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Process Selection�and �Facility Layout

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Introduction

  • Make or Buy?
    • Available capacity, excess capacity
    • Expertise, knowledge, know-how exists?
    • Quality Consideration, specialized firms, control over quality if in-house
    • The nature of demand, aggregation
    • Cost

Make some components buy remaining

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Introduction

  • Process selection
    • Deciding on the way production of goods or services will be organized
  • Major implications
    • Capacity planning
    • Layout of facilities
    • Equipment, Capital-equipment or labor intensive
    • Design of work systems
  • New product and service, technological changes, and competitive pressures

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Process selection refers to deciding on the way production of goods or services will be organized. It has major implications for capacity planning, layout of facilities, equipment, and design of work systems. Process selection occurs as a matter of course when new products or services are being planned. However, it also occurs periodically due to technological changes in products or equipment, as well as competitive pressures.

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Process Selection and System Design

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Forecasting

Product and�Service Design

Technological�Change

Capacity�Planning

Process�Selection

Facilities and�Equipment

Layout

Work�Design

Figure 6.1

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Process Types

  • Job Shops: Small lots, low volume, general equipment, skilled workers, high-variety. Ex: tool and die shop, veterinarian’s office
  • Batch Processing: Moderate volume and variety. Variety among batches but not inside. Ex:paint production , BA3352 sections
  • Repetitive/Assembly: Semicontinuous, high volume of standardized items, limited variety. Ex: auto plants, cafeteria
  • Continuous Processing: Very high volume and no variety. Ex: steel mill, chemical plants
  • Projects: Nonroutine jobs. Ex: preparing BA3352 midterm

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Questions Before Selecting A Process

  • Variety of products

and services

    • How much
  • Flexibility of the process; volume, mix, technology and design
    • What type and degree
  • Volume
    • Expected output

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Job Shop

Batch

Repetitive

Continuous

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Product – Process Matrix

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Dimension

Job Shop

Batch

Repetitive

Continuous

Job variety

Very High

Moderate

Low

Very low

Process flexibility

Very High

Moderate

Low

Very low

Unit cost

Very High

Moderate

Low

Very low

Volume of output

Very low

Low

High

Very high

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Variety, Flexibility, & Volume

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Product – Process Matrix

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Process Type

High variety

Low variety

Job Shop

Appliance repair�Emergency room

Batch

Commercial�bakery�Classroom�Lecture

Repetitive

Automotive�assembly�Automatic�carwash

Continuous�(flow)

Oil refinery�Water purification

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Product-Process Matrix

Flexibility-Quality

Dependability-Cost

Continuous

Flow

Assembly

Line

Batch

Job

Shop

Low

Volume

One of a

Kind

Multiple

Products,

Low

Volume

Few

Major

Products,

Higher

Volume

High

Volume,

High

Standard-

ization

Book

Writing

Movie

Theaters

Automobile

Assembly

Sugar

Refinery

Flexibility-

Quality

Dependability-

Cost

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Project. A project is used for work that is nonroutine, with a unique set of objectives to be accomplished in a limited time frame. Examples range from simple to complicated, including such things as putting on a play, consulting, making a motion picture, launching a new product or service, publishing a book, building a dam, and building a bridge. Equipment flexibility and worker skills can range from low to high

Process technology and information technology can have a major impact on costs, productivity, and competitiveness. Process technology includes methods, procedures, and equipment used to produce goods and provide services. This not only involves processes within an organization, it also extends to supply chain processes. Information technology (IT) is the science and use of computers and other electronic equipment to store, process, and send information. IT is heavily ingrained in today’s business operations. This includes electronic data processing, the use of barcodes and radio frequency tags to identify and track goods, devices used to obtain point-of-sale information, data transmission, the Internet, e-commerce, e-mail, and more.

