Operations Management-14

Process layout IBS Campus Case

Layout Planning
Decisions about the physical arrangement of economic activity centres within a facility. An economic activity centre can be anything that takes up space a person or group of persons, an admissions window, a workstation, a cafeteria, a stairway or an elevator shaft, a storage room, a department, a classroom, the desks and chairs or whiteboards in a classroom and so on. Layout determines the way in which materials and other inputs (like people and information) flow through the operation. Relatively small changes in the position of a machine in a factory can affect the flow of materials considerably. Getting it wrong can lead to inefficiency, inflexibility, large volumes of inventory and work in progress, high costs and unhappy customers. Changing a layout can be expensive and difficult, so it is best to get it right first time.

Layout Planning: Questions

What centres should the layout include? The tasks that will be undertaken by each work centre. How much space and capacity does each centre require? How should each centres space be configured? Where should each centre be located?
Relative location placement of a centre relative to other centres Absolute location the particular space that the centre occupies within the campus.

The degree and direction of flow between each work centre (for example number of journeys, number of loads, cost of flow per distance travelled).

General objectives
Inherent safety. Dangerous processes should not be accessible without authorisation. Fire exits should be clearly marked with uninhibited access. Pathways should be clearly defined and not cluttered. Length of flow. The flow of materials and information should be channelled 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.

General 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.

Systematic layout planning (SLP)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Develop a relationship chart (Muther grid) showing the degree of importance of having each department located adjacent to every other department. From this chart, an activity relationship diagram depicting material handling between departments, is developed. Draw up a schematic layout showing the work centres and the flow between them, putting the work centres with the greatest flow closest to each other. Adjust the schematic layout to take into account the constraints of the area into which the layout must fit. Draw the layout showing the actual work centre areas and distances that materials must travel. Calculate the effectiveness measure of the layout either as total distance travelled or as the cost of movement. This pattern, in turn, is modified department by department to meet building space limitations.

6.

Preliminary schematic layout

D
320

Adjusted schematic layout

320

D
40

160

C
320

E
40 160

320

80
80

A
80

B
73

C B
80

73

This is to be adjusted to fit the building geometry.

Relationship chart/aeiou matrix/(Richard) Muther grid

Faculty Chambers (1), Printer/Xerox (2), Water Coolers (3), Student Restrooms (4) Classrooms (5), and Library (6)

Muther grid for Ibs

Xs Student Rest Rooms(4) not close to Faculty Chambers(1) Water Coolers (3) not close to Library(6) Water Coolers (3) not close to Student Rest Rooms(4)

Muther grid for Ibs

As Faculty Chambers(1) close to Printer/Xerox(2) Faculty Chambers (1) close to Water Coolers(3) Printer/Xerox(2) close to Library(6) Water Coolers(3) close to Classrooms(5) Student Rest rooms (4) close to Library(6) Classrooms (5) close to Library(6)

Muther grid for Ibs

We create a cluster of links using the departments rated A beginning with the department that occurs most frequently which is 6 as follows

Muther grid for Ibs

Then we take the remaining departments rated A and add them to this main cluster using trial and error to address the closeness relationships.

If departments do not link to this main cluster we will need to create a new cluster but in this case all the departments link to the above cluster.
Similarly we can also graphically depict the relationship between departments rated X

Muther grid for Ibs

Since the cluster of departments rated A also satisifies the relationship between those rated X, we can assign departments with inspection as follows. Close can mean diagonally close too.

Note: In this case all the e,i,o and u ratings are also satisfied though this is not always necessary.

Load Distance Analysis

Each department is 10 feet by 10 feet, distances are rectilinear, which of the following two layouts is better? Layout A Layout B
3 7 1 9 6 8 4 10 2 5 4 2 5 8 7 9 6 3 10 1

Routing/Travel Distances
Product A B C D E F Department Processing Sequence
1 5 2 6 210 1 7 2 5 1 7 410 3 9 1 9 810 6 9 410

Quantity Processed Per Month

1,000 units 2,000 3,000 1,000 2,000 4,000

Routing/Travel Distances
Flow 1 5 1 7 1 9 1 10 2 5 2 6 210 3 6 Distance Between Departments (feet) Layout A Layout B 30 30 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 20 20 10 10 40 10 Flow 39 45 47 410 56 69 78 810 Distance Between Departments (feet) Layout A Layout B 30 20 30 30 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 20 50 20 30

