Plant Layout

Plant layout refers to the physical arrangement of

production facilities. It is the configuration of departments,

work centres and equipment in the conversion process.
It is a floor plan of the physical facilities, which are used in
production.
Plant layout is the method of allocating machines and
equipment, various production processes of a product with
the available space of the factory so as to perform various
operations in the most efficient and convenient manner
providing output of high quality and minimum cost.
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. Minimize materials handling and cost.
5. Effective utilization of men, equipment and space.
6. Make effective utilization 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

Principle of integration

Principle of minimum distance.

Principle of cubic space utilisation
Principle of flow
Principle of maximum flexibility
Principle of safety, security and satisfaction
Principle of minimum handling

Factors affecting Plant Layout

The final solution for a Plant Layout has to take into account
a balance among the characteristics and considerations of all
factors affecting plant layout, in order to get the maximum
advantages.
The factors affecting plant layout can be grouped into 8
categories:
Materials
Machinery
Labor
Material Handling
Waiting Time
Auxiliary Services
The building
Future Changes

Machinery
Having information about the processes, machinery,
tools and necessary equipment, as well as their use
and requirements is essential to design a correct
layout.
The methods and time studies to improve the
processes are closely linked to the plant layout.
Regarding machinery, we have to consider the type,
total available for each type, as well as type and
quantity of tools and equipment.
Its essential as well to know about space required,
shape, height, weight, quantity and type of workers
required, risks for the personnel, requirements of
auxiliary services, etc.

Labor

Labor has to be organized in the production process (direct labor,

supervision and auxiliary services).
Environment considerations: employees safety, light conditions,
ventilation, temperature, noise, etc.
Process considerations: personnel qualifications, flexibility, number of
workers required at a given time as well as the type of work to be

Material Handling

Material handling does not add value to the product; its just
waste.
Objective: Minimize material handling as well as combining with
other operations when possible, eliminating unnecessary and costly

Waiting time - Stock

Objective: Continuous Material Flow through the facility,
avoiding the cost of waiting time and demurrages that happen
when the flow stops.
On the other hand, the material waiting to flow through the
facility not always represents a cost to avoid. As stock
sometimes provides safety to protect production, improving
customer service, allowing more economic batches, etc.
Its necessary then to consider space for the required stock at the
facility when designing the layout.

Resting time to cool down or heating up

 Auxiliary Services
Support the main production activities at the
plant:
Related to labor: Accessibility paths, fire protection
installations, supervision, safety, etc.
Related to material: quality control.
Related to machinery: maintenance and electrical and
water lines.

The auxiliary services represent around 30% of

the space at a facility.
The space dedicated to auxiliary services is
usually considered as waste.
Its important to have efficient services to insure that
their indirect costs have been minimized.

 The building
If it has been already selected, its characteristics will
be a constraint at the moment of designing the layout,
which is different if the building has to be built.

Future changes
One of the main objectives of plant layout is flexibility.
Its important to forecast the future changes to avoid
having an inefficient plant layout in a short term.
Flexibility can be reached keeping the original layout
as free as possible regarding fixed characteristics,
allowing the adjustment to emergencies and variations
of the normal process activities.
Possible future extensions of the facility must be taken
into account, as well as the feasibility of production
during re-layout.

Determinants of
The type of layout is generally determined by the following
layouts
Type of product: whether the product is good or

service, the product design and quality standards, and

whether the product is produced for stock or for order.
Type of production process: Relates to the

technology used, the type of materials handled and/or

the means of providing the service.
Volume production :Volume affects the present facility

design and capacity utilization, plus provisions for

expansion or change.

Types of layouts
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

Volume
High

Product
Planning
Department
Product
Layout

Medium

Fixed Location
Layout
Fixed Materials
Location
Planning
Department

Product
Family
Planning
Department
Group Technology
Layout

Process
Layout
Process
Planning
Department

Low
Low

Medium

High

Variety

Process Layout(Functional job shop

layouts)
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.
In process layout the arrangement of facilities are grouped
together according to their functions.
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.

Process layout for

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.

Product Layout
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.

