ABC Shipyard: The Facility Layout

Description

In October 2014, the chief operating officer of ABC Shipyard was trying to decide how to respond to a request from a renowned marine logistics company for five large naval bulk carriers. The shipyard could manufacture the ships, but with its current layout and throughput, the ships could not be completed within the requested two-year delivery time. A modular approach was necessary to build large and complex products such as ships, complicating the required flow of material between the shops and affecting the spatial resources needed. Could ABC Shipyard’s existing facility layout be improved, and would the change increase throughput, allowing the new ships to be built within the required two years?

Learning Objective

This case can be used in an introductory course on production and operations management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The major topics covered are facility location; the relationship between product, process, material flow, and facility layout; and the theory of constraints. After completing the case, students should be able to ·understand how the nature of a manufactured product influences layout design; ·recognize the difference between process-focused, product-focused, and fixed-position layouts, and how facility layout impacts throughput; ·understand the concept and use of virtual cells; ·understand the role of the theory of constraints in maximizing the use of constrained resources; ·understand the concept of relationship charts, and compare existing charts with required and ideal relationship charts; and ·identify practical and monetary limitations in restructuring a facility layout.

Keywords

facility layout floor plan Logistics production optimization relationship chart shipyard spatial arrangements theory or constraints