CHAPTER 10: LAYOUT LAYOUT TYPES

The choice of layout types depends largely on the firm’s flow strategy. There are 4 Basic Types of Layout:
Facility layout decision translates the broader decisions about a firm’s competitive priorities, process, and capacity into actual 1. PROCESS LAYOUT – which groups workstations or departments according to function, accomplishes this purpose.
physical arrangements of people, equipment, and space.  Flexible Flow Strategy, best for low-volume, high variety production, the operations managers must
organize resources around the Process.
WHAT IS LAYOUT PLANNING?  This is common when the same operation must intermittently produce many different products or serve
 LAYOUT PLANNING involves decisions about the physical arrangement of economic activity centers within a many different customers.
facility.  Demand levels are too low or unpredictable for management to set aside human and capital resources
o GOAL: to allow workers and equipment to operate most effectively. exclusively for a particular product line or type of customer.
 ECONOMIC ACTIVITY CENTER can be anything that consumes space: a person or group of people, a teller  Advantages over Product Playout
window, a machine, a workbench or workstation, a department, a stairway or an aisle, a timecard rack, a cafeteria or a. Resources are relatively general purpose and less capital intensive
storage room, and so on. b. The process layout is less vulnerable to changes in product mix or new marketing strategies and is
 Four Questions to Addressed before a manager can make decisions regarding physical arrangement: therefore more flexible
a. What centers should the layout include? c. Equipment utilization is higher. When volumes are low, dedicating resources to each product or
- Centers should reflect process decisions and maximize productivity. service would require more equipment than pooling the requirements for all products does.
- Example: a central storage area for tools is most efficient for certain processes, but keeping tools at d. Employee supervision can me more specialized, an important factor when job content requires a
individual workstations makes more sense for other processes. good deal of technical knowledge.
b. How much space and capacity does each center need?  Disadvantages
- Inadequate space can reduce productivity, deprive employees of privacy, and even create health and safety a. Processing rates tend to be slower
hazards. b. Productive time is lost in changing from one product or service to another
- Excessive space is wasteful, can reduce productivity, and can isolate employees unnecessarily. c. More space and capital are tied up in inventory, which helps workstations to work independently
c. How should each center’s space be configured? despite their variable output rates
- The amount of space, its shape and the elements in a center are interrelated. d. The time lags between hob starts and end points are relatively long
- Example: Placement of a desk and chair relative to the other furniture is determined by the sized and e. Materials handling tends to be costly
shape of the office, as well as the activities performed there. f. Diversity in routing and jumbled flows necessitates the use of variable path devices, such as carts
- Providing a pleasing atmosphere also should be considered as part of the layout configuration decisions, rather than conveyors.
especially in retail outlets and offices. g. Production planning and control is more difficult.
d. Where should each center be located?  A major challenge in designing a process layout is to locate center so that they bring some order to the
- Location can significantly affect productivity apparent chaos of the flexible flow operations.
- Example: Employees who must frequently interact with one another face to face should be placed in a 2. PRODUCT LAYOUT –workstations or departments are arranged in a linear path
central location rather than in separate, remote locations to reduce time lost traveling back and forth.  Line Flow Strategy, best for repetitive or continuous production, the operations managers dedicated
 Two Dimensions of Location of a Center: resources to individual products or tasks.
a. Relative Location, or the placement of a center relative to other centers  Resources are arranged around the product’s route, rather than shared across many products.
- Normally the crucial issue when travel time, materials handling cost, and communication effectiveness are  This care common in high volume types of operations.
important.  Although product layouts often follow a straight line, a straight line isn’t always best, and layouts may
b. Absolute Location, or the particular space that the center occupies within the facility take an L, O, S and U shape.
 It is often called a Production Line or an Assembly Line
STRATEGIC ISSUES o Assembly Line is limited to assembly processes
 Layout choices can help immensely in communicating an organization’s product plan and competitive priorities. o Production Line can be used to perform other processes such as machining.
