FACILITIES

LAYOUT
Basic Layout Types

Designing product Layouts

FACILITIES LAYOUT
refers to the configuration of
departments, work centers,
and equipment, with particular
emphasis on movement of
work through the system.

are:
Inefficient operations
Accidents or safety hazards
Changes in the design of products or
services
The introduction of new products or
services
Changes in the volume of output or of
mix outputs
Changes in methods or equipment
Changes in environmental or legal
requirements
Morale problems

Factors in Determining
Layout

 Ease of future expansion or

flow of movement
Materials handling
Output needs
Space utilization
Ease of communication and
support
Impact on employee morale
and job satisfaction
Promotional value

Objectives of a Good Layout

- To provide enough production

capacity
- To reduce the cost of material
handling
- To minimize the accidents and
hazards to personnel
- To reduce the congestion and to
utilize the space efficiently and
effectively

Objectives of a Good
Layout
- To utilize labor efficiently and to
improve the morale of the
employees
- To achieve easy supervision
- To make maintenance process
easier
- To achieve high degree of

Basic Layout Types

Product Layout
Process Layout
Fixed-Position Layout

1. Product Layouts
Layout that uses standardized

processing operations to
achieve smooth, rapid, highvolume flow.
Job is divided into a series of
standardized tasks, permitting
specialization of both labor and
equipment.

1. Product Layouts
Achieve a high degree of

labor and equipment

utilization which tends to
offset their high
equipment cost
Only one or few very
similar items are involved.

 Production Lines

Standardized layout arranged

according to a fixed sequence
of production tasks.
Assembly Lines Standardized
layout arranged to a fixed
sequence of assembly tasks.

Assumptions:
Volume is adequate for high

equipment utilization.
Product demand is stable
enough to justify high
investment in specialized
equipment.

Assumptions:
Product is standardized or

approaching a phase of its life

cycle that justifies investment
in specialized equipment.
Supplies or raw materials and
components are adequate and
of uniform quality to ensure
that they will work with the
specialized equipment.

 Advantages of Product Layouts

a)High rate of output

b)Low unit cost due to high
volume; high cost of specialized
equipment is spread over many
units.
c)Labor specialization that
reduces training costs and time,
and results in a wide span of
supervision.

 Advantages of Product Layouts

c) Low material-handling cost

per unit; material handling is
simplified because units follow
the same sequence of
operations.
d) A high utilization of labor and
equipment

 Advantages of Product Layouts

e) Routing and Scheduling

encompassed in the initial
design of the system; they do
not require much attention
once system is operating.
f) Accounting, purchasing, and
inventory control is fairly
routine.

Disadvantages of Product Layouts

a) The intensive division of labor
usually creates dull, repetitive
jobs that provide little
opportunity for advancement
and may lead to morale
problems
b) Poorly skilled workers may
exhibit little interest in
maintaining equipment or in the

Disadvantages of Product Layouts

c) The system is fairly inflexible in
response to changes in the
volume of output or changes in
product or process design.
d) The system is highly
susceptible to shutdown caused
by equipment breakdowns or
excessive absenteeism.

Disadvantages of Product Layouts

e) Preventive maintenance, the
capacity for quick repairs, and
spare-parts inventories are
necessary expenses.
f) Incentive plans tied to individual
output are impractical since they
would tend to cause variations
among outputs of individual
workers.

U-Shaped Layouts
More compact than straight

production line; requires

approximately half the length of
straight production line.
Permits increased communication
among workers on the line
because workers are clustered

U-Shaped Layouts
Flexibility in work assignments is

increased because workers can

handle not only adjacent stations
but also opposite sides of the line
Minimizes material handling
because materials enter the plant
at the same point that finished
products leave it.

U-Shaped Layouts

 Process Layouts
Layouts that can handle varied

processing requirements
Common in non-manufacturing

environments; e.g. hospitals,

colleges and universities, banks,
repair shops, airlines.

 Process Layouts
Arrange equipments by type

rather than by processing

sequence
General-purpose machines
provide flexibility necessary to
handle a wide range of
processing requirements which
are operated by skilled workers.

Process Layouts
Feature departments or other
functional groupings in which
similar activities are performed;
e.g. machine shop process layout
which has separate departments
for milling, grinding, drilling, and
so on.

Advantages of Process Layouts

a) System can handle a variety of
processing requirements.
b) The system is not particularly
vulnerable to equipment
failures.

Advantages of Process Layouts

c) General-purpose equipment
is often less costly than the
specialized equipment used
in product layouts and is
easier and less costly to
maintain.
d) It is possible to use
individual incentive systems.

Disadvantages of Process
Layouts
a) In-process inventory costs can

be high if batch processing is

used in manufacturing
systems.
b) Routing and scheduling pose
continual challenges.
c) Equipment utilization rates
are low.

