Case: Sawhill Athletic Club (A) Sawhill Athletic Club was an athletic facility i
ID: 3198981 • Letter: C
Question
Case: Sawhill Athletic Club (A)
Sawhill Athletic Club was an athletic facility in suburban Scottsdale, Arizona. It was designed to provide a wide range of athletic opportunities, including racquetball courts and exercise facilities. The facilities were modern, and the staff focused on providing high customer service. To provide flexibility to its members, the club had a wide range of hours of operation. The members were primarily families and young professionals who lived in the area.
Membership at the club had been steady since it opened five years ago. To monitor the club's quality, members were often asked to fill out satisfaction surveys. Most members liked the club's attention to customer satisfaction, but many complained that the facilities did not have a good layout. They complained of having to walk long distances from one location to another, citing this as a significant inconvenience. Another complaint was that all the departments were separated with high walls, creating a “closed-in” feeling. A new athletic facility was going to be opening in the area in the near future. The owners of Sawhill thought that they had better listen to the requests of their customers in order to remain competitive.
Improving the Layout
Lauren Nicole was hired to manage Sawhill and to offer any recommendations for changing the layout of the facility. She was told to be creative and use her knowledge of facility layout design. She was even provided with a diagram of the facility and averages of daily trips made by clients between each of the departments in the facility.
Layout of Sawhill Athletic Club
Lauren began looking at the information she received, shown in the table. She noticed that all the departments were of approximately equal size except the racquetball courts and exercise facilities. These were approximately twice the size of the other departments and could not be split. All the departments were eligible to be moved. She would take that into consideration as she decided to study the information and redesign the facility. Then she would think about which walls to lower between departments to create a more open environment. Decorating would come last.
Case Questions
(Explain all answers)
1. Develop an ld score for the current layout. What problems can you identify with the current layout?
2. Use trial and error to come up with a better layout that lowers the ld score. Explain the departments you thought needed to be in close proximity to one another.
3. Imagine an athletic facility such as Sawhill. What strategies would you suggest for creating an open environment?
Lobby A Racquetball Courts B Exercise and Weight Room E Food Court C Pro Shop D Showers/Locker Room G Child Care Facility FExplanation / Answer
a = At most important that these 2 departments are closer to each other
e = Essential that these 2 departments are closer to each other
i = Important that these 2 departments are closer to each other
o = ordinary that these 2 departments are closer to each other
u = Unimportant that these 2 departments are closer to each other
Ranking by number of trips:
Lobby to the showers and lockers has the maximum trips of 76 etc as filled in the table below.
From department
To department
Number of trips
aeiou rating
A
G
76
a
E
G
74
a
B
G
72
a
F
G
57
e
A
F
54
e
C
F
47
e
B
E
34
e
A
C
34
e
A
D
32
e
C
D
26
e
A
B
15
i
A
E
14
i
D
E
9
i
E
F
7
i
D
G
4
u
C
G
3
u
B
C
2
u
B
D
2
u
D
F
1
u
C
F
0
u
B
F
0
u
As the number of trips between the departments A and G is the highest at 76, they must be laid out closer to each other. Next E and G followed by B and G and so on.
Common sense says that almost everybody will use the showers and lockers and is substantiated with the higher scores – hence place the department G at the center and surround it with the departments A, E, B, and F on all the 4 sides of G.
Lay out:
D
E
Free space
A
G
B
C
F
Free space
Distance matrix SHOWING THE id score:
Assume the neighbor departments are just 10 feet and 10 feet for each department. Hence distance between departments E and G are 10 feet but between E and F are 20 feet. Assume each department is hosted in an area of 100 square feet except B and E is 200 square feet in size.
From Department
To department
Distance in feet
A
B
20
A
C
10
A
D
10
A
E
20
A
F
20
A
G
10
B
C
30
D
30
E
20
F
20
G
10
C
D
20
E
30
F
10
G
20
D
E
10
F
30
G
20
E
F
20
G
10
F
G
10
Total = trips * distance
From
To
Distance
Trips
Trips * Distance OR THE ID SCORE
A
A
0
0
0
B
20
15
300
C
10
34
340
D
10
32
320
E
20
14
280
F
20
54
1080
G
10
76
760
B
A
20
15
20*15=300
B
0
0
0
C
30
2
30*2=60
D
30
2
60
E
20
34
680
F
0
In the same way compute each total and add them all up
G
72
whichever pair gives the lowest total score is the best pair
C
A
34
B
2
C
0
0
0
D
26
E
0
F
47
G
3
D
A
32
B
2
C
26
D
0
0
0
E
9
F
1
G
4
E
A
14
B
34
C
0
D
9
E
0
0
0
F
7
G
74
F
A
54
B
0
C
47
D
1
E
7
F
0
0
0
G
57
G
A
76
B
72
C
3
D
4
E
74
F
57
G
0
0
0
------
Balance efficiency (E) = utilized time / available time left
Methods of choice:
a. Compare Pair wise – where we keep on exchanging as a trial and error until we reach a stage, where any further exchanges will not reduce the id-score or will not optimize.
b. Enumerating explicitly – this is a better method as it will produce guaranteed results. But we will use pair wise comparison method as enumeration will take more time.
3. For creating a open plan environment, we can reduce the height of the portioning walls – say just 3 to 4 feet instead of 10 feet. In that way, people can look at other departments and get rid of that sick “closed-in” feel. Of course this can apply to every facility except the showers and toilets as they need to be closed in for privacy. This is similar to the information technology companies where they have one big hall of 30 meters by 60 meters all portioned with short walls of 3 feet tall each – the hall can host hundreds of employees and still they can see all of them just by standing up in their cabin. Something similar can be implemented in Sawhill.
From department
To department
Number of trips
aeiou rating
A
G
76
a
E
G
74
a
B
G
72
a
F
G
57
e
A
F
54
e
C
F
47
e
B
E
34
e
A
C
34
e
A
D
32
e
C
D
26
e
A
B
15
i
A
E
14
i
D
E
9
i
E
F
7
i
D
G
4
u
C
G
3
u
B
C
2
u
B
D
2
u
D
F
1
u
C
F
0
u
B
F
0
u