5.

2 Facility (Plant)Layout
 Layout: the configuration of departments, work centers, and equipment,

with particular emphasis on movement of work (customers or materials)

through the system.
 A facility is an entity that facilitates the performance of any job. It may be

a machine tool, a work centre, a manufacturing cell, a machine shop, a

department, a warehouse, etc. (Heragu, 1997).
• Plant layout planning includes decisions regarding the physical allocation
of the economic activity centers in a facility.
– An economic activity center is any entity occupying space.
– The objective of plant layout planning is a more effective work flow at
the facility, allowing workers and equipment being more productive.
• Facility layout techniques apply to the case where several physical
means have to be located in a certain area, either industrial processes or
services.
• To carry out an appropriate plant layout, it’s important to take into
account the business strategic and tactical objectives
– Example: space requirements/cost per m2; accessibility/privacy in
offices.
11/19/20
• To make a decision about layout planning, 4 different
questions must have an answer:
– Which centers do we have to consider?
– How much space and capacity is required for each
center?
• If there is not enough space, productivity may be reduced.
• Too much space is expensive and may also reduce productivity.
– How must the space be configured at each center?
• Space quantity, shape and the elements of the work center are
related to each other.
– Where should each center be located at within the
facility?
• The allocation of the different centers may affect productivity.

11/19/20
• The plant layout process starts at an aggregate level, taking
into account the different departments. As soon as we get into
the details, the different issues arise, and the original
configuration may be changed through a feedback process.
• Most (if not all of them) layouts are designed properly for the
initial conditions of the business, although as long as the
company grows and has to be adapted to internal and external
changes, a re-layout is necessary.
• The reasons for a re-layout are based on 3 types of changes:
– Changes in production volumes.
– Changes in processes and technology.
– Changes in the product.
• The frequency of the re-layout will depend on the requirements
of the process.

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• Symptoms that allow us to detect the need for a
re-layout:
– Congestion and bad utilization of space.
– Excessive stock in process at the facility.
– Long distances in the work flow process.
– Simultaneous bottle necks and workstations with idle time.
– Qualified workers carrying out too many simple operations.
– Labor anxiety and discomfort. Accidents at the facility.
– Difficulty in controlling operations and personnel.
Importance of Layout Decisions
 Requires substantial investments of money and

effort
 Involves long-term commitments
 Has significant impact on cost and efficiency of

short-term operations
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Eliminate Inefficient
operations
For Example: Changes in the design
High Cost of products or services
Bottlenecks

Accidents
The introduction of new
products or services

Safety hazards
Changes in
environmental Changes in volume of
or other legal output or mix of
requirements products

Improves
Changes in methods Morale problems
and equipment
• The main objective consists of organizing equipment
and working areas in the most efficient way, and at
the same time satisfactory and safe for the personnel
doing the work.
– Sense of Unity
• The feeling of being a unit pursuing the same objective.
– Minimum Movement of people, material and
resources.
– Safety
• In the movement of materials and personnel work flow.
– Flexibility
• In designing the plant layout taking into account the changes
over short and medium terms in the production process and
manufacturing volumes.

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• These main objectives are reached through the attainment of the
following facts:
– Congestion reduction.
– Elimination of unnecessary occupied areas.
– Reduction of administrative and indirect work.
– Improvement on control and supervision.
– Better adjustment to changing conditions.
– Better utilization of the workforce, equipment and services.
– Reduction of material handling activities and stock in process.
– Reduction on parts and quality risks.
– Reduction on health risks and increase on workers safety.
– Moral and workers satisfaction increase.
– Reduction on delays and manufacturing time, as well as increase
in production capacity.
• All these factors will not be reached simultaneously, so the best
solution will be a balance among them.

