plant layouts

1. Based of the type of Industry, production quantity and production variety,
following are the major plant layout types:
Process
Layout
Product
Layout
Fixed-position
Layout
C ombinational
Layout
C ellular
Layout
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3. In this type of layout, all machines (and other equipment) for performing
similar/same operations are grouped at one location e.g. all lathes are
grouped in one shop, all the drill machines at another shop and so on.
Therefore, we can say that there are different shops (or areas) in this type of a
plant each dedicated to provide a different process or function.
Machines are not arranged as per the operation sequence of any product.
Any product that requires all or some of the available processes in the plant
can be manufactured using this plant layout.
Process layout is also known as Functional Layout or Job-shop layout.
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4.  Suitable for production of different products in batches. It is characterized by
low to medium variety and small to intermediate production volume.
 G reater flexibility with regard to work distribution to machinery and
personnel. Adapted to frequent changes in sequence of operations.
 Lower investment due to general purpose machines; which usually are less
costly than special purpose machines.
 Higher utilization of production facilities; which can be adapted to a variety of
products.
 Variety of jobs makes the work challenging and interesting.
 Breakdown of one machine does not result in complete stoppage of work. It
can be easily handled by transferring work to another machine/work station.
 It offers better and more efficient supervision through specialization at
various levels.
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5.  Backtracking and long movements occur in handling of materials. As such, material
handling costs are higher.
 Total production cycle time is more owing to long distances and waiting at various points.
 Since more work is in queue and waiting for further operation hence bottle necks occur.
 Mechanization of material handling is highly challenging (not possible in many cases) and
expensive.
 Production planning and control is difficult. It is difficult to achieve good labour and
equipment balance.
 More space requirement; as work-in-progress inventory is high-requiring greater storage
space.
 As the work has to pass through different departments; it is quite difficult to fix the
responsibility for the finished product.
 Specialization creates monotony and there will be difficult for the laid workers to find job in
other industries.
 It is difficult to undertake adequate time and motion studies. 5

6. 6

7.  All the processing equipment and machines are arranged according to the
sequence of operations of the product
 In this type of layout, only one product of one type of products is produced in
an operating area. This product is standardized and produced in large
quantities.
 It is also called line layout or flow layout because machines are arrange in a
line.
 The raw material is supplied at one end of the line and goes from one
operation to the next quite rapidly with a minimum work in process, storage
and material handling. The finished product is taken out at the other end of
the line.
 Special purpose machines are used to perform required operations at
different workstations.
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8.  Reduced material handling cost due to mechanized handling systems and
straight flow
 Perfect line balancing which eliminates bottlenecks and idle capacity.
 Short manufacturing cycle due to uninterrupted flow of materials and therefore,
total production time is also minimized.
 Simplified production planning and control; and simple and effective inspection of
work.
 Small amount of work-in-progress inventory
 Lesser wage cost, as unskilled workers can learn and manage production.
 Time and motion studies can be done to determine the rate of work.
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 G ood balance of labour and equipment exists and therefore
utilization is achievable.
 Minimum of inspection is required, during sequence of operations.
 Minimum of set-ups are required.
there better

9.  Lack of flexibility of operations, as layout cannot be adapted to the
manufacture of any other type of product.
 Large capital investment, because of special purpose machines.
 Any breakdown of one machine in the sequence may result in stoppage of
production.
 Same machines duplicated for manufacture of different products; may lead to
high overall operational costs.
 Delicate special purpose machines require costly maintenance/repairs.
 The manufacturing cost increases with a fall in volume of production.
 Specialized and strict supervision is essential.
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12.  In this type of layout the major component remain in a fixed location, other
materials, parts, tools, machinery, man power and other supporting
equipment’s are brought to this location.
 It is also called stationary layout or static layout.
 Ship-building, air-craft manufacturing, wagon building, heavy construction of
dams, bridges, buildings etc. are typical examples of such layout.
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13.  Material movement is reduced.
 Capital investment is minimized.
 The task is usually done by gang of operators, hence continuity of operations
is ensured
 Production centers are independent of each other. Hence, effective planning
and loading can be made. Thus total production cost will be reduced.
 It offers greater flexibility and allows change in product design, product mix
and production volume.
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14.  Highly skilled man power is required.
 Movement of machines equipment’s
consuming.
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to production center may be time
 Complicated fixtures may be required for positioning of jobs and tools. This
may increase the cost of production.
 It require complicated work schedule.

