Facility Layout and Design

Objectives

By the end of the lecture students should be able to:

 Define facility layout and explain its importance.

 Compare and contrast four basic types of layouts.

 Identify a suitable layout design method for each

. of the four types of layouts.

 Apply one of the layout design methods to solve a . practical problem.

Definition of terms

Layout - a specified arrangement of items

within certain limits.
Workstation - an area where work of a particular
nature is carried out.
Materials - basic substances used as an input to a
production process.
Facility layout- a systematic arrangement of machines,
to achieve quick production at least cost (Stephens,
2013).
Cell -a cluster of machines located in close
proximity dedicated to the manufacture of a family of
parts (Singh,1996).
Introduction
Developed in the early 1960’s.
Importance of Facility layout and design.
Smooth flow of materials
Reduces material handling cost
Reduces total production cost
Increases productivity and profitability
Facility Layout
Arrangement of machines, storage areas, and/or work areas
usually within the confines of a physical structure, such as a
retail store, an office, a warehouse, or a manufacturing
facility.
-Layout is the physical organization or geography found at a
facility/location.
-Layout problems are stimulated by one of the following
• Product design change
• Introduction of new products
• Changes in volume of demand
• Facilities becoming obsolete
• Poor worker environment
• Change in location or market
• Cost reduction
 Classes of Plant Layout Problems

-Plant layout problems fall into the following four categories.

 Minor changes in present layout
 Existing layout rearrangement
 Relocating into existing facilities
 Building a new plant

Types of plant layouts

 Process layout
 Product layout
 Flow line layout
 Fixed position layout
 Hybrid layout
Objectives of A Good Plant Layout

The major objectives of a good plant layout are:

minimize cost of materials handling
provide effective space utilization
minimize work in progress
provide for worker convenience
Promote job satisfaction and safety
Avoid unnecessary capital investment
Stimulate effective labour utilization
Disadvantages of Process Layout
 Lack of process efficiency: backtracking and long
movements may occur in the handling of materials.
 Lack of efficiency in timing: workers must wait between
tasks.
 Complication of production planning and control.
 Cost: workers must have broad skills and must be paid
higher wages than assembly line workers.
 Lowered productivity: because each job is different it
requires different setups and operator training.
An example of a Product layout
Cellular layout
Involves arrangement of workstations into
cells.
Each cell is capable of processing a certain
group of parts.
Fixed Position Layout
Product or project remains stationary, and
workers, materials, and equipment are moved
as needed.
Examples are: Construction projects, building
ships and airplanes
Advantages of fixed position layout

• Reduces movement of work items; minimizes damage or cost of moving.

• More continuity of the assigned work force (since the item does not go from
one department to another). This reduces the problems of re-planning and
instructing people each time a new type of activity is to begin.
• Involves least movement of materials and a number of operations can be
done.
Disadvantages of fixed position layout

• Since the same workers are involved in more operations, skilled and versatile
workers are required.
• Movement of people and equipment to and from the work site may be
expensive.
• Equipment utilization may be low because the equipment may be left at a
location where it will be needed again in a few days rather than moved to
another location where it would be productive.
Methods for layout design

1. Process layout - Systematic Layout procedure

(SLP)

2. Product layout - Line balancing technique

3. Cellular layout - Binary ordering algorithm

4. Fixed position layout - Variable

SLP- Systematic Layout Planning
Developed by Muther, it utilizes activity
relationships and space requirements.
Relationships between departments are
ranked according to the order of importance.
Systematic layout planning (SLP)
This is a widely used approach for determining the rightful layout
that can be used for an organisation
SLP consists of the following steps
STEPS POSSIBLE TOOLS

Analyse Product flows From-to chart

Identify and include non-flow Activity-relationship (REL)

factors chart

Asses data and arrange work Activity arrangement diagram

areas

Determine space arrangement Space Relationship diagram

plan

Fit space arrangement into Floor plan Detailed layout

available space modes
Diagrammatic representation of SLP
Input data and activities
Activity relationships
Flow of material
Activity arrangement diagram

Space requirements Space available

Space Relationship diagram

Modifying
practical limitations
consideration
Develop Layout Alternatives

Evaluation and Selection

Flow Analysis In Layout Problems
-In a complex layout situation, flow analysis techniques can be
used to arrange work areas in order of dominant flow.
-Two examples of flow analysis techniques are:
• Flow process chart
• From To Chart
From-To Chart
-From-to charts provide information concerning the number of
material handling trips made between two centres
- It can be used to identify the departments having large
volumes of item movement and can develop a layout design
in which these departments are located close to each other.
“From-to” charts are useful in:

• justifying a proposed layout

• analyzing material movement

• developing detailed layout arrangements.

• Evaluating layout alternatives.

• Showing the interrelationship of product lines.

.

