Assignment 4
1. List various possible flow patterns and discuss the situations under which each would be suitable.
2. List all the advantages and disadvantages of the following types of manufacturing layouts.
(a) Product layout
(b) Process layout
(c) Group technology layout
8. A real estate agent’s office is located in a busy downtown area in a single-floor building that
has the dimensions of 20 feet × 60 feet. There is a parking lot behind the building with dimensions
20 feet × 60 feet. The office has four real estate agents and one secretary and must have an
office, reception area with space for seating customers, restrooms, photocopy room, conference
room, and a multipurpose room with the space requirements shown in Table 3.3.
(a) Construct a relationship chart for the departments. (there are several possible answers)
(b) Using the relationship chart and space requirement shown in Table 3.3, draw a block plan.
3. In Figure 3.27, you are given the routing sheet for three types of widgets manufactured by Weedjets
Manufacturing International.
(a) Make a list of the product types and their codes.
(b) Make a list of the equipment types and their codes.
(c) Assign a numeric code for each widget type—1, 2, 3. Assign an alphabetic code for each
equipment type—A, B, C, etc.
(d) Write a sheet which will
(i) Remove all the information contained in the route sheets except the equipment types on which
the widgets are processed and the sequence in which the equipment types are visited by the
widget for processing.
e) create a from–to frequency of trips matrix. For this question, use the demand and batch size
information shown in Table 3.5.
4. Weedjets Manufacturing International has currently arranged the five equipment types mentioned in
Exercise 3 as shown in Figure 3.28.
Coordinates of the five machines A, B, C, D, and E are (10, 7.5), (20, 20), (60, 12.5), (35, 7.5), and (5,
20), respectively.
(a) Determine the dimensions of each equipment type.
(b) (b) Determine the following distance measures for each equipment
pair:
(i) Euclidean
(ii) Squared Euclidean
(iii) Rectilinear
(iv) Tchebychev
(c) Using the distances calculated in part (b) and frequency of trips between matrix calculated in
Exercise 3, part (e), determine the sum of flow times distance for the equipment pairs for each
distance metric.
(d) By trial and error alter the block plan shown and generate a new one that reduces the overall flow
times distance by at least 10% when compared to the values obtained in (c). Note that you may
change the positions of equipment and their orientation, but not their length, breadth, or area.
An improved layout (not drawn to scale) is shown below. Students can verify that such a layout decreases
flow*cost by at least 10% for all four distance metrics.
4. Here are the x, y coordinates of the centers of six departments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
(x1, y1) = (26, 40)
(x2, y2) = (0, 23)
(x3, y3) = (26, 12)
(x4, y4) = (0, 0)
(x5, y5) = (15, 20)
(x6, y6) = (41, 0)
determine each of the following distances between the centers of each pair of departments:
(a) Euclidean
(b) Squared Euclidean
(c) Rectilinear
(d) Tchebychev
Consider the “frequency of trips between departments” matrix shown in Figure 3.14.
5. For the following relationship diagram construct a block diagram
Knowing that the dimensions of the departments are
Dept 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Dimension 1000 2000 2000 4000 9000 6000 12000 4000 2000