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16.  In practice, plants are rarely laid out either in product or process layout form.
Generally a combination of the two basic layouts is employed to derive the
advantages of both systems of layout. For example, refrigerator
manufacturing uses a combination layout.
 Combination of two types of layouts may occur in different forms:
Most of the manufacturing sections are arranged in process layout with
manufacturing lines occurring here and there (scattered) wherever the conditions
permit.
Machinery is arranged in a process layout but the process grouping (a group of
number of similar machines) is then arranged in a sequence to manufacture
various types and sizes of products.
Process layout is used for producing components and thereafter the final assembled
product is manufactured on an assembly line (a product layout).
 It is also known as combined layout or hybrid layout.
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17.  In a typical factory, process layout is used to produce various operations like
stamping, welding, heat treatment being carried out in different work centers
as per requirement. The final assembly of the product is done in a product
type layout.
 In case when the same product varies in size and type but the sequence of
operations remain same or similar, similar machines are grouped in
departments and departments are arranged in a product layout format. As
illustrated in the given diagram for gear manufacturing.
 A combination layout is also useful when a number of items are produced in
same sequence but none of the items are to be produced in bulk and thus no
item justifies for an individual and independent production line. For example,
files, hacksaws, circular metal saws, wood saws, etc. can be manufactured on
a combination type of layout.
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18.  Group Technology (GT): It is a management philosophy of dividing
items/objects/things into groups (also called families) on the basis of
similarities of their attributes.
 Cellular layout applies the principle of group technology to manufacturing to
take advantage of similarities in products grouped in a family. This technique
is very useful for companies that produce large variety of parts in small
batches.
 To enable them to take advantage of economics of flow line layout, a process
layout can be redesigned into a cellular layout.
 In this layout,
all products are grouped in families on the basis of their manufacturing attributes
each family is assigned a cell for its manufacturing whereby the operations required
are provided in a line layout.
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20.  Cellular manufacturing brings scattered processes together to form short, focused
paths in concentrated physical space.
 So constructed, by logic a cell reduces flow time, flow distance, floor space,
inventory, handling, scheduling transactions, and scrap and rework (the latter
because of quick discovery of nonconformities).
 Cells lead to simplified, higher validity costing, since the costs of producing items
are contained within the cell rather than scattered.
 Cellular manufacturing facilitates both production and quality control. Cells that
are underperforming in either volume or quality can be easily isolated and targeted
for improvement.
 The segmentation of the production process allows problems to be easily located
and it is more clear which parts are affected by the problem.
 The small cell structure improves group cohesiveness and scales the manufacturing
process down to a more manageable level for the workers. Workers can more easily
see problems or possible improvements within their own cells and tend to be more
self-motivated to propose changes 22

21.  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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22.  High Cost: The cost of implementation is generally high. This is because an
outside consultant is often required since in house expertise on GT is rarely
available. It requires a long set up time and painful debugging.
 Not Suitable for large Variety of Products : May not be suitable for a factory with
a very large variety of products.
 The entire production of the company cannot be put under the GT and hence GT
will have to coexist with the conventional layouts.
 Not suits all Applications : There are too many GT codes in use and there is no
one GT code that suits all applications.
 It is often difficult to conceive all the operations for a group of components being
taken care of in the cell created for it.
 The range of product mix in a plant many be under constant change in which
case the GT cells may need constant revision which is impractical .
 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. 24