Chapter 8

Facility Layout:
Manufacturing and Services

Slide 0 of 96
 Overview

 Introduction
 Manufacturing Facility Layouts
 Analyzing Manufacturing Facility Layouts
 Service Facility Layouts
 Wrap-Up: What World-Class Producers Do

Slide 1 of 96
 Introduction

 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

Slide 2 of 96
 Locate All Areas In and Around Buildings

 Equipment
 Work stations
 Material storage
 Rest/break areas
 Utilities
 Eating areas
 Aisles
 Offices

Slide 3 of 96
Characteristics of the Facility Layout Decision

 Location of these various areas impacts 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
 . . . more

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Characteristics of the Facility Layout Decision

 Layout decisions tend to be:

 Infrequent
 Expensive to implement
 Studied and evaluated extensively
 Long-term commitments

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 Objectives of the Lay out Strategy

Develop an economical layout which will meet the

requirements of:
 product design and volume (product strategy)

 Process equipment and capacity (process strategy)

 quality of work life (human resource strategy)

 building and site constraints (location strategy)

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 Requirements of a Good Layout

A good layout requires:

 an understanding of capacity & space requirements

 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

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 Inputs to the Layout Decision

1. Specification of objectives of the system in terms of

output and flexibility.
2. Estimation of product or service demand on the
system.
3. Processing requirements in terms of number of
operations and amount of flow between departments
and work centers.
4. Space requirements for the elements in the layout.
5. Space availability within the facility itself.

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 Steps in Developing a Process Oriented Layout

 Construct a “from-to matrix”

 Determine space requirements for each department
 Develop an initial schematic diagram
 Determine the cost of this layout
 By trial-and error (or more sophisticated means), try to
improve the initial layout
 Prepare a detailed plan that evaluates factors in
addition to transportation cost

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 Warehouse & Storage Layout
General Cost Curve
120 Line 1
Line 2
The best warehouse layout is where
100 Line 3 total costs are at a minimum

Material handling cost

80 (mostly variable)
Costs include:
Equipment
60 Damage
Position & Find
Investment
40
Material storage cost
20 (mostly fixed)
Costs include:
Land & building
0 Building & insurance

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Warehouse Density

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Manufacturing Facility Layouts

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 Basic Layout Forms

 Process
 Product
 Cellular
 Fixed position
 Hybrid

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 Process (Job Shop) Layouts

 Equipment that perform similar processes are

grouped together
 Used when the operations system must handle a wide
variety of products in relatively small volumes (i.e.,
flexibility is necessary)

Slide 13 of 96
 Characteristics of Process Layouts

 General-purpose equipment is used

 Changeover is rapid
 Material flow is intermittent
 Material handling equipment is flexible
 Operators are highly skilled
 . . . more

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 Characteristics of Process Layouts

 Technical supervision is required

 Planning, scheduling and controlling functions are
challenging
 Production time is relatively long
 In-process inventory is relatively high

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 Product (Assembly Line) Layouts

 Operations are arranged in the sequence required to

make the product
 Used when the operations system must handle a
narrow variety of products in relatively high volumes
 Operations and personnel are dedicated to producing
one or a small number of products

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 Characteristics of Product Layouts

 Special-purpose equipment are used

 Changeover is expensive and lengthy
 Material flow approaches continuous
 Material handling equipment is fixed
 Operators need not be as skilled
 . . . more

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 Characteristics of Product Layouts

 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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 Cellular Manufacturing (CM) Layouts

 Operations required to produce a particular family

(group) of parts are arranged in the sequence required
to make that family
 Used when the operations system must handle a
moderate variety of products in moderate volumes

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 Characteristics of CM
Relative to Process Layouts
 Equipment can be less general-purpose
 Material handling costs are reduced
 Training periods for operators are shortened
 In-process inventory is lower
 Parts can be made faster and shipped more quickly

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 Characteristics of CM
Relative to a Product Layout
 Equipment can be less special-purpose
 Changeovers are simplified
 Production is easier to automate

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 Fixed-Position Layouts

 Product remains in a fixed position, and the

personnel, material and equipment come to it
 Used when the product is very bulky, large, heavy or
fragile

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 Hybrid Layouts

 Actually, most manufacturing facilities use a

combination of layout types.
 An example of a hybrid layout is where departments
are arranged according to the types of processes but
the products flow through on a product layout.

