Office layout is a fundamental contributor to employee productivity, hence the overall success of an organization or business. The design of an office does not only affect individual’s outlook in general, but it also extends into affecting communication as well as workflow, convenience in general, worker’s privacy, easy employee supervision, security and safety among others. The above can only be achieved through strategic planning while having in mind the needs of employees as well as the management in general. Regardless of the above efforts, many employers find themselves in a dilemma of dealing with issues that arise from a repetitive or product-oriented facility. This, in most cases is rearranged and the outlook changed for the facility to suit immediate employee needs.
There are crucial aspects related to the open, cellular as well as closed office layout. Since fundamental issues related to the plan of the office are in relation to the productivity of both the employees as well as the high ranked staff, points of discussion are majorly based on how diverse issues in the office plan affect the effectiveness of the above group of individuals. A closed office layout plan has walls erected to partition a huge space to smaller ones in which employees own personal offices. The above plan increases privacy, productivity due to less destruction and hence increased concentration and productivity (Shpuza, 2006). Regardless of the above advantages, it makes communication and hence the flow of work harder, supervision difficult and the overall cost of maintenance is high.
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Semi closed plans could be the best regarding space management, cost-effective maintenance regarding the facility infrastructure such as lighting and air conditioning among others. Due to better communication and good flow of work, this layout influences worker’s productivity positively. Destruction could, however, be a major disadvantage of this plan. Although an open office plan facilitates communication, easier supervision and economic use of space and other office facilities, employees are prone to significant destructions. Also, less privacy among them is likely to hamper and hence reduce productivity to a large extent. Regardless of the significant issues related to each of the above layouts, the management of concern has to choose one that suits their needs and is more advantageous.
A process-oriented facility layout mainly aims at reducing the cost related to the handling of the material at different stages (Hartl, Richard & Margaretha, 2009). The above is achieved by employing several strategies. First of all, machines that perform similar tasks or handle a job immediately after a particular stage done by the previous devices are grouped together. The key aspect here is hence the arrangement of work centers. This reduces the power required to carry out such tasks. The primary consideration in the arrangement should be the amount of load to be moved on a daily basis as well as the number of individuals operating between centers. The arrangement should be such that it minimizes the number of individuals required to monitor or participate in load movement. Secondly, flexibility should be a major consideration in decision making. The layout should encourage flexibility as well as the ability to manage several related or unrelated tasks. In its design, the future needs of the organization should be considered. This is because the scheduling of such a layout is costly. It could also hamper the functioning of the facility at the given time when scheduling is taking place.
A repetitive oriented facility contains a high amount of products that are not varied to a large extent. To balance product flow in a repetitive facility, there is need to have a high stock of the products that the facility specializes in. This ensures the utilization of the machinery as well as equipment designed for a specific type of production. There is also need to assess the current as well as the future demand for the product at hand. This way it is possible to know how much to produce per day. In addition, such planning helps the facility to estimate the cost required for production. Besides, it is also possible to plan on how to mitigate potential risks that are likely to affect the production process. Another way to balance production in such an entity is to check and inspect raw materials used. They should not only be of high quality but should also be adequate and uniform. This way, it is possible to consistently produce consistent end products. The production is also unlikely to be influenced by the shortage of specific raw materials.
A product-oriented facility has two critical lines of production, and that is fabrication and assembly lines. To balance output in such a line, there is need to ensure a balance on both sides of the lines (Silva & Alves, 2006). This ensures that there is no disruption of workflow between the different stations. Maintenance of the machines should be done to ensure that production is flexible. Also, because disruption of workflow at one point affects the whole production line, the machines should be serviced and checked regularly to avoid such an inconvenience. Besides, because of the high volume of production required, it is highly necessary to ensure a steady flow of raw materials.
References
Hartl, R. F., & Preusser, M. (2009). Layout and design. Production and logistics , 2 (3), 1.
Silva, S. C., & Alves, A. C. (2006). Detailed design of product oriented manufacturing systems.
Shpuza, E. (2006). Floorplate shapes and office layouts: a model of the effect of floorplate shape on circulation integration (Doctoral dissertation, Georgia Institute of Technology).
