Chapter 4

Design of Manufacturing
Processes
Factors Influencing Process Choices
• Volume: Average quantity of the products produced in a
manufacturing system
– Low volume: Turnkey project management firms such as L&T and BHEL
– High volume: Consumer non-durable and FMCG sector firms, Automobile,
Chemical Processing
– Mid-volume: Consumer durables, white goods and several industrial products
• Variety: Number of alternative products and variants of each product
that is offered by a manufacturing system
– Variety of product offerings is likely to introduce variety at various processes
in the system; alternative production resources, materials, and skill of
workers
• Flow: Flow indicates the nature and intensity of activities involved in
conversion of components and material from raw material stage to
finished goods stage
Relationship between Volume & Variety

Mid-volume
High Volume Mid-variety High Variety

Mass Production Project Organizations

Petrochemicals, Motor Manufacturing Power plants
Automobile Pharmaceuticals Aircraft manufacturing
FMCGs White Goods Bridges & Large
Consumer non-durables Consumer Durables Constructions
 Processes & Operations Systems
Available Alternatives
• Process characteristics are largely determined
by the flow of products in the operating
system
• Three types of flows occur in operating
systems:
– Continuous
– Intermittent
– Jumbled
 Continuous Flow System
• Characterized by a streamlined flow of products in the
operating system
• Conversion process begins with input of raw material at one
end, progresses through the system in an orderly fashion to
finally become finished goods at the final stage
• Production process is sequential and the required resources
are organized in stages
– Examples:
• several chemical processing industries such as manufacture of
petrochemicals, steel, pharmaceutical, cement and glass
• In a discrete manufacturing industry high volume production of
very few varieties (such as electrical bulbs or spark plugs)
 Paper Manufacturing
An example of process industry

Logs and chips Crushing of Processing of

of wood stored logs and chips the wood

Preparatory

Drying the Refining the Cleaning &

wood pulp Wood pulp Bleaching
Pulp making

Stretching Cutting
Paper rolling Final packing

Paper making
 Process Industry
Distinctive features
• There should be balance of capacity between all the stages in the
manufacturing process to maintain an even flow of the material
from the raw material stage to finished goods
• Productivity of the system is directly related to the flow rate (or
throughput) of the product
• Requires huge capital investments, as incremental addition at a
later stage not possible. High productivity implies lower cost of
production and vice versa.
• Need to make continuous process improvements and capacity de-
bottlenecking to maximize the flow rate in the system
• Failure of any intermediate stage in the system will have an adverse
effect on the cost (see Ideas at work 9.2 for an illustration of this)
 Operations Management Issues
Process Industry

• The notion of capacity

– Flow rate determines capacity
– Bottleneck easily identifiable
• Nature of inventories
– Work in Progress will be minimal
– Inventory of Spares & Maintenance will be high
• Importance of maintenance
• Relevance of vertical integration
– Joint & Bye Products are many
– Exploiting processing opportunities of these
important
 Video Insight 1.1
Manufacturing of Sugar & Apparels

Right click on the URL below to open the hyperlink in the web browser…

1. Plant tour to understand how Sugar is being manufactured

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9J7pOU5FSg#aid=P9Ci8i1FfNA
2. A modern apparel manufacturing unit: Best & Crompton Apparels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxGLdTARCMk#aid=P8YcoLTqiEA
 Continuous Flow System
Mass production in discrete manufacturing
• In discrete manufacturing various components are manufactured in
discrete fashion and the final product is obtained through an assembly
process
• In a mass production system, the volume of production is very high and
the number of variations in the final product is low
– Examples:
• Automobile and two wheeler manufacturers,
• Manufacturers of electrical components such as switches and health care
products such as disposable syringes
• The entire manufacturing is organised by arranging the resources one
after the other as per the manufacturing sequence (known as product line
structure)
 Process Design for Mass Production
Systems
Pre manufacturing Activities
Product A Product B Product C

Machining Machining Machining

Fabrication Fabrication Fabrication

Assembly Assembly Assembly

Testing Testing Testing

Dedicated & Decentralised Manufacturing Support

Product A Machine
1
Machine
2
Machine
3
... Machine
m
 Video Insight 9.2
Manufacturing of Honda Amaze & Benz C Class

Right click on the URL below to open the hyperlink in the web browser…

1. Honda manufacturing plant in Tapukara India

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Ar8ZLnZU0
2. Manufacture of Mercedes Benz C Class Cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5xmVPr8Aa8
 Intermittent Flow System
• Characterised by mid-volume, mid-variety
products/services
• Increases the flow complexities
• Flow and capacity balancing are difficult but
important
– Process industries use batch production methods
– Discrete industries use alternative methods of
designing layout issues
• Capacity Estimation is hard
• Production Planning & Control is complex
Process Design for Intermittent Flow in Discrete
Manufacturing

