The location and orientation effect of control plates (CP) in and around the flow separation region of a circular cylinder has been numerically investigated in the laminar flow regime at Reynolds number 100. The vortex shedding and convective heat transfer characteristics have been analysed for both upstream and downstream locations of the control plates using Ansys Fluent 18.0. The drag and lift coefficient (C D , C L ), the dimensionless vortex shedding frequency (Sr) and dimensionless convective heat transfer coefficient (Nu) are reported for various CP orientation and locations. The CP positioned along the main flow direction and located near the cylinder induce more shear on the cylinder surface, stabilities the wake vortices. In addition to shear generation, the CP orientation interacts effectively with the cylinder wake. The vortex shedding suppression with reduced drag on the cylinder is identified at many locations of CP. Convective heat transfer from the cylinder is suppressed at most of the locations of CP, at very few locations the cylinder heat transfer enhanced. © 2020 The Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics and IOP Publishing Ltd.