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PLANT LAYOUTS' ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

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 Okpala, Charles Chikwendu et al., International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945
Research Paper
PLANT LAYOUTS’ ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
Okpala, Charles Chikwendu and Chukwumuanya, Okechukwu

Address for Correspondence

Department of Industrial/Production Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University,
P.M.B. 5025 Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
The paper provided a detailed definition of plant layout; and listed efficient labour utilization, manufacturing and
maintenance ease, enhanced productivity, manufacturing flexibility, effective utilization of staff, machines, materials, and
equipment, as well as reduction of accidents, hazards, and inventory handling cost as some of the benefits of a well-designed
plant layout. The numerous factors that determine the designing of a plant layout were also discussed in full, after which the
various types of plant layout were analysed. The plant layout design, its major objectives, and the equations for analytical
calculations of work in progress and efficiency in plant layout design were also discussed, before the paper concluded on the
need for manufacturers to have a well-designed functional plant layout that will be able to switch from one line of product to
another without major alterations.
KEYWORDS: work in progress, inventory, throughput, product, process, plant layout design, flexibility, manufacturing,
production.
I. INTRODUCTION personnel, operating equipment, storage space,
Little adjustments in the position of machines and material handling, equipment, and all other
equipment in a manufacturing plant can greatly alter supporting services along with the design of best
the easy flow of materials; this also affects the structure to contain all the facilities.” He explained
production costs and efficiency of the entire that it involves proper space allocation, as well as the
manufacturing process. The inability to get arrangement of equipment to ensure that the overall
manufacturing processes right leads to delays, operating costs are minimized.
inflexibility, inefficiency, excess inventory, high In his work Singh (2012), explained that Plant layout
costs, low product quality, and unhappy customers. “decisions entail determining the placement of
Modifying an ineffective layout is quite expensive; departments, work groups within the departments,
hence the need to design a functional plant layout workstations, machines, and stock-holding points
right from the onset. within a production facility.” He pointed out that the
Designing and operating an effective plant layout that objective include the arrangement of these elements
can promptly and efficiently adjust to the in a manner that ensures a smooth work flow in a
requirements of ever-changing technology and manufacturing unit or a particular traffic pattern in a
customer demands is becoming increasingly vital to service organization.
the success of manufacturing companies. With the A good plant layout is designed to offer competitive
realities of reduced product life cycle and lead times, advantage to manufacturers by enhancing the flow
as well as increased variety of products and random processes of inventory and information, thereby
customer demands, manufacturers are realizing that leading to reduction in manufacturing cost and
operating a single line of product can no longer be improved productivity. Thinklink (2014), observed
profitable. This is because production efficiency that “The production efficiency of a manufacturing
entails that plant layout should quickly adapt from a unit depends on how well various machines, flow
product line to another without equipment paths, storage facilities, and employee amenities are
replacement, extensive retooling, and re-arrangement located in the plant.” They observed that a
of resources. systematically designed plant layout will guarantee a
To manufacture high quality products that will meet smooth and rapid movement of material from the raw
the customer demands, it is pertinent to concurrently material stage to the end product stage.
produce several products, to enable low volume 2. BENEFITS OF WELL DESIGNED PLANT
products to be produced alongside others, thereby LAYOUTS
easily accommodate volume and product mix A properly designed plant layout provides an ideal
variations. Today’s manufacturing layouts must synergy among raw materials, manufacturing
demonstrate adequate robustness and flexibility processes, available space, and the output. It ensures
regardless of constant changes in operating the efficient utilization of all available space and
requirements. This explains why proper plant layout flexibility of arrangements and manufacturing
design has turned out to be an essential basis of operations, streamline the movement of inventory in
current industrial facilities, thereby enhancing the the entire manufacturing plant without hitches or
efficiency of product outputs. unnecessary delays, maintains adequate turnover of
Plant layout is the systematic arrangement of a firm’s materials, reduces lead time and cost of material
physical facilities to enhance the efficient use of handling, and also ensure the workers safety, comfort
machines, material, equipment, energy, and the and convenience.
workers. It can also be defined as the plan or act of Singh (2012), observed that a good plant layout
planning an ideal facility arrangement, which include design “facilitates the production process, minimizes
equipment, storage space, workers, machines, material handling, time and cost, and allows
inventory flow, and other services that enhance flexibility of operations, easy production flow, makes
production, alongside the design of an efficient economic use of the building, promotes effective
structure to accommodate the facilities. utilization of manpower, and provides for employee’s
According to Kumar (2013), plant layout is “a plan of convenience, safety, comfort at work, maximum
an optimum arrangement of facilities including exposure to natural light and ventilation.” He
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 Okpala, Charles Chikwendu et al., International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945

