6-1 Process Selection and Facility Layout

CHAPTER
6

Process Selection
and Facility Layout
6-2 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Introduction
 Process selection
 Deciding on the way production of goods or
services will be organized
 Major implications
 Capacity planning

 Layout of facilities

 Equipment

 Design of work systems

When is the process selection occurs?

6-3 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Process Selection and System Design

Figure 6.1

Facilities and
Forecasting Capacity Equipment
Planning

Product and Layout

Service Design

Process
Technological Selection Work
Change Design
6-4 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Process Strategy

• Key aspects of process strategy

– Capital intensive – equipment/labor
– Process flexibility
Adjust to changes
– Product and Service Design
– Volume Processed
– Technology
6-5 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Technology
Refers to applications of scientific discoveries to the
development and improvement of goods and services
and/ or the processes that produce or provide them.

Technological Innovation – Refers to discovery of and

development of new or improved products, services, or
processes for producing or providing them.

Factors of Technology Include:

•Knowledge
•Materials
•Methods
•Equipment
6-6 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Kinds of Technology

The following are the three kinds if technology that have a significant impact on
costs, productivity and competitiveness.

1.Product and Service Technology – is the discovery and development of new

products and services. (researchers and engineers)

2.Process Technology – includes methods, procedures, and equipment used to

produce goods and provide services. This involves not only processes within and
organization, it also extends to supply chain processes.

3.Information Technology – is the science and use of computers and other

electronic equipment to store, process, and send information. It includes data
processing , use of bar codes and radio frequency tags to identify and track
goods, devices use to obtain point-of-sales information, data transmission, the
internet, e-commerce, email, and more.
6-7 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Technology and Competitive Advantage

How technological advances in processes yield

competitive advantage?
•Increasing quality
•Lowering costs
•Increasing productivity
•Expanding processing capabilities.

Examples:

•Laser technology used in surgery and laser measuring devices

•Advances in medical equipment
•High speed internet connections
•Online Banking
•High speed search engines
6-8 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Technology Acquisition
Processing technology often come through acquisition rather
than through internal efforts of an organization.

Although this may benefit the organization, it has a substantial

risk if they don’t understand its downside and upside part of technology.

Economic Considerations: Human Considerations:

•Initial Cost - Trainings
•Space - safety
•Cash flow - Job loss
•Maintenance
•Consultants

Integrations Considerations:
•Costs
•Time
•Resources
6-9 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Process Selection
 Variety
 How much Batch
 Flexibility
 What degree
 Volume Job Shop Repetitive
 Expected output

Continuous
6-10 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Process Types

 Job shop
 Small scale
 Batch
 Moderate volume
 Repetitive/assembly line
 High volumes of standardized goods or services
 Continuous
 Very high volumes of non-discrete goods
6-11 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Types of Processing (Advantages and Disadvantages)

Repetitive/
Figure 6.1 Job Shop Batch Continuous
Assembly

Customized Semi- Standardized

Description Highly Stndardized
goods or standardized goods or
goods or services
Services goods or services services

Advantages Able to handle Low unit cost,

Very efficient,
a wide variety Flexibility high volume,
very high volume
of work efficient

Slow, high cost

Disadvantages Moderate cost per Low
per unit, Very rigid, lack of
unit, moderate flexibility, high
complex variety, very high
scheduling cost of
planning and cost of downtime
complexity downtime
scheduling
6-12 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Product – Process Matrix

Figure 6.2

Process Type
Job Shop Appliance repair Not
Emergency feasible
room
Batch Commercial
bakery
Classroom
Lecture
Repetitive Automotive
assembly
Automatic
carwash
Continuous Not Oil refinery
feasible Water purification
(flow)
6-13 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Product – Process Matrix

Figure 6.2 (cont’d)

Dimension Job Shop Batch Repetitive/ Continuous

Assembly
Job variety Very High Moderate Low Very low
Process Very High Moderate Low Very low
flexibility

Unit cost Very High Moderate Low Very low

Volume of Very High Low High Very low
output
6-14 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Automation

Automation: Machinery that has sensing and

control devices that enables it to operate
Advantages:
 Low variability
 Machines do not get bored or distracted, nor they go out on strike, ask for higher
wages, or file a grievances.
 Reduction of variable costs

Disadvantages:
 Costly – expensive and requires high volume of output to offset high costs.
 Much less flexibility than human labor – not able to adjust and be changed.
 Job losses - adverse effect on morale and productivity
6-15 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Types of Automation
 Fixed automation
uses high-cost specialized equipment for a fixed sequence of operations.
Advantages:
-Low cost and high volume

Disadvantages:
-Minimal variety and high cost of making major changes in either product or
process.
 Programmable automation
-involves high cost-cost, general-purpose equipment controlled by a computer
program that provides both the sequence of operations and specific details about
each operation.
6-16 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Types of Automation (Cont’d)

- Has a capability of economically producing a fairly wide variety of
low- volume products in small batches.
-High investment in general purpose equipment
-Lower production rate than fixed automation.