 Figure 10.1: if a retailer plans to upgrade the quality of its merchandise, the store layout should convey more  Often rely heavily on specialized, capital-intensive resources.
exclusiveness and luxury.  Advantages over Process layouts
a. Faster processing rates
 Layout has many practical and strategic implications. Altering a layout can affect an organization and how well it
meets its competitive priorities by: b. Lower inventories
c. Less unproductive time lost to changeovers and materials handling
o Facilitating the flow of materials and information
 There’s less need to decouple one operation from the next, allowing management to cut inventories.
o Increasing the efficient utilization of labor and equipment
o Increasing customer convenience and sales at a retail store  The Japanese refer to a line flow strategy as Overlapped Operations, whereby materials move directly
from one operation to the next without waiting in queues.
o Reducing hazards to workers
o Improving employee morale  Disadvantages
o Improving communication a. Greater risk for layout redesigns for products or services with short or uncertain lives
b. Less flexibility
 The type of operation determines layout requirements:
c. Low resource utilization for low-volume products or services
o Example: in warehouses, materials flows and stockpicking costs are dominant considerations.
 Deciding where to locate centers is easy because operations must occur in a prescribed order.
 In retail stores, customer convenience and sales may dominate
o Example: Car Wash, the routing of the cast must proceed from washing to rinsing to drying:
 Whereas communication effectiveness and team building may be crucial in an office.
rinsing and drying should be placed next to each other in the layout.
 Among the several fundamental layout choices available to managers area a) whether to plan for current or future
o This arrangement, which simply follows the product’s routing, ensures that all interacting pairs
needs, b) whether to select a single-story or multi-story design, c) whether to open the planning process to employee of centers are as close together as possible or have a common boundary.
suggestions, d) what type of layout to choose and e)what performance criteria to emphasize.
 The challenge of product layout is to group activities into workstations and achieve the desired output
rate with the least resources. The composition and number of workstations are crucial decisions.
 3. HYBRID LAYOUT – some portions of the facility are arranged in a process layout and others are arranged in a o In Retail Store, customer convenience improves items are grouped predictably to minimize customer
product layout. search and travel time.
 More often than not, a flow strategy combines elements of both a product and process focus. This o In an Office, communication and cooperation often improve when people or departments that must
intermediate flow strategy is called HYBRID LAYOUT. interact frequently are located near one another, because telephone calls and memos can be poor
 This is used in facilities having both fabrication and assembly operations. substitutes for face-to-face communication.
o Fabrication Operations – in which components are made from raw materials – have flexible  Spatial Separation is one big reason why cross-functional coordination between departments
flow can be challenging.
o Assembly Operations – in which components are assembled into finished products - have a  Flexibility
line flow o A flexible layout allows a firm to adapt quickly to changing customer needs and preferences and is best
 Operations managers also create hybrid layouts when introducing cells and flexible automation, such as for many situations.
Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) o Layout Flexibility means either that the facility remains desirable after significant changes occur or that it
o A FMS is a group of computer-controlled workstations at which materials are automatically can be easily and inexpensively adapted in response to changes.
handled and machine loaded  The changes can be in the mix of customers serve by a store, goods made at a plant, space
o A CELL is two or more dissimilar workstations located close together through which a limited requirements in a warehouse, or organizational structure in an office.
number of parts or models are processed with line flows. o Using modular furniture and partitions, rather than permanent load-bearing walls, is one way to minimize
 Two types of cell the cost of office layouts changes.
i. Group technology (GT) Cells  Other Criteria
ii. One Worker, Multiple Machines (OWMM) Cells o Includes;
o These technologies help achieve repeatability, even when product volumes are too low to  Labor productivity can be affected if certain workstations can be operated by common
justify dedicating a single line to one product, by bringing together all resources needed to personnel in some layouts but not in others.
make a family of parts in one center. The rest of the facility represents a process layout.  Downtime spent waiting for materials can be caused by materials handling
 A retail store is an example of a hybrid layout in a nonmanufacturing setting. difficulties resulting from poor layout.