concluded that it is also important as it affects  Throughput – plant layouts should be

material flow and processes, labour efficiency, designed to assist the business to attain its
supervision and control, use of space and the production output at the shortest possible
possibilities of expansion. time, in order to ensure repeat patronage and
According to Strategosinc (2014), like other customer satisfaction.
engineering design, plant layout “proceeds through a  Efficient utilization of space – this entails
logical sequence of steps. At each step, the designers the provision of sufficient space around the
make compromises between conflicting requirements machines and the traffic lanes, as well as
or technical limitations, doing it well require a deep ensuring that adequate spaces are made
and profound knowledge of the elements, their available for storage points within the
functions, and their interactions.” A good designed facility.
plant layout offers competitive advantage to a  Ease of Communication – plant layouts
manufacturing company, as it has the ability to should be designed to enhance
operate at low cost, reduce lead time, facilitate communication and easy flow of
frequent new products, and also ensure the information among the various
manufacturing of high quality products. departments/units, as well as the customers.
Other benefits of a well-designed plant layout as  Promotional value – a well-designed layout
shown in figure 1 include: efficient labour utilization, enhances the image and reputation of a
inventory handling cost reduction, manufacturing and company, thereby serving as a good
maintenance ease, accidents and hazards reduction, promotional factor.
enhanced productivity, manufacturing flexibility, as  Safety – as the importance of safety in all
well as effective utilization of staff, machines, human endeavors should not be over-
materials, and equipment. emphasized, a good plant layout should be
designed to function efficiently and ensure
that accidents and its causes are reduced to
the barest minimum.
 Maximum accessibility: the repairs and
maintenance sections should be made
readily accessible. This implies that
equipment and machines must not be placed
against the walls in order to ensure that
maintenance and servicing operations are
easily undertaken.
4. TYPES OF PLANT LAYOUT
The modern manufacturing factories are designed to
have advanced and sophisticated plant layouts. The
three basic types of layouts by which production
sections are organized in a plant, which are defined
by the type of workflow are process layout, product
layout, fixed-position layout. The fourth type of plant
layout which has gained wide acceptance and often
regarded as a hybrid layout is called cellular layout.
Figure 1: Benefits of a well-designed Plant Layout. However, some manufacturing companies have a
Source: Singh (2012) combination of more than one type of layouts; like
3. FACTORS THAT DETERMINE THE setting out the area of production by cellular layout,
DESIGNING OF PLANT LAYOUT while another section or department will be laid out
Some of the goals of designing plant layouts are to by process.
achieve a minimum amount of materials handling, Process Layout
reduce bottlenecks, minimize machine interference, Also referred to as functional layout, process layouts
and also enhance flexibility, throughput, safety, and are very suitable for applications where the products
employee’s morale. To achieve optimum layout that are gotten from raw materials and work-in-
effectiveness when designing a plant layout, many progress entails high variations while processing the
factors of operation need to be seriously considered. individual operations. The layout which is designed
This principle includes the following: to engender the processing of activities that need
 Room for future adjustments and expansion many value additions is widely adopted, if the
– at the onset, plant layouts should be operation’s system require large amount of products
designed to be easily changed or expanded in small volumes. It is very useful in situations where
in line with ever-changing needs of the production process is structured in batches as the
manufacturing. This will ensure that different product are organized to move from an area
flexibility is attained in the facility in order to another, based on the succession of operations
to reduce the set up time required in the earlier established.
manufacturing of different products, and Small Business (2013), explained that process layout
also attain the required throughput. “groups workstations together according to the
 Maximum flexibility - good plant layout activities being performed, regardless of which
should be easily modified in order to meet products each workstation is working on.” Here the
up with the ever-changing demands of the machines and workers needed to perform similar
customer and market. function are assigned in the same place, also the
distance between sections should be very close to
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reducing the waste of movements and materials ensure that imbalances present in one section is not
handling. allowed to interfere in other sections, thereby
The machine shop is a good example of a process achieving better utilization of the available machines
layout, as it has different departments for boring, and equipment. Figure 2 shows a pictorial
milling, pressing, and milling operations, which representation of process layout.

