Question

Suppose you work for the Pittsburgh Steel Company. Your company specializes in rolling specialty steel alloys and titanium. Material is purchased in slabs that may be up to 6 inches thick and is rolled into plates (about 0.5 inches thick) and sheets (.060 to 0.25 inches thick). Pittsburgh Steel Company's marketing strategy is to fill smaller orders that their competitors cannot produce profitably and to specialize in orders for materials that are difficult to process (like certain steel alloys, etc.) You have been given the assignment of improving the layout of their existing facility. Currently the facility has three hot rolling mills, two large walking beam furnaces (these feed the hot rolling mills), shearing equipment, saws for rough cutting slab material, a pickling house (used for de-scaling of the material), and two annealing furnaces.

a. Describe some of the information that you would need in order to create a new layout for the facility and explain how you would obtain this information. Be as specific as possible. In addition, discuss what some of the special considerations and constraints might be in designing this layout.

b. Your boss wants to know if a product, process, or group technology layout would be the best choice in this setting. How would you answer her? How would you arrive at that conclusion?

Answer 1

a. Expanding the new layout of the steel company can yield many positive results to the organizations like increase in the productivity, increase in the quality, proper supply chain management etc. The information that is required for the designing of a new layout for organization is mentioned below

• Information related to product layout: auto plants, cafeterias etc
• Information related to process layout: tools, die shops, equipments
• Information related to fixed position layout: building projects, workers, equipment etc
• Information related to combination lay out

These information can be obtained through consulting with the managers of each department. The managers of each department can be asked to raise the material of requirement which is required for meeting the goals of the organization. With this requisite forms a conclusion can be arrived while formulating a new layout. The outcome of the financial and administrative department will provide the estimate of the capital available. The information regarding the customer demands and a future forecast is also essential for the designing of new layout.

Some of the key considerations for the designing of the new layout is

• Does the new design meets the current industry standards
• Is the new design sticks on to the health and safety laws which is existing
• Space and accessibility of the equipments which can make it more competitive.

b. In the given situation the new layout can be designed based on the group technology or the combination layout which integrates the process as well as the product layouts. In the given situation it is essential for the organization to focus on the quality and also the product lines so as to meet the competitive advantage objective of the organization which is currently persisting. The group technology will enhance the product quality and also the process quality which can enhance the overall performance of the organization.