Question: A manufacturing firm has four departments: A, B, C, and D. Estimates for the annual material flows between departments are:

Interdepartmental Flow (number of loads/year)
Dept.	A	B	C	D
A	-	100	150	100
B		-	500	400
C			-	250
D				-

The firm is moving to another building consisting of six large, equal-sized areas.

All material will be transported by forklift in standard-sized crates. The transportation costs for a load are estimated to be $0.25 per metre. The distances between the locations in the new building are:

Distance (metres)
Location	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	-	100	200	50	120	250
2		-	100	120	50	150
3			-	220	150	50
4				-	100	270
5					-	100
6						-

Some of the layout decisions have already been made. The corner of the building where location 1 is situated lies on a major street intersection. To enhance the firm’s image, management has decided that location 1 should house the firm’s offices. Location 5 is unavailable because the boilers and other plant utilities are located there and it would be prohibitively expensive to move them.

Other considerations further limit the number of possible layouts. Location 3 is the only area with loading docks and access for large trucks, so Department D, shipping and receiving, must be placed in location 3. The operations performed in Department C, the stamping department, are extremely noisy so it must not be placed next to the offices situated in location 1.

1. Show all possible layouts for the factory that satisfy the preceding requirements.
2. Evaluate the annual material handling cost for each of the possible layouts. Which layout is better in terms of material handling costs?

Price: $2.99

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Deliverable: Word Document