Typical product layout examples

Process Layout
Lathe
S
t
o
r
a
g
e

Lathe

Drill

Weld

Lathe

Lathe

Drill

Paint

Mill

Mill

Grind

Assembly

Mill

Mill

Grind

Assembly

Weld

Paint

W
a
r
e
h
o
u
s
e

Combination
o A combination of process and product layouts combines the advantages
layout
of both types of layouts.
o A combination layout is possible where an item is being made in
different types and sizes.
o 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.
o It is to be noted that the sequence of operations remains same with the
variety of products and sizes.

Fixed Position
This is also called the project type of layout. In this type of
layout

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.

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

Group Layout (or Cellular Layout)

In a cellular layout the design is not according to the

functional characteristics of equipment, but rather by
self-contained groups of equipment (called cells),
needed for producing a particular set of goods or
services.

Group technology, or cellular manufacturing, classifies

parts into families so that efficient mass-productiontype layouts can be designed for the families of goods
or services.

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.
represents small plants within the plants.
The group technology reduces production planning time for jobs.
It reduces the set-up time.
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 (GroupTechnology 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.

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.

Cellular Layout
Process
Process(Functional)
(Functional)Layout
Layout

Group
Group(Cellular)
(Cellular)Layout
Layout
A cluster
or cell

T
T
M
M

T
T
M
M

T
T
D
D

CG
SG
D
D

Similar resources placed

together

CG

SG

SG

CG

CG

D
D

SG

Resources to produce similar

products placed together

Comparison of Basic Layout Patterns

P-Q Analysis

Quantity

Product
Layouts
Fixed
Position
Layouts

Mixed Layouts

Number of Different Products

Process Layouts

LINE BALANCING
Assembly-line balancing often has implications for layout. This would
occur when, for balance purposes, workstation size or the number used
would have to be physically modified.
The most common assembly-line is a moving conveyor that passes a
series of workstations in a uniform time interval called the workstation
cycle time (which is also the time between successive units coming off
the end of the line).
At each workstation, work is performed on a product either by adding
parts or by completing assembly operations.
The work performed at each station is made up of many bits of work,
termed tasks, elements, and work units.
Such tasks are described by motion-time analysis. Generally, they are
grouping that cannot be subdivided on the assembly-line without paying
a penalty in extra motions.

The steps in balancing an assembly line are:

1. Specify the sequential relationships among tasks using a precedence
diagram.
2. Determine the required workstation cycle time C, using the formula
3. Determine the theoretical minimum number of workstations (Nt)
required to satisfy the workstation cycle time constraint using the
formula
4. Select a primary rule by which tasks are to be assigned to
workstations, and a secondary rule to break ties.
5. Assign tasks, one at a time, to the first workstation until the sum of
the task times is equal to the workstation cycle time, or no other tasks
are feasible because of time or sequence restrictions. Repeat the
process for workstation 2, workstation 3, and so on until all tasks
are assigned.

6. Evaluate the efficiency of the balance derived using the formula

7. If efficiency is unsatisfactory, rebalance using a different decision

rule.

Flow Analysis
Factors that Affect the Flow Pattern
Flow Analysis Information
Flow Patterns
a. Flow within Workstations

b. Flow within Departments

c. Flow between Departments

Flow Planning
Measuring Flow
Types of Layout
a. Fixed Location

b. Product

c. Group Technology

d. Process

e. Hybrid

Flow Dominance Measure

Techniques for Machine Cell Formation
a. Row and Column Masking Algorithm
b. Single Linkage Clustering

c. Average Linkage clustering

Flow Analysis Information

Assembly Chart
Operations Process Chart
Flow Process Chart
Multi-Product Process

Chart
Flow Diagram
From-To Chart

Assembly Chart
It is an analog model of the assembly
process. Circles with a single link denote
basic components, circles with several
links denote assembly
operations/subassemblies, and squares
represent inspection operations. The
easiest method to constructing an
assembly chart is to begin with the
original product and to trace the product
disassembly back to its basic components.

Operations Process Chart

By superimposing the route sheets and
the assembly chart, a chart results that
gives an overview of the flow within
the facility. This chart is operations
process chart.

Flow Process Chart

This chart uses circles for
operations, arrows for transports,
squares for inspections, triangles
for storage, and the letter D for
delays. Vertical lines connect these
symbols in the sequence they are
performed.

Multi-Product Process Chart

This chart is a flow process chart
containing several products.

