PLANT LOCATION

Definition: -Plant is a palace where resources (4Ms) pooled up for manufacturing a

product to process it. Location is an ideal location of site is one where unit cost of production
and distribution is minimum where sales volume will yield maximum profit.
Factors influencing site selection:
1. Site characteristics
a. Contour of site – limits, scope – up and downs.
b. Soil structure clayey, sandy, rocky etc.
c. Access to rail, road and river.
d. Possibility of future expansion.
e. Cost of site.
2. Risk:
a. History of floods of surrounding area.
b. Past occurrence of earthquakes etc.
c. Distance from industrial installations.
d. Fire hazards in surrounding areas.
3. Supplies:
a. Availability of resources from the sources at the shortest distance.
b. Availability of substitute materials.
c. Availability of electrical power and fuel, water.
4. Waste disposal:
a. Facilities for discharging or depositing waste
b. Restrictions if any in waste disposal.
c. Local regulations.
5. Labour:
a. Availability of skilled and unskilled labour.
b. Stability of labour rates.
c. Nature of local labour.
6. Transportation:
a. Facility for transportation such as railways stations, ports etc.
b. Emergency air travels facilities.
7. Support services:
a. Communication.
b. Banks, postal
c. Constancy services
d. Civil amenities like education, hospitality, recreation etc.
ALFRED WEBER theory on selection of Plant Location:
A German economist enunciated – there is two major factors govern for plant location.
• Primary or Regional factors:
1. Transportation cost … includes cost of essential raw materials and ubiquities
(local materials) like water, sand, sand, clay bricks etc.
2. Labour costs.
• Secondary factors identified by Weber are…
1. Agglomerative factors: - if several ancillary industries attracted to a particular
region where plant to be located it is called agglomerative tendency. This
leads to reduce production cost per unit.
2. Deglomerative factors: - on other hand, certain factors discourage the
concentration of industrial units at on place. Due to rise in the price of land,
 labour problems, hike in rents and other costs… lead to decentralisation of
ancillary units.
Limitations: -
0 It is unrealistic.
1 It is assumptions are over-simplified.
2 Selection factors are arbitrary.
3 Diversion of raw materials is artificial.
4 It is based on external economics.

PLANT-LAYOUT
Plant layout refers to the arrangement of physical facilities and services including work
centers for the manufacturing of products and good plant layout results:
• A good plant layout makes comfort, convenience, less fatigue, less wastage, good
appearance, and cubic space utilization and minimizes the cost of production per unit.
• A poor plant layout results in congestion, wastage, delays, frustration and inefficiency
in production process.
Objectives / purpose of plat layout: -
• To facilitate production process.
• To minimize the material handling, wastage and delays.
• To maintain flexibility in the operation.
• To provide optimum utilization of missionary and equipment and space.
• To reduce fatigue and risk hazards.
• To promote effective utilization of labour and assures safety and security of the
workers.
• To bring out higher productivity effectively and efficiently.
Principles of plant layout:
• Principle of overall integration:
• Principle of flow: - Proper line balancing technique by avoiding congestion points,
flow battle necks and back tracking.
• Principle of minimum distance:
• Principle of cubic space utilization:
• Principle of safety and satisfaction: -Towards workers by providing better working
conditions.
• Principle of flexibility: - For further development i.e. future expansion.

Factors influencing Plant Layout:

• Nature of product.
• Volume of production.
• Basic managerial policies and decisions.
• Nature plant location.
• Type of industry process.
• Nature machines.
• Climate.
• Nature of materials.
• Type of machines and equipment
• Human factor and working conditions.
• Characteristics of building.

Types of Plant Layout:

1. Line or Product layout
 2. Process or Function layout
3. Stationary or Fixed layout.
4. Combination of Line and Process Layout. This depends upon the nature of work and
size of the organisation.
1. Line Layout:
Arrangement of machines and equipment in a line, not always straight or sequence.
This type of layout is applicable for small industries where nature and type of the product is
similar.
Merits: -
o Smooth flow of production.
o Mechanization of material.
o Economy in manufacturing time and cost.
o Lesser work in progress.
o Easy to inspect.
o Maximum utilization of available source and space.
Demerits: -
o Expensive, Inflexible, Difficulty in supervision and expansion.
o High labour cost.
o Stoppage of work through breakdown- Any break down in any of the machine along
the Line can destruct the whole work of the production.
2. Process layout:
The total activities of a plant categorized according to its function. Each function
contains similar set of activities. Allocating a particular place, machinery, equipment for a
particular function or process is called Process layout. This is applicable in medium size
industries.
Merits: -
o Flexible.
o Scope for expansion.
o Maximum utilization of equipment.
o Better working conditions.
o High output rate.
o Better supervision.
Demerits: -
o Inefficient material handling.
o Diseconomy of the flour space.
o High cost of supervision.
o Accumulation of work in progress.
3. Fixed layout:
Under this type of layout products are fixed in a particular place and the complete job
is done at a fixed station with materials, men, missionary, etc…. All are moved to the place
or product for the necessary operation. It is suitable for big factory Machines, Hydroelectric
Turbines, Shipbuilding, Locomotive Industries and Aircraft building construction of dams
and Tunnels etc.
Merits: -
o Flexible.
o Lower labour cost.
o Saving in time.
o Requires lesser flow most suitable way of assembling large and heavy products.
Demerits: -
 o Machines and equipment’s are transferred to particular place, heavy and sophisticated
equipment cannot be used in such case.
o Due to low efficiency of men and machines it is suitable only for some special type of
projects.
PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTIVITY
Production: - According to Heyel “production is the process of transforming raw
materials or purchased components into products for sale”.

Production function: - creation of useful goods or products for sale with materials,
machinery, labour, land, capital and management is associated with factory production,
which is narrow view of production. The modern concept of production is much wide and it
includes all activities that create utility for individual and society. Mathematically a
production function can be written as …
Y= f (C1, C2, C3 … Cn)
Where as, Y is the quantity produced, which depends upon the quantities of different inputs
represented by C1, C2, C3 … Cn (relationship between output and or input.)
A function is an expression of the relationship amongst number of variables that give
a single result. The value of one variable depends upon the value of other.
Productivity
 A measure of performance
 Broadly a ratio of output to input, i.e. comparing amount produced (output) with
resources used (input)
 Materials, machinery, labour, capital, energy --- a combination
 What improvements have there been over the last 50 years in
o Construction productivity
o Payroll processing
o Car servicing
o Banking

How do we evaluate productivity levels and identify areas for improvement?

Productivity is a measure of how much input is required to produce a given output. It
refers to the physical relationship between the quantity produced (output) and the quantity of
resources (inputs) used in source of production. It is ratio between output goods and services
to the input of resources consumed in the process of production.
Productivity = quantity of output / quantity of input
According to Peter Drucker … productivity ‘is that balance between all factors of
production that will give the greatest output for the smallest effort’ in simple sense it is the
ration of what is produced to what is required to [produce it.
Production Vs Productivity
Production of any commodity or service is the volume of output irrespective of the
quantity and quality of resources employed to achieve that level of output. Where as
productivity not concerned with volume of production. It is the ratio of output and input
factors of an enterprise. It shows the efficiency of production or efficiency level of input
factors.
Factors influencing productivity:
o Materials handling
o Labour efficiency
o Plant, equipment and machinery
 o Land and building
o Human aspect – workers participation in management, better communication,
improved mutual trust among employees and employee and employer.
o Technical factors
o Individual factors – knowledge, skill and attitude
o Organizational factors
o Work environment
o Other factors such as natural factors, Climatic, Managerial, Leadership, Organising,
Decision making, Market competition and its demand, Political or Trade union
environment, Government laws and restriction on concerning business etc.
Following are the reason for low productivity:
o Wastage of materials
o Machine breakdown
o Waiting on the part of men and equipment
o Excessive handling
o Poor management
o Political effects
Importance of high Productivity:
o Increases standard of life
o Eliminates wastage in all forms
o Leads to economic growth and social progress
o Brings lower price for consumers, higher dividend for shareholders and higher
wages for employees and higher tax for Government.
o Eliminates or minimizes povery and unemployment
o Enable the producer to beat the competition
o It is an aspect of basic progress
o Enables maximum utilization of resources
o Is a key to national prosperity
o Increases goodwill, profits and reserves funds of the industry.
Types of production:
There are three basic types in production namely
1. Job or Order production.
2. Flow or Mass production.
3. Batch production.
1. Job Production: - This is also called Order production, in this production goods are
produced according to the orders or individuals requirements of the consumers. Every job is
differing from the other in terms of type, cost, efforts, consumption of materials and that
product specification. It is not likely to the same in all cases and has lot of flexibility of
operation. Hence general purpose machines are required.
Merits: -
o It can meet the individual requirements
o No managerial problems because of very less number of workers and small size
concerned.
o Requires less money and it is easy to start
o There is less risk of loss
o Because of flexibility, there is no chance of failure of factory due to the reduction of
demand in particular field.
Demerits: -
o There is no scope for continuous production and demand.
o Perchages of raw materials is less; hence cost pf raw materials per unit will be slightly
more.
o For handling different types of jobs only skilled and intelligent workers are needed,
hence labour cost increases.

