Process Design

and
Facility Layout
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 Process Types

• Job Shops: Small lots, low volume, general equipment,

skilled workers, high-variety. Ex: tool and die shop,
veterinarian’s office
• Batch Processing: Moderate volume and variety. Variety
among batches but not inside. Ex:paint production ,
BA3352 sections
• Repetitive/Assembly: Semicontinuous, high volume of
standardized items, limited variety. Ex: auto plants,
cafeteria
• Continuous Processing: Very high volume an no variety.
Ex: steel mill, chemical plants
• Projects: Nonroutine jobs. Ex: preparing BA3352
midterm 2
 Product – Process Matrix

Dimension Job Shop Batch Repetitive Continuous

Job variety Very High Moderate Low Very low
Process Very High Moderate Low Very low
flexibility

Unit cost Very High Moderate Low Very low

Volume of Very low Low High Very high
output

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 Layout

• Layout: the configuration of departments, work

centers, and equipment,
– Whose design involves particular emphasis on
movement of work (customers or materials) through
the system
• Importance of layout
– 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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 The Need for Layout Decisions

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
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The Need for Layout Design (Cont’d)

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

Morale problems
Changes in methods
and equipment

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 Basic Layout Types

• Product Layout
– Layout that uses standardized processing operations
to achieve smooth, rapid, high-volume flow
• Auto plants, cafeterias
• Process Layout
– Layout that can handle varied processing requirements
• Tool and die shops, university departments
• Fixed Position Layout
– Layout in which the product or project remains
stationary, and workers, materials, and equipment are
moved as needed
• Building projects, disabled patients at hospitals
• Combination Layouts
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 A Flow Line for Production or Service

Flow Shop or Assembly Line Work Flow

Raw Station Station Station Station Finished

materials 1 2 3 4 item
or customer
Material Material Material Material
and/or and/or and/or and/or
labor labor labor labor

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 A U-Shaped Production Line

Advantage: more compact, increased communication

facilitating team work, minimize the material handling
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 Process Layout

Process Layout
(functional)
Dept. A Dept. C Dept. E

Dept. B Dept. D Dept. F

Used for Intermittent processing

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 Process Layout

Milling

Assembly
Grinding
& Test

Drilling Plating
Process Layout - work travels
to dedicated process centers

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 Product layout
Advantages Disadvantages
– High volume – Lacks flexibility
– Low unit cost • Volume, design, mix
– Low labor skill needed – Boring for labor
– Low material handling • Low motivation
– High efficiency and • Low worker enrichment
utilization – Can not accommodate
– Simple routing and partial shut
scheduling downs/breakdowns
– Simple to track and – Individual incentive
control
plans are not possible

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 Cellular Layouts

• Cellular Manufacturing
– Layout in which machines are grouped into a cell that
can process items that have similar processing
requirements. A product layout is visible inside each
cell.
• Group Technology
– The grouping into part families of items with similar
design or manufacturing characteristics. Each cell is
assigned a family for production. This limits the
production variability inside cells, hence allowing for a
product layout.

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 Process vs. Cellular Layouts

Dimension Process Cellular

Number of moves many few
between departments
Travel distances longer shorter
Travel paths variable fixed
Job waiting times greater shorter
Amount of work in higher lower
process
Supervision difficulty higher lower
Scheduling complexity higher lower
Equipment utilization Lower? Higher?

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 Basic Layout Formats

• Group Technology Layout

Similar to cellular layout

Part Family W Part Family X Part Family Z

Assemble Y,W Assemble X,Z

Part Family Y

Final Product
• Fixed Position Layout
– e.g. Shipbuilding

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 Fixed-Position and combination Layout

• Fixed-Position Layout:
item being worked on remains stationary,
and workers, materials and equipment are
moved as needed.
Example: buildings, dams, power plants
• Combination Layouts:
combination of three pure types.
Example: hospital: process and fixed position.
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 Service Layouts

• Warehouse and storage layouts

Issue: Frequency of orders
• Retail layouts
Issue: Traffic patterns and traffic flows
• Office layouts
Issue: Information transfer, openness

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 Design Product Layouts: Line Balancing

Line balancing is the process of assigning tasks to workstations

in such a way that the workstations have approximately the same
processing time requirements. This results in the minimized idle time
along the line and high utilization of labor and equipment.
4 tasks 2 tasks

Worker 1 Worker 2

Each task takes 1 minutes, how to balance?

Cycle time is the maximum time allowed at each workstation

to complete its set of tasks on a single unit
What is the cycle time for the system above?
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 Parallel Workstations

30/hr. 30/hr. 30/hr. 30/hr.

1 min. 1 min. 2 min. 1 min.

Bottleneck

30/hr. 2 min. 30/hr.

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

Parallel Workstations

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