Custom design of facility layouts for multiproduct facilities using layoutmodules

The functional, flowline and cellular layouts are traditional facility layo uts that have been discussed extensively in the literature. However, due to the large variety of parts usually produced in jobshops, none of these lay outs by themselves provide a satisfactory layout solution. This paper intro duces a new idea in layout design that decomposes a layout into a network o f "layout modules." Each module has a unique material-flow pattern, which, in some cases, corresponds to that of one of the traditional layouts. The u se of layout modules allows for a single facility to have different types o f layout configurations designed for different portions of its material-flo w network. This paper introduces a systematic method for implementation of this design approach and demonstrates its application using a sample of rou tings obtained from industry.