Example
The five departments of a warehouse within approximate space requirement
and activity relationships are as follows

2 AC T VI TI Y R E LAT OI N SH PI S
D epa rmt en t AR EA m( )

M a et rai lS chedu lni g 1000

E
4 A
P a ckag ni g and C ra tni g 1500 1
O A
E 2 I
M a et rai sl S upe rv si o r 500
I I
O
S h pi p ni g and R e ce vi ni g 3000
A
6000 1
S ot rage
T o at l 12000
 Reasons Code
1 - Work flow
2 - Supervision
3 - Safety
4 – Communication
(a)Develop an activity arrangement diagram based on the REL
chart data
(b)Develop a space relationship diagram for the 5 departmental
areas.
(c)Fit the 5 departments into a 100m x 150m building and try to
maintain 10m aides between the department
Activity arrangement diagram

Introduce rating lines; 4 corresponds to A, 3 to B, etc

3
Space relationship diagram

5
6000m2

4
3000m2

3 1 1500m2
500m2 1000m2
 Layout plan

5
6000m2

4 2
3000m2 1500m2

3 1
500m2 1200m2
Simple Facility Layout
• Simple facility layout problems arise where there are existing
facilities at known distinct points and a new facility must be
located at some point within the layout.

• In real situations, there may be only a handful of practical

positions to locate the new facility.

Examples

• A new pump in a chemical operation (factory)

• A component in an electrical network

• A new appliance in a kitchen

• A photocopier in a library
A general formulation of the problem is as follows:
• Existing facilities are located at known distinct points P1,……,Pm;
• A new facility is to be located at point X;
• costs of a transportation are associated with the distance between the new
facility and an existing i ;
• letting d(X, Pi) represent the distance travelled per trip between points X & Pi,
• let wi represent the product of cost per unit distance travelled and number of
trips made per year between the new facility and i.e. total annual cost due to
travel between the new facility and all existing facilities is given by

.
 m
f ( x )   wi d ( X i Pi )
i 1

•Where wi is sometimes referred to as weights.

• the objective is to determine the location of the new
facility that minimises f(x),the total annual
transportation cost.
•The appropriately determined distance is typically a
straight line distance or rectangular distance.
Straight line or Euclidean distance is given by

d  X , Pi   x  ai    y  bi 
2 2

Where the coordinates for the new facility are x and y

and for the existing facility i, are ai and bi so that

X= (x, y)

Pi = (ai, bi)
Rectangular
 travel only occurs along a aisle arranged in a
rectangular pattern parallel to the walls of the building.
 This is referred to as the rectilinear or rectangular
distance and is given by

d  X , Pi   x  ai  y  bi

In a typical factory situation, transportation cost is

assumed to be a simple function of distance.
In addition, there is an associated load/unload cost per
trip at each facility.
 The total cost is therefore given by summing up the load/unload cost and
the transportation cost.
 If Lk is the load/unload cost index and Ck is the transportation cost index,
the problem is formulated as follows:

m
f  X    Lk  Ri  Ck  Ri  d  X , Pi 
i 1

Where Ri = Number of trips per period to facility i.

Example
With reference to the table below customers 1 to 6 can be save
from either location A (30,30) or B(80,60). Given that the
load/unload cost per trip Lk = $1.00 and the cost per unit distance
• Ck = $0.001/m for all customers 1 to 6 which is the best location.
Customer Co-ordinates No of Measurement type
x trips/period
y
1 40 60 185 Rectilinear

2 50 20 300 Rectilinear

3 60 40 150 Rectilinear

4 80 40 205 Straight line

5 40 40 200 Straight line

6 60 60 175 Straight line

Solution
From location A(30,30)
Customer Distance No of trips Total Ck = $0.001 Lk = $1.00
distance Transportati Load/Unload
on Cost Cost

1 40 185 7400 7.4 185

2 30 300 9000 9.0 300

3 40 150 6000 6.0 150

4 51 205 10455 10.4 205

5 14 200 2800 2.8 200

6 42 175 7350 7.35 175

$43.005 $1 215

Total Cost A = $ 1258,005

From location B(80,60)
Customer Distance No of trips Total Transport Load/Unloa
Distance Cost d Cost
1 40 185 7400 7.4 185

2 70 300 21000 21.0 300

3 40 150 6000 6.0 150

4 20 205 4100 4.1 205

5 45 200 9000 9.0 200

6 20 175 3500 3.5 175

$51,00 $1215

Total Cost B = $ 1266

 Tutorial Question
• With reference to the table below, customers
1-6 can be served from either location A(x =
20, y=50) or Location B (x = 80, y = 70) or
C(x=40, y=60) given that the load/unload
cost, Lk = $0.75 per trip and the cost per unit
distance, Ck = $0,002/m for customers 1,2
and 3 and Lk = $0,50 per trip and Ck =
$0,003/m for customers 4,5 and 6. Which is
the best location
Tutorial Question