Chapter 04

Layout Planning
Procedures
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Introduction
Given similar production resources (labor, material, and machines),
would a different layout impact the economic success of production
systems?
A systematic approach must be followed to:
Collect data
Develop alternatives
Chose final layout

Evaluation criteria should be identified:

Economic: investment return, operational costs, construction and services
costs
Process: effectiveness, parts flow, equipment balancing
Adaptability: flexibility, future modifications, and expansions
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Introduction
Workstation consists of fixed assets needed to perform specific
operations. It can be considered as a facility itself. It includes
space for equipment, materials, and personnel
Planning departments are groups of workstations put together
in facility layout
Planning departments can be subdivided into:
a)
b)
c)
d)

Product or production-line department

Fixed material location department
Product family department
Process department
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Product or production-line
department

Fixed material location department

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Product family department

Process department

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Comparison between the different types

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Layout Planning
Layout planning in facilities design essentially means space
planning
Fundamental elements of a layout

Space planning units (SPU)

Affinities
Space
Constraints

Layout is the result of arranging the space planning units on

the available space with the goal of accommodating the
closeness relationships indicated by the affinities without
violating any of the constraints
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Layout Planning
Space planning units (SPU): separate planning components
to be arranged on a layout. e.g., Production or service
department, warehouse, a building feature, single workstation
requiring a fixed workstation
Affinities: Relationships that demand closeness among space
planning units. Falls into five general classifications:

Organizational relationships
Flow relationships
Control relationships
Affinity diagram (relationships diagram):
Environmental relationships SPU are nodes (circles) and affinities are
arcs (line thickness represents importance
Process relationships
of relationship)

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Layout Planning

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Layout Planning
Space
Each SPU has its own space requirement
Adding space will transform the relationship diagram into preliminary
space plan (space relationship diagram)

Constraints
Conditions, assumptions, policies, or requirement that restrict a
physical arrangement or space plan
Ex. Floor loading, columns in a building, required location of
shipping/receiving area
The constraints transform preliminary space plan into a final plan

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Space
Planning
Units

Block Layout

Affinity
Diagram

Affinities
Space
Requirement
s

Constraints

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Systematic Layout Planning (SLP)

A conceptual approach that provides a process for layout design
Develop a feasible layout through a multistep procedure that
uses the following types of input information:
List of products to be manufactured, production quantities, routing
sheets for all products, list of supporting services, standard times for all
operation, and all manufacturing activities grouped into planning
departments
Relationship between various departments

From the input, two intermediate outputs are established:

Flow of materials: fromto chart
Activity relationships: activity relationship chart
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Flow of materials: fromto chart

Direct result of the manufacturing operations sequence and
the production volume for a specified period
Flow can consolidated into a square matrix (from-to-chart)
In the chart:
Departments corresponds to rows and columns
Each entry is equal to the material flow from the department
corresponding to the row to the departments corresponding to the
column
A standard unit must be chosen to measure the flows as equivalent
number of trips for a specified period of time (not all the products
have the same handling requirement)
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Activity relationships (chart)

Visual representation of the closeness relationships
Represents the relationships qualitatively using the following letters:

A = Absolutely necessary
E = Especially important
I = Important
O = Ordinary closeness acceptable
U = Unimportant
X = not desirable to be close

Helpful in deciding on the location of facilities related to :

Work centres or departments in an office/layout

Activities in a service business
Work centres in a maintenance or repair operation
Service areas within a production facility
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Systematic Layout Planning (SLP)

Establish the relative degree of closeness among departments (consider
flow of material and functional and service interaction)
Establish space requirement given the quantity, kind, and shape of the
facilities included in the layout
Create an activity relationship diagram
Generate space relationship diagram
Develop and evaluate arrangements using factors such as ease of future
expansion, flexibility, effectiveness of flow, material handling ease,
material handling costs, safety , ease of supervision, and appearance
Select final layout accommodating the material handling system, storage
facilities, amount of personnel required, building feature and utilities
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Systematic Layout Planning (SLP)

Input Data: P, Q, R, S, T and Activities

From-To-Chart

1. Flow of
Materials

2. Activity
Relationships

Relationship Chart

3. Relationship
Diagram

4. Space
Requirements

5. Space Available
6. Space
Relationship
Diagram

7. Modifying
Considerations

8. Practical Limitations

Plan
X

Plan Y

Plan Z

9. Evaluation

Selected Layout
Plan

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Example # 1
Factory has four planning departments (1, 2, 3, 4). Product A is manufactured
according to the sequence 1234 and Product B according to the sequence
34212. The daily production volumes of A and B are 10 and 20 respectively.
Both A and B have similar sizes, shapes, and material handling requirements.
a) Construct the fromtochart indicating the number of trips from one department
to another
b) Develop a relationship chart following these rules:
1. A for any two departments with a total number of trips (including both directions) equal to
40 or more
2. E for 30 or more and less than 40
3. I for 20 or more but less than 30
4. O for 10 or more but less than 20
5. U for less than 10

