Design of Product Layout in Production and Operation Management

1. DESIGN OF PRODUCT LAYOUT In product layout, equipment or departments are dedicated to a particular product line, duplicate equipment is employed to avoid backtracking, and a straight-line flow of material movement is achievable. Adopting a product layout makes sense when the batch size of a given product or part is large relative to

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Service Layout in Production and Operation Management

The major factors considered for service providers, is an impact of location on sales and customer satisfaction. Customers usually look about how close a service facility is, particularly if the process requires considerable customer contact. Hence, service facility layouts should provide for easy entrance to these facilities from the freeways. Well-organized packing areas, easily

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Organisation of Physical Facilities in Production and Operation Management

The following are the most important physical facilities to be organised: Factory building Lighting Claimatic conditions Ventilation Work-related welfare facilities 1. FACTORY BUILDING Factory building is a factor which is the most important consideration for every industrial enterprise. A modem factory building is required to provide protection for men, machines, materials, products or even

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Objectives of Material Handling in Production and Operation Management

Following are the objectives of material handling: Minimise cost of material handling. Minimise delays and interruptions by making available the materials at the point of use at right quantity and at right time. Increase the productive capacity of the production facilities by effective utilisation of capacity and enhancing productivity. Safety in material handling through

Principles of Material Handling in Production and Operation Management

Following are the principles of material handling: Planning principle: All handling activities should be planned. Systems principle: Plan a system integrating as many handling activities as possible and co-ordinating the full scope of operations (receiving, storage, production, inspection, packing, warehousing, supply and transportation). Space utilisation principle: Make optimum use of cubic space. Unit load

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Selection of Material Handling Equipments in Production and Operation Management

Selection of Material Handling equipment is an important decision as it affects both cost and efficiency of handling system. The following factors are to be taken into account while selecting material handling equipment. 1. Properties of the Material Whether it is solid, liquid or gas, and in what size, shape and weight it is

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Evaluation of Material Handling System in Production and Operation Management

The cost factors include investment cost, labour cost, and anticipated service hours per year, utilization, and unit load carrying ability, loading and unloading characteristics, operating costs and the size requirements are the factors for evolution of material handling equipment. Other factors to be considered are source of power, conditions where the equipment has to

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Material Handing Equipments in Production and Operation Management

Broadly material handling equipment’ s can be classified into two categories, namely: (a) Fixed path equipments, and (b) Variable path equipments. Fixed path equipments which move in a fixed path. Conveyors, monorail devices, chutes and pulley drive equipments belong to this category. A slight variation in this category is provided by the overhead crane,

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Guidelines for Effective Utilisation of Material Handling Equipments

The following guidelines are invaluable in the design and cost reduction of the materials handling system: As material handling adds no value but increases the production cycle time, eliminate handling wherever possible. Ideally there should not be any handling at all! Sequence the operations in logical manner so that handling is unidirectional and smooth.

Relationship Between Plant Layout and Material Handling

There is a close relationship between plant layout and material handling. A good layout ensures minimum material handling and eliminates rehandling in the following ways: Material movement does not add any value to the product so, the material handling should be kept at minimum though not avoid it. This is possible only through the

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Scope or Functions of Materials Management

Materials management is defined as “the function responsible for the coordination of planning, sourcing, purchasing, moving, storing and controlling materials in an optimum manner so as to provide a pre-decided service to the customer at a minimum cost”. From the definition it is clear that the scope of materials management is vast. The functions

Material Planning and Control in Production and Operation Management

Material planning is a scientific technique of determining in advance the requirements of raw materials, ancillary parts and components, spares etc. as directed by the production programme. It is a sub-system in the overall planning activity. There are many factors, which influence the activity of material planning. These factors can be classified as macro

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Purchasing in Production and Operation Management

Purchasing is an important function of materials management. In any industry purchase means buying of equipments, materials, tools, parts etc. required for industry. The importance of the purchase function varies with nature and size of industry. In small industry, this function is performed by works manager and in large manufacturing concern; this function is

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Stores Management in Production and Operation Management

Stores play a vital role in the operations of company. It is in direct touch with the user departments in its day-to-day activities. The most important purpose served by the stores is to provide uninterrupted service to the manufacturing divisions. Further, stores are often equated directly with money, as money is locked up in

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Inventory Control or Management in Production and Operation Management

1. Meaning of Inventory Inventory generally refers to the materials in stock. It is also called the idle resource of an enterprise. Inventories represent those items which are either stocked for sale or they are in the process of manufacturing or they are in the form of materials, which are yet to be utilised.

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Standardization in Production and Operation Management

Standardization means producing maximum variety of products from the minimum variety of materials, parts, tools and processes. It is the process of establishing standards or units of measure by which extent, quality, quantity, value, performance etc., may be compared and measured. 1. Advantages of Standardization All the sections of company will be benefited from

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Simplification in Production and Operation Management

The concept of simplification is closely related to standardization. Simplification is the process of reducing the variety of products manufactured. Simplification is concerned with the reduction of product range, assemblies, parts, materials and design. Advantages of Simplification Following are the advantages of simplification: Simplification involves fewer, parts, varieties and changes in products; this reduces

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Value Analysis in Production and Operation Management

Value engineering or value analysis had its birth during the World War II Lawrence D. Miles was responsible for developing the technique and naming it. Value analysis is defined as “an organized creative approach which has its objective, the efficient identification of unnecessary cost-cost which provides neither quality nor use nor life nor appearance

Ergonomics (Human Engineering) in Production and Operation Management

The word ‘Ergonomics’ has its origin in two Greek words Ergon meaning laws. So it is the study of the man in relation to his work. In USA and other countries it is called by the name ‘human engineering or human factors engineering”. ILO defines human engineering as, “The application of human biological sciences

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Just-In-Time (JIT) Manufacturing

Introduction Just-In-Time (JIT) Manufacturing is a philosophy rather than a technique. By eliminating all waste and seeking continuous improvement, it aims at creating manufacturing system that is response to the market needs. The phase just in time is used to because this system operates with low WIP (Work-In­Process) inventory and often with very low

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