Automation is machinery that has sensing and control devices that enable it to operate automatically. If a company decides to automate, the next question is how much. Automation can range from factories that are completely automated to a single automated operation

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Flexible automation evolved from programmable automation. It uses equipment that is more customized than that of programmable automation. A key difference between the two is that flexible automation requires significantly less changeover time. This permits almost continuous operation of equipment and product variety without the need to produce in batches.

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a group of machines that include supervisory computer control, automatic material handling, and robots or other automated processing equipment. Reprogrammable controllers enable these systems to produce a variety of similar products. Systems may range from three or four machines to more than a dozen. They are designed to handle intermittent processing requirements with some of the benefits of automation and some of the flexibility of individual, or stand-alone, machines (e.g., N/C machines).

Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) is a system that uses an integrating computer system to link a broad range of manufacturing activities, including engineering design, flexible manufacturing systems, purchasing, order processing, and production planning and control. Not all elements are absolutely necessary. For instance, CIM might be as simple as linking two or more FMSs by a host computer. More encompassing systems can link scheduling, purchasing, inventory control, shop control, and distribution.

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Fixed automation: Low production cost and high volume but with minimal variety and high changes cost

    • Assembly line

Programmable automation: Economically producing a wide variety of low volume products in small batches

    • Computer-aided design and manufacturing systems (CAD/CAM)
    • Numerically controlled (NC) machines / CNC
    • Industrial robots (arms)

Flexible automation: Require less changeover time and allow continuous operation of equipment and product variety

    • Manufacturing cell
    • Flexible manufacturing systems: Use of high automation to achieve repetitive process efficiency with job shop process
      • Automated retrieval and storage
      • Automated guided vehicles
    • Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)

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Automation: Machinery that has sensing and control devices that enables it to operate

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Robot

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Show wafer_handler_web

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Flexible Manufacturing System

  • Group of machines that include supervisory computer control, automatic material handling, robots and other processing equipment
    • Advantage:

reduce labor costs and more consistent quality

lower capital investment and higher flexibility than hard automation

relative quick changeover time

    • Disadvantage

used for a family of products and require longer planning and development times

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Computer-integrated manufacturing

  • Use integrating computer system to link a broad range of manufacturing activities, including engineering design, purchasing, order processing and production planning and control
  • Advantage:

rapid response to customer order and product change, reduce direct labor cost, high quality

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  • Service blueprint: A method used in service design to describe and analyze a proposed service. Flowchart:

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Service Blueprint

Begin

Turn on laptop

Connect to LCD

A

A

View on

Yes

Lecture

No

Begin

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  • Establish boundaries
  • Identify steps involved
  • Prepare a flowchart
  • Identify potential failure points
  • Establish a time frame for operations
  • Analyze profitability

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Service Process Design

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  • Layout: the configuration of departments, work centers, and equipment,
    • Whose design involves particular emphasis on movement of work (customers or materials) through the system
  • Importance of layout
    • Requires substantial investments of money and effort
    • Involves long-term commitments
    • Has significant impact on cost and efficiency of short-term operations

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Layout

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The Need for Layout Decisions

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Inefficient operations

For Example:

High Cost

Bottlenecks

Changes in the design

of products or services

The introduction of new�products or services

Accidents

Safety hazards

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The Need for Layout Design (Cont’d)

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Changes in

environmental

or other legal

requirements

Changes in volume of

output or mix of

products

Changes in methods

and equipment

Morale problems

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Basic Layout Types

  • Product Layout
    • Layout that uses standardized processing operations to achieve smooth, rapid, high-volume flow
      • Auto plants, cafeterias
  • Process Layout
    • Layout that can handle varied processing requirements
      • Tool and die shops, university departments
  • Fixed Position Layout
    • Layout in which the product or project remains stationary, and workers, materials, and equipment are moved as needed
      • Building projects, disabled patients at hospitals
  • Combination Layouts

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A Flow Line for Production or Service

