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Part Two
Design
The general functional layout design method
The general approach to determining the location of work centres in a functional layout is as
follows:
Step 1 Collect information relating to the work centres and the flow between them.
Step 2 Draw up a schematic layout showing the work centres and the flow between them,
putting the work centres with the greatest flow closest to each other.
Step 3 Adjust the schematic layout to take into account the constraints of the area into which
the layout must fit.
Step 4 Draw the layout showing the actual work centre areas and distances which materials
or customers must travel. Calculate the effectiveness measure of the layout either as
total distance travelled or as the cost of movement.
Step 5 Check to see if exchanging any two work centres will reduce the total distance travelled
or the cost of movement. If so, make the exchange and return to step 4. If not, make
this the final layout.
Worked example
Rotterdam Educational Group (REG) is a company which commissions, designs and manufactures
education packs for distance-learning courses and training. It has leased a new
building with an area of 1,800 square metres, into which it needs to fit 11 ‘departments’.
Prior to moving into the new building it has conducted an exercise to find the average
number of trips taken by its staff between the 11 departments. Although some trips are
a little more significant than others (because of the loads carried by staff) it has been
decided that all trips will be treated as being of equal value.
Step 1 – Collect information
The areas required by each department together with the average daily number of trips
between departments are shown in the flow chart in Figure 7.12. In this example the
direction of flow is not relevant and very low flow rates (less than five trips per day) have
not been included.
Figure 7.12 Flow information for Rotterdam Educational Group