Figure 2: A Pictorial Representation of Process Layout

Source: (Nptel)
The characteristics of process layout include rapid change-over, delayed lead time, high rate of work in progress
inventory, flexibility of material handling equipment, requirement of highly skilled workers, technical
supervision, and general purpose equipment. To design a functional process layout the following are required:
the need for the closeness of the work centers or sections, the required area for the different sections, the
limitations of the sections, as well as the flow direction between the sections.
The numerous advantages and disadvantages of process layout are tabulated in Table 1 below.
Table 1: the advantages and disadvantages of process layout
Advantages Disadvantages
Reduced overhead cost High work-in-progress inventory
Increased utilization of machine Low operations and expensive material handling
compared to the product layout
Encourages efficient supervision Requires constant inspection
High products’ variety High production gap
Enhanced flexibility Requires highly skilled operators
Reduced initial capital investment Requires expensive machines
The process layout is mostly suited for production from one machine to another as values are being
processes where: equipment and machines are very added on them.
costly, the products are not standardized, products are A good example of product layout is the vehicle
produced in batches, lower production volumes are assembly line which entails the movement of nearly
required, and also frequent alterations of style and all types of similar models in the same operation
product’s design. sequences. The decisions to be made before
Product Layout designing a product layout include the amount of the
Also referred to as line layouts, product layouts required cycle time, the number and the arrangement
which has small cycle of manufacturing with reduced of the various manufacturing processes, how to tackle
material handling is a type of plant layout where the time variations for the different processes, and the
machines, equipment, and workers are organized in a need to effectively balance the layout.
line based on the operation’s progression needed for Here the cycle time is calculated as
a product. Here machines and equipment are grouped
together, thereby enabling inventories to flow
successively in a clear and easy to control manner A pictorial representation of a product layout is
depicted in Figure 3.

