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Introduction
Group technology is A manufacturing Technique and philosophy to increase production efficiency by exploiting the underlying sameness of component Shape, dimensions, process route, etc Group Technology is the realization that many problems are similar, and that by grouping similar problems, a single solution can be found to a set of problems thus saving time and effort. (Solaja 73) First book formalize the concept: Mitrofanov,S.P. 1958, "The Scientific Principles of Group Technology"

2. Why Group Technology?

Average lot size decreasing Part variety increasing Increased variety of materials With diverse properties Requirements for closer tolerances

3. Reported Performance Results from Cellular Manufacturing Implementations

4. Everyday Examples a. Fast food chains b. Doctors, dentists and also manufacturing

5. Production Family

6. Lack Of Common Database For Mfg., Design...

Dont redesign the wheel Automated process planning Database to drive the automated factory

7. Benefits Of Group Technology

Reductions in o o o o o o o o o o o o Throughput time Set-up time Overdue orders Production floor space Raw material stocks In-process inventory Capital expenditures Tooling costs Engineering time and costs New parts design New shop drawings Total number of drawings

8. Other Benefits Of Group Technology

Easier to justify automation Standardization in design Data retrieval Easier, more standardized process plans Increases in quality Gt affects most every operating and staff function. It is more than merely a technique, but a total Manufacturing philosophy.

9. Three Techniques To Form Part Families a. Tacit judgment or visual inspection

o o o o o o o May use photos or part prints Utilizes subjective judgment Uses information contained on the route sheet (therefore only mfg. Info) Parts grouped by required processing Codes geometry/design and mfg. Info about a component Codes are alphanumeric strings Easier to use for other analyses

b. Production Flow Analysis

c. Classification And Coding

10. Types Of Classification And Coding System

GT coding can benefit many facets of the Firm and fall into one of 3 categories:

a. Systems based on part design Attributes b. Systems based on part mfg. Attributes c. Systems based on design and mfg. Attributes 11. Examples
Part Design Attributes o o o o o o Basic external shape Basic internal shape Material Major processes Minor operations Fixtures needed Length/diameter ratio Surface finish Tolerances-----machine tool Operation sequence Major dimension Tooling Batch size

Part Mfg. Attributes

12. GT Code--a Sequence Of Numerical Digits

Three major structures:

a. Monocode (or hierarchical structure)

A code in which each digit amplifies the information given in the previous digit Difficult to construct Provides a deep analysis Usually for permanent information

b. Polycode (Or Chain-type Structure)

Each digit is independent of all others, presents information not dependent On previous ones Easier to accommodate Change

c. Mixed Code
Has some digits forming monocodes, but strings them together in the general Arrangement of a polycode

13. Hierarchical Structure

14. Hybrid Structure

15. Reduction Of Mfg. Costs By Various Steps Of Group Technology Applications(Adapted From Ham442)
Not All Cost Savings Are Immediate...

16. Proliferation Of Parts

Selection of optical instrument parts in one company, Illustrating the similarity between certain components

Note: some of the above are almost the same

17. GT For Design Application

18. Technique a. Determine part and machine requirements b. Numerically code each part
o o o Geometry (& size) Material Other specifications (tolerance,Surface finish)

c. Form a family of similar parts which use

(Largely) the same set of machine tools

d. Lay out of each cell (a group of machine Tools) to make a family of

parts

e. Design group tooling Example

Thirteen parts with similar manufacturing Process requirements but different Design attributes

19. Functional Layouts Are Inefficient

20. Group Technology Layout

21. Form Code

22. Typical Process Planning System

23. Process Planning

Process planning is that function within a manufacturing Facility that establishes which machining processes and Parameters are to be used (as well as those machines capable Of performing these processes) to convert (machine) a piece Part from its initial form to a final form predetermined (usually by a design engineer) from an engineering drawing. (I.E. The preparation of the detailed work instructions to Produce a part)

24. Variant Process Planning

Uses the similarity among components to retrieve existing process plans (which can be modified) Overview: Two Stages For VP Systems

a. Preparatory stage
Existing parts coded & classified (i.E. Gt is a prerequisite) Part families organized Standard plans developed Databases created

(Note: this stage is labor intensive)

a. Preparatory Stage Of Variant Process Planning

b. Production Stage Of Variant Process Planning

Production Flow Analysis

During the past ten years the people behind QDC Business Engineering have performed several Production Flow Analyses (PFA) in manufacturing industries. In short, PFA provides well-established, efficient and analytical engineering method for planning the change from process organisation to product organisation. This means that traditional production layouts are transformed into production groups, which each make a particular set of parts and is equipped with a particular set of machines and equipment enabling them to complete the assigned parts. The following figure illustrates the conventional process layout and its corresponding product based layout after PFA has been applied.

The resulting overall material flow between functional cells. Traditional Process Layout

Product Layout

The resulting smooth material flow between dedicated product groups.