Solution (1/2)
Compute the total travel for each product through each layout alternative.
Product A B C D E F Department Processing Sequence
1 5 2 6 210 1 7 2 5 1 7

Distance per Product (feet) Layout A

Distance per Product (feet) Layout B (feet)

30+30+10= 70 20+10+10= 50 10+10+10= 30 10+50+30= 90 10+10+10= 30 10+10+10= 30

410 3 9 1 9 810 6 9 410

30+30+10= 70 20+40+30= 90 10+10+10= 30 10+20+20= 50 10+10+10= 30 10+10+10= 30

Solution (2/2)
Compute total distance traveled per month by each product through each layout alternative.
Product A B C D E F Units per Month 1000 2000 3000 1000 2000 4000 Distance per Product Layout A Layout B 70 70 90 50 30 30 50 90 30 30 30 30 Totals Distance per Month Layout A Layout B 70,000 70,000 180,000 100,000 90,000 90,000 50,000 90,000 60,000 60,000 120,000 120,000 570,000 530,000*

Registration process: initial layout

Since 900 students have to be processed between 9am 6 pm which is 9 hours or 8 hours excluding an hour for lunch Cycle time = Time Available/Number to be processed = 0.6 (no lunch) or 0.53 minutes Throughput Time = Since every student has to be processed at each of the stages on average he/she spends 22.4 minutes

Load matrix for current registration Process

Distance Matrix

Cost Matrix

Load*Distance*Cost Matrix
To A B C D

From A B C D
From A B C D

450*30*1 350*60*2 50*90*2 350*30*1 200*30*1 0 0 0 750*30*1 0 0 0 To A B C D Total 10500 0 0 13500 0 0 66000 9000 6000 0 22500 0 Total 88500 16500 22500 0 127500

Improving the layout

A more optimal layout would therefore result from moving in the priority order apparent from the descending order of travel costs observed above i. Departments A and C closer without disturbing the relative proximity of A and B nor disturbing the relative proximity of C and D since the movement costs between these departments is large. ii. Attempting to move departments A and D and then B and C closer than currently.

Alternative layout 1

Alternate Layout-2

Suppose diagonal movements are to be treated as non adjacent

Process or functional Layout

Process layouts are sometimes called functional layouts because the transforming resources with the same, or similar, function are grouped together. Products with different requirements move between the clusters of transforming resources in different ways. This makes this kind of layout particularly flexible. It can usually cope with a wide variety of different processing requirements. However, it is complex to manage with flows crossing each other and moving on irregular and intermittent paths. The same is true in office environments. Each functional group sits together in a work area, and supports multiple product teams.

Cell layout
Primarily this type of layout is an attempt to reduce the complexity of process layouts. It divides transforming resource up into small clusters which can be used to act upon different products or product groups. Within each cell layout can be almost identical to product layout

Detailed design of cell layouts

The detailed design of cell layouts is difficult, because cells are a compromise between process and product layout. One method is to find which processes naturally group together. This involves examining each process and asking which other processes might also be needed for a typical product. For example, when making furniture, if all parts that need holes drilling in them also need those holes to be countersunk, then it makes sense to locate drilling and countersinking machines in the same cell. Another method is to design the cells around product families. The families indicate the characteristics of similar products, such as size, shape and material that determine their processing requirements. Cells can then be designed to co-locate the necessary processes for different product families.

Production flow analysis

Basic product family and machine data Product families 3 4 5 6 X X X X X X X X X

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

8 X X X

X
X X

Machines

X X X X

Machines and product families reorganised into cells

4
1 6 3 8 2 5 7 3 X 6 X X X 8 X X X X Product families 5 2 Cell A 4 1 7

X X

Cell B
X X X Cell C X X X X X X Machines

This analysis rarely results in a totally clean division between cells. In this case, product family 8 (allocated to cell A) needs processing by machine 3, which has been allocated to cell B.

Ways to solve the problem

1. Purchase another machine the same as machine 3 and put it in cell A. This solves the problem but requires investing capital in a new machine that might be under utilised. 2. Send products in family 8 to cell B after they have been processed in cell A. This avoids the need to purchase another machine but it results in more complex materials flow. 3. If there are several product families that have this problem, devise a special cell for them including all necessary machines to tackle their processing needs. This involves extra capital expenditure, but removes the problem product families from the rest of the operation, leaving it with a more predictable and ordered flow.

A u shaped cell is a specific form of work cell designed to eliminate walking. The operator finishes where he starts, so there is no time wasted walking back to the first process.