KIOT

Plant Layout and Facility Design

Course code: Greg 4181
Target group: 4th year GED
Chapter three
Plant Layout
By: Endashaw Yohannes
Kombolcha/Ethiopia
Dec, 2019

12/26/2019 1
 Outline of chapter three
1. Meaning of plant layout

2. Objective of plant layout

3. Symptoms of bad layout

4. Advantages of good plant layout

5. Principles of plant layout

6. Types of layout

7. General flow patterns of plant layout

 1. Meaning of Plant Layout
“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”.
 2. Objectives of Plant Layout
o The primary goal of the plant layout is to maximize the profit by
arrangement of all the plant facilities to the best advantage of total
manufacturing of the product and at the same time satisfactory and
safe for the personnel doing the work.
 2. Objectives of Plant Layout cont...
o Helps for the personnel doing the work.

In the Sense of Unity

o The feeling of being a unit pursuing the same objective.

Minimum Movement of people, material and resources.

Safety

o In the movement of materials and personnel work flow.

Flexibility

o In designing the plant layout taking into account the

changes over short and medium terms in the production
process and manufacturing volumes.
 2. Objectives of Plant Layout cont...
• These main objectives are reached through the
attainment of the following facts:
Congestion reduction.

Elimination of unnecessary occupied areas.

Reduction of administrative and indirect work.

Improvement on control and supervision.

Better adjustment to changing conditions.

Better utilization of the workforce, equipment and

services.
 2. Objectives of Plant Layout cont...
Reduction of material handling activities and stock in
process.

Reduction on parts and quality risks.

Reduction on health risks and increase on workers

safety.

Moral and workers satisfaction increase.

Reduction on delays and manufacturing time, as well

as increase in production capacity.

 All these factors will not be reached simultaneously, so the

best solution will be a balance among them.
 Introduction
• To make a decision about layout planning, 4 different questions must
have an answer:
1. Which centers do we have to consider?
2. How much space and capacity is required for each center?
• If there is not enough space, productivity may be reduced.
• Too much space is expensive and may also reduce productivity.
3. How must the space be related with each center?
• Space quantity, shape and the elements of the work center are
related to each other.
4. Where should each center be located at within the facility?
• The allocation of the different centers may affect productivity.
 Production Layout
Design problem
Green field/current Location of one
state new machine
• Reasons to design production layout:
New products
Changes in demand
Changes in product design
New machines
Bottlenecks
Too large space between work station
Too long transfer times
 Layout Design
Product

Layout

Logistics Process
 o Re design of production layout
• The reasons for a re-layout are based on 3 types
of changes:
Changes in production volumes.

Changes in processes and technology.

Changes in the product.

• The frequency of the re-layout will depend on the

requirements of the process.
 4. Symptoms of bad layout
Symptoms that allow us to detect the need for a re-layout:

Some machines heavily loaded and some idle

Excessive handling by skilled workers
Long production cycles & delays on delivery
Crowded condition & Poor utilization of available space
Bottleneck in production & obstacles in material flow
Excessive fatigue on workers & frequent accidents
Excessive temporary storage & Backtracking
Difficult in supervision and control
Idle machines and manpower
Figure: improper production layout
3. Advantages of good plant layout
Reduce internal transport to a minimum
Minimizes accidents operations
Makes supervision & production control easier
Makes maintenance and repair easier
Reduces labor turnover
Reduces production delay
Maintain floor area neat and clean
Reduces waste effort, wastages and spoiled work
Reduces back tracking and bottlenecks
Better utilization of manpower and machinery
Possible to improve production methods
 5. Principles of plant layout
•Any layout should satisfy the objective or principles of plant
layout for proper functioning.
•There are Nine basic principles of best plant layout
1. Principle of overall integration
2. Principle of minimum distance moved
3. Principle of flow
4. Principle of cubic space
5. Principle of satisfaction and safety
6. Principle of flexibility
7. Principle of expansion
8. Principle of versatility
9. Principle of orderliness
 Basic principles of plant layout
1. Principle of overall integration

o The layout is best which integrates

Men,

Material,

Machinery, and

Supporting activities in a way that results best

compromise.

o It must be convenient for people servicing or

supporting the operation as well.

2) Principle of minimum distance moved

Other things being equal the layout is best which

permits the material to move the minimum distance

between operations.

