Myer Wine Racking and Cellar Company is a small but growing carpentry job shop that specializes in natural- finish redwood racking systems for storage and display of wine bottles. These racks and cabinets are created by processing redwood lumber through a series of work centers to reduce it to standard components, which are then assembled into seemingly customized goods in an assemble-to-order approach to production. Myer Wine Racking has been so successful in building wine cellars and displays for wine collectors and retail stores, it plans to move to a larger building it has just leased. Myer Wine Racking must organize a layout within the restrictions of that building, which has been divided into the 12 equal- sized zones shown in the Ground Plan of New Building illustration.

The owner of the building is willing to install interior walls according to Myer Wine Racking's specifications, with some limitations. First, the owner is not willing to change the locations of doors along the exterior of the building. This is important because, of the 12 functional areas within Myer's layout, only the front office or the demo cellar are appropriate locations for the front entrance, meaning that one of these two areas must be assigned to zone 4. Likewise, the shipping department and lumber storage must each be assigned an exterior loading bay door, confining their locations to zones 11 and 12. Second, the building owner wishes to minimize the expense of running water lines and sewer drains. Plumbing enters through the west wall of the building, so the owner is only willing to install restrooms within the first four zones of the building. Because Myer will request restrooms in both its front office and production office areas, these two areas must be located somewhere within zones 1 through 4. To aid the layout design process further, Myer Wine Racking has determined a close- ness rating for each possible pair of neighboring areas within its facility, as organized in the REL diagram shown here.

Questions 

1. Recommend a good layout for Myer Wine Racking by assigning each of the 12 func- tional areas to 1 of the 12 zones in the ground plan, working within the building owner's restrictions. 

2. Calculate and report the score earned by your recommended layout, based on the following scale: Each pair of areas that share a straight border within the layout earn 100 points if the pair's corresponding closeness rating is A. 50 points if the pair's corresponding closeness rating is E. 25 points if the pair's corresponding closeness rating is I. 5 points if the pair's corresponding closeness rating is O. 0 points if the pair's corresponding closeness rating is U. -100 points if the pair's corresponding closeness rating is X.3. Can you improve the recommended layout if the building owner could be convinced to run additional water lines and drains, such that the restrooms could be located anywhere in the building? If so, by how much?

Transcribed Image Text:

Ground Plan of New Building West Wall (Plumbing Wall of Building) Zone 1 Zone 3. Zone 5 Zone 7 Zone 9 Zone 11 Zone 2 Zone 4 Zone 6 Zone 8 Zone 10 Zone 12 South Wall (Front of Building) Front Entrance with Glass Windows Loading Bay Doors