What is the purpose of facility layout?

Jonathan Wilkins, Marketing Director at obsolete equipment supplier EU Automation discusses how factory design can impact operational efficiency. One of the most famous buildings in the New York skyline, The Empire State Building, underwent a $550m environmental upgrade in 2011. Improving insulation, implementing energy saving technologies and refurbishing 6,500 windows cut the building’s annual energy usage by a substantial $4.4m. When renovating or designing any facility, efficiency can be improved by careful design and planning.

One of the most famous buildings in the New York skyline, The Empire State Building, underwent a $550m environmental upgrade in 2011. Improving insulation, implementing energy saving technologies and refurbishing 6,500 windows cut the building’s annual energy usage by a substantial $4.4m. When renovating or designing any facility, efficiency can be improved by careful design and planning.

The design and layout of a facility has a powerful impact on manufacturing operations. An efficient layout can facilitate an increased flow of work, information and material around the site. If a factory is not designed with efficiency in mind, it can limit production, slow processes and impact overall profitability.

Considerations
When designing or renovating a production facility, space, production, safety and convenience are all of the utmost importance. For the majority of plant managers, it is imperative that the factory design allows for the facility to have efficient production and storage capabilities, in order to maximise productivity. There are a number of ways that a facility can be designed to achieve this goal.

Software
Software tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), a 3D modelling software for building design, can be used to understand how the design or construction of a facility will impact how it operates and minimise design errors. It can also be used to analyse how complex variables work together, including water, airflow and ventilation.

The building as a whole can be optimised during the design stage, but the production line should also be optimised for efficiency. In an efficient production line, there is a smooth process flow from raw material to finished product, to avoid paperwork or parts being misplaced. This can be done using design and planning software applications such as AutoCAD, which allows the designer to view and analyse a digital factory model.

Space
When planning movement around a factory it is important to optimise the space so that it fits production needs, whilst making the best use of the available area. This can be achieved by reorganising the warehouse or even by constructing a mezzanine floor above the production facility. Though it is important to consider the best layout of machines and equipment, in factories where humans work alongside robots, the space should be designed with people in mind.

The human touch
Improving the working environment for staff can increase productivity. A facility that is light, well ventilated and temperature regulated will encourage worker productivity and increase staff satisfaction.

Once the facility is up and running, the plant manager can take advantage of smart factory technology, using real time information to make intelligent decisions.

From concept to construction to operation, steps can be taken to make a production line more efficient, productive and cost effective. If a facility is designed with efficiency in mind, the manufacturer can stay ahead of its competition for the long term, cementing its place in the marketplace, just as the Empire State Building has in the New York skyline.

Facility layout is a classical industrial/production engineering problem. Good layout will help any company to improve its business performance. Presents a general overview of the facility layout problem and includes information about approaches to the solution of the problem. Discusses the role of the computer; and the contribution of facility layout to an organization’s competitive advantage. Describes experiences of organizations with facility layout.

Of all the pieces of the planning puzzle, facility location is the most strategic and critical. Once you build a new manufacturing facility, you have made a substantial investment of time, resources, and capital that can’t be changed for a long time. Selecting the wrong location can be disastrous. Some of the key factors that influence facility location are the following:

• Proximity to customers, suppliers, and skilled labor
• Environmental regulations
• Financial incentives offered by state and local development authorities
• Quality-of-life considerations
• Potential for future expansion

The next step, after planning the production process, is deciding on plant layout—how equipment, machinery, and people will be arranged to make the production process as efficient as possible.

Practice Question

Facility Layout

After the site location decision has been made, the next focus in production planning is the facility’s layout. The goal is to determine the most efficient and effective design for the particular production process. A manufacturer might opt for a U-shaped production line, for example, rather than a long, straight one, to allow products and workers to move more quickly from one area to another.

Service organizations must also consider layout, but they are more concerned with how it affects customer behavior. It may be more convenient for a hospital to place its freight elevators in the center of the building, for example, but doing so may block the flow of patients, visitors, and medical personnel between floors and departments.

There are four main types of facility layouts: process, product, fixed-position, and cellular.

The process layout arranges workflow around the production process. All workers performing similar tasks are grouped together. Products pass from one workstation to another (but not necessarily to every workstation). For example, all grinding would be done in one area, all assembling in another, and all inspection in yet another. The process layout is best for firms that produce small numbers of a wide variety of products, typically using general-purpose machines that can be changed rapidly to new operations for different product designs. For example, a manufacturer of custom machinery would use a process layout.

Figure 1. An Example of a Process Facility Layout. Source: Adapted from Operations Management, 9th edition, by Gaither/Frazier.

Products that require a continuous or repetitive production process use the product (or assembly-line) layout. When large quantities of a product must be processed on an ongoing basis, the workstations or departments are arranged in a line with products moving along the line. Automobile and appliance manufacturers, as well as food-processing plants, usually use a product layout. Service companies may also use a product layout for routine processing operations.

Figure 2. An Example of a Product Facility Layout. Source: Adapted from Operations Management, 9th edition, by Gaither/Frazier.

In the following video, Jansen, a Swiss steel maker, describes how the company’s offices were designed to maximize the productivity and creativity of its engineers:

You can view the transcript for “Office Space – Jansen” (opens in new window) or text alternative for “Office Space – Jansen” (opens in new window).

Some products cannot be put on an assembly line or moved about in a plant. A fixed-position layout lets the product stay in one place while workers and machinery move to it as needed. Products that are impossible to move—ships, airplanes, and construction projects—are typically produced using a fixed-position layout. Limited space at the project site often means that parts of the product must be assembled at other sites, transported to the fixed site, and then assembled. The fixed-position layout is also common for on-site services such as housecleaning services, pest control, and landscaping.

Figure 3. An Example of a Fixed-Position Facility Layout. Source: Adapted from Operations Management, 9th edition, by Gaither/Frazier.

To see an excellent example of fixed-position layout, watch the following video that shows how Boeing builds an airplane. (Note that this video has no narration; only instrumental music. Access audio description by using the widget below the video.)

Access the text alternative for “Making of a Boeing Airplane” (opens in new window).

Cellular layouts combine some aspects of both product and fixed-position layouts. Work cells are small, self-contained production units that include several machines and workers arranged in a compact, sequential order. Each work cell performs all or most of the tasks necessary to complete a manufacturing order. There are usually five to 10 workers in a cell, and they are trained to be able to do any of the steps in the production process. The goal is to create a team environment wherein team members are involved in production from beginning to end.

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