Cellular Manufacturing

Cellular Manufacturing

INTRODUCTION

Batch manufacturing is a dominant manufacturing activity in the world, generating a great deal of industrial output. The major problems in batch manufacturing are a high level of product variety and small manufacturing lot sizes. The product variations present design engineers with the problem of designing many different parts. The impacts of product variations are high investment in equipment, high tooling costs, complex scheduling and loading, lengthy setup time and costs, excessive scrap and high quality control costs. To improve productivity in small batch manufacturing industries, some innovative methods are needed to reduce product cost, lead time and enhance product quality to help increase market share and profitability.

Higher level of integration of the design and manufacturing activities in company is necessary. ‘GROUP TECHNOLOGY’ provides such a link between design and manufacturing. Adoption of group technology concepts not only provide economic advantages similar to mass production but also retain flexibility of job shop methods. Formally, group technology refers to the logical arrangement and sequence of all facets of company operations in order to bring the benefits of mass production to high variety, medium-to-low quantity production. Thus it can be said that group technology is change in management philosophy.

‘CELLULAR MANUFACTURING’ is an application of group technology in manufacturing. Cellular manufacturing is a manufacturing strategy to win a war against global competition by reducing manufacturing costs, improving quality and by reducing the delivery lead time of products in a high variety, low demand environment. Essentially, cellular manufacturing is a form of work organization and is, it is not merely the technical aspect of rearranging equipment on the floor.

A cellular manufacturing approach is actually a hybrid that combines the efficiency of process flow with flexibility of job shop.

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