1.
0 Layout:
2.1 Site selection of a factory: introduction-factors to be considered in general location of the
factory-factors to be considered in the selection of a particular site.
2.2 Factory layout (plant buildings): introduction-major considerations which should be followed
while making layout of any kind of a factory.
2.3 Plant layout: introduction-principles of plant layout-factors influencing plant layout-methods of
layout –line or product layout/functional or process layout fixed position layout/combination layout-
advantages and disadvantages.
2.4 Flow pattern: factors governing flow pattern – flow systems: horizontal flow lines (five basic
types)-vertical flow lines (six basic types).
2. 0LAYOUT:
2.1 Site selection of a factory: introduction-factors to be considered in general location of the
factory-factors to be considered in the selection of a particular site.
2.2 Factory layout (plant buildings): introduction-major considerations which should be
followed while making layout of any kind of a factory.
2.3 Plant layout: introduction-principles of plant layout-factors influencing plant layout-methods
of layout –line or product layout/functional or process layout fixed position layout/combination
layout-advantages and disadvantages.
2.4 Flow pattern: factors governing flow pattern – flow systems: horizontal flow lines (five basic
types)-vertical flow lines (six basic types).
PLANT LOCATION
A plant is a place where men, machines, material, equipment, etc.are brought together for the
purpose of manufacturing product
Plant lay out is the arrangement of machines with in factory, so that each operation is performed at
the point of greatest convenience
.
2.1 SITESELECTION OF A FACTORY
Plant location involves selection of specific site in the region after considering the general location
of factory. Factories or industries may be located closer to the raw material, where it needs bulk of
it production, so that transportation cost is reduced. Factories maybe located near the urban
markets, so that finish products can be released to the market with less cost on the transportation.
Location of factory must be carefully considered. Since any wrong decision made involves in
heavy loss on the capital invested with less or no returns, resulting in loss.
2.2 FOLLOWING FACTORES MUST BE CONSIDERED IN PLANT LOCATION
1. Nearness to raw materials
If the raw materials are bulky and heavy, it becomes essential to locate the plant near to it. It can
be seen that many steel industries in Bihar and Orissa are close to raw material. Similarly VISL at
Bhadravathi and kudremukh Iron Ore Co Ltd. (KIOCL) – are located close to raw
material.Similarlyit can be seen that sugar mills are located, where the sugarcane is available in
plenty (E.g. Mandya Sugar Mills)
2. Nearness to markets
If reduces the cost of transportation and also the chances of finished product getting damaged or
spoiled on the way. It can also render quick after sales service to customers .some of plastic and
textile industry located near to Bombay and Ahmadabad are example
3. Transport facilities
Transportation cost of raw material play a vital role when it is bulky and heavy Depending on the
size of raw material finished goods, made of transportation like road, rail, water or air is selected.
There no use of locating the plant, when it is not connected by proper roads. Availability of narrow
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and improperly may lead to accident for the industries manufacturing heavy earth moving
equipment during transportation to the customer with the development of diesel truck road
transportation and on account on its quickness in door to door services , location of the plant is
considered to nearness of road and national highways
4. Availability of fuel and power
Industries need power for manufacturing .Entrepreneurs are encouraged to invest or venture in to
enterprises, if the state is rich in power and could be obtained without much bureaucratic
interference. It is known fact ,that about three decades back Karnataka was surplus in power
generation and then chief minister, invited many entrepreneurs from north including West Bengal
to open new industries in Karnataka .Now the time has come that the power generation is in deficit
and unable to meet the requirement of HT consumers and introduce power cut regularly causing
lot of hardship industrialist .But the government has now plants to open new thermal power plants
and hydroelectric power station so that the power problem reduced and industries will not suffer
similarly industries could be located at the proximity of fuel or coal , if these used raw material for
production
5. Availability of Labor
Industries need skilled, semiskilled unskilled labor for the production and other needs. The labor
cost is that particular area should reasonable and stabilized labor force should be available .Due
to labor unrest it seen that many industries prefer to move out from north and settle in south,
where stabilized force is available industrialists preferred to open textile and cotton industries near
to Tiruppur of Tamil Nadu for export purposes, since labour was available in Tamil Nadu at
reasonable rates.
6. Availability of water
All factories need soft and pure water. Water is used for processing as in paper and chemical
industries and is also required for drinking and sanitary purpose .It should be available in adequate
quantity and quality, depending on the nature of the industry
7. Climatic and Atmospheric Condition
It is a governing factor for several industries ,as cotton industry need humid climate .Most of the
textile are located near costal region .But development of air conditioning process control of
climate does not present much problem
8. Financial and other Aids
To encourage the growth of industries in certain backward region, so that it increases the
prosperity of the local population, certain state government offer cash incentive, invest free loans,
seed money, and machinery, build-up sheds at lower or concession rates.