Figure 3: A Pictorial Representation of Product Layout

Source (Nptel)
Product layouts are employed to attain a faultless and production process is formed to reduce the problems
constant flow of large quantity of raw materials or that are associated with unpleasant bottlenecks.
work in progress through the plant; it achieves an Transtutors (2015), listed the following as some of
increased volume utilization of equipment and the benefits of product layout: “less work in process
labour. Here continuous flow is achieved as the entire (WIP) inventory as the flow of material is continuous
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 Okpala, Charles Chikwendu et al., International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945
along a line, compared to process layout, it requires aircrafts, dams, flyovers, road construction, and
less space for same volume of production, buildings. Figure 4 depicts a representation of a fixed
conveyorized material handling or automation in the position layout, while the advantages and limitations
material handling is cost effective as the flow of are shown in Figure 4.
material is well known.”
More advantages and limitations of product layout
are shown in Table 2.
Table 2: The advantages and limitations of
product layout
Advantages Limitations
Reduced material Expensive investments in
handling cost, activities, machines and equipment
and throughput time.
Figure 4: A Pictorial Representation of Fixed
Efficient floor space usage Breakdown of any
machine will lead to Location Layout Source (Nptel)
serious bottlenecks Figure 3: Advantages and limitations of Fixed
Continuous and little Little or no flexibility in Position Plant Layout
amount of work in manufacturing processes Advantages Limitations
progress Very flexible and can Very expensive
Reduced manufacturing Expensive overhead cost accommodate changes in capital investment
cost design and production
Can be easily learnt and Monotonous and boring processes
managed by unskilled operations Saves cost and time Requires large
operators involved in incessant amount of space for
Simplified sequence of Changes in product design movement of work from the warehouse close
operations requires major layout one location to another to the plant.
alterations It is very economical as Lengthy production
The continuous flow of inventory which entails little jobs at different levels of period
amount of work in progress, fixed equipment for completion can be
produced concurrently
material handling, expensive and delayed
Cellular Plant Layout
changeovers, little or no direct inspection,
Cellular plant layout can be defined as a layout type
requirement of general purpose machines and
where machines and equipment are properly arranged
equipment, and lead time reduction are some of the
in order to enhance the steady and uninterrupted
characteristics of Product type of layout. It is
movement of materials and tools, through the process
recommended for repetitive and simple production
of production without stoppages and time wastage.
processes, products with very high demands, and
Levinson and Rerick (2002) observed that it is “only
mass production of products.
by relating each machine with the others in such a
Fixed Position Layout
way that production will follow in straight lines
Fixed position layout is not applicable for small
without confusion, can the highest economy
projects or products as it is the plant layout type
operation be attained.” As depicted in figure 5,
where the machines, equipment, and workforce are
Cellular Layout does not allow easy accumulation of
transported to the site of the major product to be
inventory as materials are immediately processed one
produced. It is used in the construction of bulky or
after the other.
fragile projects like bridges, space rockets, ships,

Figure 5: A Cellular plant Layout. Source: Hiroyuki (1998)

