Q1. Product Layout is better than Process Layout. Do you agree?

Justify your
answer. Draw a layout for a company manufacturing mobile handsets.
Answer.
Plant layout is the integrating phase of production system. The basic objective of
this layout is to develop a production system that meets requirements of capacity
and quality in the most economy way. Plant Layout is of two types:
Product Layout
Process Layout
Process Layout:
In process lay out, it clusters all the resources that perform similar
functions. For example all grinding is done in the grinding department; all bills are
processed in accounts payable section. This format is used commonly when many
different products must be produced or served intermittently at the same work
stations. Process layout is also called functional and job lot layout, all machines or
processes of the same generic type are grouped together in what are commonly
called machine centers or departments.

Tuning

Planning

Grinding
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II

Shipping

Receiving

Painting
I
V

Drill Press
2
II
I
Milling

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1

Inspection

Product Layout:
In Product Layout, the materials flow through the predetermined channels of
operations from the receipt of raw materials to fabrication of various components
parts to final assembly.
The parts flow from machine to machine moving a short distance at a time
until all required operations are completed.
Product Layout is designed for flow type of production where continuous or
repeated operations are carried on to produce large quantities of a standardized
product.
E.g.: Flow of materials in automobile industry.
PRODUCT LAYOUT IS BETTER THAN PROCESS LAYOUT DUE TO
THE FOLLOWING REASONS:
POINTS

Smooth Flow of
Production

Economy in
Manufacturing
Time

PRODUCT LAYOUT
Ensures steady flow of
production with
economy because
stoppage of work at
different points of
production is
eliminated and avoided
due to proper
arrangement of
machines in sequence
Materials are fed at one
end of the machine and
the finished product is
collected at the other
end, there is no
transportation of raw
materials backward
and forward and thus it
shortens the
manufacturing time

PROCESS LAYOUT

Flow of Production is
interrupted because the
machines are not
arranged in a definite
sequence of operation

This layout takes

longer time for
production because the
work necessary for
loading the machines
must be delivered to
each department and
after the processing the
work has to be held for
inspection
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Mechanization of
Material Handling

Saving in Material
Handling Cost

Lesser Work-In
Progress

Easy Inspection

Maximum
utilization of
available space

Since the machines are

arranged in sequence
of operation, the flow
of materials is
continuous in a line,
quickly and
economically

In this layout, the

product moves from
one machine to another
machine automatically,
hence no transportation
cost is required till the
completion of the
manufacturing process

The Work-In Progress

is minimum and
negligible under this
type of layout because
the process of
production is direct
and uninterrupted
Production process is
integrated and
continuous, defective
practice can be easily
detected and
segregated. This makes
the job of inspection
easy and economical
Under this type of
layout, machines are
arranged in sequence
of operations and it

In this layout, there will

be no definite channels
through which all the
work will flow
Since there are no
definite channels of
work flow, it leads to:
1) Materials are
delivered to each
department to process.
2) Materials may return
to the same department
more than once for
processing and this
makes back tracking of
work which makes
higher material
handling cost
Since there is no
specific flow of work
and the process of
production is not direct,
the work-in progress is
more than Product
Layout
Each department will
have strict inspection
responsibility before it
goes to the next
department for
manufacturing process.
So, it is not easy like
Product Layout
Under this layout,
greater space is
required for service
activities, there is
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makes the maximum

utilization of space
available
Effective utilization of
men, machine and
material because:
1) Minimum possible
movement of workers
Effective utilization from one place to
of available
another
resources
2) Lesser wastage of
materials
3) Lesser work in
progress
4) Mechanization of
material handling

Production control
greatly simplified

Low Cost Labor

and easy
recruitment and
training

greater need for aisles,

temporary storage for
each department

As in the case of
process layout, this is
not possible because it
doesn't have definite
channels of flow of
work

Under this layout,

Under this layout,
production cannot be
production control is
planned and controlled
possible by planning of as like Product Layout
operations and visual
because the similar
control replaces much process machines are
of paper work because grouped together and it
of which fewer records takes long inspection
are used
and allows backtracking of materials
In this layout, special
semi automatic and
Under this layout,
automatic machines are skilled workers are
used to manufacture or required to operate
in each stage of
general purpose
process and thus it
machines doing variety
effectively utilizes low of jobs. Recruiting such
cost unskilled and semi candidates is not so
skilled labor and
easy in short time and
recruitment for such
also at the same time,
candidates is easy and wage rate will be
training is also made
usually high
easy
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PRODUCT LAYOUT FOR A COMPANY MANUFACTURING MOBILE

