“When you go through a hard

period,
When everything seems to oppose
you,
... When you feel you cannot even
bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place
that the course will divert!”
― Rumi
Process Selection
 Strategy
• Volume vs. variety
• Processes
– Job shop
– Batch production
– Assembly line
– Continuous production
 Job Shop Batch Assembly Continuous
Description Customization Semi Standardization High
Standardization Standardization
Advantages Variety FlexibilityLow unit Efficiency
cost
Disadvantages High per Scheduling Low Very rigid
unit cost flexibility
 Process Attributes
• Product Labor
• Type of equipment

• Fixed cost
• Per unit cost
• Scheduling
• WIP
 Process and Information Technology
• Process and information technology can have a major impact
on costs, productivity and competitiveness:
– Process technology
• Methods, procedures, and equipment used to produce goods and provide
services
– Information technology
• The science and use of computers and other electronic equipment to
store, process, and send information
 The Need to Manage Technology
• Process technology and information
technology can have a profound impact on:
– Costs
– Productivity
– Competitiveness
 Automation
• Automation
– Machinery that has sensing and control devices
that enable it to operate automatically
• Fixed automation
• Programmable automation
Programmable Automation
• Programmable automation
– Involves the use of high-cost, general-purpose equipment
controlled by a computer program that provides both the
sequence of operations and specific details about each
operation
• Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
– The use of computers in process control, ranging from robots to automated quality
control
• Numerically Controlled (N/C) Machines
– Machines that perform operations by following mathematical processing
instructions
• Robot
– A machine consisting of a mechanical arm, a power supply, and a controller
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)

• CIM
– A system for linking a broad range of manufacturing
activities through an integrated computer system
• Activities include
– Engineering design
– FMS
– Purchasing
– Order processing
– Production planning and control
• The overall goal of CIM is to link various parts of an organization
to achieve rapid response to customer orders and/or product
changes, to allow rapid production and to reduce indirect labor
costs
Layout Design Objectives
• Basic objective
– Facilitate a smooth flow of work, material, and information
through the system
• Supporting objectives
1. Facilitate product or service quality
2. Use workers and space efficiently
3. Avoid bottlenecks
4. Minimize material handling costs
5. Eliminate unnecessary movement of workers or material
6. Minimize production time or customer service time
7. Design for safety
Basic Layout Types
• Product layouts
• Process layouts
• Fixed-position layout
• Combination layouts
Repetitive Processing: Product Layouts

• Product layout
– Layout that uses standardized processing
operations to achieve smooth, rapid, high-volume
flow Station Station Station Station Finished
Raw materials
1 2 3 4 item
or customer

Material Material Material Material

and/or and/or and/or and/or

labor labor labor labor
Used for Repetitive Processing
Repetitive or Continuous
 Product Layouts: Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages Disadvantages
• High rate of output • Creates dull, repetitive jobs
• Low unit cost • Poorly skilled workers may not
• Labor specialization maintain equipment or quality
• Low material handling cost per unit of output
• High utilization of labor and • Fairly inflexible to changes in
equipment volume or product or process
• Established routing and scheduling design
• Routine accounting, purchasing, • Highly susceptible to shutdowns
and inventory control • Preventive maintenance, capacity
for quick repair and spare-parts
inventories are necessary
expenses
• Individual incentive plans are
impractical
Non-repetitive Processing: Process Layouts

• Process layouts
– Layouts that can handle varied processing
requirements

Dept. A Dept. C Dept. E

Dept. B Dept. D Dept. F

Used for Intermittent processing

Job Shop or Batch
 Process Layouts: Advantages &
Disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages
• Can handle a variety of • In-process inventories can be high
processing requirements • Routing and scheduling pose
• Not particularly vulnerable to continual challenges
equipment failures • Equipment utilization rates are
• General-purpose equipment is low
often less costly and easier and • Material handling is slow and
less costly to maintain inefficient
• It is possible to use individual • Reduced spans of supervision
incentive systems • Special attention necessary for
each product or customer
• Accounting, inventory control,
and purchasing are more involved
 Cellular Layouts
• Cellular production
– Layout in which workstations are grouped into a
cell that can process items that have similar
processing requirements
• Groupings are determined by the operations needed to
perform the work for a set of similar items, part
families, that require similar processing
• The cells become, in effect, miniature versions of
product layouts
 Designing Product Layouts:
Line Balancing
• The goal of a product layout is to arrange
workers or machines in the sequence that
operations need to be performed
 Line Balancing
• Line balancing
– The process of assigning tasks to workstations in such a
way that the workstations have approximately equal
time requirements
– Goal:
• Obtain task grouping that represent approximately equal
time requirements since this minimizes idle time along the
line and results in a high utilization of equipment and labor
– Why is line balancing important?
1. It allows us to use labor and equipment more efficiently
2. To avoid fairness issues that arise when one workstation must work
harder than another
 Cycle Time
• Cycle time
– The maximum time allowed at each workstation
to complete its set of tasks on a unit
– Cycle time also establishes the output rate of a
line
Operating time per day
Cycle time 
Desired output rate
Operating time per day
Output rate 
Cycle time
 How Many Workstations Are Needed?

• The required number of workstations is a

function of
– Desired output rate
– Our ability to combine tasks into a workstation
• Theoretical minimum number of stations
N 
 t
min
Cycle time
where
N min  theoretical minimum number of stations
 t  Sum of task times
 Precedence Diagram
• Precedence diagram
– A diagram that shows elemental tasks and their precedence
requirements
 Assigning Tasks to Workstations
• Some heuristic (intuitive) rules:
– Assign tasks in order of most following tasks
• Count the number of tasks that follow

– Assign tasks in order of greatest positional weight

• Positional weight is the sum of each task’s time and the times of all
following tasks
 Line Balancing

A B C D E
(0.1min) (1.0min) (0.7min) (0.5min) (0.2min)

A B
Balance the line based on this
precedence diagram with
C D E required cycle time of 1 min

Min number of work stations?

 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1

2
3
 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1 1.0

2
3
 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1 1.0 a, c

2
3
 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1 1.0 a, c a 0.9

2
3
 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1 1.0 a, c a 0.9
0.9

2
3
 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1 1.0 a, c a 0.9
0.9 c c 0.2

2
3
 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1 1.0 a, c a 0.9
0.9 c c 0.2
0.2 None 0.2
2
3
 Line Balancing
W.S Time Eligible Assign task Revised Idle time
remaining time
remaining
1 1.0 a, c a 0.9
0.9 c c 0.2
0.2 None 0.2
2 1.0 b b 0.0 0.0
3 1.0 d d 0.5
0.5 e e 0.3
0.3 0.3
 Line Balancing
• Idle time
• Percentage of idle time = x 100

• Efficiency = 100 – Percent idle time

 Line Balancing
Task Immediate Task time
Follower (min)
a b 0.2
b e 0.2
c d 0.8
d f 0.6
e f 0.3
f g 1.0
g h 0.4
h 0.3

Demand = 400 units per day

Work time = 8 hours
Efficiency of the system ?
 Line Balancing
• Other factors
– Parallel workstations
– Training
– Machine improvisation
 Process Layout
• Considerations
– Preferred flow
– Cost considerations
– Process requirements
• Adjacency
• Separation
 Work Flow
Distance between location (meters) Interdepartmental work flow (loads/day)

LOCATION DEPARTMENT
FROM A B C 1 2 3
A 20 40 Dept. 1 30 170
B 30 2 100
C 3