Chapter 3: Flow Systems, Activity Relationships and

Space Requirements
Lê Đức Đạo, Phd
Industrial System Enginerring Department
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Ho Chi Minh City University Of Science and Technology
Phone: 0937286746
Email: [email protected]
LECTURE OUTLINE

1. Introduction
2. Flow Systems
3. Material Flow System
4. Departmental Planning
5. Activity Relationships
6. Flow measurement
7. Summary
I. Introduction
1. Flow: the movement of all elements from
sources of supply to delivery points of use
within the facility and through distribution
channel of product or service to customers. It
depends on:
• Lot size
• Unit load size
• Material handling equipment and strategies
• Layout arrangement
• Building configuration

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I. Introduction
• 2. Space : Area required for production system, storage,
inventories, handling equipment.

• A function of:
• Lot size
• Storage system
• production equipment type and size
• Material handling equipment
• Layout arrangement
• Building configuration
• Housekeeping and organization policies
• Office, cafeteria, and restroom design

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 I. Introduction
3. Activity relationships:
 Relationships between production
activities, between production and service,
and between two services. Defined by:
 Material or personal flow
 Environmental consideration
 Organizational structure
 Continuous improvement methodology
(Teamwork activities)
 Control issues
 Process requirement

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 II FLOW SYSTEMS
-Flow system process can be
categorized according to the stages
-Supply
-Manufacture,
-Distribution cycles
-Three categories are
1. Materials management system
2. Material flow system
3. Physical distribution system

It can be referred to as the

inbound logistics system.
Fig 03_01: Logistics system
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II FLOW SYSTEMS

Material
Management
Systems

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II FLOW SYSTEMS

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II FLOW SYSTEMS

Physical
Distribution
Systems

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II DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
 III Material Flow Systems
- The principle of minimizing total flow includes:
1. Eliminating flow by planning
2. Minimizing multiple flows by planning
3. Combining flows and operations

- The principle of minimizing the cost of flow may be viewed

as:
4. Eliminate unnecessary movements of material by
reducing the no. of steps
5. Minimize manual handling by minimizing travel
distances
6. Eliminate manual handling by mechanizing or
automating flow
7. Minimize material handling by reducing the flow density 11
III Flow Patterns: Flow within Departments
• The flow pattern within departments depends on the type of departments.

• In a product and/or product family department, the flow follows the product

flow.
1 machine/operator 1 machine/operator 2 machines/operator

END TO END BACK TO BACK FRONT TO FRONT

More than 2
1 machine/operator
machines/
operator

CIRCULATE ODD ANGLE

Fig 03_05: Flow within product departments. (a) End-to-end. (b) Back-to-back. (c ) Front-to-front. 12
(d) circular. (e) Odd-angle.
III Flow Patterns: Flow within Departments
• In a process department, little flow should occur between workstations

within departments. Flow occurs between workstations and aisles.

Uncommon

One Way

One Way

PERDENDICULAR DIAGONAL
PARALLEL

Dependent on: - interactions among workstations

- available space

- size of materials
Fig 03_06: Flow within process departments. (a) Parallel. (b) Perpendicular. (c ) Diagonal.
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 III Flow Patterns: Flow within Departments
Flow between departments is a criterion often used to evaluate flow within a facility.

• Straight line flow • U- shape • S- shape • W-shape

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Fig 03_07: The line flow pattern
III Flow Patterns: Flow between Department

Fig 03_08: The spine flow patern

Fig 03_10: The tree flow patern

Fig 03_09: The loop flow pattern

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Flow within a facility considering the locations of
entrance and exit

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III Flow Planning Hierarchy

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 III Impact of interruptions on flow paths
A directed flow path is an uninterrupted flow path progressing directly from

origin to destination. The figure below illustrates the congestion and undesirable

intersections that may occur when flow paths are interrupted.

Uninterrupted flow paths

Interrupted flow paths

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IV Departmental Planning

Depending on product volume-variety,

production planning departments.
1.Production line department or Product
layout
1.Fixed material location department or
Fixed location layout
2. Product family (Group technology)
department layout
3.Process planning department or Process
layout
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IV Departmental Planning
IV Departmental Planning
(Flowshop)

https://
www.youtube.com/
watch?v=DrO5sS51Yk8

(Job-shop)

Fig 03_21: Volume-variety layout classification 21

IV A systematic approach should be
use in combining workstations into
department.
Table 03_01: Procedural guide for combining workstations in planning department

