University of Sharjah

Department of Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management

Facilities Planning

Layout Design of the Production Area of a Company That

Manufactures Bread Baking Machines

Spring 2020-2021

Dr. Hamdi Basheer

NAME: ID:
Ibrahim Sami U16200472

1
Theory
Pairwise Exchange Method
Design layout may involve different objective function e.g. minimizing the sum of
flow distance between departments while some may involve maximizing the adjacency score
constrained to available area and departmental dimension specifications. For such situations
‘Pairwise Exchange Method’ is best suited.

In pairwise exchange method the From-to-chart, that denotes interdepartmental flows,

and distance chart that specifies distance between centroid of each department in current
layout are constructed. The efficiency of current layout in terms of flow cost is computed by
summing up the product of department distances and flows. For example, the initial layout of
four departments is.

Figure 1

Total flow between departments is:

Table
1

1 2 3 4
1 - 10 15 20
2 - 10 5
3 - 5
4 -

Based on initial layout the distance matrix

is:

Table 2

1 2 3 4
1 - 1 2 3
2 - 1 2
3 - 1
4 -

Now, total transportation cost will be the total sum of parts flowing multiplied by unit
cost of flow. Based on initial layout total cost is 125. Now, iteration is performed by
switching any pair of department e.g.

2
 Figure 2

Its layout distance matrix is generated

Table 3

1 2 3 4
1 1 2 1
2 1 2
3 3
4

Similarly, it’s cost is computed which is 95, lower then cost of initial layout. In
pairwise exchange method same procedure is repeated and layout is selected having least
cost.

Introduction
Four possible alternatives for a layout are generated for manufacturing facility by
Industrial Engineer, all of these layout alternatives are compared in terms of cost, flexibility
and safety. Their qualitative comparison is expressed numerically according to conventions
explained below:
Table 4: Verbal Scale & Numerical Comparison

There are three criteria to compare alternatives. Their importance relative to each
other is explained in matrix below:
Table 5: Comparison Matrix for Criteria

Cost Flexibility Safety

Cost 0 7 5
Flexibility 0 1
Safety 0
3
 According to above matrix it means cost is more important than flexibility, and
essential and slightly important than safety. While Flexibility is equal in importance with the
safety of each alternative. Similarly, the comparison of cost between each alternative is
explained in matrix below:

Table 6: Pairwise Comparison Matrix for Cost

Alt 1 Alt 2 Alt 3 Alt 4

Alt 1 0 4 4 5
Alt 2 0 1 2
Alt 3 0 3
Alt 4 0

And the comparison of Flexibility of each depart ment is explained in matrix below:

Table 7: Pairwise Comparison Matrix for Flexibility

Alt 1 Alt 2 Alt 3 Alt 4

Alt 1 0 1 5 3
Alt 2 0 4 6
Alt 3 0 1
Alt 4 0

And comparison of Safety between each department is explained in matrix below:

nt
Table 8: Pairwise Comparison Matrix for Safety

Alt 1 Alt 2 Alt 3 Alt 4

Alt 1 0 4 3 5
Alt 2 0 1 1
Alt 3 0 2
Alt 4 0

Problem Solution
In order to select best alternative, first of all, all required data is entered intro MS
Excel spreadsheet for ease of computation.

4
 Figure 3

Now, all of the evaluation criteria matrix are combined into single matrix. To do so,
entry between alternative 1 and alternative 1 of new matrix is defined based on overall criteria
7 5 1
weightage. Weightage for cost is , flexibility is and safety is .
13 13 13

The MS Excel formula for first entry is:

‘=7*B3/13+5*B19/13+B11/13’.

This formula is dragged for all entries. The results are shown in matrix below:

Table 9: Overall Pairwise Comparison Matrix

Alt 1 Alt 2 Alt 3 Alt 4

Alt 1 0 4 4 5
Alt 2 0 0 1 2
Alt 3 0 0 0 2
Alt 4 0 0 0 0
From comparison matrix above we can conclude that values of alternative 1 with
alternative 2 and alternative 3 are close to each other. While alternative 2 and alternative 3
are equal or nearly equal to alternative 4. But, alternative 1 is essential and slightly important
than alternative 4.

Therefore, Alternative 1 is selected as optimal alternative among all four.