The flow of materials over eight departments is shown in the table below. Even although the table shows flows into and out of the different departments, shoulder that the direction of flow is not important. Moreover, presume that the cost of moving material depends only on the distance moved.
Departments
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 0 20
2 15 0 25 4
3 5 0 40 5
4 5 0 10
5 1 20 0 30
6 0 30
7 3 0 10
8 5 0
a) Build a schematic layout where the departments are arranged on a 2 x 4 grid with each cell representing a 10 x 10-meter square area.
b) Assess your layout using a distance-times-flow measure. Presume that distance is measured rectilinearly (in this case departments that are straight adjacent are 10 meters apart as well as those that are diagonal to one another are 20 meters apart)