Page 275 - DMGT206_PRODUCTION_AND_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Production and Operations Management

Notes Practical Example 3

Frontec Company wants to arrange Four of its departments in a Row so that the Total Distance
Traveled between Departments is minimized.
This part of the building will contain four departments arranged in a row.

Frontec wishes to minimize the total daily inter-departmental distance traveled.
The number of daily communications between each pair of department is shown below:

1. Assume that adjacent departments are 20 feet apart.

2. We will use a trial-and-error approach to this problem.
3. Assume that we selected the following configuration for the departments: A-B-C-D.
4. For this configuration, Total communication cost (based on distance) is as follows:

In terms of total daily communication distance, (B-A-C-D) is the preferred alternative.

But the firm has to consider all of the 24 (4! = 4x3x2x1) possible configurations before it knows if
this is the optimal configuration.
This trial-and-error approach becomes time-consuming as the number of departments increases
AND It also becomes complex when the cost of communications vary between departments.

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