9. Attitude of the community
The people living around the area will get a feeling that starting anew industries will bring
ecological imbalance Attitude of the community towards the industries should be friendly and not
hostile It is seen, that the whole community North Karnataka were hostile or against for setting up
Kaiga Nuclear plant.
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10. Other factor
Other factor to be considered for the location of plant include ,local bylaw of government ,tax
regulation, fire protection, facilities, post and telegraph facilities, housing facilities, security,
facilities for future expansion
MAIN OBJECTIVES OF SCIETIFIC LAYOUT
a. To produce better quality product
b. Maximum utilizations of floor area
c. Material handling and internal transportation is reduced from one operation to the next, as
much as possible.
d. Working condition like lightning, ventilating etc, are better and safer
e. Wastages are kept minimum so that cost of scrap and wastage are least
f. Waiting time for semi-finished products and production delay are kept minimum
g. There should more time for future expansion
h. Machines, equipment, and person should be safeguarded against any untoward incident or
accident by observing proper safety precautions.
i. Worker and executive should have better working conditions.
j. Movement of workers is kept minimum.
k. To increase productivity.
l. To provide easy supervision.
2.3 PRINCIPLES OF PLANT LAYOUT
1. Principle of overall integration:-Accounting to this principle, the best layout is one, which
integrates, men material, machines, supporting activities in logical and balanced manner.
2. Principle of minimum distance:- According to this principles, the best layout is one, in which
man and material have to move the minimum required distance between operation. It is better
to move material in optimum bulk rather than small amounts.
3. Principle of flow:-According to this principle, the best layout is one which arranges work area
for each operation or process in the same order sequence that forms or assembled the
products.
4. Principles of cubic space:-According to this principles, the best layout is one, in which all the
available space both vertical and horizontal is more economically used. Boxes or bags
containing raw martial or goods can be stacked one above the other to store most item in the
same room. Overhead material, handling equipment, etc. save a lot of valuable floor area.
5. Principles of satisfaction and safety:-According this principle, the best layout is one, which
makes work satisfying, pleasant and safer for workers. Working places should be safe, well
ventilated and free from dust, noise, fumes, and other hazardous condition, so that it increases
the moral and efficiency of the workers.\
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6. Principles of flexibility: - According to this, the best layout is one, which can be adopted and
rearranged at a minimum cost least convenience. This principle is more useful for automobile
or electronic industries, where model or brands of products are likely to change with
advancement of technology.
METHODS OF LAYOUT
(a) Line or product layout.
(b) Functional or process layout.
(c) Fixed position layout.
(d) Combination layout.
(a) LINE OR PRODUCT LAYOUT.
In this layout, the machine has arranged in sequence as per the manufacturing process or as per
the product flow line. This is proffered for continues production and also popular for mass
production. All parts, components, raw material, sub-assemblies are started at right time to be
ready at the next operation and keeps next operation and keeps moving till finished product comes
out. The product lines for manufacturing Reamer are as shown in the figure. In the Reamer
department, there will be a group of lathe to turn the Reamer blanks, the will followed by the
milling machines, which square the shank and the mill the flute. Then they are sent to furnaces for
the heat treatment and finally grinding machine for grinding.
Advantages:
1. Less space is requirement for the same valium of production.
2. It lowers the overall manufacturing time as product move rapidly move from one operation to
another.
3. Better utilizations of men and machines.
4. Routing is easy and hence reduces the electrical work.
5. Reliability of supply of product to customer is more.
6. Use the power conveyor for material handling can be ensured in the product line.
7. Less skilled worker can utilized
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Disadvantages:
1. Since specific product determines the layout, a change in the product design or model, involve
major change in layout, thus flexibility of layout is reduced.
2. If any one machine breakdown in the product line and the machine cannot be used to their
maximum capacities.
3. It needs strict supervision.
4. The manufacturing cost rises with fall in the volume of production.
5. It is not possible to add more machine for expansion purpose
6. Each worker performs job on a particular machine, so he is not skilled on other machines.
(b) FUNCTIONAL OR PROCESS LAYOUT
In process layout, similar equipment and similar machines are grouped together and is useful,
where low volume production is required. It is also known as Functional Layout. This type of layout
preferred for industries engaged in the job order production and non-repetitive kind of
manufacturing activity. Each department is responsible for charring out a particular process and
not a particular product as in line of product layout. For the factory manufacturing taps, drills,
reamer, there may be four departments as shown in figure. They are department of lathe and
milling machines heat treatment and grinding machine and the raw materials, components, semi-
finished product have to pass through all the four departments and finished product come out from
the grinding department.