o The manager may group similar merchandise, enabling customers to find desired items easily.  Machine Maintenance can be difficult by inadequate space or poor access.
o At the same time, it leads customers along predetermined paths, such as up and down aisled  Work Environment, including temperature, noise level, and safety can be layout related; its
(product layout). counterpart in an office or store is the atmosphere created by the layout.
o The intent is to maximize exposure to the full array of goods, thereby stimulating sales.  Organizational Structure it can be reinforce by Office Layouts by grouping all members of
4. FIXED POSITION LAYOUT – the product is fixed in place; workers, along with their tools and equipment, come the same department in the same area, or they can encourage interfunctional cooperation by
to the product to work on it. grouping people by project rather than by functions.
 It makes sense when the product is particularly massive or difficult to move, as in shipbuilding, o Some warehouse layouts facilitate stockpicking on a FIFO, minimizing loss from spoilage or limited shelf
assembling locomotives, making huge pressure vessels, building dams, or repairing home furnaces. life.
 It minimizes the number of times that the product must be moved and often is the only feasible solution. o Employee attitudes may depend on whether the layout allows workers to socialize, reflects equitably the
employers’ levels of responsibility, or puts workers under the watchful eyes of a supervisor.
PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
 Other fundamental choices facing the layout planner concern performance criteria, which may include one or more CREATING HYBRID LAYOUTS
of the following factors:  When volumes aren’t high enough to justify dedicating a single line of multiple workers to a single-product,
a. Level of capital investment managers still may be able to derive the benefits of product layout – line flows, simpler materials handling, low
b. Requirements for material handling setups, and reduced labor costs – by creating product layouts in some portions of the facility.
c. Ease of stockpicking  Two Techniques for Creating Hybrid Layouts:
d. Work environment and atmosphere a. One Worker, Multiple Machines (OWMM)
e. Ease of equipment maintenance  If volumes aren’t sufficient to keep several workers busy on one production line, the manager
f. Employee attitudes might set up a line small enough to keep one worker busy.
g. Amount of flexibility needed  One person cell is the theory behind the one worker, multiple machines (OWMM) cell, in
h. Customer convenience and level of sales which a worker operates several different machines simultaneously to achieve a line flow.
 Managers must decide early in the process which factors to emphasizes in order to come up with a good layput  With an OWMM cell, several different machines are in the line.
solution.  Different products or parts can be produced in an OWMM cell by changing the machine
 Capital Investment setups.
o Floor space, equipment needs, and inventory levels are assets that the firm buys or leases. o If the setup on one machine is especially time-consuming for one part, management
 These expenditures are important criterion in all settings. can add a duplicate machine to the cell for use wherever the part is being produce.
o If an office layout is to have partitions to increase privacy, the cost rises.  An OWMM arrangement reduces both inventory and labor requirements.
o Even increasing space for filing cabinets can add up. o Inventory is cut because, rather than piling up in queues, materials mover directly
o Renovation costs also can be significant. into the next operation.
 Materials Handling o Labor is cut because more work is automated.
o Relative locations of centers should restrict large flows to short distances. o The addition of several low-cost automated devices can maximize the number of
o Centers between which frequent trips or interactions are required should be placed closed to one another. machines included in an OWMM arrangement: automatic tool changers, loaders
o In a Manufacturing Plant, this approach minimizes materials handling costs and unloaders, start and stop devices, and fail-safe device that detect defective parts
o In a Warehouse, stockpicking costs are reduced by storing items typically needed for the same order next or products.
to one another.  Japanese manufacturers are applying the OWMM concept widely because of their desire to
achieve low inventories.
 b. Group Technology (GT)
 A second option for achieving products layouts with low-volume process.
 This manufacturing technique creates cells not limited to just one worker and has a unique way
of selecting work to be done by the cell.
 This method groups parts or products with similar characteristics into families and sets aside
groups of machines for their production.
o Families may be based on size, shape, manufacturing or routing requirements, or
demand.
 GOAL: to identify a set of products with similar processing requirements and minimize
machine changeover or setup.
