OM5 Chapter 8: Facility and Work Design
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the type of facility layout that would be most appropriate for:
a. printing books—Product layout
b. performing hospital laboratory tests—Process layout or cellular
2. Describe the layout of a typical fast-food franchise such as McDonald’s. What type of layout
is it? How does it support productivity? Do different franchises (e.g., Burger King or
Wendy’s) have different types of layouts? Why?
Students should be encouraged to visit these and look closely at the kitchen areas.
McDonald’s is basically a process layout, while others bear closer similarity to product
layouts, but are still basically process layouts. Students may argue McDonald’s has
3. How might sustainability issues be incorporated into the design of facilities and workplaces?
Provide examples and explain your reasoning.
The sports stadium box in OM3 C8 on “Play Ball and Save the Planet,” is a good example of
what is expected here. Undergraduate students will focus on what they know about such as
Exhibit 1.6 Examples of Sustainability Practices
Environmental Sustainability
Waste management: Reduce waste and manage recycling efforts
Social Sustainability
Product safety: Ensure consumer safety in using goods and services
Workforce health and safety: Ensure a healthy and safe work environment
Economic Sustainability
Performance excellence: Build a high-performing organization with a capable leadership
and workforce
4. Describe the ergonomic features in the automobile that you drive most often. If it is an older
model, visit a new-car showroom and contrast those features with those found in some newer
models.
Automotive designers pay much attention to ergonomics, such as placement of controls and
cup holders, ability to reach them safely and comfortably, and the ability to see them without
being distracted. The BMW interface wheel (albeit a bit dated) caused a lot of controversy
5. What do you think of Cargill Kitchen Solutions’ 20-minute job rotation approach? Would you
want to work in such an environment, or one in which you performed the same tasks all day.
Why?
Most students will feel that the approach is a great idea because it provides more interesting
As the text describes: “Two broad objectives must be satisfied in job design. One is to meet
the firm’s competitive priorities—cost, efficiency, flexibility, quality, and so on; the other is to
Problems and Activities
1. Research and write a short report (maximum of two typed pages) on green facility design
making sure that you incorporate some of the key topics in this chapter.
Students will have no trouble finding “green facility design” issues and examples via an
Internet search such as the US Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org), Siemens
(www.seimens.com/answers), and The Kresge Foundation (www.kresge.org). Make sure the
students focus on facility design, layout, how to group work (i.e., ALB), energy, lighting,
2. Research and write a short paper illustrating how an organization uses one of the following
types of facility layouts:
Product layout
Process layout
Cellular layout
Fixed position layout
If you Google any of these types of layouts you get millions of hits. The challenge for
students is to find an example of how a real company uses the layout. For example, cellular
layout reduces part movement, set-up time, and wait time between operations, resulting in a
3. Visit a manufacturer or service organization and critique their facility design. What are the
advantages and disadvantages? How does the layout affect process flows, customer service,
efficiency, and cost? Describe the basic types of materials-handling systems commonly used
in manufacturing.
This activity gives students a chance to see the application of OM. They might uncover some
4. Bass Fishing, Inc. assembles fishing nets with aluminum handles in an assembly line using
four workstations. Management wants an output rate of 250 nets per day using a 7.5 hour
work day. The sum of the task times is 5.75 minutes/net.
a. What is the cycle time?
b. What is assembly-line efficiency?
c. What is total idle time?
Equation 8.5 is Total Idle Time = N*CT – t = 4(1.8) – 5.75 = 1.45 min. Bass Fishing is
5. Peter’s Paper Clips uses a three-stage production process: cutting wire to prescribed lengths,
inner bending, and outer bending. The cutting process can produce at a rate of 200 pieces per
minute; inner bending, 160 pieces per minute; and outer bending, 150 pieces per minute.
Determine the hourly capacity of each process stage and the number of machines needed to
meet an output rate of 20,000 units per hour. How does facility layout impact your numerical
analysis and process efficiency? Explain.
up to 2 machines to ensure meeting the required output rate.
A few questions for class discussion include: Do we have enough space for these machines?
6. An assembly line with 30 activities is to be balanced. The total amount of time to complete
all 30 activities is 48 minutes. The longest activity takes 3.6 minutes and the shortest takes .3
minutes. The line will operate for 480 minutes per day.
a. What are the maximum and minimum cycle times?
b. How much daily output will be achieved by each of those cycle times?
Make sure students understand how to get the proper “units per day.” That is, they must
7. In Problem 6, suppose the line is balanced using 12 workstations and a finished product can
be produced every 4.5 minutes.
a. What is the production rate in units per day?
b. What is the assembly line efficiency?
8. A small assembly line for the assembly of power steering pumps needs to be balanced.
Exhibit 8.11 is the precedence diagram for problems #8 and #9. The cycle time is determined
to be 1.5 minutes. How would the line be balanced by choosing the assignable task having
the longest task time first?
Longest (largest) processing time first rule?
Station Tasks Total time Idle Time
Using Equation 8.6, Efficiency = 4.2/[1.5(3)] = 93.3%
9. For the assembly line described in Problem 8, how would the line be balanced by choosing
the assignable task having the shortest task time first?
Shortest (smallest) processing time rule?
Station Tasks Total time Idle Time
The conclusion is that the assembly line balancing rule does make a difference in line balancing
solutions and therefore, must be carefully chosen and monitored. The idea is to strictly follow
10. For the in-line skate assembly example in this chapter, suppose the times for the individual
operations are as follows:
Task Time (sec.)
Assume that inspections cannot be performed by production personnel, but only by persons
from quality control. Therefore, assembly operations are separated into three groups for
The line would be perfectly balanced (100% efficient).
Station Tasks Total time Idle Time
11. For the in-line skate example described in Problem 10, design a production line to achieve an
output rate of 90 per hour.
For 90 parts/hour, each station needs to have a work content of 40 sec. or less. A
Station Tasks Total time Idle Time
1 & 2 3
5
4 & 6
7 & 8
1 & 2 3 4 & 5 6 & 7 8