Outline of Contents:
What is Plant layout?
Necessity of good layout
Factors affecting good layout
Principles of good layout
Advantages of good layout
Symptoms of poor layout
Types of layout
What is PLANT LAYOUT?
Plant layout refers to the arrangement of physical facilities such as machines, equipment, tools, furniture etc. in such a manner so as to have quickest flow of material at the lowest cost and with the least amount of handling in processing the product from the receipt of raw material to the delivery of the final product. Plant Layout is a plan of an optimum arrangement of facilities including personnel, operating equipment, storage space, material handling equipments and all other supporting services along with the design of best structure to contain all these facilities. A good layout is one which allows material rapidly and directly for processing. This reduces transport handling, clerical and other costs down per unit. Space requirement are minimized and it reduces idle machine time and idle time of man.
Necessity of good plant layout
Minimization of material handling
Optimum utilization of available floor space
Elimination of bottlenecks through balancing of all capacities
Minimization o production delays
Easy supervision and better manpower resources through elimination of idle time
Elimination of physical efforts required by workers
Elimination or improvement of objectionable operations. E.g. Operations with bad odor, vibrating operations etc.
Avoiding industrial accidents
Better working conditions like light, ventilation, noise control etc.
Optimum utilization of machinery and equipment through proper use.
Minimization of cost so that product will be available at cheaper rate to customer and delivery in time.
Factors affecting facility Layout
Nature of plant-Engineering/Process Industry
Type of Production-Mass/Flow, Batch, Job Shop
Type of Production-Make to Stock/order, std/spec
Plant Location-Area