Plant Layout

Plant layout refers to the physical arrangement of production facilities. It is the

configuration of departments, work centers and equipment in the conversion
process.
It is a floor plan of the physical facilities, which are used in production.
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
In industry sectors, it is important to manufacture the products which have good
quality and meet customers’ demand. This action could be conducted under
existing resources such as employees, machines and other facilities. However,
plant layout improvement, could be one of the tools to response to increasing
industrial productivity. Plant layout design has become a fundamental basis of
today’s industrial plants which can influence parts of work efficiency. It is needed
to appropriately plan and position employees, materials, machines, equipment,
and other manufacturing supports and facilities to create the most effective plant
layout.
The intended products to be manufactured influence the choice of layout.

“A good layout results in comforts, convenience, appearance,

safety, and profits. A poor layout results in congestion, waste,
frustration, and inefficiency.”
Some Other Definitions of Plant Layout:
According to James Lundy, “Layout identically involves the allocation of
space and the arrangement of equipment in such a manner that overall
operating costs are minimized”.

In the words of Mallick and Gandreau, “Plant layout is a floor plan for
determining and arranging the designed machinery and equipment of a
plant, whether established or contemplated, in the best place, to permit
the quickest flow of material, at the lowest cost and with the minimum
handling in processing the product, from the receipt of raw material to
the shipment of finished product”.

According to Apple, “Plant layout is planning the path each component/

part of the product is to follow through the plant, coordinating the various
parts so that the manufacturing processes may be carried out in the most
economical manner, then preparing drawing or other representation of
the arrangement and finally seeing that the plan is properly put into
effect.”

