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CHAPTER 3:
PLANT LOCATION AND LAYOUT
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Learning Objectives
⚫ Explain the concept of facility location
⚫ Discuss factors affecting facility location decisions
⚫ Explain the procedures and techniques for selecting facility location
⚫ Explain the concept of facility layout
⚫ List the types of facility layouts
⚫ Describe service facility layouts
 Concept of Facility Location
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⚫ Facility location may be defined as a place where the facility will be set up for
producing goods or services. The need for location selection may arise under any of
the following conditions:

a. When a business is newly started.

b. When the existing business unit has outgrown its original facilities and
expansion is not possible; hence a new location has to be found.

c. When the volume of business or the extent of market

necessitates th establishment of branches.

d. When the lease expires and the landlord does not renew the lease.

e. Other social or economic reasons.

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Concept of Facility Location
Need for Facility Location Planning
⚫ Facility location planning is also required for providing a cost benefit to the
organisation.

⚫ The location planning should help in reducing the transportation cost for the
organisation. This ultimately helps in decreasing the cost of production and generating
cost advantage for the organisation.

⚫ It is also needed to identify proximity to the sources of raw materials. This is

necessary for maintaining continuity in the production process.
 Concept of Facility Location
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Factors Affecting Facility Location Decisions

⚫ While selecting a facility location, an organisation should consider various factors
that may have significant impact on its performance. These factors are explained
below:
 Availability of power

 Transportation

 Suitability of climate

 Government policy

 Competition between states

 Availability of labour
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Concept of Facility Location
Factors Affecting Facility Location Decisions
 Civic amenities for workers
 Existence of complementary and competing industries

 Finance and research amenities

 Availability of water and fire-fighting facilities

 Concept of Facility Location
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Procedures and Techniques for Selecting Facility Location

⚫ An organisation follows certain steps to make a correct location choice. These
steps are:

Decide on the criteria for evaluating location alternatives

Identify important factors

Develop location alternatives

Evaluate the alternatives

Make a decision and select

the location
 Concept of Facility Location
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Procedures and Techniques for Selecting Facility

Location
⚫ Following are some main techniques used in making location decisions:

 Location rating factor technique: In this technique, first of all an organisation

needs to identify the factors that influence its location decision. Next, each
factor is provided a weight between ‘0’ to ‘1’ according to the level of
importance, where ‘0’ denotes least important and ‘1’ denotes most important.
 Centre-of-gravity technique: This technique emphasises on transportation cost

in the determination of facility location. Transportation cost mainly depends

on distance, weight of merchandise and the time required for transportation.
Centre-of-gravity maps various supplier locations on a Cartesian plane and
suggests a central facility location with respect to the locations of suppliers.
 Concept of Facility Location
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Procedures and Techniques for Selecting Facility Location

 Transportation technique: In simple words, the transportation technique

evaluates multiple transportation routes of shipping goods from multiple

origins to multiple destinations and finds or develops the least cost route. The
technique is often used in determining facility locations for evaluating
transportation costs of routes by selecting different facility locations. In the
transportation technique, multiple facility locations fits are identified and
their relative transportation costs are calculated. Finally, the location that is
related to the lowest cost routes is selected.
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Concept of Facility Layout
⚫ Facility layout may be defined as the arrangement of machinery,
equipment, and other amenities in a facility, which should ensure a
smooth movement of materials.
⚫ According to Moore, facility layout is the plan of or the act of planning an
optimum arrangement of facilities, including personnel, operating
equipment, storage space, material handling equipment, and all other
supporting services along with the design of the best structure to contain
these facilities.
 Concept of Facility
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Layout
Objectives of an Effective Facility Layout

Minimum Material Handling

Elimination of Bottlenecks

Shorter Production Cycles

Reduction in Production

Delays Improved Quality

Control Efficient Utilisation of

Labour Improved Employee

Morale
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Types of Facility Layouts

Process Layout

Product Layout

Fixed Position Layout

Cellular Manufacturing

Layout Combination or Hybrid

Layout
 Concept of
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Facility Layout
Types of Facility Layouts
⚫ Process layout: Process layout, also called functional layout or batch production
layout, is characterised by the grouping together of similar machines, based upon
their operational characteristics.

⚫ Product layout: In product layout, also called straight line layout, machinery is
arranged in one line as per the sequence of production operations. Materials are
fed into the first machine and finished products come out of the last machine.

⚫ Fixed position layout: This type of facility layout is used to assemble products that
are too large, heavy or fragile to move to a location for completion. In the fixed
position layout, machinery, men, as well as other pieces of material, are brought to
the location where the product is to be assembled.
 Concept of
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Facility Layout
Types of Facility Layouts
⚫ Cellular manufacturing layout: In Cellular Manufacturing (CM) layout, machines
are grouped into cells, which function somewhat like a product layout in a larger
shop or a process layout. Each cell in the C M layout is formed to produce a single
part family, that is, a few parts with common characteristics.

