Shah et al.,, International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology
E-ISSN 0976-3945
Research Paper
INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY IN FACTORY LAYOUT BY
USING SYSTEMATIC LAYOUT PLANNING (SLP)
1
C. R. Shah, 2Prof. A. M. Joshi
Address for Correspondence
PG student, Civil Engineering department, Tatyasaheb Kore Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Warananagar, Tal.-Panhala, Dist.kolhapur-416113, India
2
Prof. Civil engineering department, D.Y.Patil College of Engineering and Technology, Kolhapur, Dist.
Kolhapur, India
ABSTRACT
1
In the present work, the layout design is an important task when a manufacturing system is constructed, or expanded. If the
facilities are arranged optimally, manufacturers can decrease work – in – process, material-handling costs, total production
costs and significantly enhance a system’s efficiency. Facilities design has the major objective of cost minimization, and the
material handling cost can be reduced by placement closely related facilities. A good layout leads to reducing production
costs, and increasing productivity. There are varieties of selection and placement procedures in several construction layouts.
The detailed study of the plant layout such as operation process chart, flow of material and activity relationship chart has
been investigated. The new plant layout has been designed and compared with the present plant layout. The SLP method
showed that new plant layout significantly decrease the distance of material flow from raw material storage to packing
department.
KEYWORDS - Plant layout, Systematic Layout Planning, Flow analysis, Activity relationship chart.
I. INTRODUCTION
With rapid increasing of demand in production,
industrial factories need to increase their potentials in
production and effectiveness to compete against their
market rivals. At the same time, the production
process needs to be equipped with the ability to have
lower cost with higher effectiveness. Therefore, the
way to solve the problem about the production is very
important. There are many ways i.e. quality control,
total quality management, standard time, plant layout
to solve the problems concerning productivity.
In additional to Pramod Shewale et al. [2] studied the
plant layout of compressor manufacturing based on
the systematic layout planning pattern theory (SLP)
for increased productivity. In this case study, amount
of equipments and tools in compressor production are
studied. The detailed study of the plant layout such as
operation process chart, flow of material and activity
relationship chart has been investigated. R. D.
Vaidya, et al. [3] studied improvement of the plant
layout of manufacturing industry to make optimum
space utilization, eliminate obstructions in material
flow and thus obtain maximum productivity. The
present layout and operation process of each section
(i.e. material storage, cutting, machining shop,
fabrication shop, assembly and inspection section and
finish product storage) have been investigated. Ram
Prakash et al. [5] studied The Existing Plant Layout
of the Company has been designed in such a way that
there is no optimum utilization of the resources.
Travel Chart Technique is applied to minimize
wastes of time, manpower and money and to generate
higher profits for the same work from the same
resources .Two improved layout have been developed
by considering the material handling costs. W.
Wiyaratn, A. Watanapa et al [8] studied the amount
of equipments and tools in iron production are
studied. The detailed study of the plant layout such as
operation process chart, flow of material and activity
relationship chart has been investigated. The new
plant layout has been designed and compared with
the present plant layout. The SLP method showed
that new plant layout significantly decrease the
distance of material flow from billet cutting process
until keeping in ware house. According to the
researches plant layout is one way to reduce the cost
Int J Adv Engg Tech/IV/IV/Oct-Dec.,2013/61-63
of manufacturing and increase the productivity. Also
increases good workflow in production route. This
research describes original plant layout, material flow
analysis, which includes area and distance between
operation A and B, through such a steel pistoncylinder factory that was case study. From the
experience in the factory, it was found that there was
wasted time or delay in manufacturing, that is to say,
the movement of the material in long line and
interrupted flow as well as useless area of the plant.
According to these problems, the researchers would
like to analyze the way to solve such problems and
find the way to improve the plant layout. The basic
industrial layout planning applied to systematic
layout planning (SLP) method in which showed stepby-step of plant design from input data and activities
to evaluation of plant layout. This method provides
the new plant layout that improves the process flow
through the plant, and help to increase space in
industries.
With reference to the industry, the factory layout
facilitates the arrangement of machines, equipment
and other physical facilities in a planned manner
within the factory premises. An entrepreneur must
possess an expertise to lay down a proper layout for
new or existing plants. It differs from plant to plant,
from location to location and from industry to
industry. But the basic principles governing factory
layout are more. As far as small business is
concerned, it requires a smaller area or space and can
be located in any kind of building as long as the
space is available and it is convenient.
Factory layout for small scale business is closely
linked with the factory building and built up area.
