Plant Layout:

■ Plant layout is a “technique of locating different

machines and plant services within the factory so
that the greatest possible output of high quality at
the lowest possible total cost can be available”.
■ Plant layout includes the arrangement and location
of work centres and various service centres like
inspection, storage, and shipping within the factory
building.
■ According to James Lundy, “Layout identically
involves the allocation of space and the
arrangement of equipment in such a manner that
overall operating costs are minimized”.
■ According to Mallick, “Plant layout is a floor plan for
determining and arranging the designed machinery
and equipment of a plant, in the best place, to
permit the quickest flow of material, at the lowest
cost and with the minimum handling in processing
the product, from raw material to the shipment of
finished product”.
Need of Plant layout:
■ Many situations give rise to the problem of plant layout. Two
plants having similar operations may not have identical layout.
This may be due to size of the plant, nature of the process and
management’s caliber. The necessity of plant layout may be feel
and the problem may arise when
I. There are design changes in the product.
II. There is an expansion of the enterprise.
III. There is proposed variation in the size of the departments.
IV. Some new product is to be added to the existing line.
V. Some new department is to be added to enterprise and there
is reallocation of the existing department.
VI. A new plant is to be set up
Factors Considered for Plant Layout:
Layout for a plant must be decided by considering the following factors
i. Organisation.

ii. Location of departments.

iii. Type of product, method of production, production process.
iv. Production capacity.
v. Type of industry, like synthetic, analytic, conditioning or extractive.
vi. Grouping of machines.
vii. Material flow pattern.
viii. Space requirement for machines, work area, material handling, storage, and other facilities.
ix. Safety factors.
x. Health and other factors, like ventilation, natural light, removal of smoke, and fumes etc.
xi. Provision for future expansion.
xii. Flexibility for future modifications due to diversification, technology, or product design changes.
xiii. Storage system i.e., centralised or decentralised or a combination of both.
Characteristics of an Efficient Layout:
■ The designing of a plant layout should be such that it should
maximize the return and minimize the cost of production. The
following are the characteristics of a plant layout.
1. Smooth flow of production:
Plant layout should be in such a way that there must be a smooth flow of
production. Raw materials and workers must have access to each machine
without any difficulty and delay.
2. Maximum utilization of available space
An efficient plant layout must be such that may utilize the maximum of the
space available.
3. Facilities the movement of men, materials and machines, etc.
There must be sufficient space left in between different machines so that raw
materials, workers and machines move very easily from one place to another,
without the fear of accident.
4. Involves minimum handling
The various machines in a good layout must be arranged in such a manner that
the product of one operation may pass on to the next operation with a minimum
of handling. It will reduce wastage of raw materials and labour hours.
5. Provides better working conditions
A good plant layout must have facilities such as water, ventilation, retiring room,
etc., in the plant. It should also safeguard the health of the workers.
6. Flexibility
A good layout must be flexible enough so as to incorporate any change in the
management policies. It must be capable of incorporating, without major
change, new equipment to meet technological progress, or increased production
requirement or to eliminate waste.
7. Location of stores
The stores in a plant must be located in such a place from where raw materials,
tools, equipment and other materials may be supplied to the departments
concerned easily, without any delay.
8. Facilitates supervision and control
The position of workers must be arranged in such a way that it facilitates
supervision, coordination and control.
9. Provision of safety
There must be complete safety for workers engaged on a machine. Necessary
instructions must be given to them about the risks involved while working in
certain type of machines. Provisions of Factories Act must be followed in real
spirit.
10. Co-ordination and integration
If the plant layout is efficient enough, it is possible to achieve maximum with
coordination and integration among men, machines and materials.
Advantages of Good plant Layout:
1. It reduces internal transport to a minimum.

2. It minimises accidents and makes supervision easy and quick.

3. It makes repairs and maintenance easy.

4. It yields higher profits. Therefore, higher wages can be paid to workers.

5. It reduces labour turn-over.

6. It reduces production delays to a large extent.

7. It keeps the shops neat and clean.

8. It minimises changes in the layout to a large extent every time.

9. It keeps control over production.

10. It eliminates waste effort and thus speeds of production increases.

11. Back tracking is reduced.

12. Less capital is spent on machinery.

13. It reduces set up and total operation time.

14. It reduces wastage and spoiled work.

15. Time and motion study can be easily and accurately performed.

16. Better utilisation of manpower.

17. Improvement in methods of production can be made.

Types of Plant layout:
1. Product or Line Layout

2. Process or Functional Layout.

3. Fixed Position Layout.

4. Combination type of Layout.

Product or Line layout:
■ If all the processing equipment and machines are arranged according to the
sequence of operations of the product, the layout is called product type of
layout. In this type of layout, only one product of one type is produced in an
operating area. This product must be standardized and produced in large
quantities in order to justify the product layout.

■ 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.