2. Mass Production: - This also called as flow production. Here production is undertaken in
large through out the year irrespective of demand of a product or commodity with specialized
machines and processes. The main advantages of this type of production is offers the lowest
unit cost of production. The products such as food grains like rice, wheat and all consumer
goods such as TVs, air conditioners, cars etc., are manifatured through mass production.
Merits: -
o Mass production gives better and increased production
o Wastage in minimum
o In this method as raw materials are purchased on a large scale and hence higher
margin of products can be made while purchasing them.
o Promotional cost is low per unit
o Only few skilled and rest semiskilled workers are required hence labour cost is
reduced.
Demerits: -
o During the period of less demand, losses on the invested on the invested capital may
take place.
o All machines are used one purpose; it is not changeable to other type of production.
o Workers may get skill but they feel boar by doing job repetitively
o It can not fulfill individual taste.

3. Batch Production: - Here manufacturing is done on the basis of the batches and they are
similar in terms of type, cost, efforts, and consumption of inputs. This type of production is
adopted by medium size enterprises. It is bigger in scale of job production and smaller in
mass production. The products manufactured under this method are pharmaceutical, paints,
many consumer products such as mineral water bottles and so on.

Merits: -
o While comparing with mass production it requires less capital.
o If demand of one product decreases then product of another increases hence risk of
loss is very less.
o Comparing with job production it is more advantages commercially.
o Efficient maintenance of equipment and production control system is possible.

Demerits: -
o Comparing with mass production cost of sales and adverting per unit is more.
o Raw material purchased in less quantity than mass production so less quantity of
discount a-vile.
 WORK STUDY
 Generic term for management services and as system engineering techniques, used to
investigate
o Methods of performing work (method study) and improve its efficiency and
economy
o the time taken to do it (work measurement) with a view to rationalization,
routinisation, utilisation, cost and incentive improvement
 The worker-work system-technology relationship: how this is best
designed and improved (ergonomics and the human-machine-information interfaces)

Work study investigates the work done in an organization and its principle aim is to
fined out the best and most efficient way of using available resources i.e. men, material,
money, and machinery (4Ms).
Work study is a systematic, objective and
critical analysis of all the factors that
govern the operational efficiency of any
specified activity to effect improvement.
According to British Standard Institutions
work study is generic term for those techs,
particularly method study and work
measurement which are used in the
examination of human work in all its
contexts, and which leads systematically to
the investigation of all the factors which
effect the efficiency and economy of the
situation being reviewed in order to effect
improvement. In simple terms, work-study is term used to embrace the techniques of method
study and work measurement.
Therefore, work-study can be defined as scientific study of work to find
o Exactly what has to be done
o One best way to do
o Inefficient work can be eliminated
o What equipment, condition, methods would make easier
and quicker and
o How long should take.
Need of work-study:
Work-study is needed to explore improvement in doing job and to reduce problems in
the complexities of modern organizations. Hence, it is required in
o Industries
o Marketing and sales and distribution
o Office, stores and ware houses
 o Material handling
o Design
o Building and other constructions
o Transport hospital
o Army and
o Agriculture
Advantages of work study:
o Uniform and improved production flow
o Higher productive efficiency
o Reduced manufacturing cost
o Fast and accurate delivery dates
o Better employee – employer relations
o Better service to customers
o Job security and job satisfaction to workers
o Better working and other conditions and
o Higher wages to workers.
Objectives of work study:
The main objective of work-study is to assist management and to obtain optimal use
of all resources namely psychological and physical resources (4Ms) for accomplishment of
work.
o To ensure most effective use of existing human and material resources
o To eliminate wasteful, unnecessary and ineffective work
o To improve existing methods and to establish best way of ding job
o To reduce unnecessary efforts and delays
o To find out most economical way of ding job
o To determine the time required (standard or allowed time) to perform a job as
accurately as possible.
o To check the operative effectiveness with the help of standard time
o To increase productivity, there by increasing production per hour
o To effect saving in production process

A work-study curriculum - 1
 Historical development & commitments of Work Study
-Basic concepts, objectives and procedures
 Method Study approaches and tools of Method Analyst
-Flow Diagrams & Process Charts etc
-Critical questioning techniques
 Work Measurement and calculating times for Jobs
-Defining job elements & calculating
-Performance rating and standard/basic times
-Determining allowances: fatigue, unavoidable & avoidable delays, extra
allowances
 various incentive plans

