PLANT LAYOUT/FACILITY LAYOUT

DEFINITION:

Plant layout refers to the physical arrangement of production facilities. It is the configuration of
departments, work centers and equipment in the conversion process. It is a floor plan of the physical facilities,
which are used in production.

According to Moore Plant layout is a plan of an optimum arrangement of facilities including

personnel, operating equipment, storage space, material handling equipment and all other supporting services
along with the design of best structure to contain all these facilities.

OBJECTIVES OF PLANT LAYOUT:

The primary goal of the plant layout is to maximise the profit by arrangement of all the plant facilities to
the best advantage of total manufacturing of the product.

The objectives of plant layout are:

1. Streamline the flow of materials through the plant.
2. Facilitate the manufacturing process.
3. Maintain high turnover of in-process inventory.
4. Minimise materials handling and cost.
5. Effective utilisation of men, equipment and space.
6. Make effective utilisation of cubic space.
7. Flexibility of manufacturing operations and arrangements.
8. Provide for employee convenience, safety and comfort.
9. Minimize investment in equipment.
10. Minimize overall production time.
11. Maintain flexibility of arrangement and operation.
12. Facilitate the organizational structure.

PRINCIPLES OF PLANT LAYOUT:

1. Principle of integration: A good layout is one that integrates men, materials, machines and
supporting services and others in order to get the optimum utilisation of resources and maximum
effectiveness.
2. Principle of minimum distance: This principle is concerned with the minimum travel (or
movement) of man and materials. The facilities should be arranged such that, the total distance
travelled by the men and materials should be minimum and as far as possible straight line movement
should be preferred.
3. Principle of cubic space utilisation: The good layout is one that utilise both horizontal and vertical
space. It is not only enough if only the floor space is utilised optimally but the third dimension, i.e.,
the height is also to be utilised effectively.
4. Principle of flow: A good layout is one that makes the materials to move in forward direction
towards the completion stage, i.e., there should not be any backtracking.
5. Principle of maximum flexibility: The good layout is one that can be altered without much cost and
time, i.e., future requirements should be taken into account while designing the present layout.
6. Principle of safety, security and satisfaction: A good layout is one that gives due consideration to
workers safety and satisfaction and safeguards the plant and machinery against fire, theft, etc.
 7. Principle of minimum handling: A good layout is one that reduces the material handling to the
minimum.

IMPORTANCE OF PLANT LAYOUT:

The importance of facility layout is stated as follows:

1. Economies in handling: Nearly 30 to 40 percent of the manufacturing costs are accounted for, by
materials handling. Every effort should, therefore, be made to cut down on these costs. Long distance
movements should be avoided and specific handling operations must be eliminated. In a factory,
materials have to be handled, and therefore, the answer to the question is how best to avoid handling
depends on layout.

2. Effective use of available area: Every inch of the plant area is valuable, especially in urban areas. Efforts
should therefore be made to make use of the available area by planning the layout properly. Some steps
for achieving this end are: location of equipment and services in order that they may perform multiple
functions; developments of up-to-date work areas and operators job assignments for a full utilization of
the labor force.

3. Improved Quality Control: Timely execution of orders will be meaningful when the quality of the output
is not below expectations. To endure quality, inspection should be conducted at different stages of
manufacture. An ideal layout provides for inspection to ensure better quality control.

4. Minimization of production delays: Repeat orders and new customers will be the result of prompt
execution of orders. Every management should try to keep to the delivery schedules. Plant Layout is a
significant factor in the timely execution of orders. An ideal layout eliminates such causes of delays as
shortage of space, long-distance movements of materials, spoiled work and contributes to the speedy
execution of orders.

5. Minimum equipment Investments: Investments on equipments can be minimized by planned machine

balance and location, minimum handling distances, by the installation of general purpose machines and
by planned machine loading. A good plant layout provides all these advantages.

6. Avoidance of Bottlenecks: Bottlenecks refer to any place in a production process where materials tend to
pile up or produced at rates of speed, less rapid than the previous or subsequent operations. Bottlenecks
are caused by inadequate machine capacity, inadequate storage space or low speed on the parts of the
operators. The results of bottlenecks are delays in production schedules, congestion, accidents and
wastage of floor area. All these may be overcome with an efficient layout.

7. Better production control: Production control is concerned with the production o a product of the right
time and at reasonable cost. A good plant layout is a requisite of good production control and provides
the plant control officers with a systematic basis upon which to build organizational procedures.

8. Better Supervision: A good plant layout ensures better supervision in two ways:
Determining the number of workers to be handled by a supervisor &
Enabling the supervisor to get a full view of the entire plant at one glance.

