Cellular manufacturing
Often the cells are arranged in a "U-shape" design because this allows for the overseer to move less and have the ability to more readily watch over the entire process.
"[1] Cellular manufacturing is derivative of principles of group technology, which were proposed by American industrialist Ralph Flanders in 1925[2] and adopted in Russia by the scientist Sergei Mitrofanov in 1933 (whose book on the subject[3] was translated into English in 1959).
[4] "Apparently, Japanese firms began implementing cellular manufacturing sometime in the 1970s," and in the 1980s cells migrated to the United States as an element of just-in-time (JIT) production.
[1][10] An example of one-piece flow would be in the production of a metallic case part that arrives at the factory from the vendor in separate pieces, requiring assembly.
Some common formats of single cells are: the U-shape (good for communication and quick movement of workers), the straight line, or the L-shape.
The number of workers inside these formations depend on current demand and can be modulated to increase or decrease production.
Use of costly and complex equipment that tends to break down can cause massive delays in the production and will ruin output until they can be brought back online.
[1] "A cell is a small organizational unit...designed to exploit similarities in how you process information, make products, and serve customers.
[Prior to cellularization, parts] may have traveled miles to visit all the equipment and labor needed for their fabrication... After reorganization, families of similar parts are produced together within the physical confines of cells that house most or all of the required resources,...facilitating the rapid flow and efficient processing of material and information...
Furthermore, cell operators can be cross-trained in several machines, engage in job rotation, and assume responsibilities for tasks [that] previously belonged to supervisors and support staff [including] activities such as planning and scheduling, quality control, trouble-shooting, parts ordering, interfacing with customers and suppliers, and record-keeping.
To formalize that advantage, cells often have designed-in rules or physical devices that limit the amount of inventory between stations.
Such a rule is known, in JIT/lean parlance, as kanban (from the Japanese), which establishes a maximum number of units allowable between a providing and a using work station.
"[13] An office cell applies the same ideas: clusters of broadly trained cell-team members that, in concert, quickly handle all of the processing for a family of services or customers.
In a virtual cell, as in the standard model, team members and their equipment are dedicated to a family of products or services.
A simple but rather complete description of cell implementation comes from a 1985 booklet of 96 pages by Kone Corp. in Finland, producer of elevators, escalators, and the like.
Excerpts follow: "The first step involved creating cells in the assembly, electrical and chemical testing departments.
Unfortunately, in cellular manufacturing, it is important to remember the main tenets: "You sink or swim together as a unit" and that "Inventory hides problems and inefficiencies.
Cellular manufacturing brings scattered processes together to form short, focused paths in concentrated physical space.
The small cell structure improves group cohesiveness and scales the manufacturing process down to a more manageable level for the workers.
[17] Additionally, these improvements that are instigated by the workers themselves cause less and less need for management, so over time overhead costs can be reduced.
One exception is the contention, at Steward, Inc. (Chattanooga, Tenn.), producing nickel zinc ferrite parts for electromagnetic interference suppression.
At Hughes Ground Systems Group (Fullerton, Calif.), producing circuit cards for defense equipment, the first cell, which began as a pilot project with 15 volunteers, was launched in 1987.
Prior to cells, circuit card cycle time, from kit release to shipment to the customer, had been 38 weeks.
[27] When large, heavy, expensive pieces of equipment (sometimes called “monuments” in lean lingo) must be moved, however, the initial costs can be high to the point where cells are not feasible.
