topic 4: Layout strategies Flashcards
Strategic Importance of Layout Decisions
The objective of layout strategy is to develop an effective and efficient layout that will meet the firm’s competitive requirements
Layout Design Considerations
Higher utilization of space, equipment, and people
Improved flow of information, materials, or people
Improved employee morale and safer working conditions
Improved customer/client interaction
Flexibility
Types of Layout
- Office layout
- Retail layout
- Warehouse layout
- Fixed-position layout
- Process-oriented .layout
- .Work-cell layout
- Product-oriented layout
Office Layout
- Grouping of workers, their equipment, and spaces to provide comfort, safety, and movement of information
- Movement of information is main distinction
- Typically in state of flux due to frequent technological changes
Retail layout
- Allocates shelf space and responds to customer behaviour
- Objective is to maximize profitability per square foot of floor space
- Sales and profitability vary directly with customer exposure
warehouse layout
Addresses trade-offs between space and material handling
fixed position layout
Addresses the layout requirements of large, bulky projects such as ships and buildings
process- oriented layout
Deals with low-volume, high-variety production (also called job shop or intermittent production)
work-cell layout
Arranges machinery and equipment to focus on production of a single product or group of related products
product-oriented layout
Seeks the best personnel and machine utilizations in repetitive or continuous production
Good Layouts Considerations
- Material handling equipment
- Capacity and space requirements
- Environment and aesthetics
- Flows of information
- Cost of moving between various work areas
Five Helpful Ideas for Retail Layout
- Locate high-draw items around the periphery of the store
- Use prominent locations for high-impulse and high-margin items
- Distribute power items to both sides of an aisle and disperse them to increase viewing of other items
- Use end-aisle locations
- Convey mission of store through careful positioning of lead-off department
Retail Slotting (multiple choice Question)
- Manufacturers pay fees to retailers to get the retailers to display (slot) their product
- Contributing factors
- Limited shelf space
- An increasing number of new products
- Better information about sales through POS data collection
- Closer control of inventory
Servicescapes (multiple choice)
- The physical surroundings in which the service is delivered
- How the surroundings have a humanistic effect on customers and employees
- To provide a good service layout, a firm considers three elements:
- Ambient Conditions- Spatial Layout and Functionality
- Signs, Symbols and Artifacts
Warehousing and Storage Layouts
- Objective is to optimize trade-offs between handling costs and costs associated with warehouse space
- Maximize the total “cube” of the warehouse – utilize its full volume while maintaining low material handling costs
Warehousing and Storage Layouts–Material Handling Costs
- All costs associated with the transaction
- Incoming transport
- Storage
- Finding and moving material
- Outgoing transport
- Equipment, people, material, supervision, insurance, depreciation - Minimize damage and spoilage
Cross-Docking
- Materials are moved directly from receiving to shipping and are not placed in storage in the warehouse
- Requires tight scheduling and accurate shipments, bar code or RFIDidentification used foradvanced shipmentnotification as materialsare unloaded
Random Stocking
- Typically requires automatic identification systems (AISs) and effective information systems
- Random assignment of stocking locations allows more efficient use of space
- Key tasks
- Maintain list of open locations
- Maintain accurate records
- Sequence items to minimize travel, pick time
- Combine picking orders- Assign classes of items to particular areas
- Maintain list of open locations
Customizing
- Value-added activities performed at the warehouse
- Enable low cost and rapid response strategies
- Assembly of components
- Loading software
- Repairs
- Customized labeling and packaging
Fixed-Position Layout
- Product remains in one place
- Workers and equipment come to site
- Complicating factors
- Limited space at site
- Different materials required at different stages of the project
- Volume of materials needed is dynamic - alternative strategy to this layout is completing processes of-site and bringing them into the facility
Process-Oriented Layout
- Like machines and equipment are grouped together –> results in smaller achinery costs because you have machines doing standardized tasks
- Flexible and capable of handling a wide variety of products or services
- Scheduling can be difficult and setup, material handling, and labour costs can be high
- arrange work centres to minize material handling costs
Work Cell Layout
- Reorganizes people and machines into groups to focus on single products or product groups
- Group technology identifies products that have similar characteristics for particular cells
- Volume must justify cells
- Cells can be reconfigured as designs or volume changes
Advantages to Work cells
- Reduced work-in-process inventory
- Less floor space required
- Reduced raw material and finished goods inventory
- Reduced direct labour
- Heightened sense of employee participation
- Increased use of equipment and machinery
- Reduced investment in machinery and equipment
Requirements of Work Cells
- Identification of families of products
- A high level of training, flexibility, and empowerment of employees
- Being self-contained, with its own equipment and resources
- Test (poka-yoke) at each station in the cell
Takt Time (definition)
-pace that is needed to maintain in order meet the customers demand
Takt time= total work time avaiable/units required
Number of operators required= total operation time required/takt time
Repetitive and Product-Oriented Layout
Organized around products or families of similar high-volume, low-variety products
Repetitive and Product- Oriented Layout assumptions
- Volume is adequate for high equipment utilization
- Product demand is stable enough to justify high investment in specialized equipment
- Product is standardized or approaching a phase of life cycle that justifies investment
- Supplies of raw materials and components are adequate and of uniform quality
examples of product-orientsed layouts
- Fabrication line
- Builds components on a series of machines
- Machine-paced
- Require mechanical or engineering changes to balance
- Assembly line
- Puts fabricated parts together at a series of workstations
- Paced by work tasks
- Balanced by moving tasks - -> both types of lines must be balanced so that the time to perform the work at each station is the same
Advantages Product-Oriented Layouts
- Low variable cost per unit
- Low material handling costs
- Reduced work-in-process inventories
- Easier training and supervision
- Rapid throughput
Disadvantages of Product-Oriented Layouts
- High volume is required
- Work stoppage at any point ties up the whole operation
- Lack of flexibility in product or production rates
Assembly line balancing (multiple choice and definitions)
- Objective is to minimize the imbalance between machines or personnel while meeting required output
- Starts with the precedence relationships
- Determine cycle time
- Calculate theoretical minimum number of workstations
- Balance the line by assigning specific tasks to workstations