Flow Diagram
It depicts the probable
movement of materials in the
floor plant. The movement is
represented by a line in the plant
drawing.

From-To Chart
This chart is a matrix that
contains numbers representing a
measure (units, unit loads, etc.)
of the material flow between
machines, departments,
buildings, etc.

Flow Patterns: Flow within

Workstations
Motion studies and ergonomics considerations are important
in establishing the flow within workstations. Flow within
workstations should be:
Simultaneous: coordinated use of hands, arms and feet.
Symmetrical: coordination of movements about the center

of the body.
Natural: movements are continuous, curved, and make
use of momentum.
Rhythmical and Habitual: flow allows a methodological
and automatic sequence of activities. It should reduce
mental, eye and muscle fatigue, and strain.

Flow Patterns: Flow within

Departments
The flow pattern within departments depends on the

type of department.
In a product and/or product family department, the flow
follows the product flow.
1 machine/operator

1 machine/operator

2 machines/operator

BACK-TO-BACK

FRONT-TO-FRONT

END-TO-END
More than 2
machines /operator

1 machine/operator

CIRCULAR
ODD-ANGLE

Flow Pat.: Flow within Departments

(cont.)
In a process department, little flow should occur between workstations

within departments. Flow occurs between workstations and isles.

Uncommon
Aisle

Aisle

PARALLEL

Aisle

PERPENDICULAR

Aisle

One way

Aisle

One way

DIAGONAL

Dependent on interactions among workstations

available space
size of materials

Flow Pat.: Flow between

Departments
Flow between departments is a criterion often used to

evaluate flow within a facility.

Flow typically is a combination of the basic horizontal flow
patterns shown below. An important consideration in
combining the flow patterns is the location of the entrance
(receiving department) and exit (shipping department).
Straight

Simplest. Separate
receiving/shipping
crews

U flow

Very popular.
Combine receiving
/shipping. Simple to
administer

Serpentine

When line is too long

L flow

Similar to straight.
It is not as long.

Circular
flow

Terminate flow.
Near point of origin

S flow

At the same location

On adjacent sides

On the same side but

at opposite ends

On opposite sides

Flow between buildings exists

and the connection between
buildings is elevated

Ground level ingress (entry)

and egress (exit) are required

Ground level ingress (entry)

and egress (exit) occur on the
same side of the building

Some bucket and belt

Travel between floors occurs on
Backtracking occurs due to the
conveyors
and
escalators
result
the same side of the building
return to the top floor
in inclined flow

Flow
PlanningPlanning
effective flow involves combining the above patterns with adequate
isles to obtain progressive movements from origin to destination.
An effective flow can be achieved by maximizing directed flow paths,
reducing flow, and minimizing the costs of flow.
A directed flow path is an uninterrupted flow path progressing
directly from origin to destination: the figure below illustrates the
congestion and undesirable intersections that may occur when flow paths
are interrupted.

Uninterrupted flow paths

Interrupted flow paths

Flow Planning (cont.)

The reduction of flow can be achieved by work simplification

including:
1. Eliminating flow by planning for the delivery of materials, information, or
people directly to the point of ultimate use and eliminate intermediate steps.
2. Minimizing multiple flows by planning for the flow between two consecutive
points of use to take place in as few movements as possible.
3. Combining flows and operations whenever possible by planning for the
movement of materials, information, or people to be combined with a
processing step.

Minimizing the cost of flow can be achieved as follows:

1. Reduction of manual handling by minimizing walking, manual travel distances,
and motions.
2. Elimination of manual handling by mechanizing or automating flow.

Measuring Flow
1.

Flow among departments is one of the most important factors in the

arrangement of departments within a facility.

2.

Flows may be specified in a quantitative manner or a qualitative manner.

Quantitative measures may include pieces per hour, moves per day, pounds per
week. Qualitative measures may range from an absolute necessity that two
departments show be close to each other to a preference that two departments not
being close to each other.

3.

In facilities having large volumes of materials, information, a number of

people moving between departments, a quantitative measure of flow will typically
be the basis for the arrangement of departments. On the contrary, in facilities
having very little actual movement of materials, information, and people flowing
between departments, but having significant communication and organizational
interrelation, a qualitative measure of flow will typically serve as the basis for the
arrangement of departments.

4.