⚫ Combination or hybrid layout: It is difficult to use the principles of product layout,

process layout, or fixed location layout in facilities that involve fabrication of parts
and assembly. Fabrication tends to employ the process layout, while assembly
areas often employ the product layout.
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Concept of Facility Layout
Factors Affecting a Facility Layout


 Materials

 Product M achinery

 Type of Industry Management Policies

 Concept of Facility Layout
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Prerequisites for Developing a Facility Layout

⚫ Developing process charts: A process chart is the graphical representation of
production activities performed by an organisation. Process charts facilitate a
systematic analysis and demonstration of the entire production process. These
charts are further classified into two categories, namely operation process chart
and flow process chart.

⚫ Making process flow diagrams: A process flow diagram represents the movement
of materials on a floor layout. These diagrams help an organisation in avoiding
needless material movement and rearranging facility operations.
 Concept of Facility
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Layout
Prerequisites for Developing a Facility Layout
⚫ Developing machine data cards: A machine data card helps in developing
equipment layout (pieces of equipment layout in relation to everything including
the persons using them) by providing information related to power and materials
handling requirements and capacity and dimensions of different machines.

⚫ Visualizing the layout: It represents the most common technique that is deployed
for layout planning. It involves creating duplication of machines and equipment
and arranging them in two- or three-dimensional plans for determining the
effectiveness of a layout.
 Concept of
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Facility Layout
Process of Facility Layout Designing

Information Gathering

Production and Material Flow Analysis

Support Services

Implementation and Evaluation

 Concept of Facility Layout
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Techniques for Designing a Facility Layout

⚫ Two main techniques of designing a facility layout are:

Block Diagramming

Richard Muther’s Systematic Layout Planning (SLP)

 Concept of Facility Layout
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Techniques for Designing a Facility Layout

⚫ Block diagramming: The block diagram can be prepared by following the steps
given below:

1. Analyse the unit load summary that provides information about the average
number of unit loads moved between different departments of an organisation.

2. Calculate the composite movements (back-and-forth movement) of the unit

load between the departments and rank them from the highest movement to the
lowest movement.

3. Place the trial layouts, which are designed using the ranking between
departments, on a grid. This grid represents the relative distance between the
departments.
 Concept of Facility
Layout
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Techniques for Designing a Facility Layout

⚫ Richard Muther’s systematic layout planning (SLP): In this technique, a grid
displays the ratings of the relative importance of the distance between different
departments of an organisation. This grid is also called ‘closeness rating chart’. In
this chart, the rating for department A relative to department B is similar to the
rating of department B to department A. Closeness ratings are given to
departments in the form of codes, which depict the desired closeness of the
departments according to the relative strength of their closeness.
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New Approaches to Layout Design

Computerised Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique (CRAFT)

Automated Layout Design Program (ALDEP)

Computerised Relationship Layout Planning (CORELAP)

 Concept of
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Facility Layout
Revision of a Current Layout
⚫ The following developments necessitate the revision of the existing layout:

Expansion

Technological Advancement

Improvement of the Layout

 Service Facility Layouts
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⚫ The objectives of service facility layouts differ from those of manufacturing facility
layouts.

⚫ This is because a manufacturing facility aims to make on-time delivery of products

to customers, whereas customers come to a service facility to receive services.

⚫ Therefore, customers usually prefer a service facility that is close to them,

especially when the service delivery process requires considerable customer
contact. For example, if you are hungry, you would prefer to go to a restaurant
near you.
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⚫ Service facility layouts are often categorised under three heads, which are:

 Product layout: This type of layout is used only in cases where services are
organised in a sequence.
 Process layout: These layouts are highly common in service facilities as they

successfully deal with the varied customer processing requirements.

 Fixed position layout: In this type of service layout, materials, labour and

equipment are brought to the customer’s place. This layout is used in services
like appliance repair, landscaping, home remodelling, etc.
 Service Facility Layouts
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Types of Service Facility Layouts

⚫ Warehouse and storage layouts: The layouts of warehouse and storage facilities
are designed by considering the frequency of order. Items that are ordered
frequently are placed near the facility entrance. However, items that are not
ordered frequently are placed at the rear of the facility. Apart from this,
correlation between two merchandises is also important while designing a layout
for a warehouse and storage facility.
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Types of Service Facility Layouts

⚫ Retail layouts: A retail store layout refers to a systematic arrangement of
merchandise groups within a store. A well-planned retail store layout provides a
description of the size and location of each department of the store, fixture
locations, and traffic patterns. It also helps consumers find products of their
choice in a short time. Different retail layouts are:
 Grid layout

 Free-form layout

 Loop layout

 Spine layout
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Types of Service Facility Layouts

⚫ Office layouts: Designing of office layouts is witnessing revolutionary changes as
paperwork is now replaced with different modes of electronic communications.
Today, office layouts focus more on creating an image of openness. Low-rise
partitions are preferred between departments to facilitate easy communication
among workers.