CRAFT CRAFT (18) (Computerized Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique) is the first computer aided layout package, and is a quantitativeimprovement layout program. CRAFT attempts to develop a layout that minimizes transportation cost, where transportation cost is defined as the product of flows, distances, and unit distance travel costs. Distances used are rectilinear, and these distances are taken from the workcenter centroids. The method used by CRAFT is very similar to what is planned by FactoryFLOW with the exception that CRAFT assumes that move costs are independent of the utilization of the equipment, and that move costs are linearly related to the length of the move. Both of these assumptions will be overcome by the model. CRAFT develops a final layout by following a path of improvement from the initial layout through several iterations to the final layout, the final layout obtained is dependent on the initial layout. Similar sized workcenters are swapped in a pairwise or three-way interchange. CRAFT will arrange workcenters to fit a building shape, but the building shape must be rectangular, and the input departments must fill all of the available space. If there are not enough departments to fill the space, dummy departments must be inserted. Recently an updated version of this program has been released and is called MOCRAFf (17). This program is a port of the CRAFT program to the PC with some improvements to the department interchange routines and user interface. This program as well as another PC version of CRAFT called MicroCRAFf is reviewed later in this chapter. 31 The Distance Intensity Chart is an XY plot of all of the individual moves in the layout. The X-axis will be the distance of those moves and the y axis will correspond to the intensity of the moves. An X-point will mark a move's location on the chart, and the color of this X-point will correspond to the color of the move path in the product flow diagram. Each X-point will be intelligent, in that it will have associated to it the product name, part name, from cell, and to cell that it corresponds to. In addition, that path's material handling device, its move intensity, and its move distance will be associated to the X-point. A command called ATIPT will allow the user to point to any X-point on the chart and obtain its attribute information. An example of an X-point information query is shown in Figure 3.4 below, and a Distance Intensity Chart is shown in Figure 3.5 on the following page.
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