Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management, Twelfth Edition

Process-Oriented Layout

1. LO 9.4 Identify when fixed-position layouts are appropriate

A process-oriented layout can simultaneously handle a wide variety of products or services. This is the traditional way to support a product differentiation strategy. It is most efficient when making products with different requirements or when handling customers, patients, or clients with different needs. A process-oriented layout is typically the low-volume, high-variety strategy discussed in Chapter 7. In this job-shop environment, each product or each small group of products undergoes a different sequence of operations. A product or small order is produced by moving it from one department to another in the sequence required for that product. A good example ...