Topic: Process Selection and Facility Lay-out

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the module, you should be able to:

• Collaborate the different ideas when it comes in designing layout

methods.

• Familiarize with different strategies of process selection and facility lay-

out.

• Illustrate process and facility lay-out design.

“A good lay-out should support
the ability of operations to
accomplish its mission”
Process
Selection

Refers to deciding on
the way production of
goods or services will
be organized. It has
major implications for
capacity planning,
layout of facilities,
equipment, and design
of work systems.

Figure 10.1: Process selection and capacity planning influence system design

Product Lay-out
An arrangement based on the sequence of
operations during the manufacturing of a
good or delivery of a service
Source: https://www.javatpoint.com/types-of-layouts
Facility Lay-out
Refers to the specific arrangement of
physical facilities. Facility design must be
integrated with support job and process
design.
 TYPES OF PROCESSING
Process Selection

The two key questions in process selection are:

• How much variety will the

process need to be able to handle?

• How much volume will the

process need to be able to handle?

Source: Operations Management by W.J. Stevenson (2015)

Volume and variety influence process choice
Process Technology

Automation is
machinery that has sensing and
control devices that enable it to
operate automatically. There
are different type of automation
(refer to the diagram)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXnftiVGko
1. To facilitate attainment of product or service quality.

2. To use workers and space efficiently.

3. To avoid bottlenecks.

4. To minimize material handling costs.

Objectives of
5. To eliminate unnecessary movements of workers or
materials.
Facility Lay-out
6. To minimize production time or customer service time.

7. To design for safety.

Basic Type Facility Lay-out

• Process Layout –machines grouped by

process they perform. Example: Hospitals and
Offices

• Product Layout –linear arrangement of

workstations to produce a specific product

• Fixed Position Layout –used in projects

where the product cannot be moved (e.g. Planes,
Infrastructures)
Hybrid Lay-outs

Cellular layouts –group machines into

machining cells

Flexible manufacturing systems

–automated machining & material handling
systems

Mixed-model assembly lines –

produce variety of models on one line
Designing Process Layouts
• Minimize material handling costs

• Block Diagramming
 minimize nonadjacent loads
 use when quantitative data is available

• Relationship Diagramming
• based on location preference between areas
• use when quantitative data is not available
References

R. Schroeder & S.M Goldstein (2017). Operations Management in the Supply Chain,
Decisions and Cases. (7th ed.). Published by McGraw-Hill Education.

Chen X, Xi Z, Jing P (2017) A unified framework for evaluating supply chain reliability
and resilience. IEEE Trans Reliab 66:1144

Chopra S, Sodhi MS (2014) Reducing the risk of supply chain disruptions. MIT Sloan
Manag Rev 55(3):73–80

Dolgui A, Ivanov D, Sokolov B (2018) Ripple effect in the supply chain: an analysis and
recent literature. Int J Prod Res 56(1–2):414–430 Fahimnia B, Tang CS,

W.J. Stevenson (2015). Operations Management. (12th ed.). Published by McGraw-Hill

Education,