Disadvantages of Process
Layouts
d) Material handling cost is slow
and inefficient, and more
costly per unit than under
product layouts.
e) Job complexities often reduce
the span of supervision and
result in higher supervisory
cost than with product

Disadvantages of Process
Layouts
f) Special attention necessary
for each product or customer
and low volumes result in
higher unit costs than with
product layouts.
g) Accounting, inventory control,
and purchasing are much
more involved than under

Fixed-position Layouts
Layout in which the product

or project remains stationary,

and workers, materials and
equipment are moved as
needed.

Fixed-position Layouts
The nature of the product

dictates this kind of

arrangement: weight, size, bulk,
or some other factor makes it
undesirable or extremely
difficult to move the product.

Fixed-position Layouts
Used in large construction

projects (buildings, power

plants, dams), shipbuilding,
and production of large
aircraft or space mission
rockets.

Fixed-position Layouts
Focused on timing of material

and equipment deliveries so as

not to clog up the work site; to
avoid relocating materials and
equipment around the work
site.

Fixed-position Layouts
Due to many diverse activities

carried out on the project, wide

range of skills is required,
special efforts are needed to
coordinate workers, and the
span of control can be quite
narrow thus administrative
burden is much higher.

Other Layout Types

OFFICE LAYOUT:
Its main distinction of office

layouts is the importance

placed on the flow of
information.

RETAIL LAYOUT:
Main objective is to maximize

profit through product

exposure.
It allocates shelf space and
responds to customer
behavior.

Five useful ideas for

determining the overall
arrangement of many
stores:
1. Locate the high-draw items
around the periphery of the
store.
2. Use prominent locations for

high-impulse and high-margin

items such as house wares,

Five useful ideas for

determining the overall
arrangement of many
stores:
3. Distribute what are known in
the trade as power items
4. Use end-aisle locations
because they have a very
high exposure rate.
5. Convey a mission of the store
by carefully selecting the

Three elements to provide

good service layout
Ambient conditions
Spatial layout and functionality
Signs, symbols, and artifacts

WAREHOUSING AND STORAGE

LAYOUT
Addresses trade-offs between
space and material handling.
Managements task is to
maximize the utilization of the
total cube of the warehouse to
utilize its full volume while
maintaining low material handling
costs and all the costs related to
the transaction.

Random stocking
Used in warehousing to locate

stock wherever there is an open

location.
-Random stocking systems can
increase facility utilization and
decrease labor cost, but require
accurate records.

Automated Identification
systems (IASs)
-Usually in the form of

barcodes, allow accurate and

rapid item identification,
operations manager know the
quantity and location of every
unit.

Computerized random
stocking system includes the
following tasks:
Maintaining a list of open

locations.
Maintaining accurate records
of existing inventory and its
locations.
Sequencing items on orders to
minimize the travel time

Computerized random
stocking system includes the
following tasks:
Combining orders to reduce

picking time.
Assigning certain items or
classes of items, such as highusage items, to particular
warehouse areas so that the
total distance traveled within

WORK-CELL LAYOUT
Arranges machinery and

equipment to focus on
production of a single
product or group of related
products.

WORK-CELL LAYOUT
Machines are grouped into

what is referred to as a cell

which is determined by the
operations needed to
perform work for a set of
similar items that require
similar processes.

WORK-CELL LAYOUT
Machines are arranged to

handle all of the operations

necessary for a group of
similar parts thus all parts
follow the same route
although minor variations are
possible.

Advantages of work cells:

Reduced work-in-process

inventory
Less floor space
Reduced raw material and
finished goods inventories
Reduced direct labor cost

Advantages of work cells:

Heightened sense of employee

participation
Increased use of equipment
and machinery
Reduced investment in
machinery and equipment

Requirements of Work Cells

Identification of families of

products, often through the use of

group technology codes or
equivalents.
A high level of training and
flexibility
Either staff support or flexible,
imaginative employees to establish
work cells initially.

Designing Product
Layouts
(Line Balancing)

Line Balancing
The process of assigning

tasks to workstations in such

a way that workstations have
approximately equal time
requirements.

Line Balancing
The goal of line balancing is

to obtain task groupings that

represent approximately
equal time requirements
which minimizes the idle time
along the line and results in a
high utilization of labor and
equipment.

Process of Line Balancing

1) Identify the cycle time and
determine the minimum number
of workstations.

Cycle Time (CT) The maximum

time allowed at each workstation
to complete its set of tasks on a
unit. It also establishes
the output
Where:
rate of a particular
line.
OT = Operating
Time per da
CT = Cycle Time

Cycle Time may be determined by

dividing the Operating Time per
day (OT) by the Desired output
rate (D):

 The minimum number of

workstations (Nmin) may be

computed as follows.

Where:
Nmin

= Theoretical minimum number of

stations
D = Desired output rate
OT = Operating time per workstation

2) Make assignments to
workstations in order;
beginning with station 1. Tasks
are assigned to workstations
moving from left to right
through the precedence
diagram.