9. Improved Utilization of Labor: Labor is paid for every hour he/she spends in the factory. The efficiency
of a management lies in utilizing the time for productive purpose. A good plant layout is one of the
factors in effective utilization of labor.
10. Avoidance of Unnecessary and costly charges: A planned layout avoids frequent changes which are
difficult and costly. The incorporation of flexibility elements in the layout should help in the avoidance
of revision.
FACTORS INFLUENCING PLANT LAYOUT:

While choosing the layout for a facility, the following factors should be taken into consideration:

1. Management Policy: Management has to decide on many matters, e.g., nature and quality of products,
size of the plant, integration of production process, plans for expansion, amount of inventory in stock,
employee facilities etc.

2. Manufacturing Process: The type of manufacturing process, e.g., synthetic/analytical,

continuous/intermittent and repetitive/non-repetitive, will govern the type of plant layout

3. Nature of Product: The type of product to be manufactures affects the plant layout in several ways.
Small and light products can be moved easily to the machines whereas for heavy and bulky products the
machines may have to be moved. Large and heavy equipment requires assembly bays. One or a few
standardized products can better be produced through product layout while process layout is more useful
for producing a large variety of non-standardized products. Quality and fragility of the product also
influences the layout.

4. Volume of Production: The facility layout and material handling equipment in the large scale of the
organization will be difficult from the same in the small scale manufacturing industry.

5. Type of Equipment: The use of single purpose and multi-purpose machines substantially affects the plant
layout. Similarly, noisy and vibrating machines require special attention in the plant layout decision.

6. Type of Building: The facility layout in a single storey building will be different from that in a multi-
storey building. The covered area, the number of elevators and stairs, parking and storage area all affect
the layout.

7. Availability of Total Floor Area: The allocation of space for machines, work-benches, sub-store, aisles
etc is made on the basis of the available floor area. Use of overhead space is made in case of shortage of
space.

8. Arrangement of Material Handling Equipment: The facility layout and material handling services are
closely related and the latter has a decisive effect on the arrangement of production process and plant
services. It is necessary to provide adequate aisles for free movement of material handling equipment
such as hand truck, fork lift etc

9. Service Facilities: The layout of factor must include proper service facilities required for the comfort and
welfare of workers. These include canteen, lockers, drinking water, first aid etc

10. Possibilities of future expansion: Facility layout is made in the light of future requirement and
installations of additional facilities.

CLASSIFICATION OF LAYOUT:

Layouts can be classified into the following five categories:

1. Process layout
2. Product layout
 3. Combination layout
4. Fixed position layout
5. Group layout

1. PROCESS LAYOUT:

A Process or Functional layout is an arrangement of resources on the basis of the process characteristics
of the resources. Process layout is recommended for batch production.
All machines performing similar type of operations are grouped at one location in the process layout
e.g., all lathes, milling machines, etc. are grouped in the shop will be clustered in like groups. Thus, in
process layout the arrangement of facilities are grouped together according to their functions. A typical
process layout is shown in Fig.
The flow paths of material through the facilities from one functional area to another vary from product
to product. Usually the paths are long and there will be possibility of backtracking. Process layout is
normally used when the production volume is not sufficient to justify a product layout. Typically, job shops
employ process layouts due to the variety of products manufactured and their low production volumes.
The major implication of this design is that when the number of components manufactures is large, there
will be enormous criss-crossing in the shop, as components need to visit machines in multiple combinations.
This increases material handling and poses challenges for production control.

Advantages
In process layout machines are better utilized and fewer machines are required.
Flexibility of equipment and personnel is possible in process layout.
Lower investment on account of comparatively less number of machines and lower cost of general
purpose machines.
Higher utilisation of production facilities.
A high degree of flexibility with regards to work distribution to machineries and workers.
The diversity of tasks and variety of job makes the job challenging and interesting.
Supervisors will become highly knowledgeable about the functions under their department.
Limitations
Backtracking and long movements may occur in the handling of materials thus, reducing material
handling efficiency.
Material handling cannot be mechanised which adds to cost.
Process time is prolonged which reduce the inventory turnover and increases the in-process
inventory.
Lowered productivity due to number of set-ups.
Throughput (time gap between in and out in the process) time is longer.
Space and capital are tied up by work-in-process.

2. PRODUCT LAYOUT:

A Product Layout is an alternative design for the arrangement of resources. In this case, the order
in which the resources are placed exactly follows the process sequence dictated by a product.
 In this type of layout, machines and auxiliary services are located according to the processing
sequence of the product. If the volume of production of one or more products is large, the facilities can
be arranged to achieve efficient flow of materials and lower cost per unit. Special purpose machines are
used which perform the required function quickly and reliably.

