FACILITIES LAYOUT

ANALYSIS

Analyzing Manufacturing Facility Layouts
Process Layouts
Product Layouts
Cellular Layouts
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.
Approaches to Process Layout Design
Operations sequence analysis
Block diagram analysis
Load-distance analysis
Computer analysis
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
- 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.
Departments (circles) are moved with the
objective of reducing the amount of nonadjacent
flow.
This proceeds until no further improvement can
be found.
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.
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
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.
Process Layout: I nterdepartmental 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
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)
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
Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning Reasons
for Closeness





Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
I mportance of Closeness



Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning Relating
Reasons and I mportance


Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
The Starting Solution



Example 1: Systematic Layout Planning
I nitial and Final Layouts



Designing and Analyzing a Product
Layout
Line Balancing
Designing and Analyzing a Product
Layout
Characteristics
Inputs
Design Procedure
How Good Is The Layout?
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
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
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
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
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
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.)
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.
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 stations remaining cycle
time by the selected tasks time and return to step 4.
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.
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.
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?
Group Technology Benefits
1. Better human relations
2. Improved operator expertise
3. Less in-process inventory and material handling
4. Faster production setup
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.
Design Procedure
1. Form the Parts-Machines Matrix.
2. Rearrange the Rows.
l Place the machines that produce the same
parts in adjacent rows.
3. Rearrange the Columns.
l 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.
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