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• The final solution for a Plant Layout has to take into
account a balance among the characteristics and
considerations of all factors affecting plant layout, in order
to get the maximum advantages.
• The factors affecting plant layout can be grouped into 8
categories:
– Materials
– Machinery
– Labor
– Material Handling
– Waiting Time
– Auxiliary Services
– The building
– Future Changes

11/19/20
Materials
• The layout of the productive equipment will depend on the characteristics of the product to be
managed at the facility, as well as the different parts and materials to work on.
• Main factors to be considered: size, shape, volume, weight, and the physical-chemical
characteristics, since they influence the manufacturing methods and storage and material
handling processes.
• The sequence and order of the operations will affect plant layout as well, taking into account the
variety and quantity to produce.
◦Machinery
 Having information about the processes, machinery, tools and necessary equipment, as
well as their use and requirements is essential to design a correct layout.
 The methods and time studies to improve the processes are closely linked to the plant
layout.
 Regarding machinery, we have to consider the type, total available for each type, as well
as type and quantity of tools and equipment.
 It’s essential as well to know about space required, shape, height, weight, quantity and
type of workers required, risks for the personnel, requirements of auxiliary services,
etc.
◦Labor
 Labor has to be organized in the production process (direct labor, supervision and
auxiliary services).
 Environment considerations: employees’ safety, light conditions, ventilation,
temperature, noise, etc.
 Process considerations: personnel qualifications, flexibility, number of workers required
at a given time as well as the type of work to be performed by them.
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◦ Material Handling
 Material handling does not add value to the product; it’s just waste.
 Objective: Minimize material handling as well as combining with other operations when
possible, eliminating unnecessary and costly movements.
◦ Waiting time - Stock
 Objective: Continuous Material Flow through the facility, avoiding the cost of waiting time
and demurrages that happen when the flow stops.
 On the other hand, the material waiting to flow through the facility not always represents a
cost to avoid. As stock sometimes provides safety to protect production, improving
customer service, allowing more economic batches, etc.
 It’s necessary then to consider space for the required stock at the facility when
designing the layout.
 Resting time to cool down or heating up…
◦ Auxiliary Services
 Support the main production activities at the plant:
 Related to labor: Accessibility paths, fire protection installations, supervision, safety,
etc.
 Related to material: quality control.
 Related to machinery: maintenance and electrical and water lines.
 The auxiliary services represent around 30% of the space at a facility.
 The space dedicated to auxiliary services is usually considered as waste.
 It’s important to have efficient services to insure that their indirect costs have been
minimized.

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◦ The building
 If it has been already selected, its characteristics will be a
constraint at the moment of designing the layout, which is
different if the building has to be built.
◦ Future changes
 One of the main objectives of plant layout is flexibility.
 It’s important to forecast the future changes to avoid
having an inefficient plant layout in a short term.
 Flexibility can be reached keeping the original layout as
free as possible regarding fixed characteristics, allowing
the adjustment to emergencies and variations of the
normal process activities.
 Possible future extensions of the facility must be taken into
account, as well as the feasibility of production during re-
layout.

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Dilworth (1996) segregates four types of layout
as seen below:
1)Product layout
◦ Layout that uses standardized processing
operations to achieve smooth, rapid, high-
volume flow.
2)Process layout
◦ Layout that can handle varied processing
requirements.
3)Fixed Position layout
◦ Layout in which the product or project remains
stationary, and workers, materials, and
equipment are moved as needed. Products are
too large to move.
4)Combination layout/Hybrid Layout
◦ Combine aspects of both process and product
layouts. E.g. Cellular layout. 11/19/20
Figure 5.1

Raw Finished
Station Station
Station Station
Station Station
Station
materials 1 22 33 44 item
or customer
Material Material Material Material

and/or and/or and/or and/or

labor labor labor labor

 Used for Repetitive or Continuous Processing

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Figure 5.2

In 1 2 3 4

Workers

Out 10 9 8 7

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 High rate of output
 Low unit cost
 Labor specialization
 Low material handling cost
 High utilization of labor and equipment
 Established routing/direction finding and scheduling
 Routing accounting and purchasing
Disadvantages of Product Layout
 Creates dull, repetitive jobs
 Poorly skilled workers may not maintain equipment or
quality of output
 Fairly inflexible to changes in volume
 Highly susceptible to shutdowns
 Needs preventive maintenance
 Individual incentive plans are impractical

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Figure 5.3
Process Layout
(functional)

