Operations Management Concepts

Techniques or Tools Used for the Design of Good Plant Layouts

An ideal plant layout should provide the optimum relationship among output, floor area and manufacturing process. It facilitates the production process, minimizes material handling, time and cost, and allows flexibility of operations, easy production flow, makes economic use of the building, promotes effective utilization of manpower, and provides for employee’s convenience, safety, comfort at work, maximum exposure to natural light and ventilation. It is also important because it affects the flow of material and processes, labor efficiency, supervision and control, use of space and expansion possibilities etc.

Recommended Reading: Plant layouts – Definition and Objectives

In designing or improving the plan of plant layout, certain techniques or tools are developed and are in common use today.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

Plant Layouts – Definition and Objectives

Plant layout means the disposition of the various facilities (equipment’s, material, manpower etc.)   within the areas of the site selected. Plant layout begins with the design of the factory building and goes up to the location and movement of work. All the facilities like equipment, raw material, machinery, tools, fixtures, workers etc. are given a proper place.

Some definitions of Plant Layout are;

  • In the words of James Lundy, “It identically involves the allocation of space and the arrangement of equipment in such a manner that overall cost are minimized”.
  • According to MoNaughton Waynel, “A good layout results in comforts, convenience, appearance, safety and profit.
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Abey Francis

Criteria for a Good Layout

The layout of a plant or facility is concerned with the physical placement of resources such as equipment and storage facilities, which should be designed to facilitate the efficient flow of customers or materials through the manufacturing or service system. The layout design is very important and should be taken very seriously as it can have a significant impact on the cost and efficiency of an operation and can involve substantial investment in time and money. The decisions taken with regards to the facility layout will have a direct influence on how efficiently workers will be able to carry out their jobs, how much and how fast goods can be produced, how difficult it is to automate a system, and how the system in place would be able to respond to any changes with regards to product or service design, product mix, or demand volume.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

5S – Japanese Concept of Workplace Improvement

What is 5S Concept?

Simply put, 5S is a method/Japanese concept for organizing a workplace, especially a shared workplace (like a shop floor or an office space). It’s sometimes referred to as a housekeeping methodology, however this characterization can be misleading because organizing a workplace goes beyond housekeeping (see discussion of “Seiton” below).

The key targets of 5S concept are workplace morale and efficiency. The assertion of 5S is, by assigning everything a location, time is not wasted by looking for things. Additionally, it is quickly obvious when something is missing from its designated location. 5S advocates believe the benefits of this methodology come from deciding what should be kept, where it should be kept, and how it should be stored.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

Meaning of Job Design

The nature of work and its organization has interested managers, economists and social scientists for as long as people have been employed by others to engage in productive activity. Managers have largely been interested in maximizing output from available resources.

Job design can be define as the process of putting together various elements to form a job, bearing in mind organizational and individual worker requirements, as well as considerations of health, safety, and ergonomics. The scientific management approach of Frederick Winslow Taylor viewed job design as purely mechanistic, but the later human relations movement rediscovered the importance of workers’ relationship to their work and stressed the importance of job satisfaction.… Read the rest

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Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance anticipates failures and adopts necessary actions to check failures before they occur. It includes activities like inspection, lubrication, cleaning unkeeps, minor adjustments and replacements found necessary at the time of inspection etc.  Its purpose is to minimize breakdowns and excessive depreciation. Neither equipment nor facilities should be allowed to go to the breaking point. In its simplest form, preventive maintenance can be compared to the service schedule for an automobile.

Preventive maintenance can be either: running maintenance or “shut down maintenance”.

  • Running maintenance includes maintenance activities e.g. minor adjustments in machines revealed through inspections, lubrication, cleaning and upkeep etc.,
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Abey Francis