Directorate of distance education

Criteria for the Layout Decision
The objectives of facility layout are similar, regardless of whether 
the layout is for an office building, a steel mill, a hospital, or a ship. One 
objective is to provide convenient access between two groups or departments 
that interact heavily. It costs money to move people, information, and 
materials around a facility management would like to minimize that cost 
without reducing the organization’s overall effectiveness. 
In some cases, departments that depend on the same resource may 
have to be located physically close together even though they interact 
very little. This arrangement allows them to share expensive resources. 
For example, both shipping and receiving may require use of an overhead 
crane to load and unload heavy parts to railcars. Because both departments 
require access to the crane and the railcars, they are likely to be located 
close together even if they interact very little. In an office layout, two 
departments that interact very little may require access to expensive 
copying and printing capabilities that would be too expensive to duplicate.
In other cases, departments or functions that are potentially 
detrimental to one another should be separated to the extent possible. A 
sanding operation and a painting operation are not compatible because 
the grit from sanding may travel through the air and land on the fresh 
paint. These operations are likely to be physically separated unless special 
are built for painting.
In retail services operations, another dimension, the impact 
of layout on the customer, often dominates the layout decision. While 
layout cost and floor space utilization are important for discount retailers, 
customer access and convenience dominate the layout decision. Retailers 

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like Wal-Mart, Meijer, and Kroger lay out their stores to make it easy for 
customers to find products they need. For upscale retailers like Victoria’s 
Secret, layouts are conceived to entice customers to purchase high-profit 
margin items. These elements of the layout question are typically discussed 
in marketing textbooks and courses.