 Once parts have been grouped into families, the next step is to organize the machine tools
needed to perform the basic processes on these parts into separate cells.
 The machines in each cell require only minor adjustments to accommodate product
changeovers from one part to the next in the same family.
 By simplifying product routings, GT cells reduce a time a job is in the shop. Queues of
materials waiting to be worked or are shortened or eliminated.
 Frequently, materials handling is automated so that, after loading raw materials into the cell, a
worker doesn’t handle machine parts until the job has been completed.
DESIGNING PROCESS LAYOUTS
 The approach to designing a layout depends on whether a process layout or a product layout has been chosen.
 A fixed-position format basically eliminates the layout problem, whereas the design of hybrid layout partially uses
process-layout principles and partially uses product-layout principles.
 Process Layout involves Three Basic Steps (whether new or reversing an existing one)
i. STEP 1: GATHER INFORMATION
 Example: Longhon Machine is a machine shop that produces a variety of small metal parts on
general-purpose equipment. A full shift of 26 workers and a second shift of 6 workers operate its 32
machines. Three types of information are needed to begin designing a revised layout for Longhon
Machine: Space Requirements by Center, Available Space, and Closeness Factors.
o Space Requirements by Center: Longhon has grouped its processes into 6 different
departments: burr and grind, NC equipment, shipping and receiving, lathes and drills,
tool crib and inspection.
 The layout designer must tie space requirements to capacity plans, calculate
the specific equipment and space needs for each center, and allow circulation
space such as aisles and the like.
o Available Space. A BLOCK PLAN allocates space and indicates placement of each
department. To describe a new facility layout, the plan need only provide the facility’s
dimensions and space allocations.
 When an existing facility layout is being modified, the current block plan is
also needed.
o Closeness Factors: the layout designer must also know which centers need to be located
close to one another. Location is based on the number of trips between centers and
qualitative factors.
 Designer estimates the number of trips between centers by using routings and
ordering frequencies for typical items made at the plant, by carrying out
statistical sampling, or by polling supervisors and materials handlers.
 REL Chart (REL short for relationships), reflects the qualitative judgments
of managers and employees, can be used in place of a trip matrix.
ii. STEP 2: DEVELOP A BLOCK PLAN
 The second step in layout design is to develop a block plan that best satisfies performance criteria
and area requirements.
 The most elementary way to do so is by trial and error.
 Because success depends on the designer’s ability to spot patterns in the data, this approach doesn’t
guarantee the selection of the best or even nearly best solution.
 When supplemented by the use of a computer to evaluate solutions, however, such an approach often
compares quite favorably with more sophisticated computerized techniques.
 When relative locations are a primary concern, such as for effective materials handling,
stockpicking, and communication, the load-distance method can be used to compare alternative
block plans.
o Here the load are just the number in the trip matrix.
o Each load gets between two centers (Each represented by a row and a column in the
matrix)
o The distance between them is calculated from the block plan being evaluated.
o The loads need not be trips; any numerical closeness measure related to distance will do.
iii. STEP 3: DESIGN A DETAILED LAYOUT
 After finding a satisfactory block plan, the layout designers translates it into a detailed
representation, showing the exact size and shape of each center, the arrangement of elements, and
the location of aisles, stairways, and other service space.
 These visual representations can be two-dimensional drawings, three-dimensional models, or
computer-aided graphics.
 This step helps decision makers discuss the proposal and problems that might otherwise be
overlooked.
AIDS FOR PROCESS LAYOUT DECISIONS
 Finding an acceptable block plan actually is a complex process.
 Automated Layout Design Program (ALDEP) is a computer software package that uses REL chart information to
construct a good layout.
o Being a heuristic method, it generally provides good – but not necessarily the best – solutions.
o It constructs a layout from scratch, adding one department at a time.
o The program picks the first department randomly. The second department must have a strong REL rating
with the first, the third must have strong rating with the second, and so on.
o When no department has a strong rating with the department just added, the system again randomly selects
the next department.
o The program computes a score for each solution generated and prints out the layouts having the best
scores for the manager’s consideration.