Most often, a facility will have a need for both quantitative and qualitative
measures of flow and both measures should be used.

5. Quantitative flow measure: From-to Chart

Qualitative flow measure: Relationship (REL) Chart

Quantitative Flow Measurement

A From-to Chart is constructed as follows:
1.

List all departments down the row and across the column following
the overall flow pattern.

2.

Establish a measure of flow for the facility that accurately indicates

equivalent flow volumes. If the items moved are equivalent with respect
to ease of movement, the number of trips may be recorded in the from-to
chart. If the items moved vary in size, weight, value, risk of damage,
shape, and so on, then equivalent items may be established so that the
quantities recorded in the from-to chart represent the proper
relationships among the volumes of movement.

3.

Based on the flow paths for the items to be moved and the
established measure of flow, record the flow volumes in the from-to chart.

Stores

Milling

Turning

Press

Plate

Assembly

Warehouse

Stores

Turning

Milling

Press

Plate

Assembly

Warehouse

From-to Chart

Stores

12 6

Stores

12

Milling

Turning

Turning

Milling

Press

Press

Original Flow Pattern

Revised Flow Pattern

Plate
Assembly
Warehouse

Plate
Assembly
Warehouse

Warehouse

Assembly

Plate

Press

Milling

Turning

Store

Press
Stores

Warehouse Assembly

Turning

Press

Milling

Plate

Assembly

Warehouse

S-shaped flow

Milling
Plate

U-shaped flow

Straight-line flow

Stores

Turning

Stores

Turning

Milling

Press

Warehouse

Plate

W-shaped flow

Assembly

Warehouse

Assembly

Plate

Press

Milling

Turning

Store

Press
Stores

Warehouse Assembly

Turning

Press

Milling

Plate

Assembly

Warehouse

S-shaped flow

Milling
Plate

U-shaped flow

Straight-line flow

Stores

Turning

Stores

Turning

Milling

Press

Warehouse

Plate

W-shaped flow

Assembly

Qualitative Flow Measurement

A Relationship (REL) Chart is constructed as follows:
1.

List all departments on the relationship chart.

2.

Conduct interviews of surveys with persons from each department

listed on the relationship chart and with the management responsible for
all departments.

3.

Define the criteria for assigning closeness relationships and itemize

and record the criteria as the reasons for relationship values on the
relationship chart.

4. Establish the relationship value and the reason for the value for all pairs of
departments.
5.

Allow everyone having input to the development of the relationship

chart to have an opportunity to evaluate and discuss changes in the chart.

Code

1. Directors conference
room
2. President
3. Sales department
4. Personnel
5. Plant manager
6. Plant engineering office
7. Production supervisor
8. Controller office
9. Purchasing department

I
1

U
3 O
O 2
5 U

U
3
U

I
4

U
3
I
4
I
4

U
3
O
5

Reason

Frequency of use high

Frequency of use medium

Frequency of use low

Information flow high

Information flow medium

Information flow low

U
6

Rating

Definition

Absolutely Necessary

Especially Important

Important

Ordinary Closeness OK

Unimportant

Undesirable

Flow Dominance
Measure
(cont.)
f f
'

Flow dominance measure = f =

where

M 2w

ij

i 1 j 1

'

fU fL

1
2

,
1
2

M M 1
fU M
,
2
(
M

1
)
(
M

1
)

w =

i 1 j 1

ij

fL M
(M 1 )(M

1
2

1 )

fis the coefficient of variation.

fL and fU are lower and upper bounds on f, respectively (fL f fU).

The upper bound fU is only guaranteed to work when each process plan includes all
activities. In this case, 0 f 1.

Flow Dominance Measure (cont.)

Three cases :
1. f 0 a few dominant flows exist. product layout.
can use operations process chart as starting point for developing
layout and
material handling system design.
quantitative measures principal source of activity relationship.
2. f 1 many nearly equal flows exist.
any layout equally good with respect to flows .
qualitative measures principal source of activity relationship.
3. 0 << f << 1 no dominant flows exist. difficult to develop layout.
process or product family layout .
both quantitative and qualitative measures important source of
activity
relationship.