■ Ex: Food processing units, Paper mill

Product or Line layout:
Product or Line layout:
Advantages Product or Line layout:
(i) Lowers total material handling cost.
(ii) There is less work in processes.
(iii) Better utilization of men and machines,
(iv) Less floor area is occupied by material in transit and for
temporary storages.
(v) Greater simplicity of production control.
(vi) Total production time is also minimized.
(vii) Effective supervision and control
Limitations of Product or Line layout:
i. Product design change or process change causes the layout to
become obsolete
ii. Less machine utilization
iii. Less flexible.
iv. The manufacturing cost increases with a fall in volume of
production.
v. If one or two lines are running light, there is a considerable
machine idleness.
vi. A single machine break down may shut down the whole
production line.
Process or Functional Layout:
■ All machines performing similar type of operations are grouped at one
location in the process layout e.g. all lathes, milling machines, cutting
machines etc.

■ In this layout, several products may share a machine to make its full use.

■ In this type of layout the process rather than the product has a dominating
role.

■ Process layouts are also quite common in non-manufacturing environments.

■ Ex : Hospitals, colleges, banks, auto repair shops, and public libraries

Process or Functional Layout:
Advantages Process or Functional Layout:
i. Better machine utilization
ii. Highly flexible in allocating personnel and equipment because general
purpose machines are used.
iii. Greater incentives to individual worker
iv. Change in Product design and process design can be incorporated easily
v. More continuity of production in unforeseen conditions like breakdown,
shortages, absenteeism
vi. Break down of equipment can be easily handled by transferring work to
another machine/work station.
Limitations of Process or Functional Layout:
i. Due to lack of straight line sequence of production, it is impossible to maintain
the line balancing in production. So the problems of bottleneck and waiting and
idle capacity arise.
ii. The cost of material handling increases due to long routing and back tracking
between the processes.
iii. The inspection cost increases. Due to frequent changes in the machine set-up
inspection is required at each stage of the process.
iv. The cost of supervision increase due to specialist supervisors and more number
of supervisors are required at each process unit.
v. The production planning and control becomes difficult due to complexities
arising in routing, scheduling, dispatching and follow up.
vi. More space is required for internal storing, reservoir of materials and provision
for the expansion of the particular process section.
Fixed Layout:
■ This type of layout is the least important for today’s manufacturing industries.

■ In this type of layout, the product is kept at a fixed position and all other
material; components, tools, machines, workers, etc. are brought and
arranged around it, then assembly or fabrication is carried out.

■ The major component or body of the product remain in a fixed position

because it is too heavy or too big and as such it is economical and convenient
to bring the necessary tools and equipment’s to work place along with the
man power.

■ It is used in aircraft assembly, shipbuilding, and most construction projects.

And manufacture of boilers, hydraulic and steam turbines and ships
Fixed Layout:
Advantages of Fixed Layout:
i. Saves time and cost in movement
ii. Flexible as changes in job design can be easily incorporated
iii. More economical when several orders in different stages are executed
iv. The task is usually done by gang of operators, hence continuity of operations
is ensured
v. Production centres are independent of each other. Hence, effective planning
and loading can be made. Thus total production cost will be reduced.
Disadvantages of Fixed Layout:
i. Highly skilled man power is required.
ii. Movement of machines equipment’s to production centre may be time
consuming.
iii. Complicated fixtures may be required for positioning of jobs and tools. This
may increase the cost of production.
Importance of Plant Layout:
• It is long-term commitment.

• It facilitates the production process, minimizes material handling, time and

cost, and allows flexibility of operations.

• It facilitates easy of production flow, makes economic use of the building,

promotes effective utilization of manpower, and provides for employee’s
convenience, safety, comfort at work, maximum exposure to natural light and
ventilation.

• It affects the flow of material and processes, labour efficiency, supervision

and control, use of space and expansion possibilities.
Principle of Plant Layout:
PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM MOVEMENT
As far as possible materials and labour should be moved over minimum
distances.
PRINCIPLE OF FLOW
The work areas should be arranged according to the sequence of
operations so that there is continuous flow of materials without congestion. The
layout should allow for easy movement of materials without interruption or
delay.
PRINCIPLE OF SPACE
All available cubic space should be effectively used both vertically and
horizontally.
PRINCIPLE OF SAFETY
There should be consideration for safety, comfort and convenience of
workers.
Principle of Plant Layout:
PRINCIPLE OF FLEXIBILITY
Layout should be designed in the manner that production facilities can
be easily rearranged when it becomes necessary in future on account of
expansion and technological advancement.
PRINCIPLE OF INTERDEPENDENCE
Interdependent operations and processes should be located in close proximity to
each other.
PRINCIPLE OF OVERALL INTEGRATION
All the plant facilities and services should be fully integrated into a single
operating unit so as to maximize efficiency and minimize costs of production.
PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM INVESTMENT
The layout should yield savings in fixed capital investment through
optimum utilization of available facilities.
Product Vs Process Layout:
factors Product layout Process layout
1. nature Sequence of facilities Similar are grouped
together
2. Machines utilization Not to full capacity Better utilization

3. product standardized diversified

4. Processing time less more

5. Material handling less more

6. inventory High WIP Low WIP

7. breakdown Can’t tolerate Can tolerate
8. Production center simple complex

9.flexibilty low high

10. floor space Requires less more
11. investment high low