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Solution - Example # 1: From-To-Chart

Product A:

1-2-3-4

Product B:
1
20

3-4-2-1-2
2

Production volume = 10
Production volume =
3

1
2
3
4

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10+
20=
30

20

10+
20=
30

20

10 -

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Solution - Example # 1: Activity

Relationship Chart

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Example # 2
Assume now that component B is twice as large as component
A and that, as a result, moving 2 units of component A is
equivalent to moving 1 unit of component B. Find the fromto
chart using component A as the reference product.

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Solution Example # 2
Assumption: Component B is twice as large as Component A
& moving 2 units of A is equivalent to moving 1 unit of B

1
2
3
4

10+
20=
30

20

10+
20=
30

20

10 -

1
2
3
4

10+
40=
50

40

10+
40=
50

40

10 -

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Using Component A
as
the
reference
product

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Facility Layout Program (FLAP)

FLAP accepts input in the form of a relationship matrix
Using the closeness codes (A, E, I, O, U, X), it determines a
closeness rank and a selection order of department
Departments will be placed on the layout in a way that the
score of the layout will be as high as possible

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Facility Layout Program (FLAP)

Closeness Ranks
1. From the relationship chart, a closeness rank for each department is
calculated on the basis of the number of A, E, I, O, X relationships
2. The department having the largest number of As will receive rank 1
(most important). If necessary, break ties with Es, Is, etc
3. Subsequent departments having As are assigned ranks equal to 2, 3,
4, etc, as the number of As decreases. Ties will be broken as
indicated in step 2
4. Subsequent departments having Es are considered in a similar
manner. Once they are finished, those with Is will be considered, and
so on

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Facility Layout Program (FLAP)

Selection Order
1. Select the department with rank 1 (most important)
2. Select one department having the highest possible relationship with
the most important department. If there are ties, break them by
choosing the department
with best rank (numerically lower) in the
group
3. Subsequent departments are selected on the basis of the total
number of As, Es, Is and Os between departments not yet selected
and those already selected. Ties will
be broken using ranks
4. Construct a layout satisfying the selection order and the closeness
relationships

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Facility Layout Program (FLAP)

Layout Scoring System
1. Use point values of, for example, 8, 4, 2, 1, 0 and -8 for the symbols
A, E, I, O, U, and X respectively
2. From the layout diagram identify the departments adjacent to each
department
3. A score is computed by adding the point values of the closeness
relationship between adjacent pairs

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Example # 3
Departmental Area Requirements

Closeness Rating Chart

Departments
Area (sq. ft.)
1. Receiving
12,000
2. Milling
8,000
3. Press
6,000
4. Screw Machine 12,000
5. Assembly
8,000
6. Plating
12,000
7. Shipping
12,000

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Solution Example # 3

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Solution Example # 3
Department
1E
Department
Department
0E
0A, 1E
Department
0A, 2E
Department
0A, 0E
Department
0A, 1I
1E,
1E
Department
1E,
0A, 2I
1E
Department
1E, 2O
1I,
1I
Department
1I, 0O

6 1A,
5 1A,
1
2

Rank 1
Dept. 6

2
5

3
2

4
4

5
1

6
7

7
3

14
47
7
1
7
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Solution Example # 3
Selection Order of Departments
1. Department 6 is selected first
2. Department 5 is selected second
3. For departments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 we have to find the department that
has the best set of relationships with Departments 5 and 6:
1
2 3 4 7 As 0
0

Es
Is
Os

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Solution Example # 3
Department 7 has 1E and 1I relationships with those chosen.
Note that this is better than department 2s two I
relationships. Therefore, department 7 is selected third
Selection 1 2
Department 6

3
5

4
7

5
2

6
4

7
1

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Solution Example # 3
Proposed Layout

Shipping

Milling

6
Plating

Assembl
y

Receiving

Screw
Machine

3
Pres
s

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Solution Example # 3
Layout Evaluation
4

7
6

10

8
E

6
0

Score = 6+10+2+8+6 = 32

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Any Questions??

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