PLANT / FACILITY LAYOUT

WHAT IS LAYOUT?
• A layout is an arrangement of the space and facilities
according to:
– The type and size of activities to be carried out,
– Convenience of operations,
– Efficiency,
– Productivity,
– Economy, and
– Safety of the facilities and the users of the facilities.
• There can be various options for the layout with in the
same space, each one having certain merits or demerits.
• A good layout is a combination of cultural, social,
operational, location, climatic and safety factors.
• Layout is greatly influenced by the availability of the
space, laws governing the activities, standards
applicable and future plans of the organization.
NEED FOR PLANNING LAYOUT - 1
• Helps in proper arrangement of the departments,
sections and machines for smooth operations.
• Improves safety of men & machines.
• Economy of operations. Poor layout may require
too much movement of men and materials.
• Sometimes, additional facilities may have to be
arranged for carrying out such movements.
• Additional facilities would need additional space
and additional cost of operation and maintenance,
thus increasing the production cost.
NEED FOR PLANNING LAYOUT - 2
• Difficult to make any change at a later stage.
• Even a minor modification would be very costly
and would involve lots of efforts including
disruption of activities.
• A good layout optimizes the operation costs and
increases the profits.
• Improvement in line balancing and arranging
work stations.
• Optimization on the machines in the plant.
FACTORS INFLUENCING PLANT
LAYOUT
• Operation requirements
• Size of operations
• Safety aspects
• Technology aspects
• Systems design
• System arrangement
• Location aspects
• Governmental regulations
 LAYOUT AND ASPECTS OF
SYSTEM DESIGN
• Types of materials handled (Powder, Liquid,
Gases)
• Types of plant and machinery (Small or big).
• Climatic conditions (Cold, hot, rains, windy)
• Availability of power (coal/ gas/ oil based )
• Movement of materials and men
• Future plans
 LAYOUT AND GOVERNMENT
REGULATIONS
• Legislations for protection from safety hazards:
– Every plant is supposed to have a clinic for treatment
• Direction to take care of basic needs of the workmen:
– Every plant has to provide shades, washrooms, toilets and
canteen for the workers.
• Compliance to these governmental regulations requires
the plant layout to be such that these facilities are
available in required measures and at convenient places.
• Similarly, governments have brought out regulations
about environmental protection which influence the
layout of the plant.
 TYPES OF LAYOUT

Fixed Position
Process Layout Product Layout
Layout
 PROCESS LAYOUT
Air
Work Shop Office
Compressor
Fitting Table 1
Product A
Lathe 1
Fitting Table 2 Side Entry
Product B Lathe 2
Fitting Table 3
Lathe 3

Milling Welding M/C - 1

Machine
• Flow of work is not standardized
• Plant produces a variety of products Welding M/C - 2
• Some of the processes / operations Paint Shop
might be common.

Main Entry
PROCESS LAYOUT - EXAMPLES
• Garment factory producing half sleeve shirts, full sleeve shirts,
pants and suits.
• Another example is producing cements of various grades such
as Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Slag Cement, Colored
Cement and Puzzolona Cement. Different cements would need
different raw materials to produce the cement and therefore need
a different layout, where operations cannot be standardized.
• Office buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, aerodrome,
library, book store or amusement centers are planned on this
basis.
 PRODUCT LAYOUT OF
LAUNDRY

Classification Storage
and Washing Steam Area for Delivery
Dryer
marking of Machine press Pressed Counter
clothes clothes

• To produce one standard product in large volumes.

• Each unit produced undergoes same sequence of operations and uses
same flow of work.
• The work centers and equipments are arranged in a line for continuous
operation.
 EXAMPLES OF PRODUCT
LAYOUT
• Assembly line for air-conditioner,
• Car manufacturing unit,
• Car washes and
• Canteen facilities
• Laundry.
 FIXED POSITION LAYOUT
• Fixed-position layout is used for products, which
are either very big in size (weight/volume) or
very critical and it is not feasible or desirable to
move the product and product remains in one
position only.
• Men, materials, equipment and tools are brought
to the product for execution of the work.
• Building of space shuttle, turbines, aircrafts and
ship use fixed-position layout as it is not feasible
to move these products due to their size or
weight.
 COMBINATION LAYOUT - 1
• In an industrial plant, it is difficult to confine to
one type of layout only i.e. process or product
layout.
• It becomes necessary to use process layout for
some of the activities and to use product layout
for certain other activities in the same plant.
• Cement manufacturing may need process layout
for raw-material preparation, which require
crushing, grinding and mixing of the various raw-
materials such as lime-stone, clay, bauxite and
iron-ore.
 COMBINATION LAYOUT - 2
• Once the raw materials are prepared and
converted into raw-meal by mixing different raw
materials in predetermined proportion,
production processes such as pre-heating, pre-
calcining, calcinations for conversion of raw-
meal into clinker and cooling of clinker would
use product layout.
• Within the plant, workshop activities are
arranged by using process layout, whereas the
packing and dispatch operations of the cement
through trucks need product layout.
 COMBINATION LAYOUT - 3
• If different modes of dispatches are adopted such as
dispatch by rail (both by bags and bulk containers), sea
(bags and bulk loading) or by road in trucks (bags) or in
bulk containers, the dispatch operations would need
process layout.
• In cases of repairs of kiln in a cement plant, which
cannot be moved, a fixed layout is to be used.
• It is clear from the example of cement plant that a big
plant needs application of all the three types of layouts
for different applications or a combination of all the
layouts for meeting the requirements of its total
operations.
COMBINATION LAYOUT – CASE
OF A CEMENT PLANT
Clay
Yard Cyclone

BlendingS
Bauxite torage
Yard cyclone
Raw Rotary kiln
Mill
Iron ore Inlet chamber
Yard Of kiln Clinker cooler
ESP
Lime Stone
Chimney Cement
Yard
Mill

Process layout for a portion of Product layout for a portion of

Cement plant Cement plant