In the words of Sansonneti and Malilick (Factory management Vol. 103) “It
is planning the right equipment, coupled with 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.”
Objectives:
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.Minimise 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.
Principals of Plant Layout
1.Principle of integration: All the plant facilities and services should fully integrate
into a single operating unit – to minimize the cost of production.
2.Principle of minimum distance: Materials and labor should move over minimum
distances – saving cost and time of transportation and material handling.
3.Principle of cubic space utilization: All available cubic space should effectively
utilize – both horizontally and vertically.
4.Principle of flow: The layout should so design to reduce work bottlenecks and
facilitate the uninterrupted flow of work throughout the plant.
5.Principle of maximum flexibility: Layout should be flexible enough to be
adaptable to changes required by expansion or technological development.
6.Principle of safety, security and satisfaction: There should be an in-built
provision in the design of the layout – to provide for comfort and safety of
workers.
7.Principle of minimum handling: A good layout is one that reduces the material
handling to the minimum.
CLASSIFICATION OF LAYOUT
1.Process layout
A process layout is based on the nature of the process through which the product
should move in the course of manufacture. Process layout is affected by way of
arranging similar operations in a particular place. So, under process layout, similar
processes or equipment are grouped together.
These groupings are called departments or shops. Each such group constitutes a
distinct unit. For instance, Milling Department, Drilling Department, Casting
Department etc. Under this type of layout, the departments are divided according
to their functions and the product is divided according to the sequences of
operations to be performed on it.
The operations performed in each department are allotted to particular machines
on the basis of the capability of the machine to perform that operation, the
capacity required, the precision required, the availability of the machine and so
on. Process layout is suitable for non-repetitive or intermittent type of production
where special orders are handled e.g., ship-building.
Process layout is particularly designed for industries producing goods like
furniture, tools etc. Besides, this type of layout is suitable only for manufacturing
articles in small quantities.
FEATURES OF PROCESS LAYOUT
For the proper understanding of the concept of process layout, it is essential for
the students to have a clear-cut idea about its features. As observed by Harold
T.Amerine and S.Oliver, the features of process layout can be summarized as
follows:
1. Requirement of a skilled labor force having the capacity to do a variety of
operations on a machine.
2. Frequent movement of inventories between operations and departments.
3. Many orders in process at any time.
4. Extensive space of storage in departments for unprocessed inventories.
5. Sufficient storage space around machines.
6. High inventories of in-process materials.
7. A lack of mechanical pacing of work.
8. Much scheduling of and careful control of materials in process.
9. General purpose materials handling equipment.
It should be remembered that some of the features are the merits of the process
layout, while some on the other hand, are their demerits also.
Advantages:
1.In process layout machines are better utilized and fewer machines are required.
2.Flexibility of equipment and personnel is possible in process layout.
3.Lower investment on account of comparatively a smaller number of machines
and lower cost of general-purpose machines.
4.Higher utilization of production facilities.
5.A high degree of flexibility with regards to work distribution to machineries and
workers.
6.The diversity of tasks and variety of job makes the job challenging and
interesting.
7.Supervisors will become highly knowledgeable about the functions under their
department.
Limitations:
1.Backtracking and long movements may occur in the handling of materials thus,
reducing material handling efficiency.
2.Material handling cannot be mechanized which adds to cost.
3.Process time is prolonged which reduce the inventory turnover and increases
the in-process inventory.
4.Lowered productivity due to number of set-ups.
5.Throughput (time gap between in and out in the process) time is longer.
6.Space and capital are tied up by work-in-process.
2.Product or Line Layout
Product or line layout refers to the arrangement of productive machines and
equipment in the order of manufacturing operations.
In Product or Line Layout all machines that are needed to produce a product are
arranged sequentially in a continuous line and the raw materials are fed into the
first machine and the final product comes out of the last machine.
Line layout is used in a number of continuous type of industries such as sugar,
paper, cement etc.
In a product layout the whole emphasis is given to the product that is
manufactured. There will be a separate production line for each type of product.
The same type of machines may be arranged differently in different lines.
Sometimes, the machines for each line may also be different.
The object here is to arrange machines in the order of operations that are
performed. Therefore, each work station – either machine or work bench does
whatever operation on the product that follows the work done at the preceding
work station, then passes the product to the next station in the line in which the
next operation is performed.
FEATURES OF PRODUCT OR LINE LAYOUT
According to Harold T. Amrine the features of product layout can be listed as
follows:
1. Conveyorized movement of inventories.
2. Mechanical pacing of movement either partially or completely.
3. Semi-skilled operations operating two or more machines often.
4. Making use of highly specialized machines, jigs and fixtures etc.
5. Less need for detailed scheduling regarding production control.
6. Relatively small-in process inventory of parts with most of them in temporary
storage on the inventory handling system.
7. Heavy investment in specialized machines, which has little flexibility.
8. Integration of the points of inspection into the line.
An important point to be noted here is that some of the features are advantages
of the product layout, whereas others are its disadvantages.
Advantages:
1.The flow of product will be smooth and logical in flow lines.
2.In-process inventory is less.
3.Through put time is less.
4.Minimum material handling cost.
5.Simplified production, planning and control systems are possible.
6.Less space is occupied by work transit and for temporary storage.
7.Reduced material handling cost due to mechanized handling systems and
straight flow.
8.Perfect line balancing which eliminates bottlenecks and idle capacity.
9.Manufacturing cycle is short due to uninterrupted flow of materials.
10.Small amount of work-in-process inventory.
11.Unskilled workers can learn and manage the production.
Limitations
1.A breakdown of one machine in a product line may cause stoppages of
machines in the downstream of the line.
2.A change in product design may require major alterations in the
layout.
3.The line output is decided by the bottleneck machine.
4.Comparatively high investment in equipment's is required.
5.Lack of flexibility. A change in product may require the facility modification
3. Combination Layout
A combination of process and product layouts combines the advantages of both
types of layouts. A combination layout is possible where an item is being made in
different types and sizes. 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. It is to be noted that the sequence of operations remains
same with the variety of products and sizes ntype of layout for manufacturing
different sized gears.
4. Fixed Position Layout
This is project type of layout. In this type of 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)
Thus, 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 (Group-Technology
Layout), the m-machines and n- components will be divided into distinct
In-group technology layout, the objective is to minimize the sum of the cost of
transportation and the cost of equipment's.

END.