Design of manufacturing
Processes
Process planning
• Number of steps in manufacturing
• Machines used, how to place them.
• Time spent in each step
Design of processes
flow of parts
Process choices to configure
Resources and flow patterns optimize
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
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
1. Plant tour to understand how Sugar is being manufactured
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9J7pOU5FSg#aid=P9Ci8i1FfNA
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
Manufacturing of Benz C Class
1. 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
Ex - Car
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
Flow Characteristics Continuous
choices
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
• 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
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
Do not use next slides
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
• 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?
• Available time = 2*8*60*60 = 57,600 seconds
• Actual production = 24,000 electric bulbs
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.
RPW Method
Step 1 ---Draw the precedence diagram
Step 2 -- For each work element determine the
positional weight. It is the total time on the longest
path from the beginning of operation to the last
operation of the network.
Step 3 – Rank the work elements in the descending
order of ranked positional weight ( R.P.W)
Step 4 Assign the work element to a station. Choose
the highest RPW element. Then select the next one.
Continue till cycle time is not violated. Follow the
precedence constraints also.
Step 5 - Repeat step 4 till all operations are allotted
to one station.
7A-39
Assembly steps and times for Model J wagon
500 wagons required per day.
Production time per day is 420 minutes
7A-40
Draw network diagram
available time
Workstation cycle time = ----------------------
Actual production
60 secs X 420 mins / 500 wagons
= 50.4 Seconds
Sum of all task times
Minimum No. of work stations required
Cycle Time
= 195/50.4 = 3.86 approx 4
Task Task time PW
A 45 94
B 11 49
D 50 94
C 9 38
E 15 44
F 12 29
G 12 29
H 12 29
I 12 29
J 8 17
K 9 9
Task Task time RPW
A 45 94
D 50 94
B 11 49
E 15 44
C 9 38
F 12 29
G 12 29
H 12 29
I 12 29
J 17 17
K 9 9
Rank the tasks in descending
order of positional weight
ST 1 ST 2 ST 3 ST 4 ST 5
B( 50.4 - 11= 39.4) G( 50.4 - 12= 38.4) J( 50.4 -17 =33.4)
A( 50.4 -45=5.4 D( 50.4 -50=0.4 ) E( 39.4 - 15= 24.4) H( 38.4 - 12= 26.4) K( 33.4 -9= 24.4 )
C( 24.4 -9 = 15.4) I( 26.4 -12 = 14.4)
Task Task PW
F( 15.4 - 12= 3.4) time
A 45 94
D 50 94
Cycle
time B 11 49
=50.4 E 15 44
seconds
CYCLE TIME = 50.4 seconds C 9 38
F 12 29
G 12 29
H 12 29
I 12 29
J 17 17
K 9 9
END
Subsequent slides not to use