By placing subsequent operations adjacent to each

other reducing the we can reduce distance of

movement .
3) Principles of flow
Other things being equal, the layout is best which
arranges the work area for each operation or process
in the same order or sequence that forms , treats, or
assembles the materials.
It means that material will move progressing from
one operation to the next towards its completion.
Congestion with other parts or other pieces of the
same part is at minimum.
4) Principle of cubic space

• Other things being equal, the best layout utilizes

effectively all available space both vertical and

horizontal.

• Movement of material, men and machinery may be in

any of the three direction.

• It means taking vacant overhead space or work

surface under the floor.

5) Principle of satisfaction and safety

Being other things equal, the layout is best which

makes work satisfying and safe for workers.

Safety is the major factor in most layouts.

A layout can not be good if it subjects employees to

hazardous or accidents.
6) Principle of flexibility
Other things being equal, the layout is best which can
be adjusted and rearranged at minimum cost and
inconvenience.
This objective become more important ,as new
developments are taking place in scientific research
for frequent changes in product design, equipment
and production methods.
Economy can be obtained if a new layout can be made
quickly and inexpensively.
7) Principle of expansion
• It should be easy to expand with out disturbing the
existing layout and production schedules
8) Principle of Versatility
• Layout should be adaptable to changes in product
design, sales requirement and process improvement
9) Principle of orderliness
• Clean work areas with suitable equipment for
removing scrap waste etc.
 6. Types of layout
For the purpose of production Men, Machines and
Materials are required.

Men work on materials with the aid of machinery and

tools.

For Production at least on one of them has to be moved.

Production machinery can be grouped and arranged in

different ways.

The ways and arrangement of production machinery

decides the types of layout
 Types of layout cont..
• Common types or methods of layout are:

A. Product or line layout

B. Process or functional layout

C. Fixed position lay out

D. Combinations (group layout)

E. Cellular Manufacturing (CM) Layout

 A. Product layout
The arrangement of equipment is based on the

sequence of operations in the manufacture of an individual

product
or
a group of similar products requiring the same manufacturing
equipment in the same manufacturing sequence.

Only one or one type of product is in operating area.

The product must be standardized and manufactured in

large quantities.

Very popular in mass production ready made garment

factory
Plant layout example Product Layout
 Product layout Advantages
Materials handling is automated, hence reduction in

materials handling cost.

Bottlenecks in production line could be avoided.

Lesser manufacturing time.

The layout helps in better production control.

It necessitates less floor space per unit of production.

WIP is reduced and investment there on is minimized.

 Product layout disadvantages

Expensive and inflexible layout.

Supervision is difficult.

Expansion is difficult.

Breakdown of any machinery in a line could disturb the

whole system.

A single operator absenteeism in a line could disturb the

whole system.
 B. Process layout
Similar equipment and similar operations are grouped
together

Useful where product is not standardized and low

volume is required

It has greater flexibility

Advantageous when products of dissimilar types being

manufactured.
Plant layout example Process Layout
 Process layout Advantages
Better supervision is achievable through specialization.

Investments on machines are reduced as they are general

purpose machines.

There is greater flexibility in the production.

This layout provides better use of men and machines.

It is easier to handle any breakdown of machines through

taking the machine to another machine station.

The investment costs on machines are comparatively lower.

 Process layout disadvantages

Movement of materials is difficult.

Requires more floor space.

Since the work-in-progress has to move from one place

to another to look for a machine, the production time is

generally high.

The WIP accumulates at different places.

 C. Fixed position layout
The material and or major component ,remains in a
fixed location and tools, machinery and men and other
pieces of material brought to this location.

Useful if the product is Extremely large or heavy (

like air craft and ship building ) and extremely low
volume of output (like housing industries)

High skill is demanded

Very common before industrial revolution

 Fixed position layout Advantages
Permits the plant to elevate skill of operators

Less material movement

Greater flexibility allows frequent changes in product

design, product mix and production volume of demand.

Layout capital investment is low.

Men and machines can be utilized for numerous kinds

of operations manufacturing different products.

The costs of transportation for a bulky product are

avoided.
Fixed position layout disadvantages
Highly skilled man power is required

Movements of machines and equipments to production

centre may be time consuming

Complicated fixtures may be required for positioning

of jobs and tools. This may increase cost of

production.
 D. Combined ( Group) lay outs
• Combined layouts makes the strong points of

 product,

 process ,and

 fixed position layouts.

o Now a days pure state of any one form of layout is

rare.

o If the good features of all types of layout are

connected a compromise solution can be obtained
which will be more economical and flexible
 PRODUCTION VOLUME AND PRODUCT VARIETY
Production DETERMINES TYPE OF LAYOUT
volume

product
layout

Fixed
Position
Layouts Group layout process layout
Product variety
E. CELLULAR MANUFACTURING (CM) LAYOUT

In this kind of layout, the machines are generally

assembled into cells which function fairly like a product

layout within a process layout.

