Facilities Planning and Design

This chapter introduces many of the fundamental principles and concepts germane to all of facilities planning. Fundamental principles underlying the design process are examined. The objectives of facilities planning are discussed and the fundamental concepts of manufacturing systems are described. Fundamental morphologies of basic layouts germane to all types of facilities planning are presented. An overview of the types of facilities found in service systems is followed with a discussion of renovation or reengineered facilities. The topic of site planning is introduced to motivate the need to plan and locate the manufacturing facility. Finally, constraints on facilities planning and design are addressed.

This chapter presents a factory design project that will serve as a unifying concept for the organization of the book and as a connector of the topics typically covered in a course on facilities planning and material handling. Students work in teams of three or four individuals. The Factory Layout and Material Handling Project is divided into six sections: Section I Product Design, Section II Process Design, Section III Layout Planning and Material Handling, Section IV Personnel Requirements and Calculation of Product’s Total Unit Cost, Section V Office Layout, and Section VI Final Plant Layout. The factory design project has been extensively tested at Texas A&M University, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. It is developed within a conceptual approach that emphasizes the use of information-based manufacturing strategies. All software, documentation forms, checklists, and other resources to facilitate the development of this project are available at a website designed for the textbook.

This chapter introduces the activities of market research, forecasting, product design (what is going to be manufactured), process planning (how is the product going to be manufactured), and schedule design (when is the product going to be manufactured). These activities precede the facility design process and provide the data for analysis. Discussions include fundamental internal functions serving as the platform on which facilities planning strategies are developed and coordinated to reach the company’s goals. A product is chosen to illustrate through the various chapters of the textbook the six sections of the project. Sections I and II of the factory design project are illustrated in this chapter using the selected product.

This chapter introduces the formulation and numerical applications of three basic location mathematical models: single-facility, location-allocation, and quadratic assignment models. In the first class of models, it is desired to find the location of a new facility given its interaction (number of trips) with a group of existing facilities. In the second class of models, it is desired to determine the number and location of new facilities, as well as the allocation of the existing facilities among the new ones. In the third class of models, several facilities are located given the interaction among the facilities (number of trips) and the distance between the potential sites, in such a way that each facility is located exactly once, and each site accommodates exactly one facility. Heuristic procedures for solving this model are described and illustrated.

This chapter focuses on a special class of computerized layout procedures. This topic is covered at a level that serves to complement the students’ knowledge on the fundamental principles and procedures for an effective layout design. This chapter demonstrates both optimal and heuristic solution procedures. Several traditional layout procedures are described emphasizing input requirements, procedural steps, output results, and pros and cons for each algorithm. The topic of software integration is illustrated to support its use in the development of factory layouts using programs FLAP, GMAFLAD, and CRAFT. A non-traditional heuristic procedure called STEP is also formulated to achieve a suboptimal solution, but can solve larger problems. All these computerized procedures are available at the website of the textbook.

This chapter introduces the fundamental principles for the design, analysis, and integration of the flow of products and customers within a material handling system. A detailed example is included to facilitate the understanding of the symbiotic relationship between the layout and the material handling or circulation system of a facility. Open and closed queuing network models are recommended to study the flow of traffic. The modeling approach is described in some detail along with the algorithms used to generate the performance measures. The optimization approach for these material handling and workstation design systems is included, and several examples demonstrate the computer package available with the book for carrying out the experiments. Discrete-event digital simulation modeling and its importance for evaluating the integration of the layout design and the material handling system are also discussed.

This chapter emphasizes the importance of efficient and effective handling of materials within various departments of a factory or another suitable type of business. It highlights basic requirements such as accessibility of every section of storage space, selecting proper placement of every inventory item, implementing appropriate storage policies, and keeping adequate control of these policies. This chapter represents an effort to address various factors considered to be relevant when designing a storage and warehouse system; to achieve this goal it discusses fundamental principles required for the formulation of practical and efficient storage policies. First, receiving and shipping operations are studied, followed by the introduction of dedicated and random storage policies. Models for storage capacity and specific procedures for storage capacity determination are formulated next. The chapter closes with dock planning and design, warehouse system design, and basic considerations for determining the dimensions of an automated storage and retrieval system.