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 New Trends in Manufacturing Layouts

 Designed for quality and flexibility

 Ability to quickly shift to different product models or
to different production rates
 Cellular layout within larger process layouts
 Automated material handling
 U-shaped production lines
 . . . more

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 New Trends in Manufacturing Layouts

 More open work areas with fewer walls, partitions, or

other obstacles
 Smaller and more compact factory layouts
 Less space provided for storage of inventories
throughout the layout

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 Analyzing Manufacturing Facility Layouts

 Process Layouts
 Product Layouts
 Cellular Layouts

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 Process Layout
 What factors might we consider when determining
the locations of process areas, or departments?

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 Designing and Analyzing a Process Layout

 Group like processes together into departments or

work centers
 Determine where in the building these departments
will be located relative to one another
 The objective is to arrange the departments so that
some criterion such as material-handling cost is
minimized

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 Approaches to Process Layout Design

 Operations sequence analysis

 Block diagram analysis
 Load-distance analysis
 Computer analysis

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 Operations Sequence Analysis

 Inputs required
 an existing or proposed arrangement of
departments
 a projection of the traffic or flow that will take
place between one department and each of the
other departments during some time period - this is
usually displayed as an interdepartmental flow
matrix
 . . . more

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 Operations Sequence Analysis

 Departments are represented by nodes (circles)

 Using the interdepartmental flow information, flows
between adjacent departments are represented by
solid lines. Dashed lines represent traffic between
nonadjacent departments. The projected volumes are
written above the appropriate lines.
 . . . more

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 Operations Sequence Analysis

 Departments (circles) are moved with the objective of

reducing the amount of nonadjacent flow.
 This proceeds until no further improvement can be
found

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 Block Diagram Analysis

 This approach follows the operations sequence

analysis and is an effort to make the solution more
realistic
 Each department is represented by a square the
relative size of the department
 Shapes of the squares are altered to fit into the
boundaries of the building while retaining the same
areas and relative position found in the operations
sequence analysis

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 Load-Distance Analysis

 A way of quantitatively comparing alternative

process layouts
 Inputs
 Alternative block layouts which will provide the
distance between a department and each of the
other departments
 For each product, the path it will follow (routing)
and its volume over some time period
 . . . more

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 Load-Distance Analysis

 For each alternative process layout, compute the total

distance a product must travel using its routing
 Compute the total distance traveled per time unit for
each product by multiplying its total travel distance
by its volume per time unit
 Add the total distance traveled per time unit for each
product
 Select the layout with the smallest sum

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 Process Layout: Interdepartmental Flow

 Given
 The flow (number of moves) to and from all
departments
 The cost of moving from one department to
another
 The existing or planned physical layout of the
plant
 Determine
 The “best” locations for each department, where
best means interdepartmental transportation, or
flow, costs
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 Process Layout:
Cut-And-Try Approach
 Involves searching for departmental changes to
reduce overall flow cost

 Difficult to determine correct moves

 Non-optimal and based on limited criteria (cost, flow

and distance)

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 Process Layout:
Systematic Layout Planning
 Numerical flow of items between departments
 Can be impractical to obtain
 Does not account for the qualitative factors that
may be crucial to the placement decision
 Systematic Layout Planning
 Accounts for the importance of having each
department located next to every other department
 Is also guided by trial and error
 Switching departments then checking the results
of the “closeness” score

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Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
Reasons for Closeness

Code Reason

1 Type of customer

2 Ease of supervision

3 Common personnel

4 Contact necessary

5 Share same price

6 Psychology

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Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
Importance of Closeness

Line Numerical
Value Closeness
code weights
A Absolutely necessary 16
E Especially important 8
I Important 4
O Ordinary closeness OK 2
U Unimportant 0
X Undesirable 80

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Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
Relating Reasons and Importance

Area
From To
2 3 4 5 (sq. ft.)
I U A U
1. Credit department 100
6 -- 4 --
U I A
2. Toy department 400
-- 1 1,6
U X
3. Wine department 300
-- 1
X
4. Camera department 100
1

5. Candy department 100

Letter Closeness rating

Number Reason for rating
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Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
The Starting Solution

1 E 3

I 4 U U

2 5
A

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Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
Initial and Final Layouts

5 2 4 2
3 20 ft
3 1 5 1 4

50 ft

Initial Layout Final Layout

Ignoring space and Adjusted by square

building constraints footage and building
size

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 Designing and Analyzing a Product Layout

 Line Balancing

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 Designing and Analyzing a Product Layout

 Characteristics
 Inputs
 Design Procedure
 How Good Is The Layout?

