FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED IN PLANT LAYOUT
Layout decisions are important for three basic reasons:
(1) They require substantial investments of both money and effort.
(2) They involve long-term commitments, which makes mistakes difficult to overcome
( 3) They have a significant impact on the cost and efficiency of short-term operations
The basic principles of plant layout are as follows:
The total movement of material should be minimum. For this, one has to consider the movement distances between different work areas as well as the number of times such movements occur per unit period of time.
The arrangement of the work area should have as much congruence as possible with the flow of materials within the plant (form the stage of raw materials to the stage of finished goods
The stages at which value is added to the product and the sequence of the work areas should correspond with each other, as much as possible.
In effect, there should be no back-tracking and very little interruption in the flow of the product from the raw materials stage to the finished product.
The layout should ensure adequate safety and satisfactory working conditions for the employees
A good layout should take into consideration all the three dimensions of space available. In addition to the floor space, the vertical space available should also be taken into account while designing the work areas
The layout should be adaptable or flexible enough to allow for probable changes in the future as all systems should anticipate changes in the future
A good layout has to satisfy, therefore, the availability of space, the size and work area requirements of machinery and other utilities, the flow direction, type and number of movements of the materials, the men working in the plant, and also the future anticipated changes
The basic flow pattern types that are employed in designing the layouts are I-Flow, L-Flow, U-Flow, O-Flow, S-Flow.
The specialties of different flows are:
I – Type Separate Receiving and shipping area
L – Type Adopted, when straight line flow could not be accommodated.
U – Type Popular, combination of Receiving and Shipping at one end
O – Type Adopted when it is required to terminal the flow nearer to the origin
S – Type When the production line in long and Zig Zaging on the production floor is required.
LAYOUT DESIGN PROCEDURE
The overall layout design procedure has four phases. They are :
Phase I : Location
II : General Overall Layout
III : Detailed layout
IV : Implementation
The systematic procedure involves the following steps:
a. Data input and activities
b. Preparation of flow of materials
c. Activity (Precedence – Succeedence ) relationship
d. Plan of material handling
e. Relationship diagram preparation using steps : a to d
f. Calculation of space requirements
g. Identification of availability of space
h. Space Relationship Diagram preparation, using steps: e. f and g.
i. Modifying consideration
j. Practical Limitations
k. Develop Layout alternative, using steps: h, i and j
l. Evaluation of alternative
m. Selection of the best layout
LAYOUT TYPES There are three basic types of layouts and these correspond to the three types of processing systems. Product layouts are most conducive to continuous processing, process layouts are used for intermittent processing and fixed position layouts are used when projects require layouts. There are another two types of hybrid layouts. Cellular or group layout is a special type of process ay out
(1) They require substantial investments of both money and effort.
(2) They involve long-term commitments, which makes mistakes difficult to overcome
( 3) They have a significant impact on the cost and efficiency of short-term operations
The basic principles of plant layout are as follows:
The total movement of material should be minimum. For this, one has to consider the movement distances between different work areas as well as the number of times such movements occur per unit period of time.
The arrangement of the work area should have as much congruence as possible with the flow of materials within the plant (form the stage of raw materials to the stage of finished goods
The stages at which value is added to the product and the sequence of the work areas should correspond with each other, as much as possible.
In effect, there should be no back-tracking and very little interruption in the flow of the product from the raw materials stage to the finished product.
The layout should ensure adequate safety and satisfactory working conditions for the employees
A good layout should take into consideration all the three dimensions of space available. In addition to the floor space, the vertical space available should also be taken into account while designing the work areas
The layout should be adaptable or flexible enough to allow for probable changes in the future as all systems should anticipate changes in the future
A good layout has to satisfy, therefore, the availability of space, the size and work area requirements of machinery and other utilities, the flow direction, type and number of movements of the materials, the men working in the plant, and also the future anticipated changes
The basic flow pattern types that are employed in designing the layouts are I-Flow, L-Flow, U-Flow, O-Flow, S-Flow.
The specialties of different flows are:
I – Type Separate Receiving and shipping area
L – Type Adopted, when straight line flow could not be accommodated.
U – Type Popular, combination of Receiving and Shipping at one end
O – Type Adopted when it is required to terminal the flow nearer to the origin
S – Type When the production line in long and Zig Zaging on the production floor is required.
LAYOUT DESIGN PROCEDURE
The overall layout design procedure has four phases. They are :
Phase I : Location
II : General Overall Layout
III : Detailed layout
IV : Implementation
The systematic procedure involves the following steps:
a. Data input and activities
b. Preparation of flow of materials
c. Activity (Precedence – Succeedence ) relationship
d. Plan of material handling
e. Relationship diagram preparation using steps : a to d
f. Calculation of space requirements
g. Identification of availability of space
h. Space Relationship Diagram preparation, using steps: e. f and g.
i. Modifying consideration
j. Practical Limitations
k. Develop Layout alternative, using steps: h, i and j
l. Evaluation of alternative
m. Selection of the best layout
LAYOUT TYPES There are three basic types of layouts and these correspond to the three types of processing systems. Product layouts are most conducive to continuous processing, process layouts are used for intermittent processing and fixed position layouts are used when projects require layouts. There are another two types of hybrid layouts. Cellular or group layout is a special type of process ay out
