Plant Layout

Facility layout

Planning:– for the location of all machines, utilities, employee

workstations, customer service areas, material storage areas, aisles, restrooms, lunchrooms, internal walls, offices, and computer rooms

– for the flow patterns of materials and people around, into, and within buildings

– infrastructure services such as the delivery of line communications, energy, and water and the removal of waste water all make up basic utilities

Characteristics of the Facility Layout Decision

– Infrequent– Expensive to implement– Studied and evaluated extensively– Long-term commitments

Objectives of the Layout Strategy

Develop an economical layout which will meet the requirements of:

• product design and volume (product strategy)• Process equipment and capacity (process

strategy)• quality of work life (human resource strategy)• building and site constraints (location strategy)

Importance of Layout

• Facilitates: Manufacturing process.• Facilitates quick movements by reduction of

transportation & waiting time• Minimises material movement & handling.• Efficient utilisation of resources: Men, Materials,

Machines.• Achieves efficiency by effective planning.• Improves quality of operations by proper selection

of plant, machinery, operations & sequencing.

Factors Affecting thePlant Layout Decision

i. Types of Productionii. Scale of Productioniii. Type of machinesiv. Type of Building Facilitiesv. Availability of Total Floor Areavi. Possibility of Future Expansionvii. Arrangement of Material Handling

Equipment

7MKS-BTMII-LEC2

Flow PatternFlow Pattern

(a) I-Flow

(e) O-Flow(d) S-Flow

(c) U-Flow

(b) L-Flow

I-Flow: Separate receiving and shipping areaL-Flow: When straight line flow chart to be accommodatedU-Flow: Very popular as a combination of receiving and shipping.O-Flow: When it is desired to terminate the flow near where it is originated.S-Flow: When the production line is long and zigzagging on the production floor is required.

TYPES OF PLANT LAYOUTS

• 1. Product or Line layout• 2. Process or Functional layout• 3. Fixed Position or Project layout• 4. Combination layout (Mixed layout)

Product or Line layout

ADVANTAGES OF PRODUCT LAYOUT

• 1. Low cost material handling• 2. Smooth and uninterrupted operations• 3. Continuous flow of work• 4. Optimum use of floor space• 5. Shorter processing time• 6. Simple and effective inspection of work

Disadvantages

• 1. High initial capital investment• 2. Heavy overhead charges• 3. Lesser flexibility

PROCESS LAYOUT

ADVANTAGES OF PROCESSLAYOUT

• 1. Lower initial capital investment• 2. The overhead cost are relatively low• 3. Supervision can be more effective and

specialised• 4. Greater flexibility

DISADVANTAGES OF PROCESSLAYOUT

• 1. Material handling costs are high due to backtracking

• 2. More skilled labour is required• 3. More frequent inspection is needed

FIXED POSITION OR PROJECTLAYOUT

ADVANTAGES OF FIXEDPOSITION LAYOUT

• 1. It saves time and cost involved on the movement of

• work from one work station to another• 2. The layout is flexible as change in job design

and• operation sequence can be easily incorporated• 3. It is more economical when several orders in• different stages of progress are being executed• simultaneously

DISADVANTAGES OF FIXEDPOSITION LAYOUT

• 1. Production period being very long, capital investment is very heavy

• 2. Very large space is required for storage of material and equipment near the product

COMBINATION LAYOUT