Layout Planning in Flow Planner

SIMPLIFY DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF LAYOUTS WITH LAYOUT PLANNING IN FLOW

PLANNER. GENERATE RELATIONSHIP CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS QUICKLY AND EASILY.
Proplanner has created a Layout Planning feature to work with their innovative
Flow Planner software. This application has the capability to help design
layouts with ease, as well as to auto-create relationship charts and diagrams.
LAYOUT PLANNING
Layout Planning in Flow Planner provides industrial, manufacturing and layout
engineers with a quick, objective layout design tool. Diagrams, charts and
scores for alternative designs are created using relationships between activities
as the key measure of layout efficiency. These are based on Richard Muthers
Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) techniques. Relationships are assigned
reason factors such as supervision, noise and dirt, energy requirements, shared
equipment, personnel movement and material flow intensity. Since little up-front
data gathering is required, multiple layouts can be developed, scored and
analyzed in significantly less time than with traditional methods.
RELATIONSHIP CHARTS
Flow Planner uses relationship data to automatically generate relationship
charts. This relationship chart is an organizational tool for identifying
relationships between areas in a plant. The chart can be used to quickly review
relationships and the reason for the relationship among an entire set of plant
activities. Each diamond records the bidirectional relationship between two
work centers. The top half of the diamond shows how closely two areas should
located with a rating level (A, E, I, O, U and X).

The reason the rating level was assigned is coded in the lower half of each
diamond and explained further in the reason box on the form.
RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAMS
Relationship Diagrams relate the various plant activities to each other visually
and geographically to form the basic pattern of a layout. Flow Planner does this
by converting the relationship chart of closeness-ratings into a diagram.

Flow Planner guides the user through the diagramming process. Beginning
with A locations and working down through the priority list (via the Diagram
Filter feature), users can minimize the distance between activities that need to
be next to each other. By rearranging the layout as each level of need is added,
users address the most important needs first and thus arrive at the best possible
arrangement.
Proplanner was founded by Dr. David Sly, a world-renowned expert in Process and Plant
Engineering systems that extend and integrate the capabilities of current applications, such as
AutoCAD and Excel. Since Dr. Sly invented the first CAD-based material flow analysis application
20 years ago (a predecessor to Flow Planner), he has created a suite of powerful and integrated
applications for Time Estimation, Process Management, Ergonomics Assessment, Line Balancing,
Workplace Design, eBOM/mBOM Reconciliation and Work Instruction Generation with
synchronized deployment. Previously only available to the largest corporations, Dr. Sly was able to
combine the power of Microsofts new .NET development environment and the latest Internet
deployment technologies to provide the most cost- effective MPM solution in the market today.

3-STEP PROCESS
USING LAYOUT PLANNING IN
FLOW PLANNER TO EVALUATE
POTENTIAL LAYOUTS IS AS
SIMPLE AS 1, 2, 3.

1. Define the activity areas that will be

related and the reasons for those
relationships.

2. Define the prioritized relationship

between the activity areas using
Systematic Layout Planning Methods.
The closeness between two different
areas may be Absolutely Necessary,
Especially Important, Important,
Ordinary--Closeness OK, Unimportant,
or Keep Apart (A, E, I, O, U, or X,
respectively).

3. Flow Planners Layout Planner

feature will automatically generate the
relationship diagrams and charts within
AutoCAD. It will either score the
current layout or prompt the user to
specify initial activity area locations to
create an AutoCAD layout.

LAYOUT PLANNER IS THE

FASTEST WAY FOR YOUR TEAM
TO QUANTIFY, VISUALIZE AND
COMPARE A LAYOUT IN
AUTOCAD WITH ONLY THE
INFORMATION THAT IS ALREADY
COMMONLY KNOWN AMONG
THE TEAM MEMBERS.
THERE IS SIMPLY NO FASTER
OR MORE EFFECTIVE WAY TO
PLAN YOUR NEXT LAYOUT.

INFORMATION: 1-515-296-9914 INFO@PROPLANNER.COM WWW.PROPLANNER.COM

AutoCAD is a registered trademark of Autodesk. Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

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THE POWER TO EVALUATE MULTIPLE LAYOUTS QUICKLY AND EASILY.

Layout Planning in Flow Planner helps you evaluate pros and cons of future layouts. It also generates diagrams that can
be presented to your organization.
L AY O U T P L A N N I N G I N F L O W P L A N N E R

FEATURES

-Powerful analysis routines effortlessly

score and compare layout alternatives

-Utilizes Richard Muther s Systematic

Layout Planning techniques

-Automatically creates blank relationship

charts of any size, which can then be

plotted and posted on the wall for the

group to fill out

-Generates variable width and color-coded

relationship lines automatically from

either adjacency and/or flow data for up

BENEFITS

-Quick and easy generation of colorful

and informative layout-based

relationship diagrams and charts

-Sophisticated layout analysis with

little or no data collection

MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

-Product Updates & Phone Support

-Email Support
-Web Training

to 256 unique activities

-Color-codes relationship lines according

to either relationship type or reasons

-Allows query or filter of intelligent

layout-based relationship lines

-Automatically creates reason codes table

in AutoCAD by scanning all unique
reasons

Relationship Priorities

Relationship Diagram

Relationship Chart

2321 NORTH LOOP DRIVE, SUITE 134 AMES, IA 50010

INFORMATION: 1-515-296-9914 INFO@PROPLANNER.COM WWW.PROPLANNER.COM