Flow Shop or Assembly Line Work Flow

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Raw materials

or customer

Finished item

Station

2

Station

3

Station

4

Material

and/or labor

Station

1

Material

and/or labor

Material

and/or labor

Material

and/or labor

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A U-Shaped Production Line

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Advantage: more compact, increased communication facilitating team work, minimize the material handling

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Process Layout

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Dept. A

Dept. B

Dept. D

Dept. C

Dept. F

Dept. E

Used for Intermittent processing

Process Layout

(functional)

Process layouts (functional layouts) are designed to process items or provide services that involve a variety of processing requirements. The variety of jobs that are processed requires frequent adjustments to equipment. This causes a discontinuous workflow, which is referred to as intermittent processing. The layouts feature departments or other functional groupings in which similar kinds of activities are performed. A manufacturing example of a process layout is the machine shop, which has separate departments for milling, grinding, drilling, and so on. Items that require those operations are frequently moved in lots or batches to the departments in a sequence that varies from job to job. Consequently, variable-path material-handling equipment (forklift trucks, jeeps, tote boxes) is needed to handle the variety of routes and items. The use of general-purpose equipment provides the flexibility necessary to handle a wide range of processing requirements

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Product Layout

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Product Layout - work travels �to dedicated process centers

Milling

Assembly�& Test

Grinding

Drilling

Plating

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Layout types: Product or Process Make your pick

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A

B

A

B

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Process vs Layout types

  • Job Shop

  • Project

  • Repetitive
  • Product

  • Process

  • Fixed-point

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Match?

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Product layout

Advantages

    • High volume
    • Low unit cost
    • Low labor skill needed
    • Low material handling
    • High efficiency and utilization
    • Simple routing and scheduling
    • Simple to track and control

Disadvantages

    • Lacks flexibility
      • Volume, design, mix
    • Boring for labor
      • Low motivation
      • Low worker enrichment
    • Can not accommodate partial shut downs/breakdowns
    • Individual incentive plans are not possible

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Cellular Layouts

  • Cellular Manufacturing
    • Layout in which machines are grouped into a cell that can process items that have similar processing requirements. A product layout is visible inside each cell.
  • Group Technology
    • The grouping into part families of items with similar design or manufacturing characteristics. Each cell is assigned a family for production. This limits the production variability inside cells, hence allowing for a product layout.

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A Group of Parts

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Similar manufacturing characters

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Process vs. Cellular Layouts

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Dimension

Process

Cellular

Number of moves between departments

many

few

Travel distances

longer

shorter

Travel paths

variable

fixed

Job waiting times

greater

shorter

Amount of work in process

higher

lower

Supervision difficulty

higher

lower

Scheduling complexity

higher

lower

Equipment utilization

Lower?

Higher?

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. To get a sense of the advantage of the cellular layout, trace the movement of an order in the traditional layout (6.7A) that is depicted by the path of the arrow. Begin on the bottom left at Shipping/Receiving, then follow the arrow to Warehouse, where a batch of raw material is released for production. Follow the path (shown by the arrows) that the batch takes as it moves through the system to Shipping/Receiving and then to the Customer. Now turn to Figure 6.7B . Note the simple path the order takes as it moves through the system.

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Basic Layout Formats

  • Group Technology Layout

Similar to cellular layout

  • Fixed Position Layout
    • e.g. Shipbuilding

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Part Family W

Part Family X

Part Family Y

Part Family Z

Assemble Y,W

Assemble X,Z

Final Product

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Fixed-Position and combination Layout

  • Fixed-Position Layout:

item being worked on remains stationary, and workers, materials and equipment are moved as needed.

Example: buildings, dams, power plants

  • Combination Layouts:

combination of three pure types.

Example: hospital: process and fixed position.

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Service Layouts

  • Warehouse and storage layouts

Issue: Frequency of orders

  • Retail layouts

Issue: Traffic patterns and traffic flows

  • Office layouts

Issue: Information transfer, openness

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Design Product Layouts: Line Balancing

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Line balancing is the process of assigning tasks to workstations

in such a way that the workstations have approximately the same

processing time requirements. This results in the minimized idle time

along the line and high utilization of labor and equipment.