Dept. A Dept. C Dept. E

Dept. B Dept. D Dept. F

 Used for Intermittent processing Job Shop or Batch

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 Can handle a variety of processing requirements
 Not particularly vulnerable to equipment failures
 Equipment used is less costly
 Possible to use individual incentive plans
Disadvantages of Process Layouts
 In-process inventory costs can be high
 Challenging routing and scheduling
 Equipment utilization rates are low
 Material handling slow and inefficient
 Complexities often reduce span of supervision
 Special attention for each product or customer
 Accounting and purchasing are more involved

11/19/20
 Process vs. Product Layouts
The unique differences between a process and
product layout are seen in the box elow.

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 Hybrid Layouts
• Combine elements of both product & process
layouts
– Maintain some of the efficiencies of product layouts
– Maintain some of the flexibility of process layouts
• Examples:
– Group technology & manufacturing cells
– Grocery stores

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 Cellular Production
◦ Layout in which machines are grouped into a cell
that can process items that have similar
processing requirements
 Group Technology
◦ The grouping into part families of items with
similar design or manufacturing characteristics

11/19/20
Table 6.3
Dimension Process/Functional Cellular
Number of moves many few
between departments
Travel distances longer shorter
Travel paths variable fixed
Job waiting times greater shorter
Throughput (volume of higher lower
data) time
Amount of work in higher lower
process
Supervision difficulty higher lower
Scheduling complexity higher lower
Equipment utilization lower higher
• Used when product is large
• Product is difficult or impossible to move, i.e. very
large or fixed
• All resources must be brought to the site
• Scheduling of crews and resources is a challenge

11/19/20
• The production process normally determines the type of
plant layout to be applied to the facility:
– Fixed position plant layout
• Product stays and resources move to it.
– Product oriented plant layout
• Machinery and Materials are placed following the
product path.
– Process oriented plant layout (Functional Layout).
• Machinery is placed according to what they do and
materials go to them.
– Cell Layout
• Hybrid Layout that tries to take advantage of different
layouts types.

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Office Layout Considerations:
– Significant number workforce works in an office
environment
– Human interaction and communication are the
primary factors in designing office layouts
– Layouts need to account for physical environment
and psychological needs of the organization
– One key layout trade-off is between proximity and
privacy
– Open concept offices promote understanding & trust
– Flexible layouts incorporating “office landscaping”
help to solve the privacy issue in open office
environments

11/19/20
Warehouse Layout Considerations:
– Primary decision is where to locate each department
relative to the dock
– Departments can be organized to minimize “ld” totals
– Departments of unequal size require modification of
the typical ld calculations to include a calculation of
the “ratio of trips to area needed”
– The usage of “Cross docking” modifies the
traditional warehouse layouts; more docks, less
storage space, and less order picking

11/19/20
 Plant Layout for a Warehouse
• Objective: Optimal relationship between space and material handling costs.
– Aspects to be considered: cubic space utilization, storing equipment and methods,
material protection, allocation of different parts, etc.
• A warehouse layout is more complicated when:
– The different customer orders take into account a high number of references.
– There are frequent orders of low number of units for the same product.
• In this cases, the material handling costs for each roundtrip move would be excessively
high.
• Solutions for this problem: Aggregation of units for several orders, or establishment of
optimal routes for each order.
Zones Zones Control
station Shipping

Click to add title doors

Tractor
trailer

Tractor
trailer
Feeder Feeder
lines lines Overflow
11/19/20
• CRAFT. An improvement technique that requires the
user to specify an initial layout. Improves materials
handling costs by considering pair-wise interchange of
departments.
• COFAD. Similar to CRAFT, but also includes
consideration of the type of materials handling system.
• ALDEP. Construction routine (does not require user to
specify an initial layout). Uses REL chart information.
• CORELAP. Similar to ALDEP, but uses more careful
selection criteria for initial choosing the initial department
• PLANET. Construction routine that utilizes user
specified priority ratings.