A work-study curriculum - 2
 Examining worker-machine relationships
Workload & line balancing & staff/machine inefficiencies
 Material handling, human controls, tools and devices
Workstation layout & design (EU workstation directive)
Occupation Health & Safety: signals, reaction times, eyes, backs, RSI safety
criteria, preventing accidents
 Ergonomics & human-machine-environment interfaces
Use of visual displays for dynamic information
Designing for: lighting systems, industrial noise, thermal controls, vibration
etc
 Systems analysis the human-machine information system
Data capture and processing
Design of the user interface
 Business process re-engineering (BPR)

Pioneers of efficiency measurement & systems

 Gunpowder manufacture
 Chinese ceramics industry
 Adam Smith observations of French - pin making
 Pioneers of agrarian and industrial revolutions
 Abraham Derby & Josiah Wedgwood
 Madame Guillotine, Springfield Rifle
 F W Taylor at Bethlehem Steel work
 Henry Gantt
 Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
Time and motion study
 Charles Bedaux
Work measurement

Basic procedure for Work / Method study

 Select job/process to be examined & observe current

performance. High process cost, bottlenecks, tortuous route,
low productivity, erratic quality

 Record & document facts

-Activities performed
-Operators involved - how etc
-Equipment and tools used
-Materials processed or moved

Method study uses formal techniques to record the sequence of activities, the time
relationship between different activities, the movement of materials and the
movement of staff. The main techniques used for recording the time relationships
between parts are: Multiple-activity charts; Simo charts. The main techniques that are
used to record movement are: Memo-motion analysis; Micro-motion analysis; Flow
diagrams. The most commonly used technique is the flow process chart. There are
 three types of process charts: Outline process charts; Flow process charts; Two-
handed process charts.

 Apply critical examination - challenge job components & necessity (purpose, place,
sequence, method).
 Develop alternative methods & present proposals
 Document as base for new work system
 Install, monitor (slippage) & maintain

Models / Symbols and Process Charting: - this will be developed by work study members
to suite the particular production process.

Critical examination questions:

 Purpose : - What, Why, What else might & Should be done ?
 Place : - Where, Why, Where else & Where should it be done ?
 Sequence : - When, Why then, When else could & When should ?
 People : - Who, Why, Who else might & should do it?
 Method : - How, Why, How else could, How else should
Other types of process modeling
 Multiple activity charts
 String diagrams
 3-dimensional models
 Recording methods - video, etc
 Computer-based modeling
Measuring Work:
Work Measurement
  Techniques to establish the time for a qualified, motivated worker to carry out a task
at a defined rate of working
 Time Study:
Establish standard times - management knowledge
Rate operator performance - criteria for appraisal
Gather information to calculate production capabilities & data for capacity
planning.
Define/cost work content of finished goods and services e.g. for charging &
estimating
A Time Study
 Select job & identify the work tasks
 Check the method - is it efficient / agreed?
 Start a Time Study sheet & break work task into "units"
 Several times with a stop watch & for a sample of workers, time measure
Completion times for each unit of work in the job sequence
Average for each worker
Determine & apply worker effort rating for each worker (BSI scale)
Apply fatigue, personal & other allowances
 From the observation data (worker average times) calculate standard time for the task
 Assumes: set sequence, routine work cycle (all workers), little discretion, 100% effort
rating - trained/qualified, motivated/committed, working at normal pace & not
fatigued
 Fix standard time and enter into measured work manual/database

Limitations or Opposition to Work Study:

 All work is different - idiographic vs. nomothetic
 Large firm/employer and large engineered systems only
 Work study is obsolete
 It is exploitative of workers
 It has never been and never will be accepted here
Is this so? What is the evidence of work-study in the world around you

STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL (SQC)

Introduced by ‘Sir Walter A Shewart’ in 1931 statistical process control (SPC) is part
of SQC. These are concerned with monitoring and control of production process. That
depends up on Quality cycle:
Quality Control and Inspection are place a vital role in order
to maintain statistical quality control in production process.
Quality Control: - Quality is not an accident it is the result
of an intelligent effect. There must be will for management or
that particular business to produce superior things. There are
two main areas to control the quality of product or services.
They both are cost sensitive.
Quality control measures will be taken into two areas of
production. They are
Off-line quality control: - The improvement of product quality along with the process
at various stages of product design or design development and after the production.
On-line quality control: - The monitoring of correct manufacturing process through
verification of dimensions. It is a real time quality control. These are three forms…
 o Process diagnosis and adjustment (process control).
o Prediction and control (control through feed back).
o Measurement and action (inspection)
Quality control is an effective system integrated to quality development, quality
maintenance and quality improvement.

