UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Bachelor of Industrial Engineering

COURSE CODE: IMB 415 COURSE TITLE: FACILITIES PLANNING AND

VALUE ENGINEERING

TEST 1:

DATE : 15 SEPTEMBER 2022 TIME: 75 min MAXIMUM MARKS: 50

MODEL ANSWERRS
Question 1 [25 Marks]

a. Using a manufacturing environment as an example, state any six (6) symptoms that may
indicate a need for a facility re-planning. [6]

Solution – ANY SIX (1 mark for each)

i. Congestion and bad utilization of space.
ii. Excessive stock in process at the facility.
iii. Long distances in the work flow process.
iv. Simultaneous bottle necks and workstations with idle time.
v. Qualified workers carrying out too many simple operations.
vi. Labor anxiety and discomfort.
vii. Accidents at the facility.
viii. Difficulty in controlling operations and personnel.

b. Describe four (4) activities that would be involved in planning the location of an athletic
stadium. [4]

Solution – ANY FOUR (1 mark for each)

i. Marketing analysis: Is there a fan base to support the teams or events that will occupy
the facility?
ii. Determining a suitable plot of land for the facility and its associated parking lots in
terms of size and levelness
iii. Determine by what routes suppliers will supply the facility
iv. Determine if there are other facilities that will interact with the stadium and how the
location of the facility will affect those interactions
v. Determine if existing structures will need to be demolished to accommodate the new
stadium and how those people or businesses will be compensated
vi. Determine the stability of the land that will be used to hold this structure

c. State any two (2) types of information used by a Facilities Planner for each of the following:
i. product design, [2]
ii. process design, [2]
iii. schedule design. [2]

Solution
From Product Design From Process Design From Schedule Design
(1 mark for each of 2 (1 mark for each of 2 (1 mark for each of 2
points) points) points)
Exploded assembly Route sheet Production quantities (lot
drawing sizing)
Exploded parts photograph Precedence diagram When to produce
(production scheduling)
Parts list Assembly chart How long production will
continue

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 Bill of materials Operation process chart

d. Facility Planning determines how an activity’s tangible fixed assets best support achieving
the activity’s objectives. What is the objective of facilities for the following?
i. A warehouse [2]
ii. A hospital [2]

Solution
i. In a warehouse, the objective is to provide storage for material. (2 marks)
ii. In a hospital, the objective is to provide medical care to patients. (2 marks)

e. A distribution centre has decided to allow its workers one hour for lunch. The lunch breaks
are to start at 11:00 AM and to end at 14:30 PM. How many lunch starting times can be
accommodated if lunch breaks must begin on hour, on the quarter hour, or on the half hour.
[5]

Solution
Shift Times for 1 hour Lunch Breaks

Since an employee typically spends the first third of their lunch break preparing to eat and
obtaining their meal (1 mark), for a one-hour lunch break, dining shifts may begin every 40
minutes (rounded up to 45 minutes because shifts must begin and end on 15 minute increments)
(1 mark). Consequently, 3 lunch shifts (1 mark) can be included in the 11:00 A.M. to 2:30 P.M.
time frame. The following table shows the shift timing for each lunch break.

Beginning of Lunch Time Sat Down in Chair End of Lunch Break

Breaks (1 mark) (1 mark) (1 mark)
11:00 AM 11:20 AM 12:00 PM
11:45 AM 12:05 PM 12:45 AM
12:30 PM 12:50 AM 13:30 PM
13:15 PM 13:35 14:15 PM

Four lunch breaks.