Complex material flow systems resulting from process based production layouts have long throughput times, high inventories and work in progress, which increase cost and reduce profitability. From the organisations point of view, delegation and control are difficult to implement, which leads to bureaucratic and centralised management structures, thus increasing overhead. Applying PFA produces a plan to change the layout and organisation in such a way that production throughput times can be reduced radically, while at the same time inventories go down and delivery punctuality and quality improve to a completely new level. QDC has applied the method successfully in several manufacturing industries, especially in job-shops and electronics industries, but good results have also been obtained in service industries. Once the layout has been changed to a product based one, new and simple production scheduling routines have been implemented to ensure excellent delivery performance. Anticipated results Companies that have gone through PFA and the resulting change to product based layout, have experienced the following positive effects: in operations management: reduced production throughput times, significantly less capital tied into the material flow and improved delivery performance; in general management: makes it possible to delegate the responsibility for component quality, cost and completion by due-date to the group level, which in turn reduced overhead;

in workers motivation: clearer responsibilities and decision making on the spot increase job satisfaction; in the point of information technology: simplified material flow speeds up the implementation of factory automation and simplifies software applications used to support efficient operations.

The content of Production Flow Analysis The main method of the PFA is a quantitative analysis of all the material flows taking place in the factory, and using this information and the alternative routings to form manufacturing groups that are able to finish a set parts with the resources dedicated to it. Depending on the scale of the project this logic is applied on company, factory, group, line and tooling level respectively. Whichever the case, the work breaks down into the following steps: to identify and classify all production resources, machines and equipment; to track the all product and part routes that the company, factory or group produces; to analyse the manufacturing network through the main flows formed by the majority of parts; to study alternative routings and grouping of the machines to fit parts into a simplified material flow system; to further study those exceptional parts not fitting into the grouping of production resources; to validate the new material flow system and implementing the scheduling system based on single-piece flow.

Most production units and their layouts are the result of organic growth, during which the products have experienced many changes affecting the arsenal of the equipment in the workshop. This continuously evolving change process leads in conventional factories into complex material flow systems. PFA reveals the natural grouping of production resources like the following small-scale yet real-world example shows.
The Machine-Part matrix as raw data gathered in the first steps of the PFA

The Machine-Part matrix reorganised into natural groups that finish parts.

Most of our previous cases have focused on the forming of groups in job-shops, which are part of a larger production facility. These test cases have been used as eye-openers for the rest of the organisation. Our recommendation, however, is to continue with PFA on higher level. Product and component allocation in the whole supply chain combined with product and customer segmentation is an area where not only vast savings in operating costs can be achieved, but also competitive advantage can be created. Manufacturing science knows numerous cases where complete product-oriented reorganisation of the company has produced staggering results in productivity, throughput times and competitive advantage. PFA is one of the few systematic engineering methods for achieving these results. Production Flow Analysis was developed by Professor John L. Burbidge of the Cranfield Institute of Technology.

Assembly Line Balancing Line Balancing and Work Cell Balancing is an effective tool to increase the output of the Assembly line and Work Cell line to reduce manpower and cost. Assembly Line Balancing is nothing but the Simple Line Balancing is the calculation of assigning works to workstation alongside an Assembly Line and that operation will be optima in sense. Henry Ford who introduced the Assembly Line Balancing and in early times it was simple line balancing (LB) which has optimized the industrial importance, the effective difference between the optimal and sub-optimal operation can afford savings which will be million dollars every year. LB: it is a Classical Operation Research (OR) which optimizes the problem, and it has been handled by OR for many decades. Most of the algorithms have been proposed to this problem and it contempt the usual importance of the issue and the OR use to handle this. Its commercial software which is available to optimize the industry and their lines. Assembly Line Balancing is dependent on 3 models and it is described that these 3 kinds of models is related to Assembly Line Balancing and they are Single-Model Assembly lines, mixed models, and multi-model Assembly lines. Singe-Model Assembly Line: in early times assembly lines were used in high level production of a single product. But now the products will attract customers without any difference and allows the profitable utilization of Assembly Lines. An advanced technology of production which enables the automated setup of operations and it is negotiated time and money. Once the product is assembled in the same line and it wont variant the setup or significant setup and its time that is used, this assembly system is called as Single Model Line. Mixed Model Assembly Line: in this model the setup time between the models would be decreased sufficiently and enough to be ignored. So this internal mixed model determines the assembled on the same line. And the type of assembly line in which workers work in different models of a product in the same assembly line is called Mixed Assembly Line. Multi-Model Assembly Line: in this model the uniformity of the assembled products and the production system is not that much sufficient to accept the enabling of the product and the production levels. To reduce the time and money this assembly is arranged in batches, and this allows the short term lot-sizing issues which made in groups of the models to batches and the result will be on the assembly levels.