Given three machines (activities) labeled 1, 2 & 3,

Product

Process Plan

Quantities/Shift

1-2-3

10

2-1

3-1-2

15

Assume Product B is twice as difficult to move as A or C hijB = 2 and hijA = hijC = 1

To
From

Equivalent
Flow Volume
From-To Chart

110
1 15
25

25
10

1 10
10

1 15
15

w12 = 25,
w21 = 10, etc

Example 2 (cont.)
M = 3 and w =

(2 5 1 0 1 0 1 5 )
6 .6 7
32

( 2 5 1 0 1 0 1 5 ) ( 3 6 .6 7 )

32 1

'
f
6 .6 7
2

3 3 1
fU 3

2
(
3

1
)
(
3

1
)

1
2

1
2

= 1 .3 5 2

= 1 .9 8 4 a n d f L 3
2

(3 1 )(3 1 )

1
2

0 .7 5

1 .9 8 4 1 .3 5 2
0 . 5 1 2 2 no dominant flows exist
1 .9 8 4 0 .7 5
(likely, since 3 different process plans)

Qualitative Measures

Closeness values (A, E, I, O, U, X) used to indicate physical proximity

requirements between activities.

Relationship Chart can only show symmetric relationships, as

compared to From-to Chart (wij wji possible).

Relationship Chart is starting point for developing layout when 0 <<

f 1.
If f 1, then dont need to consider flow (only qualitative relationship)
If f <<1, then one can convert equivalent flow volumes to closeness

values so that material flow relationships can be considered along with

qualitative relationship.
If f 0, then can still convert to relationship chart if significant qualitative

relationship exists, otherwise, just use operations process chart.

Conversion Method
To convert equivalent flow volumes to closeness values for

the example problem, use wij + wji to make them

symmetric.
Conversion relations :
20 < wij + wji

w12 + w21 = 25 + 10 A

12 < wij + wji 20 E

w13 + w31 = 0 + 15 E

5 < wij + wji 12 I

w23 + w32 = 10 + 0 I

0 < wij + wji 5

Machine 1

wij + wji = 0

Machine 2
Machine 3

A
I

Example 3
Initial Machine Part
Processing Matrix

Rearranged Machine-Part
Processing Matrix
Part

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

M1

M2

M3

M4

M5

M6

M7

P1

P3

P2

P4

P5

P6

M1

M4

M6

M2

M3

M5

M7

Machine

Machine

Part

Row and Column Masking (R&CM)

Algorithm
1. Draw a horizontal line through the first row. Select any 1 entry in
the matrix through which there is only one line.
2. If the entry has a horizontal line, go to step 2a. If the entry has a
vertical line, go to step 2b.
2a. Draw a vertical line through the column in which this 1 entry
appears. Go to step 3.
2b. Draw a horizontal line through the row in which this 1 entry
appears. Go to step 3.
3. If there is any 1 entries with only one line through them, select any
one and go to step 2. Repeat until there are no such entries left.
Identify the corresponding machine cell and part family. Go to step 4.
4. Select any row through which there is no line. If there are no such
rows, stop. Otherwise, draw a horizontal line through this row, select
any 1 entry in the matrix through which there is only one line, and go
to step 2.

Example 3 Solution
Identification of the First
Machine
Cell and Part Family

Identification of the Second

Machine
Cell and Part Family
Part

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

M1

M2

M3

M4

M5

M6

M7

Machine

Machine

Part

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

M1

M2

M3

M4

M5

M6

M7

1
8

1
6

2
3

Single Linkage (S-Link) Clustering

Algorithm
S-Link is the simplest of all clustering algorithms based on the

similarity coefficient method.

The similarity coefficient between two machines is defined as the
number of parts visiting the two machines divided by the number
of parts visiting either of the two machines.
1. pairwise similarity coefficients between machines are calculated
and stored in the similarity matrix.
2. The two most similar machines join to form the first machine cell.
3. The threshold value (the similarity level at which two or more
machine cells join together) is lowered in predetermined steps and
all machine/machine cells with the similarity coefficient greater
than the threshold value are grouped into larger cells.
4. Step 3 is repeated until all machines are grouped into a single
machine cell.