Steps involved in quality control:

o Setting up standards.
o Appraising degree of conference.
o Corrective action.
o Planning for implementation.

Objectives / purpose of quality control:

o To achieve and improve quality in all aspects.
o To ensure consumer satisfaction.
o To build consumer goodwill and confidence.
o To elevate image and repetition of company.
o To produce optimal quality at minimal cost.
Inspection: -
“Is an art of comparing and verifying raw materials or finished products with
established standards”
Objectives / purpose of inspection:
o To separate defective components from the non-defective thus assuring adequate
quality of products.
o To locate problems in raw materials and flows in process – which other wise causes
serious problems at final stage.
o To prevent further work being done on semi finished products found defective.
o To build up repetition of the concerned.
o To check work of designer by a studying end product.

Inspection Vs Quality Control:

Inspection emphasis is on the quality of the ‘past output’ but in quality control
emphasis is laid on the quality of the future output.
A program of quality control to give/govern variables under the control, enlarges the
production pile… while inspection is separation of goods from bad, merle enlarges the scrap
pile.

Inspection involves the following Quality control involves the following

acceptance activities
o Source of inspection
o Receiving inspection
o Process inspection
o Finished goods inspection
o Test equipment maintenance
o Day to day trouble shooting
o Salvage routing
o Record keeping
Statistical Quality Control:
activities
-Analysis of defectives
-Quality capabilities
-Process capability
-Quality coordination
-Application of special statistical methods
-Appraisal of activities and quality audit
-Customers complaint analysis
-Determination of market quality
 S Q C is defined as…”The method of applying statistical techniques to the collection and
analysis of inspection and other data in order to achieve and maintain quality and maximum
economy in the manufacturing process”. In other words
‘The application of statistical principles and techniques in all production directed towards
the economic manner of the product(s) that is maximally useful and has a market’.
Objectives of SQC:
o Promote identification of trend of quality deviations
o Take corrective actions.
o Determination of the level of quality.
o Reduction in scrap and rework.
Some important prerequisites for SQC:
(I) Management must commit to SQC. Experience reveals 85% of production
problems and 15 to 20% is on communication. The management may fail
implementation of SQC due to…
• Inadequate inspection:
o Design of components and subassemblies.
o Production process and tooling and their testing.
o Incoming materials.
• By taking incomplete information.
• Failure to provide workers with statistical signals that can tell them as how
they are doing and when to make some changes - Failure to use design charts as a
measure.
• Failure to maintain proper job description or manual.
• Inadequate training of the workers.
• Inadequate maintenance and setting of machines.
• Non-readable testing instruments.
• Presence of smoke, noise, poor humidity, poor lighting, confusion in
communication etc., i.e. failure to provide better working conditions.
(II) Implementation mechanization:
It should not overlook any instruction - implement faithfully with loyalty to
quality philosophy. Hence prime responsibility of management or business is to
secure quality concerned with ‘control of quality’ and ‘improvement of quality’.

Top management must support the program of quality control willfully (no
compromising for quality) by providing training, proper maintaining machines and
equipment.
Benefits of SQC:
The use of SQC ensures rapid and efficient inspection at a minimum cost. It
minimizes waste by identifying the causes of excessive variability in quality of product.
Following are the important advantages of Statistical quality control.
o Statistical quality control process is free from the sources of variations.
o It involves identification and removal of undesirable causes.
o The product can be more safely guaranteed.
o Inspection can be reduced ultimately thus reducing the inspection cost and in turn the
cost of production.
o Statistical quality control enables to determine and eliminate experimental errors.
o Statistical quality control reduces the cost of scrap, rework and adjustment.
 o Statistical quality control is very much useful for product development and to reduce
the cost of production.
SQC can be achieved by considering the following areas:
 Controlling the manufacturing information:
o Carefully prepared instructions to operators.
o Understandable drawings.
o Good communication system.
o Implement through directive.
 Control of purchases, storage of raw materials:
o Obtain correct materials incorrect quantity at current time.
o Store to prevent deterioration or damage.
o Good relations and communication with suppliers.
 Control of manufacturing process:
o Prevent fabrication of defective products.
o Good maintenance of processing machines.
o Clear directive from management.
 Control of finished products:
o Adequate verification.
 Control of measuring instruments.
 Control of corrective actions.

SQC exerts more effective pressure for quality improvement than 100% inspection.