Pre-manufacturing activities

Gear Shafts Other

Components rotating parts
Housings
Prismatic
Sheet
Components
Metal parts

Assembly & Test Assembly & Test Assembly & Test

Product A Product B Product C

Dedicated Manufacturing Support for the products

Layout redesign to minimise complexity in Intermittent flow
An example (Ideas at Work 9.3)
 Intermittent Flow System
Sources of Problems

• A bad choice on structure & people issues

Leads to
• Complicated Material & Information Flows
Thereby
• Making Production Planning & Control Complex
Which Demands
• Special mechanisms to bring order out of chaos
 Special Mechanisms
To bring order out of Chaos

• Lot of paper work

• Enormous supervision/Co-ordination
• Progress Chasing/Expedition
All these finally result in
• Long Lead Times/Poor Delivery Reliability
• Excess and Unwanted Inventory
• High Overhead/High Cost
 Jumbled Flow System
• Occurs on account of non-standard and complex flow patterns
characteristic in certain systems
– Highly customised items
– customer orders for one or a few
• Examples
– turnkey project executor such as BHEL or L&T
– customised manufacturing systems such as PCB
fabricators, sheet metal fabricators, tool room operators
and printing and publishing
• Operational complexity arising out of jumbled flow is high
• Discrete manufacturing with Jumbled flow uses a Job Shop
structure
 Process flow in Job Shops

Machine Machine
1 3
Job 1
Machine
6
Job 3
Machine
4

Machine Machine
2 7
Job 2
Machine
5
 Jumbled Flow System
• Complex issue is capacity management
– Considerable time is lost due to repeated setup of
processes
• Due to jumbled flow, crisscrossing of jobs in the
system results in poor visibility.
– Problems are often hidden and build up of work in process
inventory takes place
• Cost accounting and estimation systems are crucial
as there is a constant need to quote for specific
customer orders
 Process design for operations
Salient features of alternative choices
Flow Characteristics Continuous Intermittent Jumbled

Product High Volume, Very low Mid volume, Mid variety Very high variety, low
Characteristics variety volume
Examples of Process Industry, Mass Batch production in Process Project Organisations, Tool
production systems production systems in and discrete manufacturing Rooms, General purpose
discrete manufacturing fabricators
Issues of importance Flow Balancing, Manufacturing system and Capacity Estimation,
Maintenance, Capacity layout design, Changeover Scheduling, Production
utilization and management, Capacity Control, Cost estimation
debottlenecking, Vertical planning and estimation
integration

Operations Line Balancing, Forecasting, Capacity Project Management &

Management Tools Maintenance Planning and estimation, Scheduling, Capacity
& Techniques management, Process Optimized production planning and optimization,
optimisation, Product planning and product Job shop scheduling,
layout design, Flow shope sequencing, Group Functional Layout design,
scheduling, Pull type Technology layout design, Job order costing, Work in
scheduling, Single piece Materials Management Process Management
flow design
 Product – Process Matrix
Low Volume High Volume
Multiple Products Few Major Products
Low Standardisation High Standardisation
Low Volume Higher Volume
One of a kind Commodity Products

Jumbled Satellite Launch None

Flow Vehicle
(Job Shop)

Disconnected
Line Flow Machine Tools
(Batch)

Connected Line
Auto electric
Flow (Assembly
parts
Line)

Continuous
Flow Polyethylene
None

Source: Adapted from Hayes, R.H. and Wheelright, S.C., (1979), “Link manufacturing process and product life cycles”, Harvard Business Review, 57 (1), 133 – 140.
 Layout Planning
• Layout planning in manufacturing & service
organisations
– deals with physical arrangement of various resources that
are available in the system
– with an objective to improve the performance of the
operating system
• Benefits of good layout design
– Jobs in a manufacturing system travel lesser distance
– Customers spend less time in service systems
– Costs & Lead time come down
– Improved quality
 Types of Layout
• Process Layout
– arrangement of resources on the basis of the process characteristics of
the resources available
• Product Layout
– order in which the resources are placed follow exactly the visitation
sequence dictated by a product
• Group Technology (GT) Layout
– seeks to exploit commonality in manufacturing and uses this as the
basis for grouping components and resources
• Fixed Position Layout
– emphasis is not so much on optimum position of resources required
for the process, since the product itself largely dictates this; the focus
is on gaining better control of material flow and reducing delays
 Volume – Variety – Flow
Implications for layout planning
Variety
Medium One off
Very low variety Variety High Variety execution