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 Product Layout-Advantages/Disadvantages

Advantages: Disadvantages:
 Low cost variable cost per  High volume required

unit because of large initial

 Lower material handling investment
costs  Work stoppage at any point

 reduction in work in-process ties up the whole process

inventories  Lack of flexibility in

 easier training and handling variety of products

supervision or production rates

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 Line Balancing Problem

 Work stations are arranged so that the output of one is

an input to the next, i.e., a series connection

 Layout design involves assigning one or more of the

tasks required to make a product to work stations
 . . . more

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 Line Balancing Problem

 The objective is to assign tasks to minimize the

workers’ idle time, therefore idle time costs, and meet
the required production rate for the line
 In a perfectly balanced line, all workers would
complete their assigned tasks at the same time
(assuming they start their work simultaneously)
 This would result in no idle time
 . . . more

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 Line Balancing Problem

 Unfortunately there are a number of conditions that

prevent the achievement of a perfectly balanced line
 The estimated times for tasks
 The precedence relationships for the tasks
 The combinatorial nature of the problem

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 Inputs

 The production rate required from the product layout

or the cycle time.
 The cycle time is the reciprocal of the production
rate and visa versa
 All of the tasks required to make the product
 It is assumed that these tasks can not be divided
further
 . . . more

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 Inputs

 The estimated time to do each task

 The precedence relationships between the tasks
 These relationships are determined by the technical
constraints imposed by the product
 These relationships are displayed as a network
known as a precedence diagram

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 Design Procedure

1. If not provided, find the cycle time for the line.

Remember the cycle time is the reciprocal of the
production rate. Make sure the cycle time is
expressed in the same time units as the estimated task
times.
2. Select the line-balancing heuristic that may be used to
help with the assignments. (Two heuristics are
described at the end of this procedure.)
. . . more

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 Design Procedure

3. Open a new work station with the full cycle time

remaining.
4. Determine which tasks are feasible, i.e., can be
assigned to this work station at this time. For a task
to be feasible, two conditions must be met:
 All tasks that precede that task must have already
been assigned
 The estimated task time must be less than or equal
to the remaining cycle time for that work station.

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 Design Procedure

5. If there are no feasible tasks, assignments to that

work station are complete. Go back to step 3 (or stop,
if all tasks have been assigned).
If there is only one feasible task, assign it to the
work station. If there is more than one feasible task,
use the heuristic (step 2) to determine which task to
assign. Reduce the work station’s remaining cycle
time by the selected task’s time and return to step 4.

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 Line-Balancing Heuristics

 Heuristic methods, based on simple rules, have been

used to develop very good, not optimal, solutions to
line balancing problems.
 Incremental Utilization Heuristic - adds tasks to a
workstation one at a time in the order of task
precedence until utilization is 100% or is observed to
fall.
 Longest-Task-Time Heuristic - adds tasks to a
workstation one at a time in the order of task
precedence, choosing - when a choice must be made -
the task with the longest time.
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 How Good Is the Design?

 Utilization is one way of objectively determining how

near perfectly balanced an assignment scheme is.
 Utilization is the percentage of time that a production
line is working.
 Utilization is calculated as:
Minimum number of workstati ons
x100
Actual number of workstati ons
or
Sum of all task time s
x 100
(Cycle Time) x (Actual number of work stations)

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 Product Layouts-Major Assumptions

 Volume is adequate for high equipment utilization.

 Product demand is stable enough to justify high
investment in specialized equipment.
 Product is standardized or approaching a phase of
its life cycle that justifies investment in specialized
equipment.
 Supplies of raw material and components are
adequate and of uniform quality to ensure they will
work with the specialized equipment.

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 Why is Balancing the Line Important?

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

Min/
Unit 6 7 3

What’s Going to Happen?

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 Example 1: The ALB Problem
 You’ve just been assigned the job a setting up an
electric fan assembly line with the following tasks:

Task Time (Mins) Description Predecessors

A 2 Assemble frame None
B 1 Mount switch A
C 3.25 Assemble motor housing None
D 1.2 Mount motor housing in frame A, C
E 0.5 Attach blade D
F 1 Assemble and attach safety grill E
G 1 Attach cord B
H 1.4 Test F, G

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 Example 1: The ALB Problem
The Precedence Diagram

 Which process step defines the maximum rate of

production?