11/19/20
• Most of the concepts and techniques explained here can be applied to any plant layout,
including services.
– Examples: Line Balancing for Restaurant self-services; Process oriented layout for
Hospitals.
• Service Businesses have a more direct customer focus:
– Sometimes, the customer is required at the facility for the company to be able to perform
the service.
– Frequently, the layout is focused on the customer satisfaction than on the operation itself.
– Some of the objectives include comfortability during the performance of the service, as
well as making attractive those areas in direct contact with the customer.
• Service Businesses have a more direct customer focus:
– The customer, with his/her presence, creates the work flow.
• The workload forecast and the activities planning is not as accurate as it is in a
manufacturing environment.
• Queues:
– Seasonal and heterogeneous demand: execution time can be variable.
– Services are intangible: adjustment between demand and production can not be
done through inventory management.
– Queues are formed by people: higher implications for the layout.

11/19/20
• Plant layout for a commerce:
– Objective: Maximize the net benefit per m2 of shelves.
– If sales are directly related to the exposition of products to the customer, the objective
will consist of exposing as many products as possible to the customers in the available
space.
• This has to take into account to leave enough space for the movement among
shelves, not making the layout uncomfortable for the customer.
– Aspects:
• Allocation of daily consumption products at the periphery.- Allocation of impulsive
purchase and high profit margin products in prominent places.
• Eliminate aisles that allow the customers to go from one row to other without going
through them completely.
• Global organization of the available space:
– Allocation of attraction products on both sides of a row, and dispersion of them
to increase the exposition of adjacent products.
– Use the end of a row as a place for exposition.
– Creation of the business image through a careful selection of the first section
where the customers are getting into the facility.
• Allocation of products in the exposition areas:
– This aspect remains within the commercial function. It is called merchandising.

11/19/20
 Three Retail Layout Patterns
 Grid

 Rectangular with parallel

aisles; formal; controls
traffic flow; uses selling
space efficiently.
 Free-Form
 Free-flowing; informal; Cafetería
creates "friendly"
environment; flexible.
 Boutique
 Divides store into a series
of individual shopping
areas, each with its own
theme; unique shopping
environment.
Cafetería
11/19/20
• Purpose is to minimize the number of people and/or
machines on an assembly line that is required to produce
a given number of units

• Line Balancing is the process of assigning tasks to

workstations in such a way that the workstations have
approximately equal time requirements.

• Designing product layouts requires consideration of:

 Sequence of tasks to be performed by each
workstation
 Logical order
 Speed considerations – line balancing

11/19/20
Step 1: Identify tasks & immediate predecessors
Step 2: Determine output rate
Step 3: Determine cycle time
Step 4: Compute the Theoretical Minimum number of
Stations
Step 5: Assign tasks to workstations (balance the
line)
Step 6: Compute efficiency, idle time & balance delay

Cycle time is the maximum time allowed at each

workstation to complete its set of tasks on a
11/19/20
 Example 1
Step 1: Identify Tasks & Immediate
Predecessors
Example 10.4 Vicki's Pizzeria and the Precedence Diagram
Immediate Task Time
Work Element Task Description Predecessor (seconds
A Roll dough None 50
B Place on cardboard backing A 5
C Sprinkle cheese B 25
D Spread Sauce C 15
E Add pepperoni D 12
F Add sausage D 10
G Add mushrooms D 15
H Shrinkwrap pizza E,F,G 18
I Pack in box H 15
Total task time 165

11/19/20
 Layout Calculations
• Step 2: Determine output rate
– Vicki needs to produce 60 pizzas per hour
• Step 3: Determine cycle time
– The amount of time each workstation is allowed to
complete its tasks
available time  sec./day  60 min/hr x 60 sec/min
Cycle time (sec./unit)    60 sec./unit
desired output  units/hr 60 units/hr

– Limited by the bottleneck task (the longest task in a

process):
available time 3600 sec./hr.
Maximum output    72 units/hr, or pizzas per hour
bottleneck task time 50 sec./unit

11/19/20
 Layout Calculations con’t
• Step 4: Compute the theoretical minimum
number of stations
– TM = number of stations needed to achieve
100% efficiency (every second is used)

  task times  165 seconds

TM    2.75, or 3 stations
cycle time 60 sec/station

– Always round up (no partial workstations)