Example 4: Initial Machine Part

Matrix
Part

Machine

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 P14 P15 P16 P17 P18 P19 P20 P21 P22
M1

1 1 1

1 1

1 1

M2

1 1

M3

1 1

M4

1 1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1 1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1 1

1 1 1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

M9

1 1 1 1 1 1

M10

1 1 1

M5
M6
M7
M8

M11

Example 4: Initial Similarity Coefficient

Matrix
Machine
M1

Machine

M1

M2

M3

M4

M5

M6

M7

M8

M9

M10 M11

M2

0.08

M3

0.00 0.43

M4

1.00 0.08 0.00

M5

0.80 0.00 0.00 0.80

M6

0.00 0.80 0.50 0.00 0.00

M7

0.00 0.00 0.10 0.00 0.00 0.00

M8

0.00 0.25 0.50 0.00 0.00 0.27 0.45

M9

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.83 0.36

M10

0.43 0.45 0.23 0.43 0.43 0.36 0.00 0.17 0.00

M11

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.57 0.37 0.67 0.00

Example 4: Dendrogram Based on

S-Link
0.00

Similarity
Levels

0.25

0.50

0.75

1.00
M1

M4

M5

M2

M6

M3

M8

Machine

M10 M7

M9

M11

Example 4: Machine Part Groups

using S-Link
Part

Machine

P1 P3 P16 P2 P15 P22 P20 P21 P7 P11 P8 P19 P5 P12 P13 P6 P14 P18 P9 P10 P17 P4
M5

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M4

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M10

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

M7

1 1

M9

1 1

1 1

M2
M6
M3
M8

M11

Average Linkage (A-Link) Clustering

Algorithm
The similarity coefficient between two machine cells is defined as the

average of pairwise similarity coefficients between all members of

the two cells.
1. Compute pairwise similarity coefficients between machines and
construct the similarity coefficient matrix.
2. Merge the two most similar machines into a single machine cell.
3. Compute the similarity coefficients between the newly formed
machine cell and the remaining cells. Revise the similarity coefficient
matrix.
4. The threshold value (the similarity level at which two or more
machine cells join together) is lowered in predetermined steps and
all machine/machine cells with the similarity coefficient greater than
the threshold value are grouped into larger cells. Repeat steps 3 and
4 until all machines are grouped into a single machine cell.

Example 4: Revised Similarity Coefficient

Matrix I
Machine Cell

Machine Cell

(M1, M4) (M2, M6) M3

M5 (M7, M9) M8

M10 M11

(M1, M4)

(M2, M6)

0.04

M3

0.00

0.47

M5

0.80

0.00

0.00

(M7, M9)

0.00

0.00

0.05 0.00

M8

0.00

0.26

0.50 0.00

0.41

M10

0.43

0.41

0.23 0.43

0.00

0.17

M11

0.00

0.00

0.00 0.00

0.62

0.36 0.00

Example 4: Revised Similarity Coefficient

Matrix II
Machine Cell

Machine Cell

(M1, M4 , M5) (M2, M6) M3 (M7, M9, M11) M8

(M1, M4, M5)

(M2, M6)

0.02

M3

0.00

0.47

(M7, M9, M11)

0.00

0.00

0.03

M8

0.00

0.26

0.50

0.39

M10

0.43

0.41

0.23

0.00

0.17

M10

Example 4: Revised Similarity Coefficient

Matrices III & IV
Machine Cell

Machine Cell

(M1, M4 , M5) (M2, M6) (M3, M8) (M7, M9, M11) M10
(M1, M4, M5)

(M2, M6)

0.02

(M3, M8)

0.00

0.37

(M7, M9, M11)

0.00

0.00

0.21

M10

0.43

0.41

0.20

0.00

Machine Cell
Machine Cell

(M1, M4, M5, M10) (M2, M6, M3, M8) (M7, M9, M11)
(M1, M4, M5, M10)

(M2, M6, M3, M8)

0.02

(M7, M9, M11)

0.00

0.11

Example 4: Dendrogram Based on

A-Link
0.00

Similarity
Levels

0.25

0.50

0.75

1.00
M1

M4

M5

M10 M2

M6

M3

Machine

M8

M7

M9

M11

Example 4: Machine Part Groups

using A-Link
Part

Machine

P1 P3 P16 P2 P15 P22 P20 P21 P7 P11 P8 P19 P5 P12 P13 P6 P14 P18 P9 P10 P17 P4
M5

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M4

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

M10

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

M7

1 1

M9

1 1

1 1

M2
M6
M3
M8

M11