Page 124 - DMGT501_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Operations Management

Notes Techniques that maximize space utilization tend to complicate picking and render it inefficient
while large storage areas increase distance and also reduce picking efficiency. Ideal picking
requires small stocks in dedicated, close locations. This works against storage efficiency.
Automation of picking, storage, handling and information can compensate for these opposing
requirements to a degree. However, automation is expensive to install and operate.
Retail Layouts

A well-planned retail store layout allows a retailer to maximize the sales for each square foot of
the allocated selling space within the store.
Store layouts generally show the size and location of each department, any permanent structures,
fixture locations and customer traffic patterns.
Each floor plan and store layout will depend on the type of products sold, the building location
and how much the business can afford to put into the overall store design.
Some of the famous retail layouts are: straight floor plan, diagonal floor plan, angular floor
plan, geometric floor plan and mixed floor plan.

Office Layouts

Office productivity is influenced by a number of factors, one of which is office layout. Because
office layout influences the entire white-collar-employee segment of the organization, its
importance to organizational productivity should never be underestimated. Office layout is
based on the interrelationships among three primary factors: employees, flow of work through
the various work units, and equipment.

Efficient office layout results in a number of benefits to the organization, including the following:
1. It affects how much satisfaction employees derive from their jobs.
2. It affects the impression individuals get of the organization's work areas.
3. It provides effective allocation and use of the building's floor space.

4. It provides employees with efficient, productive work areas.
5. It facilitates the expansion and/or rearrangement of work areas when the need arises.
6. It facilitates employee supervision.

4.11 Closeness Rating

After a layout is chosen and designed and activities are defined and their requirements, developed,
the next step is to define the relationships between activities. This is done by relating each
activity to all of the others that have been defined. The relationships are defined by a closeness
rating system:
1. "A" meaning that it is absolutely necessary that the activities be next to each other;

2. "E" meaning that it is especially necessary that the activities be close to each other;
3. "I" meaning that it is important the activities be close to each other;
4. "O" meaning that ordinary closeness be maintained (meaning that it is only necessary that
these activities be in the same facility);

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