OM (Chapter 8)

An arrangement based on the sequence of operations that are performed during the manufacturing of a good or delivery of a service.

Advantages: Lower work-in-process inventories, shorter processing times, less material handling, lower labor skills, and simple planning and control systems.

Disadvantages: A breakdown at one workstation can cause the entire process to shut down; a change in product design or the introduction of new products may require major changes in the layout, limiting flexibility.

Consists of a functional grouping of equipment or activities that do similar work.

(Legal office, shoe manufacturing)

Advantages: A lower investment in equipment, the diversity of jobs inherent in a process layout can lead to increased worker satisfaction.

•Disadvantages: High movement and transportation costs, more complicated planning and control systems, longer total processing time, higher in-process inventory or waiting time, and higher worker-skill requirements.

Self-contained groups of equipment (cells) needed for producing a particular set of goods or services.

(Medical specialties: maternity, surgery)

Advantages: Reduced materials-handling requirements, quicker response to quality problems, more efficient use of floor space, more worker responsibility increasing morale.

Disadvantages: Duplication of equipment among cells, greater worker skills requirements.

The resources necessary to manufacture a good or deliver a service, such as people, materials, and equipment, are consolidated in one physical location.

(heavy machine tools, airplanes)

Advantages: Work remains stationary, reducing movement.
Disadvantages: High level of planning and control required.

-Flow-blocking delay occurs when a work center completes a unit but cannot release it because the in-process storage at the next stage is full. The worker must remain idle until storage space becomes available.

•Lack-of-work delay occurs whenever one stage completes work and no units from the previous stage are awaiting processing.

Combining the components of a good or service that has been created previously.

Technique to group tasks among workstations so that each workstation has—in the ideal case—the same amount of work.