From the point of view of factory layout; we can
classify small business or unit into three categories:
1) Manufacturing units 2) Traders 3) Service
Establishment
II. PROCEDURE FOR PLANT LAYOUT
PLANTING
The data were collected and the number of tools
equipment for manufacturing was counted in terms of
the direction for raw materials and product. The
operation process chart, flow of material and activity
relationship chart have been used in analysis. The
problem of the plant was determined and analyzed
Shah et al.,, International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology
through SLP method to plan the relationship between
the equipments and the area. The framework of SLP
is shown in Fig. 1. Based on the data such as product,
quantity, route, support, time and relationships
between material flow from –to chart and activity
relation chart are displayed. From the material flow
and relationship activity in production, the relation
between each operation unit can be observed. Then
the results were drawn through the comparison
between the existing manufacturing process and the
proposed way.
E-ISSN 0976-3945
and material handling equipment could be discussed
as follows:
Table No. 1-Relation between Equipment Size and Area
Table No. 2
Fig.No.1 Systematic layout planning
Fig.No.2 Flow of operation of material in Factory
III. ANALYSIS OF ORIGINAL PLANT
LAYOUT
In this study, production as a cylinder was mostly
made to standard sizes. The manufacturing process
was shown in Fig. 2 along with the flow of the
operation process. The size of the equipment was
relational to the area as shown in Table 1 and Table 2
shows distances to be travelled by the component in
the shop. According to the original plant layout, the
flow of the material, the utility of the area in the plant
Int J Adv Engg Tech/IV/IV/Oct-Dec.,2013/61-63
A. The Flow of Materials
Raw materials were carried with long distance and
that means a waste in time and energy, resulting in
high cost as shown in Table 1, 2 such as moving the
cylinder from warehouse to scissors resulting wasted
time and more energy.
B. Utility of the Area
The area was not used to the full potential because
old machine and remaining materials were still there
in the working area, resulting in useless area of the
plant. The department of maintenance was still
spacious and adjacent to the area where the raw
materials were kept, resulting in limited area for
storing raw materials
The area to store raw materials before moving to the
process of dividing billet was limited so the area
could contain only 600 cylinders per day.
C. Material handling equipment
The material handling equipment of the raw materials
was not good enough, that is to say, fork lift was used
to move in one direction and the pathway was not
flexible enough due to untidy arrangement of the
things. This was the reason why the raw materials
were to be carried for a long distance.
D. Storage area of Raw material
Actually storage area for raw materials was 300
square meters. The plant at the present time could
contain only raw materials. After the improvement, it
had more space to contain more raw materials and
also space for empty trolleys and cleaning machine.
IV. ANALYSIS FACTORY LAYOUT BASED
ON SLP
According to the study of the manufacturing process,
it was found that the long distance could be reduced
for moving raw materials and the problem about
useless area could be solved. The way to improve the
Shah et al.,, International Journal of Advanced Engineering Technology
plant was to apply SLP method to make the work
flow continually by arranging the important sequence
of the manufacturing. Then the relationship of each
activity in closeness area was considered to make the
relationship of each activity `in the graph from-to
chart as shown in Fig 3 , and the closeness value are
defined as A = absolutely, E = especially important, I
= important, O= ordinary closeness, U= unimportant.
The details for each activity were described in Table
3, as follows:
E-ISSN 0976-3945
B (Proposed layout plan)
C (Implemented layout plan)
Fig. No.6 Plant Layout of Original and Improvement
Fig No. 3 Activity relationship chart
The important sequence of each activity was
rearranged from the most important one to the least
important one as shown in Fig 4. The intensities of
flow from each activity to another were developed in
Fig 5
Fig No. 4 Sequence Of Activities in the Manufacturing
Process
According to the analysis of the workflow for the
production of the cylinder it was found that the
distance from the moving out of the warehouse to do
intermediate processes to make cylinders and to
keeping them at warehouse was 86.5 m., reduced
from 127.5 m. or reduced by 41 m. Finally, rearrange
layout decreased flow of material, resulting in
increased production.
REFERENCES
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Fig No. 5 Intensities of Flow of Material in the
Manufacturing Process
4.
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Based on modifying plant layout and practical
limitations, a number of layouts were developed.
There were 2 choices to improve the plant layout as
shown in Fig 6. The original plant layout represents
A, while modified plant layout represents B and C.
6.
7.
8.
9.
A (Current layout plan)
Int J Adv Engg Tech/IV/IV/Oct-Dec.,2013/61-63
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