Flow attributes Stream lined Multiple flow Dis-organised Jumbled flow

flow paths flow

Volume High Volume Mid-volume Low volume One piece

attributes
Job shops;
Process industry; Batch Customized
Examples of Mass Product/ Manufacturing Product/ Project Shops
operating Service provider firms Service
systems Provider

Line Layout; Group Process Fixed Position

Types of layout Product Layout Technology Layout Layout
used Layout
 Process Layout
An example

Product A
Product B L L L L D D

Product C D D
L L L L
D D
M M

G G G
M M
 Product Layout
An example

Product A
L D M G

Product B
L D L G

Product C
L D M L G
 Alternative Layouts
An example from Banking APPENDIX ENTRY LAYOUT - STATE BANK OF
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EP OSIT
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LOANS FIXED
&ADVANCES DEPOSITS
 Product & Process Layout
Pros & Cons
Process Layout Product Layout
Sharing of specialized and Standardised product/
costly equipments process routing
Advantages Operational Control is
More flexibility simpler
Less vulnerable to High output rate is
breakdowns possible
Low tolerance for
Large Inventory buildup breakdowns

Disadvantages Operational control Duplication of equipments

difficult leading to high cost
Less flexibility due to
Excess Material Handling dedication of resources
Group Technology Layout
An example

Cell 1 Cell 2

L M D M D L

D L G G D L

L D L D
M L G L M
Cell 4 Cell 3
Fixed Position Layout
Example from Thermax
 Layout Design
Performance implications
Product Total Distance Number of Average
Line Travelled items Distance
(in meters) Manufactured* per item
Product A 375,655 1080 347.83
Product B 415,125 757 548.38
Product C 288,710 301 959.17
Product D 297,110 405 733.60

* The total distance travelled includes only those of the items manufactured on the
shop floor. The number of items that finally get assembled into the final product
includes many bought out items in addition to these.
 Layout Design
Performance Measures
Performance Measure Basis for measurement

Distance travelled by jobs in the shop floor Kg - Metres of job movement for each product

Minimum space required to actual space

Space utilization index utilised
Material Handling costs Rupees per month
Lead time of the processes Hours per average product
Investment in work-in-progress Rupees per month
Number and quantum of inter-departmental
Inter-departmental moves moves
Utilisation of the resources Percent to total capacity

Number of job cards and control documents

Ease of production control generated; Size of the progress chasing staff

Number of times the responsibility for the job

Number of ownership changes changes hands
 Design of Process Layouts
Alternatives
• Qualitative Method
– Links some criteria to the closeness required between a pair of
resources
– Computer packages such as ALDEP and CORELAP are available
• Quantitative Method
– Uses some quantitative performance measures for assessing the
impact of a layout design
– Seeks to arrive at the best layout design by optimising on this
performance measure
– One of the popular method used in CRAFT
• Performance evaluation models using computer simulation
techniques
 Design of process layouts
Qualitative method

Department 1
Value Closeness O
A Absolutely necessary Department 2 A
U I
E Especially Important Department 3 O E
I Important A X A
O Ordinary closeness OK Department 4 U U
U O
U Unimportant Department 5 O
X Undesirable O
Department 6
 Design of Process Layout
Quantitative Method
• Cij = Cost per unit of transporting a unit distance from
department “i” to department “j”
• Fij = Inter-departmental flow between department “i” and
department “j”
• Dij = Distance between department “i” and department “j”
• n = Number of departments to be laid out n n
• The total cost of the plan is given by: TC   Fij Dij C ij
i 1 j 1

• One can model the above as a mathematical programming

problem with the objective function of minimising the total
cost of the plan
 Design of Product Layout
• Several Mass Production Systems are in operation today
– Various sub-assemblies in a mass producer need to be
configured to match the production rate
– Similarly, the final assembly stations also need to have the
required number of resources at each station to meet the
targeted demand
• A product layout design
– seeks to identify the minimum number of resources
required to meet a targeted production rate and the order
in which these resources are to be arranged
– Technique employed for designing of product layout is
known as line balancing
 Line Balancing
Decisions & Trade-offs
• Line balancing
– A method by which the tasks are optimally combined
without violating precedence constraints and a certain
number of workstations designed to complete the tasks
– Key decision variables are production rate, cycle time and
the number of workstations, which are inter-related
– Solving the “line balancing” problem calls for striking the
right trade-off between increased production and better
utilisation of resources
• Cycle time is the ratio of the available time to the
actual (desired) production rate
 Line Balancing
Some measures of interest