Question 2 [25 Marks]

a. A company produces three (3) products in its production facility. The facility has five (5)
departments labelled A-E. The routing information and production quantities are given in the
table below. With respect to movement, Product 2 is half as large as product 1, Product 3 is
twice as large as product 1 and Product 4 is one and half as large as Product 1. Determine
the from-to-chart. [4]

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 Production Volume
Product Quantities Routing (compared to
(per day) Product 1)
1 25 B-A-D-C-A 1
2 20 A-D-C-B 0.5
3 18 A-C-D-B 2
4 10 B-A-C-D 1.5

Solution
Equivalent
Production Volume
Product
Product Quantities Routing (compared to
Quantities
(per day) Product 1)
(1 mark)
1 25 B-A-D-C-A 1 25

2 20 A-D-C-B 0.5 10

3 18 A-C-D-B 2 36

4 10 B-A-C-D 1.5 15

From – to- Chart (3 marks)

Department A B C D
A - 0 36+15 = 51 25+10 = 35
B 25+15 = 40 - 0 0
C 25 10 - 36+15 = 51
D 0 36 25+10 = 35 -

b. What is the impact on the space required in a parking lot if spaces are assigned or if they are
filled randomly? [3]

Solution
When parking spaces are assigned, there must be a 1:1 ratio between the number of spaces and
the number of employees that work in the facility, and the parking space utilization will be low
depending on whether or not some personnel are not at the facility during the day. If there is a
random parking philosophy at the company, then anywhere between a 1:1.25 to a 1:3 ratio of
parking spaces to employees is required, depending on whether or not the facility is serviced by
public transportation. Consequently, only 33%- 80% of the space required for an assigned space
parking lot is necessary for a random space parking lot.

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c. Explain the type of manufacturing environment best suited for a fixed product layout and
give an example of typical manufacturing environment [2]

Solution:
It should be used when the product is too large or cumbersome to move through the various
processing steps (1 mark), e.g. shipbuilding industry, aspects of the aircraft industry, and the
construction industry (1 mark).

d. Explain the meaning of a material management system, material flow system, and a
physical distribution system for a bank and provide examples of the subject of flow for each
of the systems. [6]

Solution
A material management system for a bank refers to the flow process into the bank (1
mark). The subjects of this system might include, but are not limited to, coin, currency,
checks, other monetary instruments, deposit and withdrawal forms, loan documents,
customers, suppliers, employees, banking supplies, and equipment required to operate
the bank (1 mark). The material flow system for a bank refers to the movement of
materials, supplies, equipment, and personnel (1 mark) within the bank (1 mark. The
physical distribution system at a bank describes the flow of money and information,
including loan and other documents ( 1 mark), out of the bank (1 mark).

e. For each of the following material handling principles, (a) explain what it means and (b) give
a specific example of how it can be applied.

i. Unit load principle [3]

ii. Space utilisation principle [3]

Solution
i. Unit Load principle: A unit load is one that can be stored or moved as a single entity at
one time, such as pallet, container, etc, regardless of the number of individual items that
make up the load. In this principle, product should be handled in as large a unit load as
practical. As an example, instead of moving individual products, a number of products
can be palletized and move as a single load. However, the size of the load must be
considered as excessive unit load can reduce the visibility of the forklift driver or may not
be practical in utilizing truck space. Moving as large a unit load as practical must be
exercised in the context of just-in-time delivery. There is no point in moving materials if
it will not be used for a long duration. [3]

ii. Space Utilization principle: Space in material handling is three dimensional and therefore
is counted as cubic space and effective utilization of all cubic space is the essence of this
principle. If products are stored in a container, the product should fill up the container. In

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 storage application, the storage dimension should be designed to fit a unit load with some
tolerance for storage and retrieval. [3]

f. Quantitative and qualitative flow measures are used when planning facilities. Explain the
following terms.
i. Quantitative measures [1]
ii. Qualitative measures [1]
iii. From-To Chart [1]
iv. Activity Relationship Diagram [1]

Solution:
i. Quantitative: measures may include pieces per hour, moves per day, or kilograms
per week. (1)
ii. Qualitative: measures may range from an absolute necessity that two departments
be close to each other to a preference that two departments not be close to each
other. (1)
iii. From-To Chart: the chart most often used to measure quantitative flow between
departments. (1)
iv. Activity Relationship Diagram: the chart used to measure qualitative flow (1)

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