Tag: work cells

Video Tip: Layout of the New Arnold Palmer Hospital

Jay and I  have created two videos to accompany Ch.9 (Layout Strategies) : the first an assembly line analysis at Wheeled Coach (the ambulance manufacturer) and the second the design of a radical new building  for the Arnold Palmer Hospital.  The hospital layout was really exciting because we became involved in the project and filmed it from start to finish.

Instead of the traditional “racetrack” design (long hallways with a central nursing station on each floor), when the hospital  added the  new building  a circular “pod” system was designed. The whole idea was to cut down the walking time of the hospital’s most precious scarce resource: nurses. The average nurse (about 45 years old) was hiking 2.7 miles a day up and down the hallways to the central station.

The layout design process lasted over a year. Over  1,000 meetings of doctors, nurses, and patients turned into drawings and then into “test” layouts. The hospital rented a warehouse a mile away and created full-sized mockups of every type of room. When we toured, we were encouraged to comment on every aspect of the layout, from placement of electrical outlets, to pictures on the walls, to Murphy beds for guests, to bathrooms.

The result was  a roundish building with  central nursing pods for each cluster of 34 rooms (this is shown in Figure 9.22 in the book). What a change in walking time for nurses: a 20% drop with the new layout!

Nothing is perfect, though. Despite all the thoughtful planning, analysis, and mockups, the last time I visited the new building I found nurses still unhappy about the “local station” pods. They  had to go back and forth to the “central station” too frequently because everything needed was not at the local pods near the patient rooms. Layout is indeed part art, part science.

Video Tip: Assembly Lines at Wheeled Coach Ambulance

Wheeled Coach , the world’s largest manufacturer of ambulances, is the kind of firm you would want to take your students to tour to see how factories work. The firm uses 5 parallel assembly lines, fed by work cells, in which 5 ambulances move forward to the next work station each day. The work cells feed the main assembly lines on a JIT basis and perform all the pre-assembly work, such as painting, carpentry, upholstery, electrical wiring , etc.

When I show the video (7 min.) in class,  I simultaneously draw the 5 parallel lines, and label in each day’s work station as it is described.  You can discuss how the work cells are more efficient than having the tasks they perform done as part of the line.

 Some interesting aspects are not shown. First, these are real factory jobs, often dirty, non-union,  low paying, and all hot! (There is no A/C –or heat– in most factories here in Florida). So staffing is usually difficult (this recession being an exception, of course).

When we filmed, workers did 5 standard 8-hours shifts, starting  6:30am. When hiring was really tough, Wheeled Coach switched to four 10-hour days to make the job more attractive.  That made line balancing even more difficult, since each vehicle still needed to move forward once a day.  It took  a few years before the firm realized this only made matters worse, as quality fell dramatically in the last 2-3 hours of the shift. It returned to the 5 day week recently.

How else could efficiency improve? Last time I visited, the smaller “van conversion” models were moved to a different building on their own line, with 3 or 4 flowing off every day, since they are much simpler designs.