Plant Layout

Placing the right equipment;

Coupled with the right method;
In the right place;
To permit the processing of a product unit
in the most effective manner;
Through the shortest possible distance;
And in the shortest possible time.

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Layout Planning
Layout planning is planning that involves decisions
about the physical arrangement of economic activity
centers needed by a facilitys various processes.
Layout plans translate the broader decisions about the
competitive priorities, process strategy, quality, and capacity
of its processes into actual physical arrangements.

Economic activity center: Anything that consumes

space -- a person or a group of people, a customer
reception area, a teller window, a machine, a
workstation, a department, an aisle, or a storage
room.
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Layout Planning

What centers should we include?

Reflect process decisions

Maximize productivity

How much space and capacity for each center?

Inadequate space can reduce productivity and privacy and
create hazards.
Excess space is costly and can isolate employees.

How to configure the space?

The amount of space, its shape, and elements in it
Atmosphere

Where should each be located?

Two aspects of location: relative and absolute.

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Location Dimensions
The location of a center has two dimensions:
1. Relative location: The placement of a
center relative to other centers.
Relative location can affect travel time, material
handling cost, and communication.

2. Absolute location: The particular space

that the center occupies within the facility.
Absolute location can affect cost to change layout
and customer reactions.

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Absolute Locations vs.

Relative Locations
Original
layout

Frozen
foods
Bread

Meats
Dry
groceries
Vegetables

Revised layout
Meats
Dry
groceries
Vegetables

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Frozen
foods
Bread

Four of the absolute

locations have
changed but not the
relative locations.

Strategic Issues
Layout choices can help communicate an
organizations product plans and competitive
priorities.
Altering a layout can affect an organization and how
well it meets its competitive priorities in the following
ways:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Increasing customer satisfaction and sales at a retail store.

Facilitating the flow of materials and information.
Increasing the efficient utilization of labor and equipment.
Reducing hazards to workers.
Improving employee morale.
Improving communication.
Better supervision and control.

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Performance Criteria

Customer satisfaction
Level of capital investment
Requirements for materials handling
Ease of stockpicking
Work environment and atmosphere
Ease of equipment maintenance
Employee and internal customer attitudes
Amount of flexibility needed
Customer convenience and levels of sales

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Types of Layouts
Flexible-flow layout: A layout that organizes
resources (employees) and equipment by function
rather than by service or product.
Line-flow layout: A layout in which workstations or
departments are arranged in a linear path.
Fixed-position layout: An arrangement in which
service or manufacturing site is fixed in place;
employees along with their equipment, come to the
site to do their work.
Hybrid layout: An arrangement in which some
portions of the facility have a flexible-flow and
others have a line-flow layout.
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Flexible-flow layout
Organizes resources around the process and groups
work stations or departments according to function
Intermittent, low volume, high-variety

Advantages
General purpose, flexible resources are less capital intensive
Less vulnerable to changes in product mix or new market
strategies
Equipment utilization can be higher, because not dedicated to
one product line
Employee supervision can be more specialized

Major challenge:
.

Inefficiency, material handing, queue management,

production planning and control.

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A Flexible Flow Layout

A job shop has a flexible-flow layout.

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Grinding

Forging

Lathes

Painting

Welding

Drills

Office

Milling
machines

Foundry

Line-flow layout
A layout in which workstations or departments are arranged in
a linear path
Dedicates resources to a product or closely related product
family
Repetitive, high-volume, continuous production
Less need to decouple one operation from the next
Workstations or departments are arranged in a linear path,
which is consistent with the routing sequence of the product,
although a straight line is not always best, layouts may take an
L, O, S, or U shape
Challenge in designing product layouts
Minimize resources used to achieve desired output rate
Balance tasks, equalize the workload assigned to resources
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Line Flow Layout

A production line has a line-flow layout.

Station 1

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Station 2

Station 3

Station 4

Fixed-Position Layouts
Fixed-Position layouts are layouts used in projects
in which the product is too fragile, bulky, or heavy to
move e.g. ships, houses, aircraft
Equipment, material, and workers are brought to the
production site
The equipment is often left on-site because it is too
expensive to move frequently
The workers on such job sites are highly skilled at
performing the special tasks
In such a process the fixed costs would be low and
variable costs would be high
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Hybrid Layouts
(Combination)
Hybrid layouts modify and/or combine some
aspects of the three basic layout types to
satisfy the needs of a particular situation
Example:
Hospitals: process layout, fixed-position
layout as well (patient care)

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Creating Hybrid Layouts

Layout flexibility is the property of a facility to
remain desirable after significant changes occur or to
be easily and inexpensively adopted in response to
changes.
A Cell is two or more dissimilar workstations located
close together through which a limited number of
parts or models are processed with line flows.
A One-worker, multiple-machines (OWMM) cell is
a one-person cell in which a worker operates several
different machines simultaneously to achieve a line
flow.
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One Worker,
Multiple Machines
Machine
2
Machine
1

Machine
3

Materials in

Finished
goods out

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Machine
5

Machine
4

Group Technology (GT)

Group Technology (GT) is an option for
achieving line-flow layouts with low-volume
processes; this technique creates cells not
limited to just one worker and has a unique
way of selecting work to be done by the cell.
The GT method groups parts or products
with similar characteristics into families and
sets aside groups of machines for their
production.
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Before Group Technology

Jumbled flows in a job shop without GT cells
Lathing

Milling

Drilling

M
Grinding

Receiving and
shipping
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Assembly
A

Applied Group Technology

Line flows in a job shop with three GT cells

Assembly
area
A

Cell 2

Cell 1
Receiving

Cell 3
L

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Shipping

The layout decision will be influenced by the volum

Variety characteristics of the manufacturing
operations

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 The total cost, fixed and variable will depend on the

volume of products produced as shown in the figure
below

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Designing
Flexible-Flow Layouts
Step 1: Gather information
Space requirements by center
Available space
Closeness factors: which centers need to be located close
to one another.