The product layout is selected when the volume of production of a product is high such that a
separate production line to manufacture it can be justified. In a strict product layout, machines are not
shared by different products. Therefore, the production volume must be sufficient to achieve satisfactory
utilisation of the equipment. A typical product layout is shown in Fig.

Advantages
The flow of product will be smooth and logical in flow lines.
In-process inventory is less.
Throughput time is less.
Minimum material handling cost.
Simplified production, planning and control systems are possible.
Less space is occupied by work transit and for temporary storage.
Reduced material handling cost due to mechanised handling systems and straight flow.
Perfect line balancing which eliminates bottlenecks and idle capacity.
Manufacturing cycle is short due to uninterrupted flow of materials.
Small amount of work-in-process inventory.
Unskilled workers can learn and manage the production.

Limitations
A breakdown of one machine in a product line may cause stoppages of machines in the downstream
of the line.
A change in product design may require major alterations in the layout.
The line output is decided by the bottleneck machine.
Comparatively high investment in equipments is required.
Lack of flexibility. A change in product may require the facility modification.

3. COMBINATION LAYOUT:

A combination of process and product layouts combines the advantages of both types of layouts.
A combination layout is possible where an item is being made in different types and sizes. Here
machinery is arranged in a process layout but the process grouping is then arranged in a sequence to
manufacture various types and sizes of products. It is to be noted that the sequence of operations remains
same with the variety of products and sizes. Figure shows a combination type of layout for
manufacturing different sized gears.
4. FIXED LAYOUT:

There are several situations in which the product manufactured is bulky, difficult to move and is
often made in quantities of one. In such situations, the layout design ought to be very difficult. Layout
planning in such cases is often a question of a good workplace organization. By proper workplace
organization it is possible to exercise greater control on the process and remove unwanted processes and
delays from the system.

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. This type of layout is suitable when one
or a few pieces of identical heavy products are to be manufactured and when the assembly consists of
large number of heavy parts, the cost of transportation of these parts is very high. This is also called the
project type of layout.

Advantages
The major advantages of this type of layout are:
Helps in job enlargement and upgrades the skills of the operators.
The workers identify themselves with a product in which they take interest and pride in doing
the job.
Greater flexibility with this type of layout.
Layout capital investment is lower.

5. GROUP TECHNOLOGY/ CELLULAR LAYOUT:

There is a trend now to bring an element of flexibility into manufacturing system as regards to
variation in batch sizes and sequence of operations. A grouping of equipment for performing a sequence
of operations on family of similar components or products has become all the important.

Group technology (GT) is the analysis and comparisons of items to group them into families
with similar characteristics. GT can be used to develop a hybrid between pure process layout and pure
flow line (product) layout. This technique is very useful for companies that produce variety of parts in
small batches to enable them to take advantage and economics of flow line layout. The application of
group technology involves two basic steps; first step is to determine component families or groups. The
second step in applying group technology is to arrange the plants equipment used to process a particular
family of components. This represents small plants within the plants. The group technology reduces
production planning time for jobs. It reduces the set-up time.

Thus group layout is a combination of the product layout and process layout. It combines the
advantages of both layout systems. If there are m-machines and n-components, in a group layout
(Group-Technology Layout), the m-machines and n-components will be divided into distinct number of
machine-component cells (group) such that all the components assigned to a cell are almost processed
within that cell itself. Here, the objective is to minimize the intercell movements. The basic aim of a
group technology layout is to identify families of components that require similar of satisfying all the
requirements of the machines are grouped into cells. Each cell is capable of satisfying all the
requirements of the component family assigned to it. The layout design process considers mostly a
single objective while designing layouts. In process layout, the objective is to minimize the total cost of
materials handling. Because of the nature of the layout, the cost of equipments will be the minimum in
this type of layout. In product layout, the cost of materials handling will be at the absolute minimum.
But the cost of equipments would not be at the minimum if the equipments are not fully utilized. In-
group technology layout, the objective is to minimize the sum of the cost of transportation and the cost
of equipments. So, this is called as multi-objective layout. A typical process layout is shown in Fig.

PLANNING TOOLS & TECHNIQUES IN PLANT LAYOUT

In designing or improving the plan of plant layout, certain techniques or tools are developed and are in common
use today. The techniques or tools are as follows:

1. Charts and diagrams:

In order to achieve work simplification, production engineers make use of several charts and diagrams for
summarizing and analyzing production process and procedure. These include

Operation process chart: It subdivides the process into separate operations and inspection. When a
variety of parts and products are manufactured which follow a different path across several floor areas,
an operation process chart may be necessary for the important material items or products. The flow lines
of the charts indicate the sequence of all operation in the manufacturing cycle.

Flow process chart: This chart is the graphic summary of all the activities taking place on the
production floor of an existing plant. By preparing this type of chart, it can be found out as to where
operations can be eliminated, rearranged, combined, simplified or subdivided for greater economy.

