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Part Two
Design
shown with three different types of restaurant and the kitchen which serves them all. The
kitchen is arranged in a functional layout, the traditional service restaurant is arranged in
a fixed-position layout, the buffet restaurant is arranged in a cell-type layout, while in the
cafeteria restaurant, all customers take the same route when being served with their meal.
They may not take the opportunity to be served with every dish but they move through the
same sequence of processes.
Short case
Chocolate and customers flow
through Cadbury’s 3
Source: Cadbury World
Flow of chocolate
In the famous Cadbury’s chocolate factory at Bourneville,
on the outskirts of Birmingham, UK, chocolate products
are manufactured to a high degree of consistency
and efficiency. Production processes are based on a
product layout. This has allowed Cadbury’s engineers
to develop and procure machinery to meet the technical
and capacity requirements of each stage of the process.
Consider, for example, the production of Cadbury’s Dairy
Milk bars. First, the standard liquid chocolate is prepared
from cocoa beans, fresh milk and sugar using specialized
equipment, connected together with pipes and conveyors.
These processes operate continuously, day and night,
to ensure consistency of both the chocolate itself and
the rate of output. Next, the liquid is pumped through
heated pipework to the moulding department, where
it is automatically dispensed into a moving line of
precision-made plastic moulds which form the chocolate
bars and vibrate them to remove any trapped air bubbles.
The moulds are continuously conveyed into a large
refrigerator, allowing sufficient time for the chocolate to
harden. The next stage inverts the moulds and shakes
out the moulded bars. These then pass directly to a set
of highly automated wrapping and packing machines,
from where they go to the warehouse.
Flow of customers
Cadbury also has a large visitor centre called ‘Cadbury
World’ alongside the factory (linked to a viewing area
Chocolate being processed
Customers being processed
which looks onto the packaging area described above).
Cadbury World is a permanent exhibition devoted entirely
to chocolate and the part Cadbury has played in its
fascinating history. Because most of the attractions
are indoors, with limited circulation space, the main
exhibition and demonstration areas are designed to allow
a smooth flow of customers, where possible avoiding
bottlenecks and delays. The design is also a ‘product’
layout with a single route for all customers. Entry to the
Exhibition Area is by timed ticket, to ensure a constant
flow of input customers, who are free to walk around
at their preferred speed, but are constrained to keep
to the single track through the sequence of displays.
On leaving this section, they are directed upstairs to
the Chocolate Packaging Plant, where a guide escorts
standard-sized batches of customers to the appropriate
positions where they can see the packing processes
and a video presentation. The groups are then led down
to and around the Demonstration Area, where skilled
employees demonstrate small-scale production of
handmade chocolates. Finally, visitors are free to roam
unaccompanied through a long, winding path of the
remaining exhibits.
Cadbury has chosen to use the product layout design
for both the production of chocolates and the processing
of its visitors. In both cases, volumes are large and the
variety offered is limited. Sufficient demand exists for
each standard ‘product’, and the operations objective
is to achieve consistent high quality at low cost. Neither
operation has much volume flexibility, and both are
expensive to change.
Source: Cadbury World