The Tool Room, which is the facility you will be designing layouts for, produces the contact tooling that forms material in the production of cans. Their customers are canning factories, producing cans in massive numbers. Orders are typically for small quantities. However, there are often repeat orders as contact tools on canning lines consistently wear and need to be regularly replaced. The Tool Room works from designs provided by the customer.

Figure 1 shows (i) stages of "easy open end" production; (ii) the type of Press machine that the tools are installed on; (iii) and (iv) "easy open ends" on beverage cans for food and drink.

Figure 2 shows the tooling products which fall into three product types based on their purpose. Information on the Tool Room activities, resources, personnel and space requirements are shown in Tables 1 and 2, and Figure 3 below. Table 3 provides information on product flow in the form of a Load Summary Table. Product Family volumes and routings are given in Table 4 and 5, and should only be used for Part B of the assignment.

Part A - Develop at least two alternative functional layouts for the Tool Room and provide to-scale sketches. Evaluate these to propose and justify the preferred layout. (Use the information provided below to undertake your analysis, omitting Tables 4 and 5)

Part B - Twelve months have passed and it has been decided to rationalise the product range. This is feasible as demand for some of the  products (manufactured for a small group of loyal customers) has increased substantially and represents a large proportion of the  business turnover. With reduced variety and higher volumes, the idea of establishing cellular layout is being debated. To help you assess the possibility of the Tool Room adopting a cellular layout, further information on the product routings and volumes has been provided.

Using ALL the available information, develop a new layout for the Tool Room based on cellular manufacturing.Explain how it might operate, and examine and critique the value of changing from the functional to cellular layout.

Tip: When writing the assignment, imagine you are a consultant presenting the work and solution to Senior Managers. Clearly state any assumptions that you have needed to make. Show and discuss all the workings and source any additional research that is undertaken.