Cycle time is the maximum time allowed at each workstation

to complete its set of tasks on a single unit

What is the cycle time for the system above?

Worker 1

Worker 2

4 tasks

2 tasks

Each task takes 1 minutes, how to balance?

In the case of an automatic car wash, scrubbing and drying operations could not realistically be combined at the same workstation due to the need to rinse cars between the two operations.

Line balancing involves assigning tasks to workstations. Usually, each workstation has one worker who handles all of the tasks at that station, although an option is to have several workers at a single workstation.

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Parallel Workstations

1 min.

2 min.

1 min.

1 min.

30/hr.

30/hr.

30/hr.

30/hr.

1 min.

2 min.

1 min.

1 min.

60/hr.

30/hr.

30/hr.

60/hr.

2 min.

30/hr.

30/hr.

Bottleneck

Parallel Workstations

The minimum cycle time is equal to the longest task time (1.0 minute), and the maximum cycle time is equal to the sum of the task times (0.1 + 0.7 + 1.0 + 0.5 + 0.2 = 2.5 minutes). The minimum cycle time would apply if there were five workstations. The maximum cycle time would apply if all tasks were performed at a single workstation.

Using parallel stations for the third task would result in a cycle time of 1 minute because the output rate at the parallel stations would be equal to that of a single station and allow an output rate for the line of 60 units per hour:

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The obstacle

  • The difficulty to forming task bundles that have the same duration.
  • The difference among the elemental task lengths can not be overcome by grouping task.
    • Ex: Can you split the tasks with task times {1,2,3,4} into two groups such that total task time in each group is the same?
    • Ex: Try the above question with {1,2,2,4}
  • A required technological sequence prohibit the desirable task combinations
    • Ex: Let the task times be {1,2,3,4} but suppose that the task with time 1 can only done after the task with time 4 is completed. Moreover task with time 3 can only done after the task with time 2 is completed. How to group?

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Cycle Time

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Cycle time is the maximum time allowed at each workstation to complete its tasks on a unit.

The major determinant: cycle time

Minimum cycle time: longest task time by assigning each task to a workstation

Maximum cycle time: sum of the task time by assigning all tasks to a workstation

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Determine Maximum Output�Cycle Time: Time to process 1 unit

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Example: If a student can answer a multiple choice question in 2 minutes but gets a test with 30 questions and is given only 30 minutes then

OT=30 minutes; D=30

Desired cycle time=1 minute < 2 minutes = Cycle time from the process capability

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Determine the Minimum Number of Workstations Required: Efficiency

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Example: Students can answer a multiple choice question in 2 minutes but given a test with 30 questions and is given only 30 minutes. What is the minimum number of students to collaborate to answer all the questions in the exam?

Total operation (task) time = 60 minutes = 30 x 2 minutes

Operating time=30 minutes. 60/30=2 students must collaborate. This Nmin below.

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Percent Idle Time

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Efficiency = 1 – Percent idle time

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Example 1: Precedence Diagram

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Precedence diagram: Tool used in line balancing to display elemental tasks and sequence requirements

a

b

c

d

e

0.1 min.

0.7 min.

1.0 min.

0.5 min.

0.2 min.

It visually portrays the tasks that are to be performed along with the sequential requirements, that is, the order in which tasks must be performed. The diagram is read from left to right, so the initial task(s) are on the left and the final task is on the right. In terms of precedence requirements, we can see from the diagram, for example, that the only requirement to begin task b is that task a must be finished. However, in order to begin task d, tasks b and c must both be finished

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Example 1: Assembly Line Balancing

Arrange the tasks shown in Figure 6.9 into three workstations. Use a cycle time of 1.0 minute. Assign tasks in order of the greatest number of followers.

