Facility Lyout and Design
Facility Layout and Design
In the production process every organization struggles with decisions that will directly affect the way their products or services are produced and delivered in order to meet the demands of their customer base. Each product has to have a process strategy with specifically identified performance objectives or goals that will affect the speed, quality, cost, dependability and flexibility of production. Once the process strategy has been decided decisions will need to be made as to what process layout design will be most effective in meeting the strategic goals in the production process. The performance objectives of a particular product or operation are directly influenced by its positioning on the volume-variety matrix which can affect decisions regarding layout design of a particular operation.
Layout decisions are very important in the operations process because these decisions have the ability to drastically affect the systematic flow of materials and people throughout the entire operation process. When an organization is making decisions on designing layouts for the manufacturing of a product or products it must make decisions based on four basic layout types which include; a fixed position layout, a process layout, a cell layout or a product layout. Let’s take a closer look at the specific layouts for a high-end bicycle assembler, a value-add computer manufacturer, a sugar mill and a motorcycle company. The commonality that I see in these four different types of organizations is that they are all involved in some sort of manufacturing process.
In order to make the appropriate decisions as to which layout will be best for each type of manufacturing organization it is important to determine what processes would be most effective in decreasing costs, increasing the speed of production and delivery of the finished product, product quality, dependability and the flexibility of adjusting to the changing needs of the customer and your
In the production process every organization struggles with decisions that will directly affect the way their products or services are produced and delivered in order to meet the demands of their customer base. Each product has to have a process strategy with specifically identified performance objectives or goals that will affect the speed, quality, cost, dependability and flexibility of production. Once the process strategy has been decided decisions will need to be made as to what process layout design will be most effective in meeting the strategic goals in the production process. The performance objectives of a particular product or operation are directly influenced by its positioning on the volume-variety matrix which can affect decisions regarding layout design of a particular operation.
Layout decisions are very important in the operations process because these decisions have the ability to drastically affect the systematic flow of materials and people throughout the entire operation process. When an organization is making decisions on designing layouts for the manufacturing of a product or products it must make decisions based on four basic layout types which include; a fixed position layout, a process layout, a cell layout or a product layout. Let’s take a closer look at the specific layouts for a high-end bicycle assembler, a value-add computer manufacturer, a sugar mill and a motorcycle company. The commonality that I see in these four different types of organizations is that they are all involved in some sort of manufacturing process.
In order to make the appropriate decisions as to which layout will be best for each type of manufacturing organization it is important to determine what processes would be most effective in decreasing costs, increasing the speed of production and delivery of the finished product, product quality, dependability and the flexibility of adjusting to the changing needs of the customer and your
References: Chase, R.B., Jacobs, F.R., & Aquilano, N., (2009). Operations & supply management with student DVD, 12th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Harley-Davidson.com, (n.d.). Harley-davidsion corporate website. Retreived on 3-9-2011 from http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Motorcycles/motorcycles.html Kotha, S. & Fried, A., (1993). The national bicycle industry company: implementing a strategy of mass-customiszation. Retrieved on 3-6-2011 from http://faculty.bschool.washington.edu/skotha/website/cases%20pdf/nbic.pdf S.S. Engineers.com, (n.d.). SS Engineers corporate site: complete sugar plant. Retrieved 3-7-2011 from http://www.ssengineers.com/html/products/sugarplant.htm