cellular manufacturing

group technology

a means of obtaining the benefits of PROCESS-FOCUSED LAYOUT and PRODUCT-FOCUSED LAYOUT by seeking similarities within tasks, jobs, products and processes. These are identified and formed into families and the resources required are formed into ‘groups’ or ‘cells’. The net effect is to reduce work in progress, set up times and throughput times as well as creating better social relationships amongst employees using the system. The technique relies on a coding system (see PARTS FAMILY CODING AND CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS). The components need not be for the same product but will all be worked on in the same cell.

Cellular manufacturing applications have the following characteristics:

groups are team oriented, groups produce or carry out a specific ‘family’ or set of tasks or products, groups are equipped with a specific set of equipment solely for the use of the group, equipment is located in one area – the cell, the workers within the group share a specific target and the group operates as independently as possible self assigning workloads within the cell. See LEAN MANUFACTURING.

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Investment in Improvement Initiatives Improvement Initiative Mean Response Manufacturing throughput time reduction 4.56 Waste reduction 4.55 ISO 9000 certification 4.45 Recycling of materials 4.25 Setup time reduction 4.24 Material requirements planning 4.19 Pollution prevention 4.15 Total quality management 4.14 Process redesign 4.03 Enterprise resource planning (e.g., SAP) 3.84 Supplier certification 3.82 Factor automation 3.79 Statistical process control 3.79 Just-in-time 3.76 ISO 14000 certification 2.86 Cellular manufacturing 2.46 * In the last two years, to what extent has the company invested resources (money, time, people) in programs in the following areas (1 = not at all, 7 = to a great extent)?

Improving manufacturing flexibility: the enduring value of JIT and TQM

He said: "As a supplier to the automotive trade, we have always employed Japanese cellular manufacturing ideology in the operating principles of our machines.

MANUFACTURING: How Mechatronic went from brawn to brains

A highly organized cellular manufacturing concept is the cornerstone of the department's success, allowing orders for custom-compounded silicone materials to be shipped in an average of just three working days.

Dow Corning STI meets customer needs with extensive product line capabilities

Cellular manufacturing means that garments are handled from start to finish by a team of employees throughout its entire operation.

Manufacturers invest almost $60 million in state

And to streamline manufacturing and distribution operations, companies are adopting such measures as cellular manufacturing, and focused factories, and are eliminating steps that do not add value.

Taking the right steps to the top

Cellular manufacturing (CM) is the application of group technology (GT) principles to production.

A goal programming approach to the cell formation problem

Operations management research and cellular manufacturing systems; innovative methods and approaches.

Operations management research and cellular manufacturing systems; innovative methods and approaches

The collaboration with CaridianBCT began in an effort to find ways to reduce the opportunities for contamination found in manual cell manufacturing methods, free staff time for other procedures, streamline the cellular manufacturing workflow, and identify more effective ways to efficiently produce cellular products to treat human diseases and disorders with new cutting-edge therapies.

NIH confirms quality of clinical-grade cells produced by cell expansion system

The funds will give NeoStem the ability to proceed with its acquisition of Progenitor Cell Therapy LLC, and focus on growing the cord blood and adult stem cell banking, cellular manufacturing and therapeutic business, as well as expand businesses in Asia and other countries.

NeoStem announces concurrent offerings for $19 million in gross proceeds

Determination of resources grouped logically within the system for production management, offers the possibility of achieving the cells when the Cellular Manufacturing can not be realized.

Effective production structures for intelligent manufacturing

The 3-axis profile grinding center can be configured for vertical or horizontal spindles and its modular design and small space requirement give it more flexibility to fit in any cellular manufacturing environment.