Every cell in this design is shaped to produce single

parts, all with common attributes, which typically means

they necessitate the same machines and have similar

machine settings (Ramesh Babu 2006).

Plant layout example Cellular Layout
 E. CELLULAR MANUFACTURING (CM) LAYOUT

A. Advantages:
Lower WIP inventories.

Reduced material handling costs.

Flow time of materials is less in production planning.

Improved visual control of process which enables

quicker set ups.

Manufacturing flexibility.

Reduced machine stoppage time.

 7. GENERAL FLOW PATTERNS OF PLANT LAYOUT

"Flow Pattern" means the system to be adopted for

the movement of raw materials, from the beginning and

up to the end of manufacturing.

The overall-objective of the Flow pattern is to plan for

the economical movement of the raw materials

throughout the plant.

 7. GENERAL FLOW PATTERNS CONT..

Quite often layout design starts with the flow system and

building design are modified accordingly but sometimes the

flow must be adopted to existing buildings.

Most common error in material flow is

o Back-hauling or the back-tracking of materials,

which means that

once the material has passed through an operation it must

maintain its direction and does not retrace its path.

 7.1. FLOW SYSTEMS OF PLANT LAYOUT

Based on the flow systems plant layout can be

classified into two:

1. Horizontal layout and

2. Vertical layout.

The horizontal flow system is adopted on a shop floor

Vertical flow is adopted where material has to move in

a multi-store building.
 1. HORIZONTAL FLOW LINES

There are five basic types of horizontal flow

line:

A. I-Flow or Line Flow horizontal flow lines

B. L-Flow horizontal flow lines

C. U-Flow horizontal flow lines

D. S-Flow horizontal flow lines

E. O-Flow horizontal flow lines

 A. I-FLOW or LINE FLOW HORIZONTAL FLOW LINES

It is the simplest form of flow.

In this, materials are fed at one end and components

leave the line at the other end.

This type is economical in space and convenient in I-

shaped buildings.
 B. L-FLOW HORIZONTAL FLOW LINES

It is similar to the I-Flow and is used where I-line

cannot be accommodated in the available space

Figure: L- flow horizontal flow line

 C. U-FLOW HORIZONTAL FLOW LINES

In this, both feeding and output take place at the same end,

i.e., it allows both receiving and dispatching of goods to be

done at 'one side.

In comparison to I or L-Flow, this method is easier for

supervision.

Figure: U-Flow horizontal flow lines

 D. S-FLOW HORIZONTAL FLOW LINES

I f the production line is so long that zigzagging on the

plant floor is" necessary this S-flow is adopted.

This type provides efficient utilization of space and is

compact enough to allow effective supervision.

Figure: S-Flow horizontal flow lines

 E. O-FLOW HORIZONTAL FLOW LINES

This type is used where process or operations are performed

on- a rotary table or a rotary handling system.

The components are moved from one working station to the

other and when they leave the O-line, a complete set of
processes or operations have been performed.

The components inspected before they are moved on to a

second line for an additional series of process- or operations
or to an assembly line.

Figure: O-Flow horizontal flow lines

 COMBINATIONS OF BASIC HORIZONTAL FLOW

These above mentioned basic flow lines are mostly used

by industries in various combinations.

Figure: Combinations of basic horizontal flow

 I. UNIDIRECTIONAL FLOW

When the material is passed from one to another

without having to pass along the same path

Figure: Combinations of basic horizontal flow

 II. RETRACTION FLOW. (REPEATED FLOW )

In this type, the flow is repeated i.e. two or more non-

consecutive operations are performed on the same machine.

In this flow, the available machine time is fully utilized but

schedules have to allow for repeated machine setting-

e.g., each time a machine is switched over from one operation

to another.

Figure: Retraction Flow. (Repeated flow )

 2. VERTICAL FLOW LINES

This type of flow is for multi-storey buildings. So that

the materials handling systems and control mechanisms
operate effectively,

Figure: Vertical Flow lines

2. VERTICAL FLOW LINES CONT...

Figure: Vertical Flow lines

 Reading
Plant lay out and material handling
(R.B Choudary)
1) Chapter Two – Introduction to plant
layout
12/26/2019 60