The layout of an operation is concerned with the physical location of its transforming resources.
It concerns the decision to put all the facilities, machines, equipment and staff into the operation. After the process type has been selected, the basic layout type needs to be selected.
Required:
Explain the following; giving an example each:
a) Fixed-position layout. (7 marks)
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Fixed-position layout is the type of layout where the product being manufacture remains fixed at a given place and materials, people and equipment in the transformation process are transported to it. This is so because the product or the recipient of the service is too large to be moved conveniently, or it might be too delicate to move, or it could even object to being moved. For example:
i) Monitoring construction- The product is too large to move.
ii) Open- heart surgery- Patients are too delicate to move.
b) Process layout. (6 marks)
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Process layout is so called because the needs and convenience of the transforming resources which constitute the processes in the operation dominate the layout decision. In process layout, similar processes (or processes with similar needs) are located together. The reason is that it is convenient for the operation to group them together, or that the utilisation of transforming resources is improved. This means that when products, information or customers flow through the operation they will take a route from process to process according to their needs.
Different products or customers will have different needs and therefore take different routes through the operation.
Examples include:
i) Hospital- Some processes (eg X- ray machines and laboratories) are required by several types of patients.
ii) Supermarket- Some processes, such as the area of holding tinned vegetables, are convenient to restock if grouped together. Some, such as the area holding frozen meat and / or fish, need the common technology of freezer cabinets.
c) Product layout. (7 marks)
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Product layout (sometimes called line-flow layout) refers to the type of layout in which workstations or departments are arranged in a linear path. Here, the customer or product flows in a smooth, continuous flow. Resources are arranged around the customer’s or product’s route, rather than shared across many of them.
The key feature of this layout type is that resources are placed to maximise product flow. Each product or service will follow a path which is pre-determined by the product’s processing requirements. Most traditional product lines in factories follow this layout.
Examples include:
i) Vehicle assembly- Almost all variants of the same model require the same sequence of processes.
ii) Self- Service Cafeteria- Generally the sequence of customers’ requirements is common to all customers, but layout also helps control customers flow.