Flexible Automation
 Evolved or extension form of programmable automation.
 Uses equipment that is more customized than that of programmable
automation.
 Requires significantly less changeover time than programmable automation.
 Permits almost continuous operation of equipment and product variety
without the need to produce in batches.
 Medium production rate
 High investment.
 High ‘unit cost relative to fixed automation.
6-17 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Automation

• Computer-aided design and

manufacturing systems (CAD/CAM)
• Numerically controlled (NC) machines
• Robot
• Flexible manufacturing systems(FMS)
• Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)
6-18 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Facilities Layout

 Layout: the configuration of departments,

work centers, and equipment, with particular
emphasis on movement of work (customers
or materials) through the system.
6-19 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Importance of Layout Decisions

 Requires substantial investments of money

and effort
 Involves long-term commitments

 Has significant impact on cost and

efficiency of operations
6-20 Process Selection and Facility Layout

The Need for Layout Decisions

Inefficient operations
For Example: Changes in the design
High Cost of products or services
Bottlenecks

Accidents
The introduction of new
products or services

Safety hazards
6-21 Process Selection and Facility Layout

The Need for Layout Design (Cont’d)

Changes in
environmental Changes in volume of
or other legal output or mix of
requirements products

Morale problems
Changes in methods
and equipment
6-22 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Objective of Layout Design

Smooth flow of work, material, and information
with work system

Supporting Objectives:

•To facilitate attainment of product or service

quality
•To use workers and space efficiently
•To avoid bottlenecks
•To minimize the material handling cost
•To eliminate unnecessary movement of workers
or materials
•To minimize production time or customer
service time
•To design safety
6-23 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Basic Layout Types

 Product layouts
 Process layouts
 Fixed-Position layout
 Combination layouts
6-24 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Basic Layout Types

 Product layout (Repetitive Processing)

 Layout that uses standardized processing
operations to achieve smooth, rapid, high-
volume flow
 Process layout
 Layout that can handle varied processing
requirements
 Fixed Position layout
 Layout in which the product or project remains
stationary, and workers, materials, and
equipment are moved as needed
6-25 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Product Layout
Figure 6.4

Raw Finished
Station Station
Station Station
Station Station
Station
materials 1 22 33 44 item
or customer
Material Material Material Material

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

labor labor labor labor

Used for Repetitive or Continuous Processing

6-26 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Advantages of Product Layout

 High rate of output

 Low unit cost

 Labor specialization

 Low material handling cost

 High utilization of labor and equipment

 Established routing and scheduling

 Routing accounting and purchasing

6-27 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Disadvantages of Product Layout

 Creates dull, repetitive jobs

 Poorly skilled workers may not maintain
equipment or quality of output
 Fairly inflexible to changes in volume

 Highly susceptible to shutdowns

 Needs preventive maintenance

 Individual incentive plans are impractical

6-28 Process Selection and Facility Layout

A U-Shaped Production Line

Figure 6.6

In 1 2 3 4

Workers

Out 10 9 8 7
6-29 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Process Layout
Figure 6.7
Process Layout
(functional)

Dept. A Dept. C Dept. E

Dept. B Dept. D Dept. F

Used for Intermittent processing

Job Shop or Batch
6-30 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Product Layout
Figure 6.7 (cont’d)
Product Layout
(sequential)

Work Work Work

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3

Used for Repetitive Processing

Repetitive or Continuous
6-31 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Advantages of Process Layouts

 Can handle a variety of processing

requirements
 Not particularly vulnerable to equipment
failures
 Equipment used is less costly

 Possible to use individual incentive plans

6-32 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Disadvantages of Process Layouts

 In-process inventory costs can be high

 Challenging routing and scheduling

 Equipment utilization rates are low

 Material handling slow and inefficient

 Complexities often reduce span of supervision

 Special attention for each product or customer

 Accounting and purchasing are more involved

6-33 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Cellular Layouts
 Cellular Production
 Layout in which machines are grouped into a cell that can
process items that have similar processing requirements