2 1 1
A B G 1.4
H

C D E F
3.25 1.2 .5 1

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 Example 1: The ALB Problem
We want to assemble 100 fans per day

Production time per period

Required Cycle Time, C =
Required output per period

420 mins / day

C= = 4.2 mins / unit
100 units / day

What do these numbers this represent?

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 Example 1: The ALB Problem
We want to assemble 100 fans per day

Theoretical Min. Number of Workstations, N t

Sum of task times (T)

Nt =
Cycle time (C)

11.35 mins / unit

Nt = = 2.702, or 3
4.2 mins / unit

Why should we always round up?

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 Example 1: The ALB Problem
Selected Task Selection Rules

 Primary: Assign tasks in order the the largest number

of following tasks.

 Secondary (tie-breaking): Assign tasks in order of the

longest operating time

Slide 64 of 96
 Example 1: The ALB Problem
Selected Task Selection Rules

Precedence Diagram

2 1 1
A B G 1.4
H

C D E F
3.25 1.2 .5 1

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

A (4.2-2=2.2)

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

A (4.2-2=2.2)
B (2.2-1=1.2)

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

A (4.2-2=2.2)
B (2.2-1=1.2)
G (1.2-1= .2)

Idle= .2

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

A (4.2-2=2.2) C (4.2-3.25)=.95
B (2.2-1=1.2)
G (1.2-1= .2)

Idle= .2 Idle = .95

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

A (4.2-2=2.2) C (4.2-3.25)=.95 D (4.2-1.2)=3

B (2.2-1=1.2)
G (1.2-1= .2)

Idle= .2 Idle = .95

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

A (4.2-2=2.2) C (4.2-3.25)=.95 D (4.2-1.2)=3

B (2.2-1=1.2) E (3-.5)=2.5
G (1.2-1= .2)

Idle= .2 Idle = .95

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

A (4.2-2=2.2) C (4.2-3.25)=.95 D (4.2-1.2)=3

B (2.2-1=1.2) E (3-.5)=2.5
G (1.2-1= .2) F (2.5-1)=1.5

Idle= .2 Idle = .95

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 Task Followers Time (Min)
A 6 2
2 1 1
1.4 C 4 3.25
A B G
H D 3 1.2
B 2 1
E 2 0.5
C D E F
F 1 1
3.25 1.2 .5 1
G 1 1
H 0 1.4

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

C (4.2-3.25)=.95 D (4.2-1.2)=3
A (4.2-2=2.2)
E (3-.5)=2.5
B (2.2-1=1.2)
F (2.5-1)=1.5
G (1.2-1= .2)
H (1.5-1.4)=.1

Idle=.2 Idle=.95 Idle=.1

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 Example 1: The ALB Problem

• Which station is the bottleneck?

• What is the effective cycle time?

Sum of task times (T)

Efficiency =
Actual number of workstations (Na) x Cycle time (C)

11.35 mins / unit

Efficiency = =.901
(3)(4.2mins / unit)

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 Designing and Analyzing a Cellular Layout

 Fundamental questions:
Which parts are going to be produced in a cell?
Which processes are going to be assigned to a cell?

Slide 76 of 96
 Group Technology
Benefits
1. Better human relations

2. Improved operator expertise

3. Less in-process inventory and material handling

4. Faster production setup

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 Fundamental Requirements
for Parts to be Made in Cells
 Demand for the parts must be high enough and stable
enough that moderate batch sizes of the parts can be
produced periodically.
 Parts must be capable of being grouped into parts
families.

Slide 78 of 96
 Design Procedure

1. Form the Parts-Machines Matrix.

2. Rearrange the Rows.
 Place the machines that produce the same parts in
adjacent rows.
3. Rearrange the Columns.
 Place the parts requiring the same machines in
adjacent columns.
4. Using the rearranged parts-machines matrix to
identify cells, the machines for that cell and the parts
that will be produced in that cell.

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 Wrap-Up: World-Class Practice

 Strive for flexibility in layouts

 Multi-job training of workers
 Sophisticated preventive-maintenance programs
 Flexible machines
 Empowered workers trained in problem solving
 Layouts small and compact

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