Page 229 - DMGT206_PRODUCTION_AND_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Production and Operations Management

Notes
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Caution In order for a cell to be economical and practical in the long term, the machines
must be closely grouped, and the cell must be flexible in its mix of capacity and must be
big enough so any absent employee does not shut it down, yet is small enough for
employees to identify with the cell and understand the products and equipment.
Although Cellular Layout is a catchy new term, the phenomenon itself is not new. For decades,
large job shops have grouped equipment for high-volume parts or special customers. Similarly,
assembly lines may group machines by type to make or modify a variety of parts that ‘feed into’
the main assembly line.

Example: Telco, Jamshedpur, has different machine shops and dye shops whose output
is finally fed into the assembly line.
When considering a new technique such as Cellular Layout, managers need to thoroughly look
at past practices as a guide to changing the manufacturing environment.

Notes Cell manufacturing is also the building block of Flexible Manufacturing Systems
(FMS). It is, in essence, FMS with some manual operations. The Cellular Layout principles
are adopted in FMS because the concepts make it easier to process large volumes of
information because of the decomposed manufacturing system; it is easier to manage the
operational facilities compared to functional manufacturing due to limitation on cell size,
and the technological compulsions often require grouping some operations like forging
machines and heat treatment unit.

The U-shaped assembly line: U-shaped assembly lines are being successfully used by Matsushita
Electric Co. of Japan by using a single worker in the line. In addition, the U-shaped line reduces
material handling as the entry and exit points of the material on the line are nearby. A trolley
which brings the raw material for the line may take back the finished goods in a single round.
Toyota’s ‘lean production’ system is a part of the generic system of ‘Cellular Manufacturing’.
The ‘Toyota Production System’ called ‘lean production’ by some, has been heralded by many
commentators as the future for competitive manufacturing. It is a team concept and incorporates
a philosophy of constantly reducing production costs through the progressive elimination of
waste. This waste is seen everywhere in the manufacturing operation, and includes excessive
work or ‘overproduction’. This has given rise to the just-in time system (JIT).
JIT is a simple principle that includes ‘produce and deliver finished goods just-in-time to be sold,
sub-assemblies just-in-time to be assembled into finished goods, and purchased materials
just-in-time to be transformed into finished parts’.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Some of the advantages of Cellular Layouts are that overall performance often increases by
lowering costs and improving on-time delivery. Quality should increase as well, though that
might take other interventions beyond the layout change. Other advantages are given below:
1. Lower work-in-process inventories,

2. A reduction in materials handling costs,
3. Shorter flow times in production,

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