week 7: material handling and plant layout

Question 1

goals of material handling

Answer 1

• minimize production cost
• best handling is no handling (minimising handling)
• enhance safety and working conditions

Question 2

design considerations in handling

Answer 2

physical state
size
weight
shape
condition
safety risk

Question 3

three effectiveness measures

Answer 3

• total material flow: mass of material transported into factory multiplied by distance transported
• material handling to labour ratio: number of perssonel working on handling divided by total number of personnel
• equipment utilisation: gauge effectness of material handing. dividing actual output by theoretical output of the system

Question 4

10 principles of material handing (at least 3)

Answer 4

1) planning
2) standardisation
3) work
4) ergonomic
5) unit load
6) space utilisation
7) system
8) automation
9) environmental
10) lifecyle cost

Question 5

material handling equipment types

Answer 5

• transport equipment
• storage systems
• unitising equipment
• identification and tracking systems

Question 6

what are the 4 types of plant layout

Answer 6

• functional: resources grouped according to process (parts moved between departments) effective when part variety high and volume low
• fixed position: moving resources are brought to the stationary part as required
• product: resources grouped according to sequence of operations. effective when part variety low and volume high
• cellular: parts grouped together into part families and resources grouped according to process reqs of part families

Question 7

systematic layout planning (SLC)

Answer 7

1. Group resources into appropriate departments.
2. Calculate the flows between the departments.
3. Rank the flows and determine flow based relationships between the departments.
4. Determine the non-flow relationships between the departments.
5. Combine the relationships into the overall relationship matrix.
6. Construct a relationship diagram.
7. Calculate the space requirements for the various departments.
8. Redraw the relationship diagram and scale departments according to space requirements.
9. Construct a block layout.