Productive area utilisation: Towards measuring the effectiveness of facilities layout

In order to improve the effectiveness of a facilities layout, it is necessary to measure the effectiveness of the existing layout. Since, available layout measurement methods are only suitable for construction type layout problem, it is necessary to have an appropriate measurement method to determine the effectiveness of an existing layout by considering all significant factors. Hence, a set of three layout effectiveness factors and their measurement methods are developed in our research. The proposed method will enable the decision-maker of a manufacturing enterprise to analyse their existing layout in three different aspects to decide whether the layout is to be re-designed for productivity improvement or maintained as it is. Due to the depth of analysis involved in evaluating the factors, this paper, mainly discusses about measurement of single factor, productive area utilisation, which is developed in respect to the objective of improving the effectiveness of utilised area.