Closeness matrix: A table that gives a measure of

the relative importance of each pair of centers being
located close together.
Step 2: Develop a Block plan: A plan that allocates
space and indicates placement of each department.
Step 3: Design a detailed layout.
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Gather Information
Example 8.1

Office of Budget Management

Space Requirements
Department

Area Needed (ft2)

1. Administration
2. Social services
3. Institutions
4. Accounting
5. Education
6. Internal audit

3,500
2,600
2,400
1,600
1,500
3,400
Total

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15,000

Current Block Plan

3

4
100'

2
150'

Closeness Matrix

100'
1

150'

Example 8.1 Office of Budget Management

Trips between Departments

Department
1. Administration
2. Social services
3. Institutions
4. Accounting
5. Education
6. Internal audit

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10

Departments 1 and 6 have the most interaction.

Departments 3 and 5 have the next highest.
Departments 2 and 3 have next priority.

Proposed Block Plan

100'
1

150'

First put departments 1 and 6 close together

Next put departments 3 and 5 close together
Then put departments 2 and 3 close together

3
100'

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4
150'

Applying the
Weighted- Distance Method
Weighted-distance method: A mathematical model
used to evaluate flexible-flow layouts based on
proximity factors.
Euclidean distance is the straight-line distance, or
shortest possible path, between two points.
Rectilinear distance: The distance between two
points with a series of 90 degree turns, as along city
blocks.
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Distance Measures

Euclidian Distance
dAB =

(xA xB)2 + (yA yB)2

Rectilinear Distance
dAB = |xA xB| + |yA yB|
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Application 8.1
What is the distance between (20,10) and (80,60)?
Euclidian Distance
dAB =

(20 80)2 + (10 60)2

= 78.1
Rectilinear Distance
dAB = |20 80| + |10 60| = 110
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Designing
Line-Flow Layouts
Line balancing is the assignment of work to
stations in a line so as to achieve the desired output
rate with the smallest number of workstations.
Work elements are the smallest units of work that
can be performed independently.
Immediate predecessors are work elements that
must be done before the next element can begin.
Precedence diagram allows one to visualize
immediate predecessors better; work elements are
denoted by circles, with the time required to perform
the work shown below each circle.
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Line Balancing
Example
Green Grass, Inc., a manufacturer of lawn & garden equipment,
is designing an assembly line to produce a new fertilizer spreader,
the Big Broadcaster. Using the following information, construct a
precedence diagram for the Big Broadcaster.

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Work
Element
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I

Time Immediate
Description
(sec) Predecessor(s)
Bolt leg frame to hopper 40
None
Insert impeller shaft
30
A
Attach axle
50
A
Attach agitator
40
B
Attach drive wheel
6
B
Attach free wheel
25
C
Mount lower post
15
C
Attach controls
20
D, E
Mount nameplate
18
F, G

Total

Line Balancing
Green Grass, Inc.
D
B

244

40

30

F
25

50

I
G

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20
6

A
40

15

18

Desired Output and

Cycle Time
Desired output rate, r must be matched to the staffing or production plan.
For 4800 units per week requirement and line operating for 80 hrs per week. Output rate would be 60
units per hour.

Cycle time, c is the maximum time allowed for

work on a unit at each station:
c= 1
r

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Theoretical Minimum
Theoretical minimum (TM ) is a benchmark or goal for the
smallest number of stations possible, where total time required
to assemble each unit (the sum of all work-element standard
times) is divided by the cycle time. It must be rounded up

Idle time is the total unproductive time for all

stations in the assembly of each unit.
Efficiency (%) is the ratio of productive time to
total time.
Balance Delay is the amount by which efficiency
falls short of 100%.
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Output Rate and Cycle Time

Green Grass, Inc.
Desired output rate, r = 2400/week
Plant operates 40 hours/week
r = 2400/40 = 60 units/hour

Cycle time, c = 1/60

= 1 minute/unit
= 60 seconds/unit

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1
r

Calculations for
Example 8.4 continued
Theoretical minimum (TM ) - sum of all work-element
standard times divided by the cycle time.
TM = 244 seconds/60 seconds = 4.067
It must be rounded up to 5 stations
Cycle time: c = 1/60 = 1 minute/unit = 60 seconds/unit
Efficiency (%) - ratio of productive time to total time.
Efficiency = [244/5(60)]100 = 81.3%
Balance Delay - amount by which efficiency falls short of 100%.
(100 81.3) = 18.7%
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The goal is to cluster the work elements

into 5 workstations so that the number of
work-stations is minimized, and the cycle
time of 60 seconds is not violated. Here
we use the trial-and-error method to find
a solution, although commercial software
packages are also available.

Green Grass, Inc.

Line Balancing Solution

D
B
30
S3

S1
A

S2

40

40

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20
E

S4

F
25

50
c = 60 seconds/unit
TM = 5 stations
Efficiency = 81.3%

6
S5
I

G
15

18