Facilities Design

Consider a four-department facility with daily production quantities and product routing presented in the accompanying table. For the layout patterns (I and II) illustrated below, the distances from A to B is 50 units, B to C is 50 units, and C to D is 50 units. However, for the U-flow layout or pattern II, the distance from A to Cor B to D (and the reverse directions) is given by the hypotenuse of a triangle formed by departments (i.e., ABC or BCD). a) Find the from/to chart. b) Which layout would you prefer (1) or (11)? Why? Support your answer by providing detailed explanations and calculations. Table: Daily production quantities and product routing Production Volume Quantities (compared to Product (per day) Routing Product 1 1 15 B-A-D-C-A 1 2 20 A-D-C-B 1 3 14 A-C-D-B 2 4 10 B-A-C-D 0.5 A B C D 1. Straight-line flow layout A B D II. U-flow layout