2. Introduction
Plant layout refers to the physical arrangement of
production facilities.
It is the configuration of departments, work centers
and equipment in the conversion process.
It is a floor plan of the physical facilities, which are
used in production.
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3. Plant layout refers to the arrangement of physical
facilities such as machines, equipment, tools,
furniture etc. in such a manner so as to have
quickest flow of material at the lowest cost and
with the least amount of handling in processing the
product from the receipt of raw material to the
delivery of the final product.
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Cont…
4. Definition: Plant layout
Facilities can be broadly defined as
buildings where people, material, and
machines come together for a stated purpose
– typically to make a tangible product or
provide a service.
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5. Cont…
“Plant layout is such a systematic and efficient
functional arrangement of various departments,
machines, tools, equipment and other supports
services of an industrial organization that will
facilitate the smooth processing of the proposed
or undertaken product in the most effective, most
efficient and most economical manner in the
minimum possible time”
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6. Cont…
According to Moore “Plant layout is a plan of an
optimum arrangement of facilities including
personnel, operating equipment, storage space,
material handling equipment and all other
supporting services along with the design of best
structure to contain all these facilities”.
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7. Criteria for a good plant layout
Maximum flexibility: A good layout will be one
which can be rapidly modified to meet changing
circumstances
Maximum co-ordination: Entry into, and disposal
from, any department or functional area should
be in such a manner that it is must convenient to
the issuing or receiving departments.
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8. Cont…
Maximum use of volume: Facilities should be
considered as cubic devices and maximum use
made of the volume available. This principle is
particularly useful in stores,
Maximum visibility: All the people and materials
should be readily observable at all the time; there
should be no ‘hidden places’ into which goods or
information can get mislaid
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9. cont…
Maximum accessibility: All servicing and
maintenance points should be readily accessible.
For example, equipment should not be placed
against a wall in such a manner that necessary
maintenance cannot easily be carried out.
Minimum distance: All movements should be both
necessary and direct. Handling work adds to cost
but does not increase value; consequently any
unnecessary or indirect movements should be
avoided
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10. Cont…
Minimum handling: The best handling of material
and information is no handling, but where it is
unavoidable it should be reduced to a minimum by
the use of whatever devices are most appropriate.
Minimum discomfort: poor lighting, excessive
sunlight, heat, noise, vibration and smells should be
minimized and if possible counteracted.
Inherent safety: the major principle is to remove
the hazard altogether.
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11. Cont…
The best method to achieve this is to reduce the
inventory of hazardous substances such that a major
hazard is no longer presented
Maximum security A good layout is one that gives
due consideration to workers safety and satisfaction
and safeguards the plant and machinery against
fire, theft, etc.
Efficient process flow
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12. Advantages of a good layout
The overall process time and cost will be minimized
by reducing unnecessary handling and movement,
Supervision and control will be simplified by the
elimination of ‘hidden corners,
Changes in the programmers will be most readily
accommodated’
Total output from a given facility will be as high as
possible by making the maximum effective use of
available space and resources
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13. Cont…
A feeling of unity among employees will be
encouraged by avoiding unnecessary segregation.,
Quality of the products or service will be sustained
by safer and more effective methods of operation.
A well designed plant layout is one that can be
beneficial in achieving the following objectives:
Proper and efficient utilization of available floor
spaces,
Transportation of work from one point to another
point without any delay,
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14. Cont…
Proper utilization of production capacity,
Reduce material handling costs,
Utilize labor efficiently,
Reduce accidents,
Provide for volume and product flexibility,
Provide ease of supervision and control,
Provide for employee safety and health,
Allow easy maintenance of machines and plant,
Improve productivity.
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15. Types of Plant Layout
A. Process
B. Product
C. Cellular
D. Fixed position
E. Hybrid (mixed)
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16. Process Layout
Process layout is recommended for batch
production.
All machines performing similar type of operations
are grouped at one location in the process layout
e.g., all lathes, milling machines, etc. are grouped in
the shop will be clustered in like groups.
Thus, in process layout the arrangement of facilities
are grouped together according to their functions.
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18. cont…
A manufacturing example of a process layout is the
machine shop, which has separate departments for
milling, grinding, drilling, and so on.
is a format in which similar equipment or functions
are grouped together, such as all lathes in one area
and all stamping machines in another.
