Question

Completely and thoroughly explain how Facilities Design could be used to design a new facility for a company that makes clothing. Discuss the issues of raw material deliveries at the receiving dock, unloading trucks and storing the raw materials, movement of raw materials to the manufacturing areas, monitoring and moving work-in-process throughout the manufacturing area, delivering finished goods to the warehouse, and consolidating customer orders for shipment. Be sure to focus your discussion on a company that makes clothing.

Answer 1

Facility layout and design is an important component of a clothing industry overall operations, both in terms of maximizing the effectiveness of the production process and meeting the needs of employees. The basic objective of layout is to ensure a smooth flow of work, material, and information through a system. The basic meaning of facility is the space in which a business's activities take place. The layout and design of that space impact greatly how the work is done—the flow of work, materials, and information through the system. The key to good facility layout and design is the integration of the needs of people (personnel and customers), materials (raw, finishes, and in process), and machinery in such a way that they create a single, well-functioning system.

Customers may demand that manufacturers produce a greater variety of product with a higher velocity, but these flexibility demands are creating chaos on the factory floor. As traditional automation and material handling systems are typically built into the infrastructure and cannot be easily or cost-effectively adapted to deal with ongoing change, manufacturers are continually struggling to contend with increasing complexity in the way products are built, the way raw materials are transported, and the way people and machines move through the facility., the variability of raw materials can be attributed to the presence of trace impurities that are toxic or can react with the desired compound and affect its properties. Biological contaminants also impact raw material quality. The presence of trace impurities or biocontaminants typically results from lack of appropriate process controls, inadequate handling/storage facilities, or insufficient analysis prior to product release.