HANDSETS (NOKIA):-

RAW
MATERIAL
S

FINISHED
GOODS
STORAGE

1. The Foundation: A Printed Circuit Board (Soldering Process)

2. Providing the Parts (Loading Process)
3. Laying Down the Basics (Laying Process)
4. Quality Testing
5. Configuring (Software Installation Process)
6. Assembly and configuring process

7. Testing process
8. Fixing Camera and LCD Displays
9. Protection Covers fixing
10.Adding Functionality
11.Unique Serial Numbering Process
12.Diagnostic Test
13.Final Inspection Test (by human eye)
14.Packing
1. The Foundation: A Printed Circuit Board (Soldering Process):
At the heart of every Nokia phone is a slender strip of plastic covered with a
latticework of basic circuits and settings for the installation of chips and
other electronic components. Here, printed circuit boards enter the paste
printing machine, which lays down a patterned layer of solder paste, made
from a tin-silver-copper alloy. The paste is later melted in an oven to bind
electronic components to the board.
2. Providing the Parts (Loading Process):
Reels of components are loaded into spindles. From there, they feed into
automated pick and place machines that grab individual parts off the tape
and lay them precisely onto the printed circuit boards. Nokia mostly uses
surface mount components that lie flat on the board.
3. Laying Down the Basics (Laying Process):
Circuit boards travel down a belt from one pick and place machine to the
next, and by the time they reach the end of the line, all the basic components
have been installed. After the parts are in place, the boards go to an oven for
seven minutes, where the solder paste is melted and the parts become firmly
attached.
4. Quality Testing:
The first quality test takes place after the basic components have been

installed.
5. Configuring (Software Installation Process):
The boards are advanced automatically on tracks into the flash and
alignment stage, where basic software is first installed into programmable
components.
6. Assembly and configuring process:
A robotic arms lift the board off the track and puts it into a bay. There, the
chips on the board are configured with low-level settings, such as what
power level the phone will operate on.
7. Testing process:
Then, a series of electronic tests are administered to ensure that the circuit
board is perfect, all the parts work, and that they have been correctly
installed.
8. Fixing Camera and LCD Displays:
At this stage, the hand work begins. Here, a worker plucks digital camera
modules from a reel and installs them with tweezers onto assembled, tested,
printed circuit boards. The expensive and fragile liquid-crystal display
screens are also added by hand.
9. Protection Covers fixing:
A nearby worker performs another essential task by hand; sandwiching the
completed printed circuit board between front and back structural frames,
later adding the outside covers.
10.Adding Functionality:
The last step in the production turns a generic phone into one customized to
the exacting specifications of mobile users around the world.
11.Unique Serial Numbering Process:
Each handset is put into a cradle, where it is given a unique serial number,
known as its IMEI code.
Then, depending on who the customer is, a unique batch of software code is
pumped in to the phone.
12.Diagnostic Test:
Finally, the phone and the installed software undergo a battery of diagnostic
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tests. From this point forward, the IMEI code links each individual phone to
its intended customer.
13.Final Inspection Test (by human eye):
It seems quaint after all the high-tech assembly and testing, but before every
Nokia phone goes into a box, it is inspected one last time by an unmatched
resource: the human eye. Only a tiny fraction of phones fail this final test.
Then, before being packed, the phone is de-ionized to remove dust and
electrical charge from the surface.
14.Packing:
Phones are packed into retail boxes by hand, with appropriate documentation
and accessories, and logged into a tracking system using a bar-code reader.
15.Finished good storage
Phones packed into retail boxes are grouped territory wise and order wise
ware house. From there it is dispatched to specific places based on the
orders

