Facility Layout

Plant layout is a floor plan of the physical facilities which bare used in production. Layout planning is referred to the generation of several possible plans for the spatial arrangement of physical facilities and selects the one which minimizes the distance between departments. The following are the main objectives of plant layout:

• Minimum investment in equipment
• Minimum overall production time
• Utilize existing space effectively
• Provide for employment convenience, safety and comfort
• Maintain flexibility of arrangement and operations
• Minimized material handling costs
• Facilitate the manufacturing process
• Facilitate the organizational structure

Imagine yourself visiting a multi-specialty hospital for a master health checkup. What if the radiology department was located in the second floor, the general physicians were sitting in the ground floor at the rear side, ECG and tread-mill test facilities were in the fourth floor and so on. Finally, imagine that you need to walk out of the main complex and go 50 meters away to another building to have your breakfast after you give your fasting food samples and return to the main complex to continue with the process. Such instances are uncommon. How many times have you felt that you were made to walk too much in a hospital when you went for a health checkup or you went to a financial institution asking for a loan sanction or to a government office to pay some utilities bill and make some enquiries? What is the core problem in these examples? In simple terms, these examples suggest that with better arrangement of resources it is possible to provide better service to the customers. That is where layout planning in manufacturing and service organization is important.

There are three categories of layout:

• Fixed position layout – fixed position layout is used when a product is heavy, bulky, or fragile. In this approach, operators come to the product itself. The product is completed on site and isn’t moved during the process.
• Process layout – in process layout, a plant or service facility has specific activities or machinery grouped together. In manufacturing, this has the advantage of enabling the production of a range or variety of products. The machines aren’t laid out in a particular, sequential process. Therefore, the product doesn’t move in a predetermined sequence, but rather goes to a machine center as required.
• Product layout – in product layout, machines are dedicated to a particular product or to a small range of very similar products. Each stage of the manufacturing process is distinct from the next. Each station is laid out in an operational sequence specific to the manufacture of a particular product or the provision of a particular service.

A key basis for service layout decisions is an analysis of the service process to determine which activities and tasks involve the customer and which do not. The findings of this analysis are translated into specific decisions about space allocation, process design, and environment design. Customer-free zones are designed to accommodate activities separate from the customer. These zones may typically be behind the counter or in a back office. The design here may aim to standardize the process to increase efficiency.

There are three important aspects of service layout:

• aesthetic or ambient conditions – refer to such features as lighting, color scheme, air quality, acoustics, music, and furnishings.
• ergonomic considerations – include space utilization, which encompasses customer circulation path planning; aisle width and direction; shelf spacing; and product grouping.
• information and interpretation aspects – features are all the signs, symbols, and communications that encourage shoppers to slow down and browse.