 Computerized Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique (CRAFT) is a heuristic method that uses a trip matrix,
including materials flow rates, transportation costs, and an initial block layout.
o Working from an initial block plan, CRAFT evaluates all possible paired exchanges of departments.
o The exchange that causes the greatest reduction in the total ld score is incorporated into a new starting
solution.
o This process continues until no other exchanges can be found to reduce the ld score. The starting solution
at this point is also the final solution and is printed out with the ld score.
WAREHOUSE LAYOUT
 Warehouses are similar to manufacturing plants in that materials are moved between activity centers.
 However, warehouses are a special case because a warehouse’s central process is one of storage, rather than physical
or chemical change.
 A Layout Solution:
o Equal Areas: if all departments require the same space, simply place the one generating the most trips
closest to the dock, the one generating the next largest number of trips next closer to the dock, and so on.
o Unequal Areas: if some departments need more space than others, give the location closest to the dock to
the department with the largest ratio of trip frequently to block space. The department with the second
higher ratio gets the next closest location, and so on.
 Additional Layout Options
o Although one advantage of the layout just proposed is its simplicity, other options might be more
effective.
 First, demand for different items often is seasonal.
OFFICE LAYOUTS
 Office payouts can affect both productivity and the quality of work life.
 PROXIMITY. Accessibility to co-workers and supervisors can enhance communication and develop mutual interest.
Conversation tends to become more formal as individuals are placed farther apart.
o Hawthorne Study: showed that physical work setting influences group formation.
  In the study, management used spatial language to tell workers in the experimental group that
they were important. Management changed both absolute and relative locations of the workers
by moving them to a separate room and away from the watchful eyes of a supervisor.
 The revised layout facilitated contact between workers and the setting of group
norms.
 More recent studies confirm that proximity to others can help clarify what is
expected of an employee on the job and in other ways.
o Most formal procedures for designing the office layouts try to maximize the proximity of workers whose
jobs require frequent interaction.
o Data collected on the frequency and importance of interactions can be used in a REL Charts or a trip
matrix.
o The goal of such approaches is to design layouts around work flows and communication patterns.
 PRIVACY. Somewhat culturally depended. Outside disruptions and crowding can hurt a worker’s performance.
 OPTIONS IN OFFICE LAYOUT. Providing both proximity and privacy for employees poses a dilemma for
management. Proximity is gained by opening up to the work area. Privacy is gained by more liberal space standards,
baffled ceilings, doors, partitions, and thick carpeting that absorb noise – expensive features that reduce layout
flexibility.
o Thus management must generally arrive at a compromise between proximity and privacy.
o Four Different Approached are Available:
a. Traditional Layouts
 Call for closed offices for management and those employees whose work requires
privacy and open areas (or bullpens) for all others.
 The resulting layout may be characterized by long hallways lined with closed doors,
producing considerable isolation, and by open areas filled uniformly with rows of desks.
 Each person has a designated place. Its location, sized and furnishing signify the person’s
status in the organization.
b. Office Landscaping
 Shoulder-high dividers partition the space. The idea is to achieve closer cooperation
among employees at all levels.
 An extension of this concept is called Office Landscaping: attractive plants, screens, and
portable partitions increase privacy and cluster or separate groups.
 Movable workstations and accessories help maintain flexibility.
 Because the workstations are only semiprivate, employees might have trouble
concentrating or might feel uncomfortable trying to hold sensitive discussions.
 Construction costs are as much as 40% less than for traditional layouts, and
rearrangements costs are less still.
c. Activity Settings
 Represent a relatively new concept for achieving both proximity and privacy.
 The full range of work needs is covered by multiple workplaces, including a library
teleconferencing facility, reception area, conference room, special graphics areas, and
shared terminals.
 Employees move from one activity setting to the next as their work requires during the
day.
 Each person also gets a small, personal office as a home base.
d. Electronic Cottages
 Some futurist expect more and more employees to work at home or in neighborhood
offices, connected to the main office by computed. Called telecommunicating or
Electronic Cottages.