Q4. What type of maintenance is more effective? Make a comparative analysis of

various types and conclude. Do you feel that the type of maintenance differ from
industry to industry? Why?
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Answer:
The dictionary defines maintenance as follows: the work of keeping something in
proper condition; upkeep. This would imply that maintenance should be actions
taken to prevent a device or component from failing or to repair normal equipment
degradation experienced with the operation of the device to keep it in proper
working order. Nothing lasts forever and all equipment has some predefined life
expectancy or operational life. For example, equipment may be designed to operate
at full design load for 5,000 hours and may be designed to go through 15,000 start
and stop cycles.
The design life of most equipment requires periodic maintenance. Belts need
adjustment, alignment needs to be maintained, proper lubrication on rotating
equipment is required, and so on. In some cases, certain components need
replacement, e.g., a wheel bearing on a motor vehicle, to ensure the main piece of
equipment (in this case a car) last for its design life.
The three types of Maintenance are Reactive Maintenance, Preventive
Maintenance & Predictive Maintenance. Out of these three, Preventive
Maintenance is the most effective maintenance.
Reactive Maintenance
Reactive maintenance is basically the run it till it breaks maintenance mode. No
actions or efforts are taken to maintain the equipment as the designer originally
intended to ensure design life is reached.
Advantages to reactive maintenance can be viewed as a double-edged sword. If we
are dealing with new equipment, we can expect minimal incidents of failure. If our
maintenance program is purely reactive, we will not expend manpower dollars or
incur capitol cost until something breaks.
Since we do not see any associated maintenance cost, we could view this period as
saving money. In reality, during the time we believe we are saving maintenance
and capitol cost, we are really spending more money than we would have under a
different maintenance approach. We are spending more money associated with
capital cost because, while waiting for the equipment to break, we are shortening
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the life of the equipment resulting in more frequent replacement. We may incur cost
upon failure of the primary device associated with its failure causing the failure of
a secondary device. This is an increased cost we would not have experienced if our
maintenance program was more proactive.
Labor cost associated with repair will probably be higher than normal because the
failure will most likely require more extensive repairs than would have been
required if the piece of equipment had not been run to failure. Chances are the
piece of equipment will fail during off hours or close to the end of the normal
workday. If it is a critical piece of equipment that needs to be back on-line quickly,
we will have to pay maintenance overtime cost. Since it was expected to run the
equipment to failure,a large material inventory of repair parts will be required. This
is a cost we could minimize under a different maintenance strategy.
Advantages
Low cost.
Less staff.
Disadvantages
Increased cost due to unplanned downtime of equipment.
Increased labor cost, especially if overtime is needed.
Cost involved with repair or replacement of equipment.
Possible secondary equipment or process damage from equipment failure.
Inefficient use of staff resources.
Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance can be defined as follows: Actions performed on a timeor machine-run-based schedule that detect, preclude, or mitigate degradation of a
component or system with the aim of sustaining or extending its useful life through
controlling degradation to an acceptable level. The U.S. Navy pioneered
preventive maintenance as a means to increase the reliability of their vessels. By
simply expending the necessary resources to conduct maintenance activities
intended by the equipment designer, equipment life is extended and its reliability is
increased. In addition to an increase in reliability, money are saved over that of a
program just using reactive maintenance. Studies indicate that this savings can
amount to as much as 12% to 18% on the average.
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Depending on the facilities current maintenance practices, present equipment

reliability, and facility downtime, there is little doubt that many facilities purely
reliant on reactive maintenance could save much more than 18% by instituting a
proper preventive maintenance program.
Performing the preventive maintenance as the equipment designer envisioned, we
will extend the life of the equipment closer to design. This translates into money
savings. Thou we cannot prevent equipment catastrophic failures; we can decrease
the number of failures. Minimizing failures translate into maintenance and capital
cost savings
Advantages
Cost effective in many capital intensive processes.
Flexibility allows for the adjustment of maintenance periodicity.
Increased component life cycle.
Energy savings.
Reduced equipment or process failure.
Estimated 12% to 18% cost savings over reactive maintenance program.
Disadvantages
Catastrophic failures still likely to occur.
Labour intensive.
Includes performance of unneeded maintenance.
Potential for incidental damage to components in conducting unneeded
maintenance.
It has been assumed that preventive maintenance programs help to ensure reliability
and safety of equipment and machinery. However, tests performed by airlines in the
mid-1960s showed that scheduled overhaul of complex equipment had little or no
positive effect on the reliability of the equipment in service. These tests revealed the
need for a new concept of preventive maintenance, which later became known as
reliability-centered maintenance (RCM).

