Facilities Design and Plant Layout

This is not an academic textbook. Instead this is a reference handbook for individuals who are responsible for the successful design of a new facility and who have to create an effective plant layout that will optimize the daily activities within that facility.
The concepts in each chapter are explained in a conversational manner and a college degree in engineering is not necessary to be able to understand and master the skills presented in this book. This book carefully describes the entire facility design process beginning with the objective of the new facility, how to calculate the amount of space that will be required for inventory, how to select a material handling system, how to design workstation layouts and the entire manufacturing area, how to design service areas and offices, how to create an efficient plant layout, how to select an appropriate building site, how to draw a site plan, how to calculate the total cost of goods sold including different options for allocating overhead, how to prepare a pro forma income statement and a balance sheet, how to calculate return on investment, the payback period, and the breakeven point, how to do a sensitivity or risk analysis, how to estimate cash flows for several years into the future, and how to formulate a reasonable implementation plan. Finally the book will clearly illustrate how to combine all of the preceding information into a comprehensive well-documented feasibility report and how to translate the feasibility report into a powerful professional presentation.
The author of this book worked as an industrial engineer for 12 years and he earned a living doing the activities explained in this book. In 1980 the author was appointed the “on-site project engineer” for a $9,200,000 plant expansion that he had helped design. He had the authority to resolve problems as the facility was being built when the “original architectural plans” would not work as anticipated and compromises had to be made quickly or work on the facility would come to a standstill.
The author has also taught facilities design, plant layout, material handling, production control, quality control, and managerial accounting courses at a major state university for 35 years.
In addition, from 1982 to 2019 the author has also done industrial engineering consulting work for dozens of organizations such as: Alemite Corp., Amoco, Anheuser-Busch, Bartow County Bank, Boeing Commercial Aircraft, Ciba-Vision, Consolidated Groceries, Delta Airlines, Equifax, EMS Inc., FedEx, General Motors, Georgia Marble, Georgia Power, Heatlhcare Atlanta, Herman Miller Furniture, Home Depot, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Marta, Motorola, Nationwide Credit, Porex, Scientific Atlanta, Scovill Fasteners, Siemens, Southern Mills, Southwire, U.S. Can, U.S. Navy, Wayne Farms, and ZF Industries.
This book discusses the concept in each chapter from a traditional perspective without relying on computer software. After you clearly understand the basic concepts then it is not too difficult to learn how to use a software program that will generate the answers for you. However, since software programs are updated and changed every two or three years, this book does not recommend or explain how to use specific software programs.
Finally, in order to keep the publisher’s recommended retail price of this book as low as possible, this book does not contain any color pictures because color pictures increase the printing cost by about 400%. The low retail price of this book should make it affordable for anyone who is interested in learning the knowledge and skills described in this book.