Layout

Objectives

• Safety.
• Length of flow. The flow of materials and information
should be channeled by the layout to fit best the
objectives of the operation. This generally means
minimising the distance travelled by materials.
• Clarity of flow. All flow of materials should be clearly
signposted, for example using clearly marked routes.
• Staff comfort. The layout should provide for a well
ventilated, well lit and, where possible, pleasant working
environment.
 Objectives
• Management coordination. Supervision and communication
should be assisted by the location of staff and
communication equipment.
• Accessibility. All machines, plant and equipment should be
easily accessible for cleaning and maintenance.
• Use of space. All layouts should make best use of the total
space available (including height as well as floor space). This
usually means minimising the space for a particular process.
• Long-term flexibility. Layouts need to be changed
periodically. Future needs (such as expansion) should be
taken into account when designing the layout.
 Different Types of Manufacturing
Organisation
• Job shop - wide variety, low throughput.
• Batch processing - Medium variety and
volume.
• Continuous operations - low variety, high
volume.
 Types of layouts
• Process layout.
• Cell layout.
• Product layout.
 Process Layout
• Usually used in job shops.
• Similar processes are grouped together. Eg
machining processes, heat treatment and
painting operations.
• Usually grouped processes have similar
requirements, ventilation for example.
• Huge variation in products produced.
• Low machine utilization.
• Higher cost per part.
 Cell layout
• Processes for specialized parts are grouped
together.
• All the resources for a specific set of operations
are housed within the cell.
• Multiple cells may be present in the production
system.
• Medium customisability.
• Medium output.
• Lower costs.
 Product Layout
• Production line.
• Processes are arranged in the order that they
occur.
• High output.
• Low customizability.
• Lowest cost per unit produced.
Advantages and Disadvantages
 Optimizing Process layout
• There will be a specified distance between
workstations/machines.
• There will be a specific cost associated per
meter distance between each workstation.
This may be in time or Rands/Dollars.
• Items will move to different workstations, the
frequency of these movements should be
tabulated.
 Optimising Process Layout

• In order to solve these problems, heuristic

methods are usually used because of the
complexity of these systems.
Flow between nodes

Unit (distance associated cost)

 Daily distance associated cost.

Collapsed Daily distance associated cost.

360
• It is obvious that nodes A and D, and D and E
need to be as close to each other as possible.
• Other techniques that might be useful in
solving these problems include.
– Genetic algorithms.
– Neural networks.
 Spaghetti diagrams
• Spaghetti Diagrams get their name due to the
Spaghetti like appearance of the diagram.
• The technique traces part movements
between machines with a freehand line.
• A time period of activity will be chosen and all
part movements will be drawn on a single
sheet of paper that has the layout of the
facility
Spaghetti diagram example
 How to analyse a spaghetti diagram
• Generally when a spaghetti diagram is
completed, there will be bundles of lines that
link specific work stations. Some will have less
strands and some more.
• The bundles that are thicker indicate large
volumes of traffic between workstations and
hence those workstations should be located as
close together as possible to reduce
unnecessary movement.
 Cell layout
• Usually several standard parts that are made,
however sometimes there is variation.
• Method one - Determine which processes
naturally go together, and place them into a
cell.
• Method two – Design cells around families of
parts.
Cell Layout
X
 Cell Layout
• Often the parts don’t completely fit into one
cell. One can buy extra machines to make the
flow less complicated.
 Product layout
• High throughput.
• Low variability in products.
• Little customisability.
 Product Layout
• Determine how many products need to be
made.
• Determine the amount of time is available to
make the products.
• Determine the cycle time. The time gap
between products leaving the production line.
• Design the production line to meet the cycle
time.
 Bottlenecks
• Bottlenecks can happen in all three layout types but
they are most easily visible in product layout.
• It is imperative that the line is balanced to the
slowest process in the line. This ensures that work
in progress does not build up between processing
stations.
• When optimising layouts always optimise the
bottleneck process first. If you optimise anything
else, local optimisation will occur but the whole
system will remain unchanged.
 Software to model layouts
• Simeo and simul8 are two frequently used
pieces of software.
• The programs create a visual dashboard that
can be useful to assess the impact of changes
made to the system before costly layout
changes are made in the factory.
• These programs mainly make use of queueing
theory for their functioning.
 Conclusion
• Layout is mostly common sense.
• There are a few tools that can help you decide
how to set up your factory/restaurant/office.
• Correcting layout can save companies huge
amounts of money, or increase productivity.
• Get the layout right from the beginning.