The term 'layout planning' can be applied at various levels of planning:

Plant location planning (where you are concerned with location of a factory or a warehouse or
other facility.) This is of some importance in design of multi-nationally cooperating, Globalsupply Chain systems.
Department location Planning: This deals with the location of different departments or
sections within a plant/factory. This is the problem we shall study in a little more detail,
below.
Machine location problems: which deal with the location of separate machine tools, desks,
offices, and other facilities within each cell or department.
Detailed planning: The final stage of a facility planning is the generation, using CAD tools or
detailed engineering drawings, of scaled models of the entire floor plans, including details
such as the location of power supplies, cabling for computer networks and phone lines, etc.

The Department Location Problem: A department is defined as any single, large resource, with
a well defined set of operations, and fixed material entry and exit points. Examples range from
a large machine tool, or a design department. The aim is to develop a BLOCK PLAN showing
the relative locations of the departments.
Criteria: The primary criteria for evaluating any layout will be the:
MINIMIZATION of material handling costs.
MH cost components: depreciation of MH equipment, variable operating costs, labor expenses.
Also, MH costs are typically directly proportional to (a) the frequency of movement of
material, and (b) The length over which material is moved.

Advantages of these criteria (reduced material movements):

1. Reduction of Aisle space required.
2. Lower WIP levels
3. Lower throughput times
4. Less product damage and lower obsolescence

5. Reduced storage space

6. Simplified material control and scheduling
7. Less congestion in system.
Systematic Layout Planning
The method can be described in terms of the basic steps:
1. Data Collection: A study of the Product Mix, Quantity of each product to be produced,
Routing for each product, Support services needed, and the Schedule (or the timing
and transport issues related to production schedules of the products types).
2. Flow Analysis: whence we identify what each department will be, what its inputs and
outputs are likely to be, specification of physical workstations required to do the tasks
(in the process plan) etc.
At the early stages, this involves considerations of quantity of material flow, as well as overall
flow lines that could be better in the implementation of departments.
Examples include straight-line flow, S-shaped flow, U-shaped flow, or W-shaped flows.
Further, even for a spine shaped system, the spine geometry can be straight line, or U-shaped
(the latter case is useful if a single material receiving/delivery point is preferred.)
3. Quantitative analysis: Some factors, such as flow costs, can be quantified. Several
others are not so easy to quantify. For example
a. MH receiving and delivery stations to be kept together.
b. Delicate testing equipment should be placed far from high vibration areas, etc.
Such relationships can be quantified by using REL diagrams, as shown in the figure below. The
relative importance of each factor is expressed in terms of subjective evaluations, ranging
from A (absolutely necessary) to U (unnecessary), and X (necessary to keep apart).
1. Space requirements: these are determined based on industrial standards, equipment
required, shelf space required, etc.
2. Space availability: this is determined based on the economic analysis, as well as on
other constraints that may arise (especially if the system is to be housed in an existing
facility). The last two considerations will give an estimate of total space for each
department, and sometimes also the shape of each department (based on flow type
within the department).

3. Space relationship diagram: In this part, we substitute in the actual area on each
department, and fit the departments into the available space. Usually, the solution
methods may be computer-assisted heuristics, or just direct visual methods.
4. Putting in the constraints: Finally, other existing constraints are employed to cut down
the number of feasible solutions, to result in a small set of solutions. from among these,
direct comparison can be used to rank, eliminate, or select the optimum design.
Definition of Plant Layout
Plant Layout is the physical arrangement of equipment and facilities within a Plant.
The Plant Layout can be indicated on a floor plan showing the distances between different
features of the plant. Optimizing the Layout of a Plant can improve productivity, safety and
quality of Products. Uneccessary efforts of materials handling can be avoided when the Plant
Layout is optimized. This is valid for:
- Distances Material has to move
- Distances Equipment has to move
- Distances Operators have to move
- Types of Handling Euipment needed
- Energy required to move items agianst resistance (i.e. gravity)
The main objectives of plant layout is to optimising the process of production process whithin
the plant. shuch an optimizing results in : 1- Productivity of activities 2- reduction of cost
regarding to: a) money b) time c) labour d) Land e) psychological 3- smooth flow of: a) job b)
materials c) labour force above overal objectives could be mentioned in details as follow: 1Providing enough production capacity by better implementation of: a) machinaries through
suitable locating of them regarding the nature of job b) labour force by reduction of
movement , easing job and better psycological condition( increased safity and better working
environment ) c) material by reduction of wastage throug smooth handling d) land by
maximum usage of space