 It represents a modern-day version of the cottage industries that existed prior to the
Industrial Revolution.
 Beside saving on commuting time, it offers flexibility in work schedules.
 Many working men and women with children prefer such flexibility.
 Drawbacks: lack of equipment, too many family disruptions, and too few opportunities
for socialization and politicking.
o The choice requires an understanding of work requirements, the workforce itself, and top management’s
philosophy of work.
DESIGNING PRODUCT LAYOUTS
 Products layout raise management issues entirely different from those of process layout.
 The product moves from one station to the next until its completion at the end of the line.
 Typically, one worker operated each station, performing repetitive tasks.
 Little inventory is built up between stations, so station cannot operate independently.
 Thus the line is only as fast as its slowest workstation.
 Line Balancing is the assignment of work to stations in a line so as to achieve the desired output rate with the
smallest number of workstations.
o The lune that produces at the desired place with the fewest workers is the most efficient one.
o It must be performed when a line is set up initially, when a line is rebalanced to change its hourly output
rate, or when product or process changes.
o GOAL: to obtain workstations with well-balanced workloads.
o The analyst begins by separating the work into work elements, the smallest units of work that can be
performed independently. The analysts then obtains the labor standard for each element and identifies the
work elements, called immediate predecessors, that must be done before the next can begin
 Precedence Diagram: Most lines must satisfy some technological precedence requirements – that is, certain work
elements must be done before the next can begin.
o However, most lines also allow for some latitude and more than one sequence of operations.
o To help visualize immediate predecessors better, let’s run through the construction of a precedence
diagram.
 Desired Output Rate. The goals of line balancing is to match the output rate to the production plan.
o Matching output to demand ensures on-time delivery and prevents buildup of unwanted inventory.
o However, managers should avoid rebalancing a line too frequently, because each time a line is rebalanced,
many workers jobs on the line must be redesigned, temporarily hurting productivity and sometimes even
requiring a new detailed layout for some stations.
o Managers can also add shifts to increase equipment utilization, which is crucial for capital-intensive
facilities. However, higher pay rates or low demand may make multiple shifts undesirable or unnecessary.
 Cycle Time. After determining the desired output rate for a line, the analysts can calculate the line’s cycle time.
o A Line Cycle time is the maximum time allowed for work on a unit at each station.
 If the time required for work elements at a station exceeds the line cycle’s time, the station will
be a bottleneck, preventing the line from reaching its desired output rate.
o The target cycle time is the reciprocal of the desired hourly output rate:
C=1/r
Where c = cycle time in hours per unit
r = desired output rate in units per hour
 Theoretical Minimum. To achieve the desired output rate, managers use line balancing to assign every work
element to a station, making sure to satisfy all precedence requirements and to minimize the number of stations, n,
formed.
o If each station is operated by a different worker, minimizing n also maximizes worker productivity.
o Perfect balance is achieved when the sum of the work element times at each station equals the cycle time,
c, and no station has any idle time.
 Although perfect balance usually is unachievable in practice, owing to the unevenness of work-
element times and the inflexibility of precedence requirements, it sets a benchmarks, or goal,
for the smallest number of stations possible.
o Theoretical minimum ™ for the number of station is:
TM = t / c
Where t = total time required to assemble each unit (sum of all work-element standard times)
c = cycle time
 Idle Time, Efficiency, and Balance Delay.
o Minimizing n automatically ensures (1) minimal idle time, (2) maximal efficiency, and (3) minimal
balance delay.
o Idle Time is the total unproductive time for all stations in the assembly of each unit:
Idle time = nc - t
Where n = number of stations
c = cycle time
t = total standard time required to assemble each unit
o Efficiency is the ration of productive time to total time, expressed as a percentage:
Efficiency (%) = (t/nc) x 100
 o Balance delay is the amount by which efficiency falls short of 100%
Balance delay (%) = 100 – efficiency
o As long as c is fixed, we can optimize all three goals by minimizing n.