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IV Product Family (Group technology)
Department
• Product family or group technology departments aggregate

parts into families based on similar manufacturing operations

or design attributes

• Machines are grouped together to from a cell

• Cellular manufacturing involves the use of manufacturing

cells

• Manufacturing cells can be formed in a variety of ways

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IV Product Family (Group technology)
Department
• How to select machine or part types for a particular cell

Classification and coding

Production flow analysis

Clustering techniques

Heuristic procedures

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Mathematical models
IV Product Family (Group technology)
Department
•
Successful implementation of manufacturing cells requires

addressing

Selection: identification of machine and part types for a

particular cell

Design: layout ,production and material handling requirements

Operation: determining production lot sizes, scheduling, number

and type of operators, type of production control (push vs. pull)

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Control: methods used to measure the performance of the cell
IV Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA)
Step 1: Order the rows and columns

Sum the 1s in each column and in each row of the machine-part matrix.

Order the rows (top to bottom) in descending order of the number 1s in the rows, and

order the columns (left to right) in ascending order of the number 1s in each.

Where ties exist, break the ties in descending numerical sequence.

Row: 3,6,4,1,5,2

Column: 5,4,3,2,1

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IV Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA)
Step 2: Sort the column.

Beginning with the first row of the matrix, shift to the left of the matrix all columns

having a 1 in the first row. Continue the process row by row until no further opportunity

exists for shifting columns.

Only the column

for machine 2

can be shifted

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IV Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA)
Step 3: Sort the rows.

Column by column, beginning with the leftmost column, shift rows upward when

opportunities exist to form blocks of 1s.

Row for part 5 28

IV Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA)
Step 4: Form cells.

Look for opportunities to form cells such that all processing for each part occurs in a

single cell.

Parts 3, 5, and 6 are processed

in a cell made up of machines 2,

4, and 5.

Parts 1, 2, and 4 are processed

in a cell made up of machines 1

and 3.

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IV Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA)

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 IV Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA)

How to resolve conflicts?

Fig 03_29: Formation of cells with “bottleneck” machine 2 or 3 31

Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA)
• Another solution is to duplicate necessary machines and place one in each cell

(A cost-benefit analysis is necessary!)

Fig 03_30: Formation of cells with duplicate of (a) machine 2 and (b) machine 3

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IV Direct Clustering Algorithm (DCA) in class
exercise
V Activity Relationships

• Measuring the activities among departments

• Quantitative measures

-pieces per hour,

-moves per day

- kilo grams per week, etc.

• Qualitative measures

-absolute necessity of closeness,

-undesirable to be close, etc.

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V Activity Relationships

Fig 03_38 Mileage chart (from-to)

Fig 03_39: Triangular mileage chart

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VI Quantitative flow measurement
• Flow can be measured in terms of the amount moved between

departments

• From-to-chart is a chart used to record the flows

Fig 03_40: From-to chart

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VI Quantitative flow measurement
In order to draw a from-to-chart

• List all departments down the row and across the column

preferably depending on the flow patterns. (e.x: fig 3-41)

• Establish a measure of flow (number of items moved,

number of trips, weight of the items moved, etc.)

• Record the data in the from-to-chart

From-to-charts reduce large volume of data into a workable form

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VI Quantitative flow measurement

Flow patterns indicating the order of flow given in (a) straight-line flow. (b) U-
shaped flow. (c) S-shaped flow. (d) W-shaped flow. 38
VI Quantitative Flow Measurement

Fig 03_19: Illustration of how backtracking impacts the length of flow paths

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VI Quantitative Flow Measurement

Fig 03_19: Illustration of how backtracking impacts the length of flow paths

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VI Quantitative Flow Measurement
 VI Quantitative flow measurement
A firm produces 3 components as following table. Develop the from-to chart.

Fig 03_42: From-to chart. The circled numbers represent component numbers, and the number 42
following the circled numbers indicates the volume of equivalent flows for the component
 VI Quantitative flow measurement

Build from to chart

 VI Qualitative flow measurement
• Relationship (REL) chart can be constructed to
show the qualitative factors

• In order to draw a relationship chart

1. List all departments on the chart
2. Conduct interviews or surveys with persons
from each department and with the
management
3. Define the criteria for assigning closeness
relationships
4. Establish the relationship value and the reason
for the value for all pairs of departments
5. Evaluate and discuss with everyone
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VI Qualitative flow measurement
VI Qualitative flow measurement

Relationship chart

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 VI Qualitative flow measurement

1. Design methods
2. Emphasize the activities having the connection between A
and E
3. Remain the activitiviese having the same length
4. Avoid the intersection activities
5. Arrange the activities U and X in the final
In class exercise
VII Exercise