In
manufacturing engineering
Manufacturing engineering or production engineering is a branch of professional engineering that shares many common concepts and ideas with other fields of engineering such as mechanical, chemical, electrical, and industrial engineering.
Manufa ...
, process layout is a design for the floor
plan
A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal.
...
of a plant which aims to improve
efficiency by arranging equipment according to its function. The production line should ideally be designed to eliminate waste in material flows, inventory handling and management.
[Shigeo Shingo(1985). "A revolution in Manufacturing: The SMED System". Productivity Press. ]
In process layout, the work stations and machinery are not arranged according to a particular production sequence. Instead, there is an assembly of similar operations or similar machinery in each department (for example, a drill department, a paint department, etc.)
It is also known as function layout. In this layout machining operation are performed in group together and not arranged according to any sequence.
Main advantages
# Provide visual control of activities
# Use space efficiently
# Use labour efficiently
# Eliminate bottlenecks
# Facilitate communication and interaction between workers and supervisors
# It is environmental friendly
Criticism
A common criticism of this layout is that the work can be monotonous for staff, especially if they are involved only in one stage of the process.
This criticism can however be eliminated if the staff are rotated to different departments (involving different processes) thus developing a multi-skilled body of staff.
See also
*
Product layout
References
Further reading
* S.N. Chary (2006). ''Production and Operations Management''. McGraw Hill.
* S. Moran (2016). ''Process Plant Layout''. Elsevier. {{ISBN, 978-0128033555
Industrial engineering