Advantages
1. Wide flexibility in utilization of men and machines.
2. Supervision is simple, since similar job are manufactured on similar machines.
3. Less machines are required
4. Less machines are required
5. This offers great incentive for each worker to raise the level of performance.
6. The change in design and model of the product does not affect the products, as the machine
can be adapted to the new design easily due to flexibility in system.
7. Quality of the product is better.
8. Any break-down of machine in one department will not affect the production.
Disadvantages
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1. Routing and scheduling is more difficult, as the production will not flow through any definite
channel.
2. Handling and back tracking of material is difficult.
3. For the same amount of production, process layout need more space.
4. Automatically handlings become extremely difficult.
5. More material has to travel longer distance and thus increasing the cost material handling.
6. It needs more inspection and efficient co-ordination.
(c) FIXED POSITION LAYOUT
In this layout, the largest component of a product has fixed position and other part of the product,
workers equipment, materials are brought to this component for the operation, assembly etc, on
the largest parts. It is mainly used in ship building, automobile industry, railway wagon industry etc.
for example, in Automobile Industry the chases is kept at a place and other part such as wheels,
steering, clutch etc., are brought from different section of the plant and fitted over the chases. This
type of layout is also known as “static product layout”
Advantages
1. Capital investment is minimum.
2. Continuity of operation is ensured
3. Les total production cost.
4. Less material movement.
Disadvantages
1. Machine and tool etc. take more time to reach the work place.
2. Highly skilled workers are required.
3. Complicated jigs and fixture may be required in fixing job and tools etc.
(d) COMBINATION LAYOUT
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A combination of process and product layout combines the advantage of both types of layout.
Nowadays, pure products are arranged in process layout, with manufacturing lines occurring here
and there, whenever the condition is permit. A combination layout is possible, where an item is
being made in different type’s sizes. In such cases, machinery is arranged in process layout, but
the process grouping (similar machines) is then arranged in a sequence to manufacture various
types and sizes of product. Figure show a combination layout for manufacturing different types of
reamer, taps, drill etc. It is also known as group layout. A combination layout is also useful when a
number of items are to be produced and thus no item justifies for an individual and independent
production line. For example, files, hacksaw, wood saw, etc. can be manufactured on combination
type layout
2.4 FLOW PATTERN
One of the most important phases of plant layout is to achieve an optimum effective flow of
materials (raw material, and in process material) through the plant. Naturally the principle of
minimum movement (i.e. number of movement and distance travelled in one move) form the basis
for optimum effective flow. The principle of minimum movements reduces the material handling’ .
“FLOW PATTERN” means the system to be adopted for the movement of raw material from the
beginning and up to the end of manufacturing. The overall objective of the flow pattern is to plan
for the economical movement of the raw material throughout the plant .the flow pattern affects the
cost of
1. Material handling
2. Amount of work-in process
3. Capital and space tied up by the work-in process
4. Length of the total production time.
5. The rate of the performance and co-ordination of operations.
6. Amount of physical and mental strain on the operators.
7. Supervision and control mechanism.
Quite often a plant layout design start with the flow system around which services and other
facilities are added and building design are modified accordingly but sometimes a flow must be
adopted to existing building.
Factors governing flow pattern:
1. External transport facilities.
2. Number of products to be handled.
3. Number of operations on each product.
4. Number of units to be processed.
5. Number of sub-assemblies made up ahead of assembly line.
6. Size and shape of available land.
7. Necessary flow between work areas.
The flow system can be classified into horizontal and vertical. The horizontal flow system is
adopted on a shop floor while vertical flow is adopted where material has to move in a multi-story
building.
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Horizontal flow lines:
There are five basic types of horizontal flow line
1. I-Flow line
2. L-Flow line
3. U-Flow line
4. S-Flow line
5. O-Flow line
1. `I-Flow line
It is the simplest form of flow. In this materials are fed at one end and components leave at the
other end. This type is economical in space and convenient in I-shaped buildings. I- Flow is
preferred for buildings automobile industries.
2. L- Flow:
It is similar to the I-Flow and is used where I- line cannot be accommodated in the available
space
3. U-Flow
His is both feeding and output take place at the same end. i.e. it allows both receiving and
dispatching of goods to be done at one side. In comparison to I or L-Flow, this method is easier
for supervision. This type of flow can be adopted in the manufacture of electric motor industry.
4. S-Flow:
If the production line so, long that zigzagging on the plant floor is necessary, than s-flow is
adopted. This type provides efficient utilization of space and is compact enough to allow
effective supervision.
5. O-flow
This type is used where process or operations are performed on a rotary table or a rotary
handling system. The components are moved from one working station to the other and when
they leave the O-line. A complete set of processes or operations have been performed. The
components inspected.
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