AvailableTime
Actual ( Desired ) CycleTime 
Actual ( Desired ) Pr oduction

Sum of all task times

Minimum No. of work stations required 
Cycle Time

Sum of all task times

Average Re source Utilisation 
Number of workstations * Cycle time
 Example 9.1.
• A factory working in 2 shifts each of 8 hours produces
24,000 electric bulbs using a set of workstations.
Using this information compute the actual cycle time
of the plant operation.
• There are 8 tasks required to manufacture the bulb.
The sum of all task times is equal to 12 seconds. How
many workstations are required to maintain this level
of production if combining of tasks into that many
workstations is a feasible alternative?
 Solution to example 9.1.
• Available time = 2*8*60*60 = 57,600 seconds
• Actual production = 24,000 electric bulbs
• Therefore, using equation 9.2
57,600
Cycle time for each bulb is  2. 4 seconds
24,000
• This means that the factory is producing a bulb every 2.4
seconds.
• No. of work stations required = 12  5
2 .4
• Therefore the tasks are to be split among the five stations
such that each workstation will have sum of the task times to
be 2.4 seconds.
 Example 9.2.
A computer manufacturer needs to design the assembly stations in the
factory where the cabinet housing the hard disk, motherboard and other
accessories are to be done. The factory currently works for one shift of 8
hours. The tasks, their duration and their precedence relationships are given
below: Precedence relationship among the tasks
Task Description Duration
B
(seconds)
A Assemble and position the base unit 70 F
B Install Hard disk 80
C Install Mother Board 40 A C
G H
D Insert Ports 20
E Install speaker 40
D
F Connect relevant modules to mother board & Disk 30
G Install controller 50
H Visually inspect & close with a cover plate 50
E

• If the cycle time is 80 seconds, what will be the daily production of cabinets?
• If the desired production rate is 320 cabinets per day, what is the maximum permissible cycle
time?
• What is the maximum and minimum number of workstations required to maintain this daily
production rate?
• Design an assembly setup with 5 workstations and 6 workstations.
 Solution to example 9.2.
• Total available time per day = 8*60*60 = 28,800 seconds
• If the cycle time is 80 seconds, then
Total Available Time 28,800
• Daily production rate =   360
Cycle Time 80

• Since the desired production rate is only 320 cabinets, one

can obtain the maximum permissible cycle time for the
assembly stations
Total Available Time 28,800
• Maximum Cycle Time =   90 Seconds
Desired Pr oduction Rate 320
• Minimum number of workstations is dictated by the
maximum cycle time permissible
• Sum of all task times = 380 seconds
• Minimum number of workstations = 380  4.22  5
90
 Solution to example 9.2.
Design with 5 work stations
• We assign tasks to the five workstations on the basis of the following two
criteria:
– Workstation times should not exceed maximum permissible cycle time of 90
seconds
– The precedence relationships need to be honoured
Workstation Workstation Workstation Workstation Workstation
1 2 3 4 5
Tasks A,D B C,G E,F H
Assigned
Workstation 90 80 90 70 50
Times
Cycle time 90 90 90 90 90
Workstation 0 10 0 20 40
idle time
Workstation 100% 89% 100% 78% 56%
utilization

Sum of all task times 380

Average Utilisation =   84.4%
No. of work stations*Cycle time 5 * 90
 Solution to example 9.2.
Design with 6 work stations
Work Work Work Work Work Work
station station station 3 station 4 station 5 station 6
1 2
Tasks A B C,D E,F G H
Assigned
Workstation 70 80 60 70 50 50
Times
Cycle time 80 80 80 80 80 80
Workstation 10 0 20 10 30 30
idle time

Workstation 87.5% 100% 75% 87.5% 62.5% 62.5%

utilisation

Sum of all task times 380

Average Utilisation =   79.2%
No. of work stations* Cycle time 6 * 80
 Design of GT Layout
Guiding Principles
• The objective is one of sub-dividing an universe of machines
and components into sub-groups
– Each sub-group of components form a part family and is endowed
with a corresponding sub-group of machines known as machine
groups
– Each sub-group is referred to as a cell
• GT layout design is done with a systematic analysis of a
machine-component incident matrix
• Number of methods available for identifying sub-groups
– Production Flow Analysis (PFA)
– Clustering techniques
– Matrix manipulation methods
– Graph theory
– Mathematical programming methods
 Machine – Component Incident Matrix
Before Grouping

Components
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
A 1 1 1
B 1 1 1
Machines