 Finding a Solution. Often many assembly-line solutions are possible, even for such simple problems.
o As for process layouts, computer assistance is available.
o Example: one software package considers every feasible combination that doesn’t violate precedence or
cycle-time requirements. The combination that minimized the station’s idle time is selected. If any work
elements remained, unassigned, a second station is formed, and so on.
o The approach that we use here is even simpler. We select work element from a list of candidates and
assign it to a station. We repeat this process until all stations have been formed, suing as a counter for the
station being formed.
 Step 1: start with station k = 1. Make a list of candidates work elements to assign to station k.
Each candidate must satisfy 3 conditions.
a. It has not yet been assigned to this or any previous station
b. All its predecessors have been assigned to this or a previous station
c. Its time does not exceed the station’s idle time, which accounts for all work
elements already assigned. If no work elements have been assigned, the station’s
idle time equals the cycle time
 If no such candidates can be found, go to step 4.
 Step 2: Pick a candidate. Two decision rules are commonly used for selecting from the
candidate list:
a. Pick the candidate with the longest work-element time. This heuristic rule assigns as
quickly as possible those work elements most difficult to fit into a station and saves work
elements having shorter times for fine tuning the solution.
b. Pick the candidate having the largest number of followers. This rule helps keep options
open for forming subsequent stations. Otherwise, precedence requirements may leave
only a few possible sequences of work elements, all causing an unnecessary amount of
station idle time as a result.
 Assign the candidate chosen to station k. if two or more candidates are tied,
arbitrarily choose one of them.
 Step 3: Calculate the cumulative time of all tasks assigned so far to station k. subtract this total
from one cycle time to find the station’s idle time. Go to step 1, and generate a new list of
candidates.
 Step 4: if some work elements are still unassigned, but none are candidates for station k, create
new stations, station k + 1, and go to step 1. Otherwise, you have a complete solution.
o Other considerations:
 In addition to balancing a line for a given cycle time, managers ust also consider four other
options:
a. Pacing, this is the movement of product from one station to the next after the
cycle time has elapsed.
 Automates materials handling has a big advantage, but it has
also has a disadvantage.
 Capacity loses, difficulties in aligning components that are
being assembled, or missing components mean that either the
entire line must be slowed down or unfinished work must be
pulled off the line to be completed later.
 Paced Lines have no buffer inventory, making them
particularly susceptible to capacity losses and variability in
work-elements times.
 Unpaced Lines require that inventory storage areas be place
between stations. These storage areas make unexpected
downtime at one station less likely to delay work
downstream, but they increase space and inventory costs.
b. Behavioral Factors. The most controversial aspect of product layouts is
behavioral response.
 Studies have shown that installing production lines increases
absenteeism, turnover, and grievances.
o Paced production and high specialization lower
job satisfaction.
o Workers generally favor inventory buffers as a
means of avoiding mechanical pacing.
o One study even showed that productivity
increased on unpaced lines.
c. Number of Models Produced
 Mixed-model Line produces several items belonging to the
same family.
o It enables a plant to achieve both high-volume
production and product variety.
o However, it complicates scheduling and increases
the need for good communication about the
specific parts to be produced at each station.
o Care must be taken to alternate models so as not
to overload some stations for too long.
o Despite these difficulties, the mixed-model line
may be the only reasonable choice when product
plans call for many customer options, as volumes
may not be high enough to justify a separate line
for each model
 Single-model line produces one model with no variations.
d. Cycle Times. A line’s cycle time depends on the desired output rate
(sometimes on the maximum number of workstations allowed)
 The maximum line efficiency varies considerably with the
cycle tie selected. Thus exploring a range of cycle times
makes sense.
 A manager might go with a particular efficient solution even
if it doesn’t match the output rate. The manager can
compensate for the mismatch by varying the number of hours
the line operates through overtime, extending shifts, or
adding shifts. Multiple lines might even be the answer.
 Another possibility is to let finished-goods inventory build up
for some time and then rebalance the line at a lower output
rate to deplete the excess.
 Use of this strategy should be weighed against the
ccosts of rebalancing.