The initial “time remaining” for each workstation is equal to the cycle time. For a task to be eligible, tasks preceding it must have been assigned, and the task’s time must not exceed the station’s remaining time.

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Calculate Percent Idle Time

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Efficiency=1-percent idle time=1-0.167=0.833=83.3%

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In balancing an assembly line, tasks are assigned one at a time to the line, starting at the first workstation. At each step, the unassigned tasks are checked to determine which are eligible for assignment. Next, the eligible tasks are checked to see which of them will fit in the workstation being loaded. A heuristic is used to select one of the tasks that will fit, and the task is assigned. This process is repeated until there are no eligible tasks that will fit. Then the next workstation can be loaded. This continues until all tasks are assigned. The objective is to minimize the idle time for the line subject to technological and output constraints.

Technological constraints tell us which elemental tasks are eligible to be assigned at a particular position on the line. Technological constraints can result from the precedence or ordering relationships among the tasks. The precedence relationships require that certain tasks must be performed before others (and so, must be assigned to workstations before others)

Output constraints, on the other hand, determine the maximum amount of work that a manager can assign to each workstation, and this determines whether an eligible task will fit at a workstation. The desired output rate determines the cycle time, and the sum of the task times assigned to any workstation must not exceed the cycle time. If a task can be assigned to a workstation without exceeding the cycle time, then the task will fit. Once it is known which tasks are eligible and will fit, the manager can select the task to be assigned (if there is more than one to choose from). This is where the heuristic rules help us decide which task to assign from among those that are eligible and will fit. To clarify the terminology, following tasks are all tasks that you would encounter by following all paths from the task in question through the precedence diagram. Preceding tasks are all tasks you would encounter by tracing all paths backward from the task in question. In the precedence diagram below, tasks b, d, e, and f are followers of task a. Tasks a, b, and c are preceding tasks for e.

The positional weight for a task is the sum of the task times for itself and all its following tasks. Neither of the heuristics guarantees the best solution, or even a good solution to the linebalancing problem, but they do provide guidelines for developing a solution.

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Companies use a number of other approaches to achieve a smooth flow of production. One approach is to use parallel workstations. These are beneficial for bottleneck operations which would otherwise disrupt the flow of product as it moves down the line. The bottlenecks may be the result of difficult or very long tasks. Parallel workstations increase the work flow and provide flexibility.

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  • Requirements:
    • List of departments
      • Shape requirements
    • Projection of work flows
      • One way vs. two way: Packaging and final assembly.
    • Distance between locations
      • One way vs. two way: Conveyors, Elevators.
    • Amount of money to be invested
    • List of special considerations
      • Technical, Environmental requirements

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Designing Process Layouts

Another approach to achieving a balanced line is to cross-train workers so that they are able to perform more than one task. Then, when bottlenecks occur, the workers with temporarily increased idle time can assist other workers who are temporarily overburdened, thereby maintaining an even flow of work along the line. This is sometimes referred to as dynamic line balancing, and it is used most often in lean production systems. Still another approach is to design a line to handle more than one product on the same line. This is referred to as a mixed model line

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At $1 per load meter, the cost for this plan is $7,600 per day. Even though it might appear that this arrangement yields the lowest transportation cost, you cannot be absolutely positive of that without actually computing the total cost for every alternative and comparing it to this one. Instead, rely on the choice of reasonable heuristic rules such as those demonstrated above to arrive at a satisfactory, if not optimal, solution.

Distance between locations (meters)

Interdepartmental work flow (loads per day)

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Closeness Rating: multiple criteria

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Muther Grid

  • Allow multiple objectives and subjective input from analysis or manager to indicate the relative importance of each combination of department pairs.
  • Subjective inputs are imprecise and unreliable

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Summary

  • Process Selection

Objective, Implication, types

  • Product Layout

Line balancing: procedures and measures

  • Process layout

Information requirements, measures

From to chart and Muther grid

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