Facility Layout and Capacity Planning
What does the term 'facility layout planning' refer to?
Facility layout planning refers to the process of designing the physical layout of resources in a production system.
What three things should be taken into consideration while deciding the layout of the facilities?
The production process, production volume and product variety are of great importance in deciding the layout of the facilities.
Why should enterprises make long-term demand forecasts before deciding the size and layout of the facility?
In this way, the capacity that the facilities should have in the long term can be determined and it will be possible to supply and establish the production resources that will constitute this capacity.
What does the term 'facility layout' refer to?
Facility layout refers to the arrangement of the location of production resources, workstations, stock areas within an existing or proposed facility in an enterprise that produces products or services.
What are the three main reasons why facility layout decisions are important?
1. Large expenditure of money and effort for the construction of facilities.
2. The result of layout decisions covers a long period.
3. The decision about facility layout significantly affects production efficiency and production cost.
What is the main purpose of planning the layout of the production resources in a production system?
It is is to maximize the benefit.
What does flow of movement mean in facility layout?
It means that material, information and customer movement areas in the production process should be designed appropriately.
Why should flexibility be taken into consideration in facility layout?
Because a good plant layout should anticipate any future changes and be designed to adapt to these changes.
How can bottlenecks be prevented in facility layout?
Variables such as production process, capacity planning, machine utilization rates, and semi-finished stock quantities should be taken into consideration in the layout planning of the facility.
What are four basic approaches in facility layout planning?
Fixed-position layouts, process layouts, product layouts and cell layouts.
What is another term for fixed-position layouts?
Fixed-position layout is also called project-type layout.
What type of facility layout is used for construction of dams and buildings?
Fixed-type facility layout.
How can process layout be defined?
Process layout is a group of production resources based on similar processes and functions.
What production processes is process layout good for?
Process layout, also called functional layout, is a suitable layout for workshop and batch production processes.
What are the advantages of process layout?
1. Machine utilization rates are high and require fewer machines.
2. Flexible use of production resources is possible.
3. It requires lower investment costs.
4. High utilization rate of its production facilities.
5. The level of flexibility in the distribution of work is high.
6. The satisfaction of the staff is higher.
What are the limitations of process layout?
1. Long routes increase the amount of transport.
2. The automation of the transport system is not possible.
3. High setup times of the machines result in low productivity.
4. Production time is higher than other facility layout types.
5. Excess stocks in the production area cause a waste of space and capital.
In which layout type are the machines and processes used in production ordered according to the processes carried out from the processing of the raw material to the final product?
In product layout type.
Where can one see product layouts applied?
This type of layout is applied in the production of automobile assembly lines, self-service restaurants and electronic products.
What are general characteristics of product layouts?
1. Production resources are designed for the purpose of high-speed production.
2. Automation systems used to improve production speed and performance result in high installation costs.
3. The process rate is faster as all the resources are ordered for efficient production.
4. The arrangement of production resources according to the product, the proximity of the production lines to each other leads to lower material transportation costs compared to the process layout.
5. The warehouse requirement for inventory is lower.
6. Since all facilities and resources are customized for the production of certain products, there is no flexibility when a new product is added to the system or when substantial changes to the product are required.
How can cell layout be defined?
Cell layout is the layout that allows similar parts to be grouped and processed at the same workstations.