Layout Planning

Layout Planning

• Layout planning in manufacturing & service organizations

• deals with physical arrangement of various resources that are available in the system
• with an objective to improve the performance of the operating system
• Benefits of good layout design
• Jobs in a manufacturing system travel lesser distance
• Customers spend less time in service systems
• Costs & Lead time come down
• Improved quality
 Volume – Variety – Flow
Implications for layout planning

Variety

  Very low variety Medium Variety High Variety One off execution

Flow attributes Streamlined flow Multiple flow paths Dis-organised flow Jumbled flow

Volume attributes High Volume Mid-volume Low volume One piece

Job shops;
Process industry; Mass
Batch Manufacturing Customized
Product/ Service Project Shops
Examples of operating firms Product/ Service
provider
systems Provider

Line Layout; Product Group Technology Fixed Position

Process Layout
Layout Layout Layout
Types of layout used
Types of Layout

• Process Layout
• arrangement of resources on the basis of the process characteristics of the resources available
• Product Layout
• order in which the resources are placed follow exactly the visitation sequence dictated by a product
• Group Technology (GT) Layout
• seeks to exploit commonality in manufacturing and uses this as the basis for grouping components and
resources
• Fixed Position Layout
• emphasis is not so much on optimum position of resources required for the process, since the product itself
largely dictates this; the focus is on gaining better control of material flow and reducing delays
Process Layout: An example

Product A
Product B L L L L D D

Product C D D
L L L L
D D
M M

G G G
M M
Product Layout :An example

Product A
L D M G

Product B
L D L G

Product C
L D M L G
Alternative Layouts: An example from Banking
APPENDIX
APPENDIX ENTRY
ENTRY LAYOUT- -STATE
LAYOUT STATE BANK
BANK OFOF
3 B3 B
MYSORE
Bank A
LAYOUT - INDUSIND BANK
APPENDIX 3 A Bank B
MYSORE

ENTRY

FOREX DIVISION BILLS

MANAGER BILLS
MANAGER

WAITING
COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVING PAYING
AREA KITCHEN ROOM STRONG
RECEIVING PAYING
ROOM CASH COUNTERS
STRONG
ROOM CASH COUNTERS

DY.
REST - MANAGER
RECEPTIONIST ROOMS
SECY. DY.
MANAGER

CREDIT COMPUTER
OPERATIONS
ROOM
COMPUTER
CURRENT ROOM
CREDIT RECORDS
ROOM A/C &
OPERATIONS OTHERS
RECORDS CURRENT
CONFERENCE
ROOM A/C &
ROOM
OTHERS
VICE -
MGR. PRESIDENT
OPS LUNCH
ROOM
UPS
MGR.
CREDIT LUNCH LOANS FIXED
ROOM &ADVANCES DEPOSITS
UPS

LOANS FIXED
&ADVANCES DEPOSITS
Group Technology Layout:
Cellular manufacturing

Cell 1 Cell 2

L M D M D L

D L G G D L

L D L D
M L G L M
Cell 4 Cell 3
Product & Process Layout: Pros & Cons
  Process Layout Product Layout
Sharing of specialized and Standardised product/
costly equipments process routing
Operational Control is
Advantages
More flexibility simpler
Less vulnerable to High output rate is
breakdowns possible
Low tolerance for
Large Inventory buildup breakdowns

Disadvantages Operational control Duplication of equipments

difficult leading to high cost
Less flexibility due to
Excess Material Handling dedication of resources
Layout Design :Performance Measures
Performance Measure
Distance travelled by jobs in the shop floor
Space utilization index
Material Handling costs
Lead time of the processes
Investment in work-in-progress
Inter-departmental moves
Utilisation of the resources
Ease of production control
Number of ownership changes
Basis for measurement
Kg - Metres of job movement for each product
Minimum space required to actual space
utilised
Rupees per month
Hours per average product
Rupees per month
Number and quantum of inter-departmental
moves
Percent to total capacity
Number of job cards and control documents
generated; Size of the progress chasing staff
Number of times the responsibility for the job
changes hands
Fixed Position Layout : Example from Thermax
Layout Design: Performance implications
Product Total Distance Number of Average
Line Travelled items Distance
(in meters) Manufactured* per item
Product A 375,655 1080 347.83
Product B 415,125 757 548.38
Product C 288,710 301 959.17
Product D 297,110 405 733.60
* The total distance travelled includes only those of the items manufactured on the
shop floor. The number of items that finally get assembled into the final product
includes many bought out items in addition to these.
Design of Process Layouts: Alternatives