– Serves as a lower bound for our analysis

11/19/20
 Layout Calculations con’t
• Step 5: Assign tasks to workstations
– Start at the first station & choose the longest eligible task following
precedence relationships
– Continue adding the longest eligible task that fits without going over the
desired cycle time
– When no additional tasks can be added within the desired cycle time, begin
assigning tasks to the next workstation until finished

Workstation Eligible task Task Selected Task time Idle time

A A 50 10
1
B B 5 5
C C 25 35
2 D D 15 20
E, F, G G 15 5
E, F E 12 48
F F 10 38
3
H H 18 20
11/19/20
I I 15 5
 Last Layout Calculation

• Step 6: Compute efficiency and balance delay

– Efficiency (%) is the ratio of total productive time
divided by total time

Efficiency (%) 
 t

165 sec.
 100  91.7%
NC 3 stations x 60 sec.

– Balance delay (%) is the amount by which the line

falls short of 100%

Balance delay  100%  91.7%  8.3%

11/19/20
 OOTT
OOuutp
tpuutt ccaappaaccity
ity ==
CCTT

OOTT  ooppeera
ratin
tingg tim
timee ppeerr ddaayy

DD == DDeessire
iredd oouutp
tpuutt ra
rate
te

OOTT
CCTT == ccyc le tim e =
yc le tim e =
DD

11/19/20
 (D)(t)
N=
OT

t = sum of task times

11/19/20
Figure 6.10

Precedence diagram: Tool used in line balancing to

display elemental tasks and sequence requirements
0.1 min. 1.0 min.
A Simple Precedence
a b Diagram

c d e
0.7 min. 0.5 min. 0.2 min.

11/19/20
 Arrange tasks shown in Figure 6.10 into
three workstations.
◦ Use a cycle time of 1.0 minute
◦ Assign tasks in order of the most number of
followers

11/19/20
 Revised
Time Assign Time Station
Workstation Remaining Eligible Task Remaining Idle Time
1 1.0 a, c a 0.9
0.9 c c 0.2
0.2 none - 0.2
2 1.0 b b 0.0 0.0
3 1.0 d d 0.5
0.5 e e 0.3 0.3
0.3 - - 0.5
 I
dlet
imeperc
yc
le
P
er
cen
tid
le
tim
e=
(
N)(
CT)

N... Minimum number of work station

c.. Cycle time

Efficiency = 1 – Percent idle time

11/19/20
Some Heuristic (intuitive) Rules:
 Assign tasks in order of most following
tasks.
◦ Count the number of tasks that follow
 Assign tasks in order of greatest positional
weight.
◦ Positional weight is the sum of each task’s time
and the times of all following tasks.

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0.2 0.2 0.3
a b e

0.8 0.6
c d f g h
1.0 0.4 0.3

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Station 1 Station 2 Station 3 Station 4

a b e
f g h
c d

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 30/hr. 30/hr. 30/hr. 30/hr.
1 min. 1 min. 2 min. 1 min.

Bottleneck

30/hr. 1 min. 30/hr.

60/hr. 60/hr.
1 min. 1 min. 1 min.
30/hr.
1 min. 30/hr.

Parallel Workstations

11/19/20
Information Requirements:
1. List of departments
2. Projection of work flows
3. Distance between locations
4. Amount of money to be invested
5. List of special considerations
6. Location of key utilities

11/19/20
Figure 6.12

30

170 100
1 3 2

A B C

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 Milling

Assembly
Grinding
& Test

Drilling Plating
Process Layout - work travels
to dedicated process centers

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222 222 222
111 Drill Grind
Mill

22
444 3333

222
444

1111 2222 Assembly

33
33

44
111 333
33

44
333
33

4
111
3

333
111
Heat 111 Gear
333 Lathes
treat cutting 444

11/19/20
 Heat Gear
-1111 Lathe Mill Drill -1111
treat cut

Heat
Mill Drill Grind - 2222

Assembly
222222222 treat

Heat
3333333333 Lathe Mill Grind - 3333
treat

44444444444444 Mill Drill Gear - 4444

cut

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11/19/20