Basically, RCM methodology deals with some key issues not dealt with by other
maintenance programs. It recognizes that all equipment in a facility is not of equal

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importance to either the process or facility safety. It recognizes that equipment

design and operation differs and that different equipment will have a higher
probability to undergo failures from different degradation mechanisms than others.
It also approaches the structuring of a maintenance program recognizing that a
facility does not have unlimited financial and personnel resources and that the use
of both need to be prioritized and optimized. In a nutshell, RCM is a systematic
approach to evaluate a facilitys equipment and resources to best mate the two and
result in a high degree of facility reliability and cost-effectiveness. RCM is highly
reliant on predictive maintenance but also recognizes that maintenance activities
on equipment that is inexpensive and unimportant to facility reliability may best be
left to a reactive maintenance approach.
Advantages
Can be the most efficient maintenance program.
Lower costs by eliminating unnecessary maintenance or overhauls.
Minimize frequency of overhauls.
Reduced probability of sudden equipment failures.
Able to focus maintenance activities on critical components.
Increased component reliability.
Incorporates root cause analysis.
Disadvantages
Can have significant startup cost, training, equipment etc.
Savings potential not readily seen by management

Predictive Maintenance
Predictive maintenance techniques help determine the condition of in-service
equipment in order to predict when maintenance should be performed. This
approach offers cost savings over routine or time-based preventive maintenance,
because tasks are performed only when warranted.
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Basically, predictive maintenance differs from preventive maintenance by basing

maintenance need on the actual condition of the machine rather than on some
preset schedule. Preventive maintenance is time-based. Activities such as changing
lubricant are based on time, like calendar time or equipment run time. For
example, most people change the oil in their vehicles every 3,000 to 5,000 miles
travelled. This is effectively basing the oil change needs on equipment run time.
No concern is given to the actual condition and performance capability of the oil. It
is changed because it is time. This methodology would be analogous to a
preventive maintenance task.
If, on the other hand, the operator of the car discounted the vehicle run time and
had the oil analyzed at some periodicity to determine its actual condition and
lubrication properties, he/she may be able to extend the oil change until the vehicle
had traveled 10,000 miles. This is the fundamental difference between predictive
maintenance and preventive maintenance, whereby predictive maintenance is used
to define needed maintenance task based on quantified material/equipment
condition.
The advantages of predictive maintenance are many. A well-orchestrated predictive
maintenance program will all but eliminate catastrophic equipment failures. We
will be able to schedule maintenance activities to minimize or delete overtime cost.
We will be able to minimize inventory and order parts, as required, well ahead of
time to support the downstream maintenance needs. We can optimize the operation
of the equipment, saving energy cost and increasing plant reliability.
Advantages
Increased component operational life/availability.
Allows for preemptive corrective actions.
Decrease in equipment or process downtime.
Decrease in costs for parts and labor.
Better product quality.
Improved worker and environmental safety.
Improved worker moral.
Energy savings.
Estimated 8% to 12% cost savings over preventive
maintenance program.
Disadvantages
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 Increased investment in diagnostic equipment.

Increased investment in staff training.
Savings potential not readily seen by management
Different types of maintenance practices are followed in different industry and
also inside the same plant.
In a plant where the process is critical, there production team or maintenance
team undergoes periodic maintenance to avoid break down and stoppage of
production.
In a plant where the process is not critical, there break down maintenance
will be practiced.
In a plant where there is no stand by machines, preventive maintenance is
followed whereas when there is standby machine, breakdown maintenance is
followed to avoid further cost on maintenance.
For economical reason: breakdown maintenance may be followed
When the plant capacities exceed the market demand then there will not be
chance for preventive maintenance in that case they go breakdown
maintenance, in order to capture the timely business and earn more profit
during demand period. but the same time the plant may go for shut down
maintenance in the off season period.
Seasonal business like sugar factory they go preventive maintenance during
off-season period and they may go for shut maintenance during seasonal
period. But now days the entire factory will have separate team TPM (total
preventive maintenance) to prevent stoppage of production.

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