C 1 1 1 1
D 1 1 1
E 1 1 1 1 1 1
F 1 1 1
G 1 1 1 1 1 1
H 1 1 1 1 1 1
I 1 1 1 1 1 1
J 1 1 1 1 1 1
 Machine – Component Incident Matrix
After Grouping

Components
2 3 5 8 1 4 7 20 18 17 15 14 13 6 9 11 12 16 19
B 1 1 1 1
C 1 1 1 1
D 1 1 1
Machines

A 1 1 1
F 1 1 1
E 1 1 1 1 1 1
I 1 1 1 1 1 1
G 1 1 1 1 1 1
H 1 1 1 1 1 1
J 1 1 1 1 1 1
 One man multiple machine layout
An example from Lucas TVS
Old Layout Revised Layout

4 way 4 way
Lathe Drill Drill
Press
SS
  Drill  SS
Press
Drill
Bench 
Lathe
Bench

Source: N Ravichandran, “A Journey Toward Manufacturing Excellence” CII Quality Summit 2000, 61 – 115.
 Flexible Manufacturing System
Definition
• A Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) is
– A system consisting usually of numerical control (NC)
machines
– Connected by an automated material handling system.
– Operated under a central computer control
– Capable of simultaneously processing a family of parts
with low to medium demand, different process cycles and
operation sequences
• It is an attempt to solve the process complexities
arising out of mid-volume and mid-variety parts
Typical Machines used in FMS
 Structure of an FMS

System Controller

Load Primary Secondary

Unload MHS MHS

Machine Auxiliary
Tools Equipment

Information flow Material flow

 Flexibilities in FMS
• Machine flexibility: the ease of making changes required to
produce a given set of part types
• Process flexibility or mix flexibility: the ability to produce a
given set of part types, each possibly using different materials
in several ways
• Product flexibility: the ability to produce a new set of
products very economically and quickly
• Routing flexibility: is the ability to handle breakdowns and to
continue processing the given set of part types
• Volume flexibility: is a measure of the ability to operate an
FMS profitably at different production volumes
• Expansion flexibility: is the capability of building a system, and
expanding it as need arises, easily and in a modular fashion
 Material Handling in FMSs
• An automated storage system is used for large scale bulk
storage as well as for small in line buffer storage
– Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS)
– Horizontal & Vertical Carousels
• An automated transport system is used to move parts and
products from the storage systems to the production
operations
– Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) system
– Conveyors in a wide variety of forms such as overhead,
monorail, carry and free, power and free and under floor
drag chain
– Gantry and Pick & Place Robots
 Factors affecting the complexity of
Operations Management
Streamlined Flow Jumbled
Many

Moderate High
Complexity Complexity
No. of Stages

Low Moderate
Complexity Complexity
Few

Low Variety High

Design of Manufacturing Processes

• Volume, varietyChapter
and flow exertHighlights
significant influence on process
design in organizations.
• Process industries and mass production systems generally have a
streamlined flow of products.
• Mid-volume and mid-variety manufacturing systems have
intermittent flow. Capacity estimation is difficult in such systems
compared to a continuous flow systems.
• Project organizations & customized manufacturing systems have
jumbled flow. Capacity estimation and scheduling of jobs are quite
difficult. Operations management complexity is high in jumbled
flow systems.
• A process – product matrix depicts the relationship between
process flow characteristics and volume of production in any
manufacturing organization.
Design of Manufacturing Processes
Chapter Highlights…
• Volume, variety and flow exert significant influence on the
layout problem in organizations.
– Product layouts are useful for high volume – low variety situations.
– At the other extreme, fixed position and project layouts are useful for
high variety situations.
• Product layout and process layouts are used in discrete
manufacturing industry. They have several advantages and
disadvantages.
• Mid-volume and mid-variety manufacturing systems can
benefit from a Group Technology (GT) layout.
• Several computer packages are available for designing process
layouts. Popular among them include CORELAP, ALDEP COFAD
and CRAFT.
Design of Manufacturing Processes
Chapter Highlights…
• Product layout design seeks to identify the minimum number of
resources required to meet a targeted production rate and the
tasks to be assigned to each of these resources using a
technique called line balancing.
• GT layouts are designed with the objective of sub-dividing a
universe of machines and components into sub-groups such that
each sub-group consists of part families and machine groups.
• New technology manufacturing such as Flexible Manufacturing
Systems (FMS) have the potential to simplify flow complexities in
mid-volume, mid-variety manufacturing organizations due to
increased flexibility.
• Volume, variety & flow characteristics determine the complexity
of operations management. By a careful design of the process,
some of the complexities can be minimized.