 Group Technology
 The grouping into part families of items with similar
design or manufacturing characteristics

 Flexible Manufacturing Systems

• Is a group of machines that include supervisory computer
control, automatic material handling, and robots or other
automated processing equipment.
6-34 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Functional vs. Cellular Layouts

Table 6.3
Dimension Functional Cellular
Number of moves many few
between departments
Travel distances longer shorter
Travel paths variable fixed
Job waiting times greater shorter
Throughput time higher lower
Amount of work in higher lower
process
Supervision difficulty higher lower
Scheduling complexity higher lower
Equipment utilization lower higher
6-35 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Other Service Layouts

 Warehouse and storage layouts

 Retail layouts

 Office layouts
6-36 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Design Product Layouts: Line Balancing

Line Balancing is the process of assigning

tasks to workstations in such a way that
the workstations have approximately
equal time requirements.
6-37 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Cycle Time

Cycle time is the maximum time

allowed at each workstation to
complete its set of tasks on a unit.
6-38 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Determine Maximum Output

OOTT
OOuutp
tpuutt ccaappaaccity
ity ==
CCTT

OOTT  ooppeera
ratin
tingg tim
timee ppeerr ddaayy

DD == DDeessire
iredd oouutp
tpuutt ra
rate
te

OOTT
CCTT == ccyc
ycle
le tim
timee ==
DD
6-39 Process Selection and Facility Layout
Determine the Minimum Number
of Workstations Required

(D)(t)
N=
OT

t = sum of task times

6-40 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Precedence Diagram
Figure 6.10

Precedence diagram: Tool used in line balancing to

display elemental tasks and sequence requirements
0.1 min. 1.0 min.
A Simple Precedence
a b Diagram

c d e
0.7 min. 0.5 min. 0.2 min.
6-41 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Example 1: Assembly Line Balancing

 Arrange tasks shown in Figure 6.10 into

three workstations.
 Use a cycle time of 1.0 minute
 Assign tasks in order of the most number of
followers
6-42 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Example 1 Solution

Revised
Time Assign Time Station
Workstation Remaining Eligible Task Remaining Idle Time
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 - - 0.5
6-43 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Example 1 Solution
6-44 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Calculate Percent Idle Time

I
dlet
imeperc
yc
le
P
er
cen
ti
d l
e t
ime=
(
N)(
CT)

Efficiency = 1 – Percent idle time

6-45 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Line Balancing Rules

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.
6-46 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Example 2

0.2 0.2 0.3

a b e

0.8 0.6
c d f g h
1.0 0.4 0.3
6-47 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Solution to Example 2

Station 1 Station 2 Station 3 Station 4

a b e
f g h
c d
6-48 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Parallel Workstations

30/hr. 30/hr. 30/hr. 30/hr.

1 min. 1 min. 2 min. 1 min.

Bottleneck

30/hr. 1 min. 30/hr.

60/hr. 60/hr.
1 min. 1 min. 1 min.
30/hr.
1 min. 30/hr.

Parallel Workstations
6-49 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Designing Process Layouts

Information Requirements:
1. List of departments

2. Projection of work flows

3. Distance between locations

4. Amount of money to be invested

5. List of special considerations

6. Location of key utilities

6-50 Process Selection and Facility Layout
Example 3: Interdepartmental Work Flows
for Assigned Departments
Figure 6.12

30

170 100
1 3 2

A B C
6-51 Process Selection and Facility Layout

 Author’s note:
 The following three slides are not in the 8e,
but I like to use them for alternate examples.
6-52 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Process Layout

Milling

Assembly
Grinding
& Test

Drilling Plating
Process Layout - work travels
to dedicated process centers
6-53 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Functional Layout

222 222 222

111 Drill Grind
Mill

22
444 3333

222
444

1111 2222 Assembly

33
33

44
111 333
33

44
333
33

4
111
333
3

111
Heat 111 Gear
333 Lathes
treat cutting 444
6-54 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Cellular Manufacturing Layout

Heat Gear
-1111 Lathe Mill Drill -1111
treat cut

Heat
Mill Drill Grind - 2222

Assembly
222222222 treat

Heat
3333333333 Lathe Mill Grind - 3333
treat

44444444444444 Mill Drill Gear - 4444

cut
6-55 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Flexible Manufacturing

VD7
Process at Trek Bikes
6-56 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Location/Criteria

PS11
Guitar site location
6-57 Process Selection and Facility Layout

Process Overview

AB2
Aluminum tubing, suppliers at Hillerich & Bradsby