Process layout is normally used when the production
volume is not sufficient to justify a product layout.
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19. cont…
Different products of customer have different
requirements therefore they may take different
routes within the process.
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20. Cont…
Characteristics of Process Layout
General-purpose equipment is used
Changeover is rapid
Operators are highly skilled
Technical supervision is required
Planning, scheduling and controlling functions are
challenging
Production time is relatively long
In-process inventory is relatively high
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21. 21
An example of a process layout in a library
showing the path of just one customer
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22. Cont…
Advantages
In process layout machines are better utilized and
fewer machines are required.
Flexibility of equipment and personnel is possible in
process layout.
Lower investment on account of comparatively less
number of machines and lower cost of general
purpose machines.
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23. Cont…
Higher utilization of production facilities.
A high degree of flexibility with regards to work
distribution to machineries and workers.
The diversity of tasks and variety of job makes the
job challenging and interesting.
Supervisors will become highly knowledgeable
about the functions under their department
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24. Cont…
Limitations
Backtracking and long movements may occur in the
handling of materials thus, reducing material
handling efficiency.
Material handling cannot be mechanized which
adds to cost.
Process time is prolonged which reduce the
inventory turnover and increases the in-process
inventory.
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25. Cont…
Lowered productivity due to number of set-ups.
Throughput (time gap between in and out in the
process) time is longer.
Space and capital are tied up by work-in-process.
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Product (Assembly Line) Layout
Product layouts are used to achieve a smooth and
rapid flow of large volumes of products or customers
through a system
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27. Cont…
In this type of layout, machines and auxiliary
services are located according to the processing
sequence of the product.
If the volume of production of one or more
products is large, the facilities can be arranged to
achieve efficient flow of materials and lower cost
per unit.
Special purpose machines are used which perform
the required function quickly and reliably.
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28. Cont…
For instance, if a portion of a manufacturing
operation required the sequence of cutting,
polishing, and painting, the appropriate pieces
of equipment would be arranged in that
sequence.
Product layouts achieve a high degree of
labor and equipment utilization.
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29. Cont…
Flow is clear, predictable and easy to control.
equipment or work processes are arranged
according to the progressive steps by which the
product is made.
The path for each part is, in effect, a straight
line.
Production lines for shoes, chemical plants, and
car washes are all product layouts.
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30. Cont…
Characteristics of Product Layouts
Special-purpose equipment are used
Changeover is expensive and lengthy
Material flow is continuous
Material handling equipment is fixed
Little direct supervision is required
Planning, scheduling and controlling functions are
relatively straight-forward
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32. Cont…
Throughput time is less.
Minimum material handling cost.
Simplified production, planning and control systems
are possible.
Less space is occupied by work transit and for
temporary storage
Reduced material handling cost due to mechanized
handling systems and straight flow.
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33. Cont…
Perfect line balancing which eliminates bottlenecks
and idle capacity.
Manufacturing cycle is short due to uninterrupted flow
of materials.
Small amount of work-in-process inventory.
Unskilled workers can learn and manage the
production
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34. Cont…
Limitations
A breakdown of one machine in a product line may
cause stoppages of machines in the downstream of
the line.
A change in product design may require major
alterations in the layout.
The line output is decided by the bottleneck machine.
Comparatively high investment in equipments is
required.
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37. Cellular Layout
Cellular Layout
Cellular manufacturing is a type of layout in
which machines are grouped into what is
referred to as a cell.
Groupings are determined by the operations
needed to perform work for a set of similar
items, or part families that require similar
processing.
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38. Cont…
In-group technology layout, the objective is to minimize
the sum of the cost of transportation and the cost of
equipments. So, this is called as multi-objective layout.
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39. Cont…
Cellular layout provides faster processing time, less
material handling, less work-in-process inventory, and
reduced setup time.
Used when the operations system must handle a
moderate variety of products in moderate volumes
Every cell contains a group of machines which are
dedicated to the production of a family of parts.
One of the problems is to identify a family parts that
require the same group of machines.
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40. Cont…
Cellular layout is also called as group layouts.
Group technology (GT) is the analysis and
comparisons of items to group them into families
with similar characteristics.
