation facilities

Number of parts in product

 Number of operation on each part

Sequence of operation on each part

Number of sub assemblies

Number of units to be produced

Necessary flow between work areas

Amount and shape of space available

Influence of process

Type of flow patterns

Product versus process type of lay out

Location of service areas

Production department location\

Special requirement of locations

Material storage

Desired flexibility

The building

Types of flow patterns

Fig. Basic horizontal flow pattern

 Fig. Vertical flow pattern

• RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAMMING

Purpose, premise and proximity

The purpose of activity relationship diagram is to depict spastically the relationships of activities.

Underlying the development of relationship diagram is the premise that geographic proximity can be
used to satisfy particular relationships

Proximity is the only way to satisfy closeness rating

RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAMMING
 Space requirements and layout
The most difficult determination in facility planning is amount of space in that facility.

The space requirement considerations uncertain concerning the impact are

 Technology

 Changing product mix

 Changing demand pattern

 Future organization design

The facility planner has difficult task of projecting true space requirements for the uncertain future.

The space requirements for individual workstation have been determined for each department can be
established

Responsibilities of facility planner

What systems are required

Integrating those systems into the overall facility

 The facility planner must aware that

1. The cost of constructing operating, and maintain a facility significantly impacted by the facility
system

2. Critical factors affecting the facility flexibility

3. A facility all systems should be specified

4. Facility systems have an important impact on the employee performance, moral and safety

5. Facility system has an important impact on the fire protection, maintenance and security of a facility

• Schedule design

Schedule design decisions provides to questions, involves how much to produce.

Production quantity decisions are referred to as lot size decisions

In addition how much and when to produce, it is important to know how long production will
continue

Such determination is obtained from market forecast

Specification of process requirements typically occurs in 3 phases

First phase

Determine the number of components that must be produced.

Includes defective allowances for defective items

Second phase

Determine the machine requirements for each operation

Third phase

Combine the operation requirements to obtain over all machine requirements

1. Fixed-position layout: addresses the layout requirements of large, bulky projects. In this type of layout,
the material, or major Components remain in a fixed location and tools, machinery, men and other materials
are brought to this location. E.g aircraft, industries

2. Job shop production (Process-oriented layout): deals with low-volume, high variety production.
Process layout is recommended for batch production

3. Cellular manufacturing systems (work cell layout): arranges machinery and equipment to focus on
production of a single product or group of related products. Thus group layouts a combination of the product
layout and process layout. It combines the advantages of both layout systems

4. Flow shop production (Product-oriented layout): seeks the best personnel and machine utilization in
repetitive or continuous production. The product layout is selected when the volume of production of a product is
high. E.g Mass production

As a matter of fact layouts 1 and 2 are often described as centralized, and layouts 3 and 4 as
decentralized manufacturing systems.

 Ok=Ik-dk Ik=Ik(1-dk)

Hence

Ok

=Ik- dkIk=Ik (1-dk)

Ik=Ok(1-dk)

For products with n sequential operations,

The expected number of units to start into production at first operation is shown below.

On=In(1-d1)(1-d2)(1-d3)…(1-dn)or

In=On[1/(1-d1)(1-d2)…(1-d2)or where On is the required production volume of final product

• Example 1

 Calculating the production requirements for series process with three operation.

 Product has market estimate of 97000 components requires three processing steps(turning , milling
and drilling) having defective estimates d1=0.04 ,d2=0.01 and d3 0.03.
  The market estimate is the out put required from step3

Operation Production quantity schedule (units) Expected number of units

Turning 105,219 101,010

Milling 101,010 100,000

Drilling 100,000 97,000

I1 I2 I3

I3=97000 = 100,000

(1-0.03)

I2=100,000 = 101,010

(1-0.01)

I1= 101,010 = 105,219

(1-0.04)

Or I1=97000

(1-0.03)(1-0.02)(1-0.04)

• Personnel Requirements

 The planning of personnel requirements includes planning for employee

 Parking

 Locker rooms

 Rest rooms

 Food services
  Drinking fountains

 Health services

 The facility planner integrate barrier free designs in addressing the personnel requirements of the
facility

• Personnel Requirements

 The planning of personnel requirements includes planning for employee

 Parking

 Locker rooms

 Rest rooms

 Food services

 Drinking fountains

 Health services

 The facility planner integrate barrier free designs in addressing the personnel requirements of the
facility

• Employee Facility Interface

 An interface between employee s work and non work activities must be provided

 The interface function as storage area for personnel property of the employee during work hours

 Personnel property typically includes cars and employee personnel belongings such as coats, clothes
purses and lunches

Employee parking

1. The procedure to plan parking lot is

2. Determine the number of cars to be parked by type of automobile

3. Determine the space required for each automobile

4. Determine the available space for parking

 5. Determine the alternative parking layouts for alternative parking pattern

6. Select the layout that best utilizes space and maximize employee convenience

• Office planning

Special areas

 Conference ,meeting ,training rooms

 Shop offices

 Reception area

1. Conference room: use dimension ,equipment furniture and illumination requirements

2. Shop offices:”can be prefabricated with widows that allow people to monitor activity of the factory
floor. Sometimes may used as storage

3. Reception area: security needs ,number of visitors, telephone requirement, access to rest room and
furniture requirement