ABSTRACT
Although companies realize the importance of developing effi cient layouts and designing effi cient departments, many of them, especially the smaller ones, fi nd that it is too time-consuming and diffi cult to collect and generate data in the format required for problem solving. This raises two questions: What are the required pieces of information? Why is it diffi cult to obtain them? Answer to the fi rst question is provided in detail in this chapter and in Chapter 3. The reader will be able to answer the second question, which is answered in less detail, from the answer to the fi rst question.
