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Chapter 7 Layout and flow 185
Short case
Yamaha tunes its assembly lines
The Yamaha Corporation of Japan, founded in 1887, has
grown to become the world’s largest manufacturer of
musical instruments, as well as producing a whole variety
of other goods, from semiconductors and robots through
to sporting goods and furniture. In recent years it has
developed a reputation for product diversification, an
understanding of new markets and, especially, innovative
manufacturing methods. For example, it was one of the
first piano manufacturers to make up-market grand
pianos using assembly line techniques (the picture shows
grand pianos being assembled in the same way as motor
vehicles). Traditionally, grand pianos (as opposed to the
less expensive and better-selling upright pianos) were
made using individual build methods which relied on
craft skills. The main advantage of this was that skilled
workers could accommodate individual variations in the
(often inconsistent) materials from which the piano is
made. Each individual piano would be constructed around
the idiosyncrasies of the material to make a product
unique in its tone and tuning. Not so with Yamaha, which,
although making some of the highest-quality pianos in the
world, emphasizes consistency and reliability, as well as
richness of tone.
Mixed layouts
Many operations either design themselves hybrid layouts which combine elements of some
or all of the basic layout types, or use the ‘pure’ basic layout types in different parts of the
operation. For example, a hospital would normally be arranged on functional-layout principles,
each department representing a particular type of process (the X-ray department, the
surgical theatres, the blood-processing laboratory, and so on). Yet within each department,
quite different layouts are used. The X-ray department is probably arranged in a functional
layout, the surgical theatres in a fixed-position layout, and the blood-processing laboratory
in a product layout. Another example is shown in Figure 7.7. Here a restaurant complex is
Figure 7.7 A restaurant complex with all four basic layout types