Process flow diagram: The diagram is both supplement and substitute of process flow chart. It helps in
tracing the movement of material on a floor plan or layout drawing. A diagram may be drawn to scale on
the original floor plan to show the movement of work. It is a good technique to show long materials
hauls and backtracking of present layouts, thereby indicating how the present layout may be improved.
Colored lines can show the flow of several standards products.

Layouts, thereby indicating how the present layout may be improved. Colored lines can show the flow
of several standard products. This diagram can be used to analyze the effectiveness of the arrangement of the
plant activities, the location of specific machines, and the allocation of space. It shows how a more logical
arrangement and economical flow of work can be devised.

2. Machines data card: This card provides full information necessary for the placement and layout of
equipment. The cards are prepared separately for each machine. The information generally given on these cards
include facts about the machine such as capacity of the machines, scape occupied, power requirements,
handling devices required and dimensions.

3. Templates: Template is the drawing of a machine or tool cut out from the sheet of paper. Cutting to scale
shows the area occupied by a machine. The plant layout engineer prepares a floor plan on the basis of reel vent
information made available to him. The template technique is an important technique because (i) it eliminates
unnecessary handlings, (ii) minimize backtracking of materials, (iii) it makes the mechanical handling possible,
(iv) it provides a visual picture of proposed or existing plan of layout at one place, (v) it offers flexibility to
meet future changes in the production requirements.

4. Scale models: Though the two-dimensional templates are now in extensive use in the fields of layout
engineering but it is not much use to executives who cannot understand and manipulate them .One important
drawback of template technique is that it leaves the volume, depth, height and clearance of the machines to the
imaginations of the reader of the drawing. These drawbacks of the template technique have been removed
through the development of miniature scale models of machinery and equipment cast in metal. With scale
models, it has now become possible to move tiny figures of men and machines around in miniature factory .The
miniature machines and models of material handling equipment are placed in a miniature plant and moved
around in pawn on a chessboard.

5. Layout drawings: Completed layouts are generally represented by drawings of the plant showing wall,
columns, stairways, machines and other equipments, storage areas and office areas.
The above techniques and tools are used for the planning of layout for the new plant.

RECENT TRENDS IN LAYOUT

Plant layout is the art and science of bringing to gather men, materials, methods and supporting facilities
in the form of a given arrangements that suits individuals industrial activity to have the benefits of profits
maximizations through economy, efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. The designing and instilling a
layout is the responsibility of Engineering and planning department. The process of preparing layout is an art
and well as science. The recent trends in layout are as follow:
The use of computerized facilities designs:
Construction type Algorithms:
a. Automated Layout Design Program (ALDEP):
ALDEP is construction type algorithm
This algorithm uses basic data on facilities and builds a design by successively placing the
departments in the layout.
After placing all the departments in the layout, a score is computed. This is nothing but the
sum of the closeness rating values of different neighboring departments in the layout. This
algorithm is repeated for a pre-specified number of times and the best layout is selected
based on the maximum layout scores.

b. Computerized Relationship Layout Planning (CORELAP):

General approach is to select the most critical department first and place it at the centre of the
layout. After the first department is place, then the department having highest closeness
relationship with the departments which are already placed is selected and placed in the best
location adjacent to the previously placed departments.
CORELAP builds the layout from centre.
The final layout will not have a regular rectangular shape. \The user has to modify it slightly
to suit the situation.
Final score of the layout is developed by using the closeness values and rectilinear distances
between all pairs of departments.

Improvement Type Algorithms:

a. Computerized relative allocation of facilities Techniques (CRAFT):
Originally developed by Armour and Buffa.
It is more widely used than ALDEP and CORELAP.
It is an improvement algorithm. It starts with an initial layout and improves the layout by
interchanging the departments pair-wise so that the transportation cost is minimized.

The use of various tools and techniques for planning the layout.
The commonly used technique is uses are templates, model equipments, layout drawing etc.
 Templates: Is pattern which consists of thin plate of wood or metal which serves as gauge or
guide in mechanical work. A plant layout template is a scaled representation of physical object in
a layout.
Model equipment: Model or three dimensional models represents machinery installed in a
factory. It is a replica or a miniature prototype of machine and equipment. These show minor
details and can be mounted on a thick plastic sheet.
Layout drawing: Layout drawings are the replica of a factory floor plan showing the space
management. It is blue print which indicates the total square feet where all the equipment has to
be arranged.
Plot plan: Is a miniature of the entire factory building including the facilities of workers.
Line balance: is phase of assembly line study that equally divides then works to be done
among workers so that the total number of employees required is minimum. OR concepts like
linear programming, dynamic programming and optimal methods are used to study line balance
problem.