• Qualitative Method
• Links some criteria to the closeness required between a pair of resources
• Computer packages such as ALDEP and CORELAP are available
• Quantitative Method
• Uses some quantitative performance measures for assessing the impact of a layout design
• Seeks to arrive at the best layout design by optimizing on this performance measure
• One of the popular method used in CRAFT
• Performance evaluation models using computer simulation techniques
Design of process layouts :Qualitative method

Department 1
Value Closeness O
A Absolutely necessary Department 2 A
U I
E Especially Important Department 3 O E
I Important A X A
O Ordinary closeness OK Department 4 U U
U O
U Unimportant Department 5 O
X Undesirable O
Department 6
Design of Process Layout
Quantitative Method

• Cij = Cost per unit of transporting a unit distance from department “i” to department “j”
• Fij = Inter-departmental flow between department “i” and department “j”
• Dij = Distance between department “i” and department “j”
n n
• n = Number of departments to be laid out TC   F D C
i 1 j 1
ij ij ij
• The total cost of the plan is given by:

• One can model the above as a mathematical programming problem with the objective
function of minimising the total cost of the plan
Design of Product Layout

• Several Mass Production Systems are in operation today

• Various sub-assemblies in a mass producer need to be configured to match the
production rate
• Similarly, the final assembly stations also need to have the required number of
resources at each station to meet the targeted demand
• A product layout design
• seeks to identify the minimum number of resources required to meet a targeted
production rate and the order in which these resources are to be arranged
• Technique employed for designing of product layout is known as line balancing
Line Balancing: Decisions & Trade-offs

• Line balancing
• A method by which the tasks are optimally combined without violating precedence
constraints and a certain number of workstations designed to complete the tasks
• Key decision variables are production rate, cycle time and the number of workstations,
which are inter-related
• Solving the “line balancing” problem calls for striking the right trade-off between
increased production and better utilization of resources
• Various heuristics: Incremental Utilization and Longest Task Time
• Cycle time is the ratio of the available time to the actual (desired) production rate
Line Balancing
Some measures of interest

AvailableTime
Actual ( Desired ) Cycle Time 
Actual ( Desired ) Pr oduction

Sum of all task times

Minimum No. of work stations required 
Cycle Time

Sum of all task times

Average Re source Utilisation 
Number of workstations * Cycle time
 Design of GT Layout
Guiding Principles

• The objective is one of sub-dividing an universe of machines and components into sub-groups
• Each sub-group of components form a part family and is endowed with a corresponding sub-group of
machines known as machine groups
• Each sub-group is referred to as a cell

• GT layout design is done with a systematic analysis of a machine-component incident matrix

• Number of methods available for identifying sub-groups
• Production Flow Analysis (PFA)
• Clustering techniques
• Matrix manipulation methods
• Graph theory
• Mathematical programming methods
Machine – Component Incident Matrix
Before Grouping
Components
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
A 1 1 1
B 1 1 1
Machines

C 1 1 1 1
D 1 1 1
E 1 1 1 1 1 1
F 1 1 1
G 1 1 1 1 1 1
H 1 1 1 1 1 1
I 1 1 1 1 1 1
J 1 1 1 1 1 1
Machine – Component Incident Matrix
After Grouping

Components
2 3 5 8 1 4 7 20 18 17 15 14 13 6 9 11 12 16 19
B 1 1 1 1
C 1 1 1 1
D 1 1 1
Machines

A 1 1 1
F 1 1 1
E 1 1 1 1 1 1
I 1 1 1 1 1 1
G 1 1 1 1 1 1
H 1 1 1 1 1 1
J 1 1 1 1 1 1
 One man multiple machine layout
An example from Lucas TVS
Old Layout Revised Layout

4 way 4 way
Lathe Drill Drill
Press
SS
  Drill  SS
Press
Drill
Bench 
Lathe
Bench

Source: N Ravichandran, “A Journey Toward Manufacturing Excellence” CII Quality Summit 2000, 61 – 115.
Flexible Manufacturing System
Definition

• A Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) is

• A system consisting usually of numerical control (NC) machines
• Connected by an automated material handling system.
• Operated under a central computer control
• Capable of simultaneously processing a family of parts with low to medium
demand, different process cycles and operation sequences
• It is an attempt to solve the process complexities arising out of mid-
volume and mid-variety parts
 Flexibilities in FMS
• Machine flexibility: the ease of making changes required to produce a given set of part types
• Process flexibility or mix flexibility: the ability to produce a given set of part types, each
possibly using different materials in several ways
• Product flexibility: the ability to produce a new set of products very economically and quickly
• Routing flexibility: is the ability to handle breakdowns and to continue processing the given set
of part types
• Volume flexibility: is a measure of the ability to operate an FMS profitably at different
production volumes
• Expansion flexibility: is the capability of building a system, and expanding it as need arises,
easily and in a modular fashion