Heuristic Intuitive Rules

Assign tasks in order of most
following tasks.
Count the number of tasks that

follow
Assign tasks in order of greatest

positional weight.
Positional

weight is the sum of

each tasks time and the times of

 Precedence Diagram

A tool used in line balancing to

display element task and system
requirements. It is read from left
to right wherein the initial tasks
are on the left and the final task is
on the right.

3) Before each assignment, use the

following criteria to determine

which tasks are eligible to be
assigned to workstation.
a. All preceding tasks in the
sequence have been assigned.
b. The task time does not exceed
the time remaining at the
workstation.

4) After each task assignment,

determine the time remaining
at the current workstation by
subtracting the sum of times
for task already assigned to it
from the cycle time.

5) Break ties that occur using

one of the rules.
a. Assign the task with the
longest task time.
b. Assign the task with the
greatest number of
followers
If there is still a tie, choose
one task arbitrary.

6) Continue until all tasks have

been assigned to
workstations.
7) Compute appropriate
measures (e.g., percent idle
time, efficiency) for the set of
assignments.

Example
A manager wants to assign
workstations in such a manner that
hourly output is 4 units. Working
time is 56 minutes per hour. What is
the cycle time?

Cycle time = operating time/output rate

= 14 mins.
Nmin = (4 units per hour X 45mins) / 56 minutes per hour
= 3.21 (round to 4)

Numbers above
the circles
indicate task
times (minutes)

What is the positional weight for each task?

A= 3+2+4+9+5 = 23
E = 4+9+5 = 18
B= 2+4+9+5 = 20
F = 5+6+4+9+5 = 29
C= 9+5 + 4 =18
G= 6 + 4 + 9 + 5 = 24
D= 7+4+9+5 = 25
H = 9+5 = 14

Task

Positio
nal
Weight

29

25

24

23

20

18

18

14

Assign the tasks above to

workstations in the order of
greatest positional weight.

Idle Time per Cycle = 2 + 3+ 6

= 11 minutes
11
Percent
idletime=
* 100%
19.64% Efficiency = 100% - 19.64%
(4)(14)

= 80.36 %

Activity:
A shop wants an hourly output
of 33.5 units per hour. The
working time is 60 minutes per
hour. Assign the tasks using
the rules:
a) In the order of greatest
positional weight.

Activity:

Operating time 60 minutes per hour

CT

1.80 minutes per unit

Desired output
33.5 units per hour

Nmin = (33.5 units per hour X 6 mins) / 60

mins per hour
= 3.35 (round to 4)
Task
Number of
Positional
following tasks
Weight
A
7
6
B
6
4.6
C
2
1.6
D
2
2.2
E
2
2.3
F
1
1.0
G
1
1.5
H
0
0.5

Work
Station
I
II
III

IV

Task
A
B
E
D
C
F
G
H

Feasible
Time
Task Time
tasks
Remaining
Remaining
1.4
0.4

0.5
1.3
C, D, E
0.8
0.5

0.7
1.1
C
0.6
0.5
F
0.5
0

1.0
0.8
H
0.5
0.3

1.2
Percent
IdleTime=
* 100% 16.67%
(4)(1.8)

Efficiency = 100% - 16.67%

= 83.33 %

Marks of a Good Layout for

Manufacturing and Back-Office
Operations
Straight line flow pattern
Backtracking kept to a minimum
Production time predictable
Little inter stage storage of
materials
Open plant floors so everyone
can see whats happening

Marks of a Good Layout for

Manufacturing and Back-Office
Operations
Bottleneck operations under

control
Workstations close together
Orderly handling and storage of
materials
No unnecessary re-handling of
materials

Marks of a Good Layout for Face

to Face Services
Easily understood service flow

pattern
Adequate waiting facilities
Easy communication with
customers
Easily maintained customer
surveillance
Clear exit and entry points with

Marks of a Good Layout for Face

to Face Services
Department and processes
arranged so that customers see
only what you want them to see
Balance between waiting areas and
service areas
Minimum walking and material
movement
Lack of clutter
High sales volume per square foot

 References / Credits:

Production / Operations Management (Fifth Edition)

By William J. Stevenson
MGMT302Chapter_06.ppt
By Sarah Hough
7699063-Introduction-of-Line-Balancing.doc
By roan
http://www.optimaldesign.com/Download/OptiLine

/FalkenauerPLM05.pdf
http://www.acsco.com/LineBalancing.htm
http://www.manufacturinginstitute.co.uk/text.asp?PageId=83
http://www.simcore.fr/Pages/en/en_soft_pplb.php?Langue=

THANK
YOU!!!
Prepared by:
Ms. Danica Marie B. Aloc
Mr. James Andrew A. Buenaventura

All Rights Reserved

2013