GT can be used to develop a hybrid between pure
process layout and pure flow line (product) layout.
This technique is very useful for companies that
produce variety of parts in small batches to enable
them to take advantage and economics of flow line
layout
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41. Cont…
The application of group technology involves two
basic steps;
first step is to determine component families or
groups.
The second step in applying group technology is to
arrange the plants equipment used to process a
particular family of components.
This represents small plants within the plants.
The group technology reduces production planning
time for jobs. It reduces the set-up time
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42. Cont…
The basic aim of a group technology layout is to
identify families of components that require similar of
satisfying all the requirements of the machines are
grouped into cells.
Each cell is capable of satisfying all the requirements
of the component family assigned to it.
The layout design process considers mostly a
single objective while designing layouts.
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43. Cont…
In process layout, the objective is to minimize the
total cost of materials handling. Because of the
nature of the layout, the cost of equipments will
be the minimum in this type of layout.
In product layout, the cost of materials handling
will be at the absolute minimum. But the cost of
equipments would not be at the minimum if the
equipments are not fully utilized.
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44. Cont…
In-group technology layout, the objective is to minimize
the sum of the cost of transportation and the cost of
equipments. So, this is called as multi-objective layout.
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45. Cont…
Advantages of Group Technology Layout
Group Technology layout can increase
Component standardization and rationalization.
Reliability of estimates.
Effective machine operation and productivity.
Customer service.
It can decrease the
Paper work and overall production time.
Work-in-progress and work movement.
Overall cost.
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46. Cont…
Limitations of Group Technology Layout
This type of layout may not be feasible for all
situations.
If the product mix is completely dissimilar, then we
may not have meaningful cell formation.
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47. Fixed Position Layout
Fixed Position Layout
This is also called the project type of layout. In this
type of layout, the material, or major components
remain in a fixed location and tools, machinery, men
and other materials are brought to this location.
This type of layout is suitable when one or a few
pieces of identical heavy products are to be
manufactured and when the assembly consists of
large number of heavy parts, the cost of
transportation of these parts is very high
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48. Cont…
Fixed-position layout is used when product is very
bulky, heavy or fragile
Fixed-position layouts are used in large construction
projects (buildings, power plants, and dams),
shipbuilding, and production of large aircraft and
space mission rockets.
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49. Hybrid (mixed) Layout
Hybrid (mixed) Layout
Actually, most manufacturing facilities use a
combination of layout types.
An example of a hybrid layout is where departments
are arranged according to the types of processes but
the products flow through on a product layout.
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50. Cont…
For instance, supermarket layouts are fundamentally
of a process nature, and however we find most use
fixed-path material-handling devices such as roller-
type conveyors both in the stockroom and at
checkouts, and belt-type conveyors at the cash
registers
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51. Cont…
Hospitals also use the basic process arrangement,
although frequently patient care involves more of a
fixed-position approach, in which nurses, doctors,
medicines, and special equipment are brought to the
patient.
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53. Facilities Planning Process
1. Define (or redefine) the objective of the facility,
2. Specify the primary and support activities to be
performed in accomplishing the objective.
Requirements in terms of:
Operations,
Equipment
Personnel,
Material flows should be satisfied.
3. Determine the interrelationships among all activities
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54. Cont…
4. Determine the space requirements for all activities,
5. Generate alternative facilities plans,
6. Evaluate alternative facilities plans (alternative
locations and alternative designs),
7. Select a facilities plan,
8. Implement the facilities plan,
9. Maintain and adapt the facilities plan,
10. Redefine the objective of the facility.
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55. Plant Design Situations may arise
design and erection of a completely new plant
design and erection of an addition to the existing
plant
the facility or plant operations and subsequent
expansion restricted by a poor site, thereby
necessitating the setting up of the plant at a new
site
addition of some new product to the existing
range
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56. Cont…
adoption of some new process /replacement of
some existing equipment
modernization / automation of the existing facility
expansion of the plant capacity
relocating the existing plant at a new site because
of new economic, social, legal or political factors
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57. Factors that influence layout:
Volume, weight of items to be produced.
Nature of the Product/service to be provided.
Cost of the building to house the operation.
The product mix that must have a facility.
The fragility of the product or component
The type of machinery
Repairs and Maintenance.
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