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 Okpala, Charles Chikwendu et al., International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945
The importance of the application of Cellular layout needed include the lead time, the lay out balancing,
is that it makes electronic layout less complicated, and the number of the required processing operations.
thereby allowing for cheap transporting equipment Due to the complicated of work flow in a process
like the conveyors, unlike the functional layout that layout, its design is often referred to as being
requires forklifts and very costly automation. The complex. It is therefore quite difficult to achieve
advantages and limitations of cellular plant layout are optimum flow in process layout as they are often
shown on Table 4. designed with systematic trial and error, intuitive
Table 4: Advantages and Limitations knowledge, and common sense.
Advantages Limitations The designer should have the knowledge of the
Shorter lead time Not suitable for many following in order to design a process layout: the
variety of products needed space for each of the work centers, the
Set up time reduction Applied for low throughput challenges of the area allotted to each of the work
volume centers, the need for the work centers to be close to
Reduced work in Increased set up cost
each other in order to enhance the easy flow of
progress inventory
materials, and the rate of flow among the different
Reduced inventory Requires more machines
handling processes work centers.
Reduces the wastage of Leads to reduced plant As a compromise between the product layout
shop floor space utilization simplicity and the process layout flexibility, cell
The main benefit of Cellular layout is that it assists layout are often designed when a product that its
organizations to reduce the overhead cost, as an processes can be easily forecast are to be
individual worker can monitor and manage series of manufactured. The design approach entails agreeing
machines and equipment in a production channel. on the scope and features of the expected cells, as
Also it encourages flexible manufacturing as well as well as the materials to allot to them.
reduces the wastage of shop floor space. According to Ghosh and Dan (2012), the concepts
5. PLANT LAYOUT DESIGN behind the design of cell layout are to “decompose
After selecting the type of layout that is best suited the manufacturing system into cells by recognizing
for a manufacturing company’s production processes, and exploiting the similarities amongst components
the next plan is to choose a comprehensive design of and machineries, and to design efficient inter-cell and
the layout in order to ascertain the following: the intra-cell layout in order to smoothen the material
plant location, machines, equipment, as well as the flow on shop-floor.” The comprehensive design of
staff that comprise of the operation’s work centre, the cell layout enhances performance and also reduces up
space to be assigned to each unit or department, and to 46% of production.
the work that will be performed by each of the units. Analytical Calculations of Work in Progress and
The major objectives of a well designed plant layout Efficiency in Plant Layout Design
include the following: Excess work in progress inventory in the shop floor
Safety – a good plant layout must take safety very is a major waste that bedevils many manufacturing
seriously in order to minimize accidents and terrible facilities; a good plant layout should ensure that it is
losses on the shop floor, which when not properly reduced to the barest minimum in order to enhance
managed can lead to closure of facilities. Access to the firm’s profitability.
hazardous substances and processes should not be To achieve this the following inputs should be known
made possible without approval, also walk-ways and at the design stage: the quantity of the expected
fire exits should be marked properly without products, the customers’ demand for the products, the
inhibitions. number of machines to be installed, the number of
Conducive environment – a conducive, well lit, and available space for the mounting of the machines, the
properly ventilated working environment that distances between the machines, the speed of the
promotes staff comfort is a hallmark of a good plant transporting system (like the conveyor) in the plant,
layout design. and the machines processing time for each product.
Accessibility – all equipment, machines, and the The analytical calculation of work in progress
plant should be easily accessible for servicing, inventory is rooted on the queuing network theory.
maintenance, and cleaning. The expected work in progress in a unit or
Flexibility and room for expansion – the plant layout department is given as:
should be designed to be very flexible for easy ( )
( )− + ….. (1)
( )
modifications, it should also accommodate possible
future expansion needs. Where: is the average utilization of department 1,
Length of flow – the movement of information and is the squared coefficient of variation of job inter-
arrival,
materials should be effectively organized by the
is the squared coefficient of variation of job processing
layout in order to reduce the wasteful transport and time,
movements in the shop floor, and also achieve the is the coefficient of department 1.
plant’s objective. Also, the expected work in progress in plant
Clarity of flow – sign posts should be strategically conveyor is given by:
placed detailing well-specified flow direction. Also ( )
communication gadgets should be provided to ( )− + …. (2)
( )
enhance easy communication and supervision. Here:
The product layout design entail the allocation of is the conveyor utilization,
work tasks to units, as well as the arrangement of the ( is the squared coefficient of variation of job inter-
many processes of production to be in consonance arrival at the conveyor,
with the manufacturing cycle required for the ( is the squared coefficient of variation of the expected
throughput to emerge. The important information travel time per transfer of material
Int J Adv Engg Tech/Vol. VII/Issue III/July-Sept.,2016/201-206
 Okpala, Charles Chikwendu et al., International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology E-ISSN 0976-3945
is a conveyor coefficient.
Therefore, the expected work in progress inventory
for the plant will be gotten from:
( )= ∑ ( + ( ) ….. (3)
Also if is the amount of flow in loads between
two departments/units i and j;
And is the distance in meters between two
departments/units i and j; and
is the cost per travelled distance between two
departments/sections i and j;
The efficiency of all layouts can be calculated as
follows:
=∑ …. (4)
6. CONCLUSION
The success of modern manufacturing facilities is
tied on the capacity to efficiently design, run, and
maintain plant layouts that can easily adapt to the
numerous technological changes, as well as customer
demands. Due to ever changing market requirements,
stiff competition, more variety of products, reduced
life cycle of products, and high cost of
manufacturing, companies that have just one product
may find it difficult to break even.
This explains the need to have a good designed
functional plant layout that will be able to switch
from one line of product to another without major
alterations. It will also achieve fast flow of raw
materials and work in progress at the lowest cost, and
with the lowest amount of handling as values are
being added to the product from the receipt of raw
materials to the shipment of the throughput.
The paper examined in detail the various types of
plant layout, their advantages and disadvantages, the
design of a functional plant layout, as well as the
numerous benefits of a well designed layout.
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